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Follow me down Memory Lane for a moment.
Even though this game is in Boston, any time these two teams meet up it reminds me of sitting way up near the rafters in the Old Chicago Stadium, back in the fall/winter of 1969-70, where cigar smoke would form this thick blue gray fog, and as a youngster (quite young) I could barely see the action. The way the building would shake when the Hawks scored. Harvey Wittenberg's voice. Lloyd Pettit on transistor radios.
Orr, Phil Esposito, Hull, Mikita, Pappin, Bucyk, Hodge, Angotti, White, Tony Esposito, Stapleton, Sanderson.
Then there was 17 Seconds.
These are two NHL franchises inextricably linked by history, both long term and recent.
So this is a slightly more special game. It also presents another test of a legitimate Cup contending club, that plays a style that can give the Hawks problems.
Chicago Blackhawks (19-8-1) at Boston Bruins (15-12-1) 7PM Eastern/6 Central NHLN-US, SN360, TVA SPORTS 2, NESN, CSN-CH
THE NUMBERS:
Power Play: Chicago, 18th, 17.9% Boston, 17th, 18.2%
Penalty Kill: Chicago, 1st, 91.2% Boston, 23rd, 78.4%
THE LINEUPS
Chicago
Saad Toews Hossa Versteeg Richards Kane Sharp Shaw Bickell Carcillo Kruger Smith
Keith Seabrook Oduya Hjalmarsson Dahlbeck Rozsival
Darling
Boston
Lucic Krejci Eriksson Marchand Bergeron Smith Kelly Soderberg Fraser Paille Campbell Griffith
Chara Hamilton Seidenberg Miller Krug Morrow
Rask
Should be a good one, recap tomorrow.
JJ