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It’s at 7 Central and 5 Pacific tomorrow night in Chicago. Hawks and Kings.
Now that we have that out of the way . . .
It seemed from local media reports, blogs and fan reactions, there were two different games played on Sunday. Kings fans (and some in the media) felt the Kings clearly outplayed the Hawks (in the game they watched). Hawk fans felt it was a relatively (relative for the playoffs) easy game 1 victory.
Who’s right could have some impact on game 2.
One thing that’s indisputable is that the Kings outshot the Hawks 26-20.
The Blues and the Wild outshot the Hawks in games as well, however, and look where that got them. Not sure? Well, if you had TJ Oshie’s or Ryan Suter’s cell numbers, you could probably ask them before they tee off this morning.
The truth is, like any reasonably good playoff game, each team dominated for portions. The question is which team and when and for how much. The shots again, tell the story. The Kings had 17 shots in the second period. Which means they had only nine in both the first and third periods combined.
The Kings got their lone goal in the second period, but the Hawks, with 11 less shots on goal, got one too. And the Hawks got one a piece in the first and third periods, to none for the Kings.
So the shots actually tell this story: the Kings had a big edge in the second period, but were outshot (and pretty much outplayed) in the first and third periods, when the Hawks had them pinned in their end for long stretches. Corey Crawford came up big in the second period, as he has throughout the playoffs thus far. End of story.
The truth is, game 2 should be close. Both teams now have a better idea of what the other will throw at them. Matchups will be tweaked—and there is some scuttlebutt the Hawks could have agitating C/W Andrew Shaw back Wednesday.
Each team will need their goalie to come up big at times. Close games in the playoffs often go to OT and it almost negates home ice advantage. One mistake and it goes in the lodss column. Or that goal given up late in regulation breaks the tie and you lose.
Thus far in the playoffs, the Hawks have held serve at home and tilted the series by winning on the road. So their task is simple. Win one more tonight in Chicago, then try to take one on the road in LA (because taking two is probably asking too much).
I won’t say game 2 is a must-win for the Kings. But it’s big. The Hawks have shown over the last two regular seasons and last year’s WCF, not to mention road wins throughout really all their playoff series the last couple of years, they can win in LA.
So, it can be argued that game 2 is huge for the Kings. Win it, and they can really swing things toward themselves and have some momentum going back to LA. Lose it and the slog gets even tougher, almost assuring a long, tough series at best—after two of them already.
Will be a fun one to watch, no doubt.
JJ