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2015 Western Conference Semi-Final/Game 1
Minnesota Wild at Chicago Blackhawks 8:30PM Central NBC
THE BUZZ
The irresistible force versus the immoveable object.
This one seems to come down to how well the Blackhawks can maintain offensive zone pressure against the Wild, and the play of Devan Dubnyk.
Nashville gave the Hawks problems in Round 1, and some have therefore extrapolated that Minnesota will essentially blitzkrieg Chicago. Even though by the same metrics, St. Louis gave Minnesota "problems."
In truth, the Hawks dominated long stretches of round 1, but Nashville dominated the action for brief stretches of Games 1, 5 and 6. Brief. But also very dominant.
This is the kind of thing, with an extremely confident and capable Dubnyk at the other end of the ice, Chicago needs to avoid versus Minnesota.
When you have home ice, you need to defend it. The Wild can easily take one of two in Chicago.
Conversely, Chicago beat Nashville much the same way they have won a number of other playoff series, by maintaining long periods of offensive zone pressure, through cycling and pinching with activated defensemen and attacking in layers—precisely the thing the Wild, who rely on smaller (for the most part), mobile defensemen, can struggle with.
The Wild are an improved, very confident team.
They were also 2-3 versus Chicago in the regular season, and 1-3 with Patrick Kane in Chicago's lineup. Not coincidentally, Kane was also the leading scorer in the season series by a wide margin, with 8 points, although he only played in 4 of the 5 games.
In the playoffs, matchups matter. The Blackhawks need to exploit them offensively, while rendering their weaknesses (an aging third pair on defense and a #1 goalie struggling with his confidence) moot by keeping the Wild pinned in their end as much as possible.
Rookie Teuvo Teravainen will apparently start in place of injured Kris Versteeg and skate with Patrick Sharp and Antyoine Vermette on the third line.
I'll have a recap tomorrow.