Chicago Blackhawks

As the sun was setting in Arizona and we were heading into the early hours of Sunday morning back in Chicago, a familiar hero took out his six shooter and blazed it in the desert. Jonathan Toews never ceases to amaze me and leaves me in awe. On a team that is filled with stars that shine so bright they could probably scorch the desert, he always manages to shine the brightest and reminds us why he is the one wearing the C on this team. I would follow this kid into anything. I would have loved to have been a puck on the ice when he gave his speech to the team minus the coaching staff following their morning skate. It must have been inspiring as the entire team played with focus and purpose...

The Chicago Blackhawks made a lot of mistakes in the first game of their series versus the Phoenix Coyotes, and corrected most of those in their second game on Saturday night.

It was an exciting game, starting with Bryan Bickell of the Blackhawks opening the scoring 3:05 into the first period, proving that Chicago's power play isn't entirely impotent.  Raffi Torres tied it up for Phoenix just under 6 minutes later. When Jonathan Toews of the Blackhawks closed in on Phoenix goaltender Mike Smith, the puck on his stick, Smith put his hands up and made first contact. Yet Toews was the one who ended up with a penalty for interference, and then the Coyotes took the lead...

Remember back in school when you studied science and physics and learned about Sir Isaac Newton and his laws of motion? Remember his 3rd law of motion – For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Now this series will be a study in contrasts. These teams are the polar opposites. The Coyotes employ a tight defensive style of play while the Blackhawks would prefer a free wheeling offensive style of play. These will be two forces of equal yet opposite forces. 

I’m not going to spend much time talking about the regular season records these two teams had against each other because we are in the second season when everything starts fresh ...

In a game that saw the return of Duncan Keith, which also saw a much tighter defensive effort yet the Blackhawks lose this game in the last four minutes of the game. The bigger picture and more importantly was that the fourth seeding in the Western Conference and home ice advantage in the playoffs was at stake.

Not making an excuse but the Hawks lineup was fairly depleted with Toews, Montador, Lepisto, Bolland and Brunette all out of the line-up. This impacted the lines on the ice and the match ups coach Q could employ.

The Blackhawks with only gaining one point and Nashville defeating Dallas can not capture the 4th seed and home ice in the first round. They can only get as hi...