Western Conference Round 1, Blackhawks 4, Predators 2 – Recap

Game 1 Recap

Game 2 Recap

Game 3 Recap

Game 4 Recap

Game 5 Recap

Game 6 Recap

The Hawks beat the Nashville Predators in six games to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals, in the process becoming the first team in NHL history to win a series with relief performances by two different goalies. Corey Crawford let in a couple bad goals in game 2 and deserved to lose the starting job after that game, but other than that, neither goalie was really bad in this series; the defense was constantly letting both Crawford and Scott Darling down. Crawford is set to start game 1 against the Minnesota Wild, an understandable decision given his relief performance in game 6. Hopefully, Coach Joel Quenneville mixes things up as the playoffs move ahead and gives Darling a few chances to start as well.

The offense was significantly better than it was late in the year, thanks in large part to the return of Patrick Kane, who, as the series went on, began to look more and more like his old self. Brad Richards had a nice series on the line with Kane, the only things that was missing was a consistent left wing for the line. Kris Versteeg held this spot prior to Kane’s injury and held the spot early in the series before being replaced by Bryan Bickell. Even though the top line of Brandon Saad, Jonathan Toews, and Marian Hossa was the team’s best against Nashville, I wouldn’t be opposed to taking a look at Saad in the 2LW spot and moving Patrick Sharp to 1LW, though I can certainly understand if Q doesn’t want to break up such a good top line. I would definitely get Teuvo Teräväinen back into the lineup, most likely replacing Versteeg, at least for a couple games.

Blackhawks 3 stars of the series:

★★★ Scott Darling, G (.950 SV%, 8 GA)

★★ Jonathan Toews, C (3 G, 5 A)

★ Duncan Keith, D (2 G (2 GWG), 5 A)

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com