-This Hossa injury thing is just weird and I can’t believe it’s not getting the screws turned to Quenneville. Actually, I can totally believe it because it’s long been accepted in hockey circles that your coach can spill out pure drivel and everyone will just dismiss it as him simply being “hockey” or “Canadian.” Jesus, you’d think a lot of Canadians would take great offense at that, because though I don’t know that many I’m pretty sure an overwhelming amount of them are articulate and pretty intelligent.

If it was known well before that Hossa might not go, then not having Smith take the warm up when Mayers already was is just….well isn’t it ridiculous? Smith hasn’t played a game since the last game of the season. Doesn’t he need as much time on the ice as possible? You’re already hedging your Hossa bets by having Mayers skate in the warmup. I was under the impression that anyone who has the slightest chance of playing takes the warmup just for this exact purpose.

And today we get the nugget that no one wants to actually focus on, Q saying didn’t want to show his cards by having Smith in the warmup. Because Ben Smith is some secret weapon that the Bruins would have to adjust to? Hey, I like Ben Smith, but fucking come on. That’s just….I can’t even find the word. I wish I could. The only adjustment seeing Ben Smith in the lineup Claude Julien would have had to make is turning to an assistant and saying, “Who’s Ben Smith?”

And it’s all been a pattern that Quenneville has allowed to beat himself in the face with a big black marital aid all series and no one other than us and you dear reader seemingly wanting to question him. He blew up the lines that had produced seven goals in two games against Jonathan Quick at the end of the Kings series. He had to get Bollig back on the ice and we don’t need to revisit that. He blew up the lines again before Game 3 coming off two games that had both gone to overtime, so it couldn’t have been all that wrong. Of course, the power play.

And yet it could be solved by simply getting out of the way. In fact, that’s what eventually won both the Detroit and L.A. series. Here’s the best I got, you do something about it. I don’t think you can. But much like a shark has to keep swimming, Q just seems to have to keep doing shit or he chokes on his own saliva or something.

-The other story of course is Jonathan Toews. This is the third consecutive spring where we’ve had to speculate that he’s hurt. You know what? Someone do their fucking job and find out exactly what it is. If we can find out Nathan Horton has a shoulder that has all the stability of melted butter and when exactly it got that way, someone can get it out there from an unnamed source that Toews is dealing with this or that.

Or maybe he’s had three incredible defensive centers thrown at him in consecutive series. Or maybe he’s shooting 1.6%. Or maybe it’s not so much a shrinking from the spotlight but it simply meaning too much too him he’s pressing from the off. Though I know a lot of you will roll your eyes at another soccer analogy, it’s a label that used to be put on Christiano Ronaldo. For the majority of his Man United career, Ronaldo didn’t produce all that much in big games, because of the combination of being the entire focus of the other team and also simply wanting to do too much. He eventually shed that with time. Sadly Toews is running out that time this year.

But it’s funny, Patrice Bergeron put Sidney Crosby in the dark shadows and I didn’t see anyone running for an injury excuse for him. And Crosby didn’t have to deal with anyone in the Islanders or Ottawa series nearly the quality of Zetterberg or Kopitar or especially Bergeron.

-Maybe I’m not watching closely enough, and the Bruins are finishing all their checks when they’re there and winning the board battles, I don’t get this impression that every Hawk is being mauled by a fucking grizzly bear. The B’s aren’t running around nearly as much as they did two years ago against the Canucks to get in the Hawks face. Again, they’re taking the hits that are there. But the B’s know that if they get reckless the Hawks can exploit the space from any line. Back in 2011, with Kesler in pieces the Canucks only had one line. They could get away with it then.

It’s such an easy narrative to say, “Oh the B’s are beating up the Hawks,” instead of looking a little deeper and seeing it’s the defensive structure of the Bruins that are forcing the Hawks where they don’t want to go. I guess that’s what we’re here for.

-Patrick Kane is getting labeled too, but all that’s happening is all the warts we’ve been pointing out during the season — that his production was utterly incredible because his line almost never had the puck — is getting exposed now that he’s back with Handzus and Sharp. And now on the rare times he does have the puck, he’s facing an incredible defensive team. When he had possession driving linemates in Bickell and Toews…four goals. Hat trick. The whole thing. You know, it’s just not that fucking hard.

-Maybe I’m just drinking the Kool Aid while I float down Da Nile on my rose colored inner tube, but I feel like this is the best the Bruins have, as impressive as it is. But I also feel the Hawks have another half-gear or so to move through. They’ll have to red-line a bit more and take some risks they might not like. But they can pull it off. It’s not even that far away.

And of course, if the Hawks win Game 4 the whole narrative changes again. It’s not just here that happens. LeBron has gone from the worst player in the history of the Earth to next to Jordan at least six times in the NBA Finals, depending on the last result. That’s just how it goes now, I guess.

For long time observers of both this outpost of the internet and the one a few miles back on the information superhighway, today’s beard selection should come as no surprise and might be even considered quite overdue. So it’s with that one of the patron saints of this blog is presented, the periodically bearded Chicago punk rock veteran Brendan Kelly.

Kelly’s prolific career began nearly 20 years ago as the vocalist for the ska-punk Slapstick, whose legacy would end up being the as launching pad for members of the Smoking Popes, Alkaline Trio, and other various projects. From there Kelly would join The Broadways, along with then-and-current bandmate Chris McCaughan, with a far less polished, poly-vocal, politically bent sound, whose two releases still have their song titles shouted in request at the shows of current Kelly projects.

McCaughan and Kelly would go on to form The Lawrence Arms in 1999 with drummer Neil Hennessy, who are finally recording its sixth full length album at present after a seven year gap. While starting out by eschewing traditional song structure and choruses with their first two releases, the band hit their stride with their third release of Apathy & Exhaustion after incorporating a touch of those elements to go along with strong lyrical hooks. Additionally, the band gained a reputation through relentless touring, which allowed the verbose and often drunk Kelly opportunity to harangue crowds with his ramblings rather frequently between songs, all while in varying states of facial hair configuration. But today it’s the bearded Kelly that’s recognized, a true Ramblin’ Boy of Pleasure.

Bad: TSN

Blanked: Sportsnet

Bergeron: PuckDaddy

Beaten: Chicago Tribune

Ok I am no Dr. Emrick: Suntimes

Time to worry? Comcast Chicago

Phoenix isn’t the only team that may need U-Haul: TSN

AV to NYC: New York Times

I understand what some people are seeing. Because the Bruins are bigger, their hits tend to knock Hawks to the ice, whereas the Hawks’ don’t. Because the B’s are so good defensively, even when the play is even the Hawks aren’t creating chance after chance (even though the B’s actually aren’t creating that much either). There’s this impression that it should always look like the 1st period of Game 2, but the Bruins are too good for that. The Hawks can’t get to rebounds that are there, Rask isn’t working all that hard, I can see where some people might mistake it for an ass-kicking. But it just doesn’t feel to me that’s what what we’ve witnessed here.

Let’s just get to the bullets and we’ll see if I can’t prove my point:

-If nothing else comes of this spring, at least Joel Quenneville will be exposed for what we’ve said he is for at least two years now. Great philosophy, borderline terrible implementer.

You know, on paper the idea of slotting Toews with Kruger and Frolik isn’t as asinine as it sounds. Kruger and Fro and have been the two best forwards for the Hawks this series, maybe longer. It might have even worked at home.

But on the road, it makes it far too easy on the Bruins to pick their spots for Bergeron. Claude Julien doesn’t have to send out Bergeron against Toews when he’s got those wingers (because Kruger isn’t a winger). Which is why Bergeron had his best game of the series. He had the run of it.

Now for example, if Toews had been with Bickell and Kane — y’know, the line that produced four goals in two games against the Kings — even on the road that would force Julien to counter it with Bergeron’s line. There’s no way the B’s coach would let that Hawks line get away with looking at anything else. You’d essentially be saying that we’ll take a standoff between those two units at worst, and we’ll let our depth attack your depth.

Some of this is complicated by Hossa’s injury obviously, but you get the feeling even if 81 had played this was how Q would have played it. And it’s wrong.

And Q out-thought himself before the series even started by fucking up the lines that had sealed the Kings series. He was countering moves that haven’t even been made by Julien. He put Kane back with Zus and Sharp which had already proven to not work. He got away with it in Game 1 because Saad made it work on the top line, and Q’s lucky that he’s got so many players who can make him look good (or at least erase his mistakes). But this isn’t the first time Q is running very behind his counterpart.

-It’s not just the lines. It’s tactical as well. Last year, Q didn’t drill his team to go with the soft chips behind the defense until halfway through Game 5, and by then it was too late. So it was again, as the Hawks opted for the hard ring-around when they couldn’t attack with speed. But this allows the B’s d-man on the weak side to simply send the puck back behind his own net, where the Bruins are always going to win the battle. At worst he’ll tie up with the Hawks forechecker over there, and that stalls play. The Hawks need to go off the glass where Rask can’t get it or into the same corner where they’re always carrying it.

-I find it so hilarious that everyone is in shock over what the faceoffs and power play look like. Have they not been paying attention?

-As for the PP, while Eddie O complains about not using the men down low, that would assume they can get set up. Which they can’t. And it’s the ringa-arounds that are costing them. I counted three times tonight when Leddy eschewed those and carried it in himself, got it to the corner, and had no support. There’s your problem.

They also have had some success at finding the player on the boards on the entry, but refuse to try and make something happen on the rush. They’re so determined to curl back, and get it back to the point which is exactly what the B’s PK is designed to stop. Hit that man, and get it to the net on the rush. What can it hurt?

-And yet, it just wasn’t that bad. The B’s came out with a pretty powerful punch in the beginning of the first two periods, and for the most part the Hawks weathered it. As both periods went on, the Hawks took more and more control. That is until Dave Bolland turned back into the elk turd he’s been all season.

-At some point you knew the power play would cost the Hawks a game. Here we are.

-But, it’s not as if the Hawks were helpless. As Fifth Feather pointed out, when they do break cleanly from their zone and get even a 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 going the other way, the B’s are giving their puck-carriers enough space to give the late man a ton of space. They will profit from this soon.

-If I’m not mistaken, the B’s have rung their last three goals off a post and in. The Hawks two best chances in the 3rd tonight, they missed the net. On such small margins will this series be decided.

-Hossa’s injury is a worry. That he did it taking a shot in warmup suggests a muscle problem, which probably will not clear up by Wednesday.

-The first goal….well, Bolland can’t get pickpocketed there but it was a result of being where he needed to be and supporting his d-man. It started with a blind ring around the boards from Rozie and Ben Smith floating out toward center when he needed to beat it to the faceoff circle in the Hawks zone to be above that pinching defenseman. But I’m not going to hang Smith out to dry in his first game in two months.

-When the Hawks can even get evens back to the B’s zone, there’s a lot of room to the outside. They can take more advantage of that.

-Sadly, letting Paille out of whatever cage of confusion he was in before this series is not a good idea.

I’ll probably clean up the leftover thoughts that I can’t remember right now tomorrow. But let’s be honest. The only time we’ve panicked, or at least the last time I panicked, was down a goal in the 3rd in Game 6 against Scum. We know how that turned out. Such a long way to go here.

Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: NBCSN, CBC (Anglo), RDS (Franco), WGN-AM 720
Feed The Tree: Cup of Chowder, Days of Y’Orr

Dating back three years to the 2010 Final against Philadelphia, the Hawks have lost the first game away from the United Center in six straight series. Overall in that time frame, the Hawks have gone 7-10 on the road, and 3-4 this post season. And in order to win this series, the Hawks will now have to win at least one game on the road, with the first of potentially three games in Boston tonight.

For the hosting Bruins, getting out of Chicago with a split is probably something they’re pleased with, even if they and the masses could have just as easily had both were it not for some shin pads in Game 1.

There were many positives for the B’s to take away from Games 1 and 2, namely that they were able to get a victory in Game 2 without any output from their juggernaut top line of Krejci, Lucic, and Horton, who clearly went all Detective Riggs and jammed his shoulder back into place in time to get back out on the ice. And though they didn’t score, it could be argued that Lucic’s play was still a net positive by continually wearing out Hjalmarsson and Oduya by laying into them whenever possible. This .gif surely warms the hearts of New England.

Another plus for the Bruins is that they were able to get the split while not getting any goals from their defensemen, who have 15 already this post season, though they did come perilously close in the 2nd overtime on a Zdeno Chara slapper. The play of Tuukka Rask, especially after a deflating triple-OT loss can be viewed as exceptional as well, especially with the onslaught of chances against in the early going of Game 2, which kept the B’s in it long enough to prevail in overtime. But there is the double edged sword.

In both Game 1 and Game 2 (and more than a bonus game’s worth of OT), the Bruins have been pretty roundly out-chanced up and down the lineup. Against a team like the Hawks, giving this many opportunities at even strength is not sustainable over a series, no matter how good the goaltending and defensive zone coverage is. Well, maybe it is, right Mike Smith?

One area contributing to those numbers was the faceoff dot, where the Bruins’ dominance this post season was a clear advantage coming into the series, but ended up not being so in games 1 and 2. The Bruins won 97 of 186 draws, good for 52.1%, but that’s a far cry from the 56% they were winning as a team coming into the series, and those extra possessions count far more against the Hawks. With the series shifting to Boston where the home team has the advantage of putting their stick down second (along with the matchup Claude Julien desires), look for that number to spike back upward, forcing the Hawks to chase more.

As for our Men of Four Feathers, it’s been confirmed that Viktor Stalberg will once again be in the lineup, this time on the fourth line with Marcus Kruger and Michael Frolik. Stalberg obviously hasn’t produced much more than  a sideshow these playoffs, but his speed is definitely a problem that the Bruins’ defensemen will have to account for, particularly if he gets his chances against the third pairing of Adam McQuaid and Torey Krug, who figure to be far more sheltered tonight and Wednesday with last change. Stalberg has a clear size advantage on Krug and a definite speed advantage on McQuaid, so forcing them to make decisions faster than they’d like could go a long way in jumpstarting his dormant game.

The top three lines for the Hawks remain the same, and quite simply, the Hawks are going to need more out of Toews and Kane for the Hawks to be successful. Yes, Toews has been dominating possession, but at a certain point that has to manifest itself in goals, because as was on full display Saturday night, failure to capitalize on that zone time keeps the game only a shot away at any time, and some times that’s all it takes. Look Q to hit frappe on the blender by the second tonight and get these two together again if the B’s are still able to keep them in shackles.

Another way to prevent hours of overtime hockey being played would to convert on the fucking clown shoes power play. If there’s a worry that the hits will build up over the course of the series for the Hawks, potting one on the advantage will at least make those spoked-B clad cave trolls think twice before barrelling into someone on the end boards. Because the Bruins cover the slot in front of Rask so well, more low-high plays need to be attempted, both at even strength and on the power play. It’s yielded three goals, so far (Saad, Oduya, and Shaw courtesy of Rozsival), and can yield more if it’s exploited properly. The key will be for Hawk forwards to engage along the boards and in the corners to occupy a defender, then kicking the puck high for a shot through traffic. And just because Andrew Shaw loves shin pads doesn’t mean you should aim for them, Mr. Keith.

Even with last change on West Madison, Quenneville elected to send out the Swedes against the Krejci line for both of the first two games, with mixed results. Without the benefit of picking his matchups tonight, Nick Leddy and Michael Rozsival need to be on full alert in their own zone. As for Corey Crawford behind them, tightening up the rebound control for what are sure to be the oncoming hordes will be absolutely paramount.

Obviously the Garden faithful will be at near psychotic levels of fervor at puck drop, and the Bruins are perfectly built to feed off of that. They’ll come at Hawk defensemen looking to put them in the 15th row, and might just succeed more than a few times. For that reason alone, the Hawks puck support early must be impeccable, both from defensive partners and forwards. Giving the puck carrier a 15 foot target is far perferable than one 70 up ice with 4 other black sweaters in its path. Additionally, the Bruins forwards will be deep enough to give the Hawks space enough to at least hit their own blue line with speed exiting before hitting the neutral zone bog Julien is sure to employ.

In a true case of “Unstoppable Force vs. Immovable Object”, the results of this series will come down to which takes its toll first- the Hawks making the Bruins skate, or the Bruins wearing the Hawks down physically. And games 1 and 2 be damned, scoring the first goal is not something to be avoided based on the outcomes of the previous two games. It will go a long way at quelling the oncoming tide of black and gold. Patience, smarts, and above all else speed are going to need to be on full display tonight if the Hawks are going to get any closer to their goal. If there’s a texbook road game in this team’s capabilities, it’s sure as fuck time to see it. Let’s go Hawks.

Voiced by Albert Brooks (who does a ton of amazing work on The Simpsons… and just in general). Scorpio used Homer’s team of workers to help take over the east coast. The Hawks could use some of that power tonight as they fly out to Boston to try and get the series lead back.

Game 3s have been an issue: PHT

This one’s a pick ‘em: Sportsnet (auto-play)

The goalies are good: ESPN

Hail to the Viktor?: ESPN Chicago

B’s D survived: ESPN Boston

Muir’s musings on game 3: SI

Since most of us won’t be in the Garden: PD