The Stanley Cup Final is now a best of three series. The Chicago Blackhawks took their second overtime victory of the series and headed back to the windy city with home ice advantage back in their pocket.
We’ve seen just about everything in the first four games, including enough overtimes for three series. The fourth game of the series was a bit of an anomaly as the defense seemed to take the night off. Goaltending was blamed across the board by all of the Chicago “experts” who had determined that Corey Crawford’s glove was about as useless as a white Bronco to Aaron Hernandez......Wait, never mind.
The point is that Chicago heads back home to play two of possibly three remaining games for the Stanley Cup. Each team has one an overtime contest on enemy ice so home ice doesn’t seem to matter much at this point. For moments on Wednesday night each team looked as though it had found a formula for success only to see another 60 minutes end in a tie.
I had picked Boston to win the series in five games. Though that is an impossibility at this point, I still believe they are the stronger team when they play at their very best. It is certainly worth noting that Chicago’s stars seemed to wake up a little bit for Game 4 and they absolutely needed to.
Coach Joel Quenneville shook up the lines and put his top two stars up against Boston’s top defenseman, Zdeno Chara. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane scored in the same playoff game for the first time since April 26, 2010, and the towering Bruin defenseman was a minus-3 for the night, screened effectively by Toews on the overtime winner.
Game 4 really took off in the second period when five goals were scored. The coaches were at the opposite end of the excitement spectrum, growing gray hairs literally by the second. The atmosphere was electric at TD Gardens and every hockey fan watching was on the edge of their seat. The semi-organized chaos that saw Chicago grad a 3-1 lead amped up to impossible levels as Boston stormed back into the game taking control of the play as the period ended.
To succeed moving forward, the high scoring, end-to-end play seems to favor the faster Blackhawks. They have a speedy puck moving defenseman on the ice for every shift, and wings that can burst through the zone at top speed. As much as Chicago tried (and failed) to play Boston’s style in Game 3, it looked as though Boston was trying to play keep up with Chicago in Game 4. By the time the Bruins had drawn even after the 2nd period shooting gallery, there was 7:46 left in the third period.
Boston controlled large portions of the period, but Chicago was making Rask work harder, doubling the Bruins shots (16-8). Chicago needs to keep firing pucks and believe that the traffic they are creating in front of the previously super-human Tuukka Rask can be effective.
Conversely the Bruins need to put Game 4 as far into the rear view mirror and look ahead to Game 5. They almost came all the way back to win the game, but made too many defensive mistakes throughout to expect to win. The formula for Boston is seen in Game 2 and 3. Tight fore-checking, clogging the passing lanes and clearing the crease of traffic help Rask see shots and lower the possibility of deflections.
Predictions be damned, I would rather see seven, or six games instead of five. This has been as exciting a Stanley Cup as I can remember and is exactly what the NHL needs to help us forget about the lockout at the beginning of the year.