At what point do Chicago Blackhawks fans start humming Katy Perry when they think of their hockey team? We're four games into the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, and the best way to describe the Blackhawks is hot and cold.
Game One: the Blackhawks don't show up at all, despite being at home in front of a raucus crowd. The final score, despite two of Nashville's goals, was appropriate to the effort on the ice. The Hawks got blown out.
Game Two: the Blackhawks come to play, hammer the Predators, even the series. The alarms that went off after Game One are silent. The knee-jerk reactions are in full swing, and I'm fully guilty of leading the charge. Antti Niemi played well in the first game, but dominated the Preds in the second for his first career postseason shutout.
Game Three: epic failure. Nothing went right, nobody showed up, and the Hawks got blasted. Even coach Joel Quenneville looked out-of-sorts, juggling his lines and keeping key contributors like Troy Brouwer off the ice for the entire third period. It showed on the ice, as passes were missing players by yards and spacing was miserable.
Chicago fans becam ...
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Article written by TAB BAMFORD
Bipolar Blackhawks Shut Out Predators, Even Series
April 22nd, 2010 by TAB BAMFORD Leave a reply »
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