Good Shape

How does seven playoff victories in a row sound? That's what the Chicago Blackhawks have done since dropping Game 5 to Vancouver in the conference semi-finals, and are now up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. In The Beard's odd little hockey world, that works just fine. Games 1 and 2, while being polar opposites in many respects, have one (and the most important) thing in common which is they were both won by the Hawks.

The other amazing thing both games have in common, are a lack of production from the Hawks first line of Toews, Kane, and Byfuglien. All three of them have a combined plus/minus of -7 thus far in the series, yet the Hawks still scored 6 goals in game 1. Toews had his consecutive games with at least 1 point streak snapped, Kane has been held in check by an aggressive Flyer defense, and Chris Pronger has simply toyed with Byfuglien the entire time. The Flyers finally got a penalty called on them midway through the first period of game 2, after committing no infractions in the first game.

The real story of the series so far though is the play of Antii Niemi. After throwing up a 5 goal turd in game 1, he did his usual outstanding goal tending skills on display in game 2. One thing most Hawks fans know about Niemi is that he never has back to back horrible games. Game 2 was no exception as he withstood a barrage of shots (33 total), particularly in the third period (15 shots) to preserve the lead.

The Hawks now take their act on the road starting Wednesday. Some numbers the Hawks have in their favor? The team that has won the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals has won 31 out of 33. Unfortunately, one of those two teams was the 1971 Blackhawks who won the first two games against Montreal, but lost the Cup.

Don't think that will happen with this team though. GO HAWKS!