And Broom Goes The Dynamite

Tommie Lee
May 9, 2015
3 min read

No one expected a sweep.

All the signs were there for a long, hard-fought series.

These are the heavily-improved Wild. Their awesome goalie. The streak that ended their season. The way they manhandled the Division Champion St. Louis Blues, who slowed down at the end of the season but still play an aggressive, physical game. Their success against us in the regular season.

As for Chicago, even with the spectacular end to the opening series and the fact that the UC would have home ice advantage…there were still plenty of factors to give fans pause.

The underwhelming Power Play. The caliber of the remaining Western opponents. The lingering Goalie discussion. Line schizophrenia. Problems on the defensive side. Michal Rozsival.

And yet, the home ice advantage ended up being unimportant. The Blackhawks dominated at the dot, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Antoine Vermette. Control the puck from the get-go, and you control the flow of the game. Once Chicago had the puck, it went to surprising Defensive scorers…or to Patrick Kane, who was skating like someone had unlocked all of his cheat codes. For a guy who had a fairly nasty injury and missed the latter part of a likely scoring-title season, Kane was inspired. It’s hard to think of a time where he’s skated so well and made it look so effortless…and this is Patrick Kane we’re talking about.

There are those who argue that this is a team sport and no one man makes or breaks a team in the big picture. However you can make the strong argument that without Kane, Chicago would likely be in trouble right now. Mr. Showtime has been on fire in these playoffs, crashing the net with the energy of a 12 year-old trying to impress a girl. Unlike that 12 year-old, though, he’s putting up insane points. So many assists. So many goals. He’s been a major impact in every game, and he wasn’t even supposed to be on the ice until deeper in the postseason. He’s not human out there right now. Thankfully, he’s on our side. Kane almost finished the series with more goals than Minnesota had, and would have if not for a flurry of desperation goals in the closing minutes of Game 4. The Blackhawks Power Play has also risen, phoenix-like, from the depths to make an impact. The team is actually scoring on the PP right now, and given that the Blackhawks in recent years have always been streaky with the PP it’s hopefully just the beginning of an uptick. Corey Crawford was INSANE in this series.

Now, for the sad news. Michal Rozsival, whom I’ve been going after most of the season, had an ankle do a 180 on him Thursday night. Skates aren’t supposed to face that way. The NHL simply called it a “lower body injury,” but it looked pretty bad and you should keep in mind that the NHL always downplays with those statements. It was pointed out on Twitter last night by someone that the league would have said of John F. Kennedy “…he suffered an upper body injury and is likely out for the rest of the series.”

I’m not going to backpedal here and pretend I love Roz. I don’t like him on the ice. Many of the goals scored in the opening series against Nashville went right by him, giving him the best seat in the house. He’s been slow, his accuracy has been horrible, and he’s been out there every night, skating our hearts out.

Still, I’ve always respected his leadership presence in the locker room. He’s been around a long time and has made an impact with the younger players. For that, even haters like me can be very thankful. I won’t even dignify any speculation that I’m happy about his injury. He’s a Blackhawk. No Blackhawks fan should take an injury to one of our own as a relief. This also presents the problem of who to plug in there. He was looking pretty decent in the last couple of games, though it pained me to admit it.

Next up: A well-deserved rest as the boys wait for either Anaheim or Calgary to emerge as the other other half of the WCF picture.

With any luck at all, home ice won’t matter there, either.

Go Hawks!