Sorry this is up a bit late.
Chicago and Detroit are tied at 2 with 15:00 remaining in the third period, in what is an incredibly exciting game so far.
Oh yeah, my Twitter account has been suspended for "spamming" activity, which is BS by the way. I didn't realize how much I depended on Twitter to talk about hockey until this afternoon.
Update from Gravypan @ 5:48 pm CDT: Well from my perspective as a Hawks fan, that flat out sucked.
It seemed to me that Detroit let Chicago have their way for the first six minutes of the game. After that, it was just about all Detroit, save for a few periods here and there where the Blackhawks were able to get some chances in on Chris Osgood.
One such period was early in the third where Sami Pahlsson found himself WIDE open in the slot and somehow missed the net. Chicago did get it back on their only power play of the game when Buff (aka Dustin Byfuglien) tipped Biscuit's point shot (aka Brent Seabrook) over for Verstud to pot home (aka Kris Versteeg).
But Detroit scored the eventual game winner on a shift that was a microcosm of the game when Mikael Samuelsson embraced a ton of time and space, carried the puck over to the faceoff dot to the left of Nikoali Khabibulin, and ripped a shot over the Chicago netminder's glove hand.
1:27 later, Dan Cleary tipped Johan Franzen's shot to make it 4-2.
Game over.
Oh sure, the Hawks did their best to put pressure on Osgood and certainly put a bunch of bodies in front of him, which they'll need to continue to do to have a shot at pulling off the upset. But just the way Detroit was not just controlling play, manhandling would be the word I'd use, Detroit never really looked threatened.
And had Chicago pulled to within 4-3, I'm convinced Cleary's line would have just gone back out there and gotten that goal right back.
So where to go from here?
You re-rack and you realize that giving Detroit that much time and space in the defensive zone is tantamount to suicide. Also, heed SamFels advice from Second City Hockey/The Committed Indian.
Then, apparently, someone broke in the Hawks dressing room and informed them they were now the '85 Oilers, and could do as they pleased in the neutral zone. DEATH. You can't do that against this team. Just because they're not playing a trap doesn't mean they don't work their ass off backchecking, and if it's not there you HAVE to get pucks in deep and go get them. Especially considering how giving the Wings were in the first when being forechecked, and especially considering that the ice at the Joe looked like a cubist representation of anarchy. Simple simple simple, and the Hawks failure to be so led to the game being turned on them.
And also hope the refs give you more than one power play. Not to say they were remotely close to the biggest reason Chicago lost the game, but...
One power play? Seriously, refs?
Did you not get the memo that, allegedly, the Blackhawks are Gary Bettman's second favorite team?
Game 2 is Tuesday night.