Chicago One Win From Cup; Lessons Learned from Last Year
In the Stanley Cup Finals, the home team has won every game. The team chosen as the favorite to win the title leads the series 3-2, and takes their chance to win the cup on the road. The Chicago Blackhawks are one win away from winning the Stanley Cup, yet need to be careful to not repeat the same mistakes that plagued a team in their same situation last year: the Detroit Red Wings. This year’s Stanley Cup Finals is so similar to last years that it’s almost scary. The representative from the Central Division of the Western Conference has a 3-2 lead on the representative from the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Maybe we should just go ahead and crown next season’s finalists. I’ll take the Columbus Blue Jackets versus the New York Rangers.
Chicago’s Jonathan Toews attributes the Hawks’ success in the postseason thus far to their losing effort against Detroit last season in the Western Conference Finals. Time will only tell if Toews and crew will repeat the same fortune of the Red Wings. The Flyers flew into the Finals through a much different route. They haven’t been considered the favorites to win any of their series in the postseason, including their matchup against the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens. That hasn’t stopped Philly from flying high and surprising everyone but themselves during their cup run. The one intangible that has truly separated the two teams in the finals is the physical play. The team with the most physical, and more importantly the smart physical play has been the winner in these games. Sure, Chris Pronger has done a phenomenal job at slowing down Chicago’s first line, but against Pronger’s valiant effort, Game 5 finally belonged to Dustin Byfuglien. Big Buff muscled his way into a comfort zone right in front of the net. The Flyers worked hard at shutting down the screen, but they all came up short. Along with his teammates, Byfuglien disrupted Michael Leighton as the Hawks managed to score three first period goals.
With a 3-0 deficit coming into the second period, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette decided to make a change in net, replacing the struggling Leighton with Brian Boucher. Different period, same story. For every goal Philadelphia scored to get back in this game, Chicago quickly matched with one of their own, and eventually beat the Flyers 7-4. The Flyers are exceedingly tough at home, and they will have to be if they want to win and force a Game 7. They are a very resilient team; expect a tough battle from start to finish. Flyers captain Mike Richards called his team’s 5-1 loss to the hands of the Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals an, “old-fashioned butt kicking.” The Flyers then rebounded from that loss to take win the next two, clinching their spot in the finals. If they can rebound in the same fashion, they’ll be Stanley Cup Champions Friday night. Game 6 is 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday from the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Catch it on NBC, CBC, and RDS.
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