Brent Sopel said it best last night when he compared last night's game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals to a pond hockey game. We have come to the point where the best of the east are playing the best of the west (regardless of regular season standings) so tons of offense is expected. However, steady goaltending and tight defense is also the norm at such a level of the playoffs. Having 11 goals in one playoff game is rare as it is, but in a Stanley Cup final? Probably unheard of in a long time now.
We can't argue that the long break has affected both teams, especially the boys in net but if last night's game indicated anything it would be that the Hawks hate losing more than any other team. Both the Hawks' and Flyers' top lines were MIA last night with Toews and Kane a -3 but the difference was the Hawks incredible depth and willingness to fight back and win. Even though the game could've gone either way and there was no domination by a single team I still felt like the Hawks were the better team for the most part.
I think the hype of the Pronger/Byfuglien match up will live up to its expectations. I also think Pronger isn't aware of how big and difficult Byfuglien is. While Pronger may be hated around the league, anyone who knows anything about hockey will respect his defensive skills however, this team is faster, more determined and stronger than any team he's played this post season.
A big part of why I think this game was worse off for the Hawks were the stupid penalties. Yes, Bolland did score a beauty while shorthanded but so did Hatnell on another unnecessary Hawks penalty to tie the game up. The Hawks play best when they're disciplined and the Flyers play best when the other teams make the mistakes the Blackhawks and previously Montreal did.
We can't argue that the goaltending was beyond horrendous. The only goalie who showed any interest in stopping a puck was Brian Boucher who unfortunately for the Flyers was brought in too little too late and still let in the game winning goal. The entertaining aspect of this series is that both Niemi and the Hawks are known to come back firing after a bad game which despite the win they still played a bad game by their standards. On the other hand, Leighton and Co. are no easy team either, after their embarrassing loss against Montreal, they came back more determined and came out with a shutout. So who will steal the show in game 2? Will it be the home team again or will Leighton and the Flyers get a split to go home with? My prediction is this will be no short series and Flyers will get the split and take Game 2 by a score of 4-2.
