Sitting in front of the 46-incher watching the Chicago Blackhawks drill the Calgary Flames, I can’t help but think that the Flames forgot how to win.
On one hand, it’s no surprise that the Hawks are winning at home. After all, they win a lot of games in front of those crazy fans at the United Centre. On the other hand, it’s hard to believe that after slipping past Calgary 3-2 and 3-2 in the first two games of the series (games that could have gone either way), the Hawks have come back home and made a joke of Game 5. At least, after two periods.
It’s already 5-1 and the Hawks have owned this game from the opening faceoff. And they’ve owned it because the Flames have let them have it. After two hard-hitting, attack-attack-attack games in Calgary, the Flames started out on their heels in this one and then just went ahead and dug themselves a hole.
The Flames played with emotion in Games 3 and 4 at the Saddledome and dominated both nights. Now, two days after winning 6-4 on Wednesday (after winning 4-2 on Monday), the Flames have backed away from their hard-hitting, hard-checking attack and allowed the Hawks to, once again, take the game to them.
That strategy doesn’t work against a young team with as much skill as Chicago. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Kane, Brian Campbell, Cam Barker, Kris Versteeg, Martin Havlat et al, just eat up the wide-open, no-hit style the Flames have thrown at the Hawks (Saturday) tonight.
Now, granted, I know that the intensity with which the Flames played on Monday and Wednesday, is almost impossible to maintain. It’s extremely difficult to bang and crash like that every, single shift, every single night. Especially, when a number of your bigger players are nicked up.
But that’s the only way Calgary will beat Chicago. If they don’t go back to that style on Monday, they’ll lose the series.
Tee time anyone?