Hawks head to the Shark Tank

It's not exactly the irresistible force against the immovable object but something has to give when the Hawks and Sharks open up their series. The Hawks have been the rude visitors from out of town having won five of their six games away from the United Center this post season. The Sharks meanwhile have been the one NHL team that has taken advantage of home ice in these playoffs having won five straight at the HP Pavillion (better known as the Shark Tank).

This series figures to look a lot like the previous one against Vancouver in the fact that it should be wide open matching power vs. power. The Sharks have two high scoring lines centered by a couple of very talented players. The first line has Joe Thornton who has 11 points in 11 playoff games while the second line is centered by Joe Pavelski who has been San Jose's best player so far in the post season. Pavelski has 15 points in those 11 games including 9 goals. Look for the Hawks to try and match up Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith as often as possible against these two lines.

San Jose is not noted to have top defensemen but Dan Boyle is certainly a good offensive player (9 points in 11 games) and is really good at the point on the power play. Evgani Nabokov has been fairly decent in the post season logging almost all the minutes and with one shut out to his credit.His goals against average in 11 games is 2.43 with a saves percentage at .907.

The Hawks know they match up well against the Sharks and more importantly they know they can beat them as they won three of the four games played during the regular season. Both teams will be rested especially the Sharks who will have gone over a week between the end of their last series and the start of this one.