Winning Ugly

This series wont go more then five games and very easily could be a sweep. That's my conclusion after seeing the Hawks take the opener 6-5 over the Flyers. The Hawks won in spite of themselves as they played one of their worst games during this playoff season. Incredibly sloppy on defense, bad turnovers in their own zone and needless penalties and yet they won. And how about the top line of Towes, Kane and Byfuglien being a combined minus nine on the night. Do you think that will happen again? NO. And do you think they will play anywhere as near as sloppy as they did in game 1 again? NO. So with that in mind I think the Hawks will win this series in a breeze.

Ultimately the depth of the Hawks won the opener as lines 2-4 all picked up the slack with  their number 1 line pretty much not showing up. Troy Brouwer scored twice with Kris Versteeg, Dave Bolland, Patrick Sharp and Tomas Kopecky notching one goal apiece. Kopecky scored the game winner in the third period when the defense finally took a toe hold.

Antii Niemi played two bad periods but did come up with some good saves in the third period to redeem himself but Michael Leighton was simply awful for Philadelphia. He was yanked late in the 2nd period and my guess is that he wont start the next game. It wont make any difference because on paper and more importantly,  on the ice, the Hawks are the better team. So get the parade route ready because within a week the Stanley Cup will reside right here in Chicago.