Can you guess where Nanos is today?

Much like the Derecho that bore down on the Midland Mecca outside, inside the United Center the Bruins and Blackhawks’ six-period marathon was full of chaos and fury. The game seemed destined to be unrelenting, as each open shot or breakaway ended with a chorus of moans from the crowd and heart palpitations slowly sinking back to normal. That is until a double deflected shot from the point found the corner of the net, as redshirts leapt the bench in ecstasy.

Very rarely does a championship match up meet the expectations of the prognosticators, and even less often does it exceed those expectations. This Original Six clash looks destined to be an instant classic. Both sides have won the Cup before and know the guile that is necessary. The Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, talked about switching his lines to add more sandpaper for the series, in which case game 1 was as coarse as they come.

Chicago had been criticized by it’s own fans this season for playing too finesse at times, a word that is about as insulting as they come in the city of broad shoulders and Ditka doppelgangers. But, if the Kings series defined anything about the team it was their resolve to dig-in around the corners, dump and chance, and hack it out in front of the net—a style that closely mirrors Claude Julien’s Bruins. Granted the Kings were maimed for much of the season and faded quickly, but nevertheless it certainly prepared the Blackhawks for their future Stanley Cup opponent.

The Blackhawks deserved to win last night’s game, but the Bruins also deserved to lose. Boston surrendered a two-goal lead (a lead that Barry Melrose calls the worst lead in hockey) because of Torrey Krug’s decision to make a risky cross-ice pass when he could have just as easily laid it up the near side boards, and a slap shot that was unfortunately deflected by the skate of Andrew Ferrence into his own net. To make matters worse, the Bruins were handicapped throughout overtime by their shortened bench, because of an upper body injury to Nathan Horton—which is sure to be a huge storyline heading into game 2.

Thankfully for both squads the series won’t resume until Saturday, normally such a reprieve seems excessive but in this case it’s pretty well deserved. The Blackhawks have a lot of things to like about the way they played in Game 1, Marion Hossa was phenomenal—he was one of the few Blackhawk forwards who seemed to cut through the B’s defense at will; Duncan Keith was a stalwart blue-liner who logged a decade worth of ice time; and Corey Crawford seemed to settle in nicely later in the game. But, I’m sure Chicago also expects to improve on their power play unit (after failing to score on a 5 on 3 for a minute plus) and hopefully in that same vein get Kane and Toews more involved in the offense. Not to mention make some smoother line changes after twice getting called for too many men on the ice—once in overtime, which could have been disastrous.

From the Bruins side of it, they can be pleased by the resurgence of Milan Lucic who at times can be the most dominating force on the ice…  but only when he wants to be. The power play unit also looked more organized than it has in recent memory, mostly because Jagr’s savvy decisions—as he finally looks like he’s adjusted back to the speed of the NHL. Of course, the defensive miscues are going to be the main focus of the squad, and hopefully by eliminating some of them can breed a better result next game.

Saturday’s match up is probably more important for the Bruins, but even so the B’s went down 0-2 to the Canucks in 2011 before coming back to win in 7. Judging by last night’s slugfest I highly doubt this matchup will end in 4 or 5 games, and more than likely one team will have to win on their opponent’s home ice before they can get a stranglehold on the series or the Cup for that matter. 

Hawks' winger Andrew Shaw sent Chicago fans at the Mad House on Madison home (and Zas to bed) happy, beating Bruins' goaltender Tuukka Rask 12:08 into OT #3 on a doubly deflected Michael Rozival shot from the point.

The Blackhawks lead the series 1-0.

And THAT is what hockey is all about, folks!

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