Blackhawks Key to Victory: Stay Disciplined

Is it possible to get through this without using the phrase “standing on his head”?  Oh well, guess not.

Even though it’s the most abused cliche this side of “throwing someone under the bus”, most would agree that after witnessing Antti Niemi‘s performance Sunday afternoon, it is actually warranted here.

That is, unless you’re a member of the San Jose Sharks.  It seems as opposed to saying the young netminder had a career performance between the pipes, they chose to go the route of criticizing themselves for “making him look really good”.

Now, in the interest of objectivity, they did miss a handful of opportunities with a lot of twine to shoot at having pucks squirm off their sticks or batted away by Chicago Blackhawks defenders.  It’s often also in the interest of a team to not throw rose petals at the feet of a goaltender (especially a one with as little post-season experience as Niemi) and let him think he’s in their head.  That aside, most hockey fans would agree that Sunday’s tilt was downright stolen by the Hawks’ stalwart goaltender.

The Sharks ran the show in the first 20 minutes as well as the initial portion of the second, throwing what normally amounts to an entire night’s worth of pucks at Niemi, and most Blackhawks fans were feeling fortunate that Jason Demers’ power play tally in the first period was the only one.  Then the Hawks turned up the heat, gained their composure, and did what they do best: control the puck.  Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau recorded three shots on goal combined, and while the much lauded second line of Joe Pavelski, Ryan Clowe, and Devin Setoguchi ripped 17 shots on Niemi, they tallied nary a point between the three of them.

That said, allowing a team 45 shots is not going to win a team the Conference Final, let alone the Stanley Cup.  There has to be better discipline in the defensive zone, and getting into the shooting and passing lanes and blocking more San Jose attempts, as no goaltender can be expected to withstand the barrage that the “Finnish Fortress” saw.  Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson led the team with 5 and 4 shot blocks, respectively, and Brent Sopel surprisingly only got in the way of one shot.  There was a lot of scatterbrained overpursuit in the Hawks’ defensive zone, something they’ll need to correct to continue to succeed against a Sharks team that will pounce on the smallest mistake and more often than not, make you pay for it.

The Hawks aggressive body play was almost as surprising as it was impressive.  They outhit the Sharks by a slim margin, but were hell-bent on finishing their checks, all the while making sure not to take themselves out of the play, something the Sharks did a few times, one of them resulting in Patrick Sharp‘s second period game-tying goal.

The focus on discipline must extend to staying out of the penalty box.  Much has been made of the disparity in penalty calls going the Sharks’ way (5 for San Jose, none for the Blackhawks).  Even from a Chicago perspective, it’s hard to argue with any one of the calls levied against the Hawks in that game, and it seemed that the Sharks played a pretty clean game.  Sure, there could have been a call here or there, but overall, nothing too egregious was missed.  Granted, that pill is a lot easier to swallow after winning the game.

Expect the Sharks to come out with the same intensity as they did in game one, throwing everything they can at the Blackhawks’ net.  The Hawks will have to step it up a bit from the get-go, as the Sharks big guns will not be contained forever, and they need to give their goaltender a bit more support on both ends of the ice.  Blackhawks fans can expect Marian Hossa to uncover that big game he’s been sitting on for the post-season sometime soon.  He’s been a huge force on the backcheck and forecheck, but relatively ghost-like when it comes to the score sheet.  And no, leading the team in penalty minutes is not what the Blackhawks fans had in mind.

Ryan Hackett
NHLHS Blackhawks Correspondant
rhackett@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @hawknut