Blackhawks Primed To Deliver Knockout Punch Tonight.

Game four between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Los Angeles Kings was to be a pivotal game in the series.  The Hawks were up two games to one, and had just lost their best defenceman Duncan Keith for this game, who has possibly been their best player this postseason.  The Kings on the other hand were 22-0-0 on home ice when scoring first, had won game three, and seemed to have found a spark in youngster Tyler Toffoli.  The Kings shut down the Hawks in game three just enough to prevent them from creating much offence, and frustrated their skilled players, and made Patrick Kane of the Hawks virtually invisible.  The winner of game four had the chance to take a stranglehold on the series, or even things up.  For a brief moment it looked like Los Angeles was about to turn the tide.

However this isn’t the same Blackhawks team that struggled with the Phoenix Coyotes last post season, nor is it the same team that took the Vancouver Canucks to seven games in the opening round the year before.  Matter of fact, this Blackhawks team could be even better than the team that won it all in 2010.  While not annointing the Hawks champions at this point since the games must be played, the men with four feathers on their sweater did the little things on Thursday night, and overcame the adversity of being without defenceman Duncan Keith.  This was no easy task, but the Hawks did all the right things at the right time to take a commanding lead in the Western Conference final, and are now in the driver’s seat tonight with game five to be played at the Madhouse on Madison.