CHICAGO, Ill. – Last season it was said that there was so much that can be told about the excitement of a seasoned playoff team facing the youthful eagerness of the Chicago Blackhawks. But Chicago is now the veterans in the playoffs as they face the Nashville Predators in round one of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.
We will see how the highly offensive Blackhawks will do against the defensive-minded Predators whose goal differential for the regular season was the lowest at an even 225 for a playoff bound team in the West.
What a difference a year makes.
The Blackhawks weren’t expected to make it as far as they did last season; this year the expectation is high as they are expected to win it all. The team scored a franchise-record 112 points; they also reach the plateau of 23 road wins. That said, they hit the 50 win mark with 52 for the first time in team history.
The Blackhawk’s leader in scoring is Patrick Kane who ironically had 88 points which matches his jersey number. Team Captain Jonathan Toews knows pressure as was evident in the Winter Olympics for Team Canada; he was one of the best forwards in their gold medal run. Marian Hossa has the most playoff experience but hopes to break the curse of being on the runner-up team in the past two Stanley Cup Championships.
Defensively, look for Duncan Keith to supply an offensive boost from the blueline but look for Brian Campbell to come back into the lineup after breaking his clavicle on a hit from Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin.
But the only unknown for the team is in goaltending. Cristobal Huet was tabbed as the number one starter to begin the season leaving Corey Crawford and Antti Niemi to battle for the backup spot. Niemi won out and proved himself by going 26-7-4-7 in 39 games and winning six of his last seven games played. He has no playoff experience in the NHL.
The Nashville Predators don’t have the scoring the Blackhawks have but they have depth throughout all four lines; Head Coach Barry Trotz uses them evenly throughout the game. Patric Hornqvist in his second year of service has made the difference on the team scoring a team leading 30 goals. He and Steve Sullivan both lead the team with 51 points.
Defensively Shea Weber is just as important to the Preds as Keith is to the Blackhawks. Weber has scored two more goals than his Chicago counterpart.
Pekka Rinne, who won out on the starters role, won 32 games in his 54 starts. Like Huet, however, both lack experience in NHL playoffs.
Behind the bench Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville has won 51 games in the playoffs while Trotz needs to find a way to survive the first round. Trotz knows this team well and has been the coach since the franchise was founded.
So, who will continue on to the next round? Well the Chicago Blackhawks are the much stronger team and they will need to keep the pressure on Nashville all series long. They can’t fall into the defensive trappings that the Predators can lull you into. Niemi needs to play confidently and not show any panic if a situation might arise. Count on his teammates to make him as comfortable in front of him.
One thing that the Blackhawks are weak at is the power play where they rank 17th in the league. For Nashville to have a chance, they need to improve on the penalty kill.
Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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