Paging A Star…Any Star!!

Sports, as in most history, has many statistic that can jump off the page at you and make you shake your head.  The Cubs without a championship since 1908 and not a single world series appearance since 1945.  The last 8 times that the Kentucky Wildcats have won the NCAA Tourney the NY Yankees have won the World Series in the same calendar year.  Tiger Woods winning 13 straight majors when taking a lead into the final round.  Another stat that’s not as headscratchy but still hard to imagine is that the Phoenix Coyotes are 0-7 all time in the playoffs and 3 times they had 3-1 series leads only to lose the series.  Hmmmm Phoenix leads the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 going into game 5 in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

All those stats give the Hawks hope but one thing the Coyotes coach Dave Tippett has to be excited about when looking at the stat sheet after four games is that the combination of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp have combined for a grand total of 2 goals.  This is the time of year when 4th liners  become heroes and guys that don’t get the headlines become household names, but it is also the time when great players become legendary players.  When Brandon Bollig ,whose only apparent talent in life is to throw and take punches, has as many goals as Toews and more than Kane something is not going according to plan!

The three big guns stats through 4 games:

*Jonathon Toews– 1 goal 2 assists +/- +4 12 shots

*Patrick Kane-0 goals 4 assists +/- +1  12 shots

*Patrick Sharp– 1 goal 0 assists +/- -2 17 shots

There’s a reason that each game has gone into the final minutes with the Hawks desperately needing a tying goal to send the game into another overtime.  Not one of these three guys has been able to take over the series.  Bryan Bickell has two goals (which both came in the only game the hawks won) and Michael Frolik also has two goals, and he didn’t even get to play in the series until Andrew Shaw was suspended.   It’s great to get production from these guys as secondary scoring, but for the Hawks to win 3 straight games which is entirely possible given the Coyotes history in the playoffs and the Hawks winning 3 in a row last year against Vancouver Canucks, at least one of the Hawks stars is going to have to put the rest of the team on their back!

The Blackhawks have more talent than these Coyotes but the Yotes have been the better team.  The Hawks have more star power, but the stars have been blanketed by a swarming defense that has not allowed for the stars to shine.  Corey Crawford has let two incredibly soft goals in on consecutive overtime shots, but he has kept the Hawks in every contest through regulation. He is not the reason for the 3-1 deficit, so please stop the Ray Emery talk if there is a change in goal tomorrow it will be a total panic move!! The offense has not arrived in this series but it needs to show up in Glendale Saturday night or it will be Adios season and hello Tee times….

Momentum can change directions by one small deflection.. It is time for Toews, Kane, or Sharp to change that momentum into the direction of Chicago! They have been able to do it in the past, but tomorrow is when the future begins! All it takes is one Big Gun to take over! Bring it back to Chicago for Game 6!!

Let’s Go Hawks!!