Hawks Rewind: Blackhawks vs Canucks Game 2 Preview

Tonight, NBCS Chicago continues its replay of former Chicago Blackhawks’ games from the 2010 Stanley Cup run. At 7 PM CST, they will show Game 2 of the Semifinals against the Canucks.

After losing 5-1 to the Canucks in Game 1, the Chicago Blackhawks look to bounce back and tie the series back up tonight at 7.

In Game 1, only Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks. Besides the assists from Jonathan Toews and Dave Bolland, the rest of the team stayed off of the scoreboard. Antti Niemi didn’t keep his momentum from Game 4-6 going. He’s 2-0 this playoff on games coming off of a loss. Let’s see if he can keep that up.

This game is very important, as the Blackhawks can’t fall down 2-0 going back to Vancouver.

Niemi is going to need to bounce back tonight and act like Game 1 didn’t happen. He was pulled in favor of Cristobal Huet going into the third period. If he has another bad start to tonight’s game, the Blackhawks might have to rely on Huet instead of Niemi.

Chicago needs to stay out of the penalty box, while also getting their defensemen back into the play. They looked tired out there in Game 1, which left Niemi out there to dry on a few of those goals.

If they don’t score first, they cannot panic. In Game 1, you could see a sense of urgency for the team, which hurt them instead of helping them. They have to take control and play their game, not Vancouver.

I expect Chicago to look way different from what they did in Game 1. These guys haven’t lost back-to-back games yet in these playoffs. They’ve come off of losses strong and firing from the start. The game needs to be dictated by the speed of the Blackhawks, not the power of the Canucks.