Game Four goes tonight in Philadelphia and I won't get a chance to watch any of this one as well, which kind of sucks and my recap probably won't be as detail oriented as I'd like. Nevertheless, this again turns out to be another swing game in this series, much like Game Three was, but possibly a bit more of a positive spin for the home team, if they can drum out a win tonight.
Just because they lost a road game on Wednesday night, does not make them any less of a good road team in these playoffs and that's what the Blackhawks really have to stand on going into Game Four tonight. They have withstood a lot of pressure from three other teams in this series and have still played well in their buildings throughtout. With Game Three going into overtime means that the game was still very close and all it would have taken was once bounce either way to make the Blackhawks up 3-0 in the series, instead of only up 2-1. A simple game plan tonight, doing a lot of the same things that they have done in the first three games can just as easily have the Flyers behind the 8-Ball going into Sunday's tilt.
The Flyers are definitely on the wrong side of a weighted coin at the moment in these playoffs, but that isn't to say that the coin won't land their way by the end of Game Four tonight. As I was saying in the Blackhawks' paragraph, this series has been way too close and both teams have now lost their games by only a goal, so it's hard to really point out what the teams are doing so wrong, when they have to keep it so close. Being down a game still, the Flyers cannot go out and try and make this game a big statement game on the scoresheet, because those are the kind of ideas that lead to mistakes on the ice. I'm expecting the Flyers to keep it close, but possibly make more of a statement in the physical department, giving the Blackhawks something to think about for Game Five.
| Team | Scott G. | Myles D. | Neil B. | Derek B. | Stuart G. | Russ D. | Leo M. |
| Points | 256 | -3 | -11 | -15 | -16 | -17 | -18 |
| Patrick Sharp | x | x | x | x | |||
| Dustin Byfuglien | x | ||||||
| Brian Campbell | x | ||||||
| Patrick Kane | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Jonathan Toews | x | x | x | ||||
| Marian Hossa | x | x | x | x | |||
| Duncan Keith | x | x | |||||
| Brent Seabrook | x | ||||||
| Scott Hartnell | x | x | |||||
| Claude Giroux | x | x | x | x | |||
| Kimmo Timonen | x | x | |||||
| James Van Riemsdyk | x | ||||||
| Chris Pronger | x | x | |||||
| Daniel Briere | x | ||||||
| Braydon Coburn | x |
Well, with only four players left on her team and bottom of the rung on the table, Kalenab has officially been eliminated from the table on the preview blog, but only after a great effort and a good team through these playoffs. A little different outcome in the Conference Finals and she'd likely be in the mix for the win.
In all honesty, this is really a 2-horse race, but the bigger table does look a little bit better on the blog than a skinny one with only three columns. Scott is looking to defend against an epic comeback by Myles, who has had the most amount of players out of the 2nd round, but had to make up for a bit of a lacklustre opening round to be put in this position. It has been a good story throughout these last couple rounds and with still at least two games left to be played, maybe more, in this series, we are in for one hell of a finish.
Let's drop the puck already!
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