The time has come for the biggest rivals in the NHL today to go head to head for the chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals! The Wings and Hawks have played the most head to head games in league history and tonight will be the 725th time these two squads go at it. They have battled as Original Six foes, for the Stanley Cup Finals and butted heads in the Central division for years. In the last five years both teams have hoisted the cup above their shoulders as Stanley Cup Champions (Wings have done this 11 times tho, might I add) and are squaring off once again and for the last times as Western Conference teams.
The Red Wings have served the Western Conference for many years helping to build a more traditional feel to it and next year will finally be moving to where they belong. No more traveling to Vancouver, San Jose, and Los Angeles for road trips that never end wearing while wearing us out in the playoffs on a nightly basis.
The Wings and Hawks come into this series in much different roles than we are used to. The Hawks finished the regular season with an NHL-best 77 points, 21 more than the Wings and 11 more than any other team in the Western Conference. They are the 1 seed and WE are the 7 seed. Chicago finished up the Minnesota Wild in an easy 5 games, while we busted our tails and beat the Ducks in a grueling 7 games. Chicago is the favorite, the best team in the NHL and is "supposed" to win...BUT, lets not forget, for ONE SECOND, who they are playing...THE DETROIT F'N RED WINGS!!!
We all know what the Red Wings did in the last week of the regular season and what they just accomplished in beating the 2nd best team in the Western Conference. Wings have not only won 8 of their last 11 games (which have basically all been playoff type games), they also have matured as a whole.
We topped the list this year in injuries throughout the season/1st round and our replacements have stepped their game up on the big stage! The Andersson's, Lashoff's, Nyquist's, of the world have experienced so much and are in a groove right now. We are mixing our veteran leadership with our young talent and its turned into greatness! Now we move onto the second round where Chicago will be waiting to take advantage of that new growth but we will not let that happen people!
Let's get this out of the way right now, I HATE the blackhawks! I DESPISE the blackhawks! And blackhawks FANS DISGUST ME and deserve to rot in a filthy, dark hell!!! In case you didn't know, my history with b-hawks fans goes back to 2009 Winter Classic where 8 hours after the Wings beat down the hawks at Wrigley Field, a blackhawks fan decided to cold cock me from BEHIND and broke my jaw in 2 places. Putting my mouth on the IR for 2 months, wired shut!! So for this series, PLEASE allow me to put my Angst towards this terribly, awful team on full display.
First of all, Hawks fans are the all-time worst. Your existence probably began somewhere around the 2010 season when they won their 1st cup since anyone can remember OR you still have the creases in your brand new jersey bought this season when they went on their long winning streak to start the season. Most of you came from some city in the Midwest where hockey wasn't the sport of choice or your home state simply didn't have a team. So, you jumped on the next best thing coming down the street which was the Whackhawks bandwagon playing that stupid song they play when goals are scored (you thought it was catchy/trendy)!
I know "your" team is #1 in the NHL and played the best in the regular season, and beat the Wild 4-1 in round 1, BUT you are about to face off against a storied team with the best General in the land in Mike Babcock! I know you went 4 for 4 against us, but let's be clear on this, 3 were in OT where two were won in a shootout (otherwise known as a skills competition). We'll disregard the 7-1 outlier. In the playoffs, games aren't won with shootout goals where Kane, skating slower than my grand mother, takes all the time in the world and finds a hole. ANYONE can do that. Playoff games are won with 5-5 hockey where the better, stronger team prevails. And we've shown that 3 times against the Ducks in OT and are ready to bring that momentum to the UC tonight!
At this point, the Wings are playing great hockey and are bringing that swagger to this series. No more flying back and forth from CA-MI/MI-CA, every other night switching multiple times zones. Simply on and off a short flight so we can focus on the task at hand now.
We learned how to shut down the Ducks best scorer in Corey Perry and will adapt to the Hawks and continue to keep Kane and Toew's point totals down.
After playing a 7 game series against a top team in Anaheim, we know what it takes to win clutch, away games and will look to surprise everyone here in Chicago.
The Hawks are getting rusty with almost a week of sitting around while the Red Wings have been playing great playoff hockey for over 3 weeks!
We know what to expect tonight at the UC as we have been there before and taken you down 4-1 in the last playoff meeting to go on and win the Stanley Cup in 2009 AND will do it again! This will be the last series that we play as Western Conference Foes so we are going to leave our mark.
This series is going to be a test of toughness, stamina, and coaching ability. If our veteran's continue to produce, our young studs continue to develop, our MVP Jimmy Howard continues to amaze, and we skate like there is no tomorrow...I predict Wings move onto the Western Conference Finals beating the Hawks in 7 games!!
The United Center will be loud tonight at puck drop (8:30 pm EST) but the TIN LIZZIE will be rocking with "LETS GO RED WINGS" chant's flowing out the open facade window. Get ready for a great series hockey fans, but more importantly Wings players, go out and beat up these bitches!!
LETS GO WINGS!!!
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