#ExcellentSport.
#ExcellentGame.
"It has (been) hard-fought," Crawford said. "Tons of good hockey (with) lots of great plays — and physical. The games are so close, who knows, someone could have won in four. It has been a battle."
After the Hawks jumped to a 3-0 lead midway through the second, the Ducks refused to back down and made things very interesting with goals from Patrick Maroon and Clayton Stoner. Shaw's goal with 3:32 remaining in the third put the Ducks away and the forward further sealed the deal with an empty-netter to send the crowd of 22,089 home happy. That concluded another chapter in an already sensational series.
"It has been exciting for the fans for sure and for us too," Ducks center Kyle Palmieri said. "Triple-OT, double-OT and Matt (Beleskey) winning (Game 5 on Monday night) in the first minute of OT. It's a tough conference and the two best teams are going to go at it Saturday night for a chance to play for the Stanley Cup."
Imagine the finesse of Steph Curry ... on skates!
Ducks players have made no secret about their strategy to beat Chicago: Check them into the off-season. They have said over and over that the longer the series goes, the more the skilled Blackhawks would feel the cumulative effects of those hits.Entering Game 6, they held a staggering 262-181 advantage in hits. The Ducks were the aggressors again early in the game, with Ryan Getzlaf delivering a bone-crunching hit on Marcus Kruger that elicited a groan from the sellout crowd of 22,089. Later in the period, Stoner knocked Patrick Sharp into the boards.
On this night, though, Chicago hit back, nearly matching the Ducks check for check; the final count was 43-38 in favor of Anaheim.“That’s kind of been the talk all series, that they’ve been trying to wear us down and outplay us on the physical side,” Toews said. “I think there’s always confidence in our group that we can respond to that and turn the tables a little bit.”
Like with the ladies grinding it out on the hardwoods,
hockey is appealing to more diverse demographics these days (weak ankles, my ass*), including women.
I'll take logic and reasoning over brute force any day, but there's no denying the lessons to be learned in sports. Like the old saying goes, "Part of the art of being a woman is knowing when not to be too much of a lady..."
Have a great weekend;
plan to be offline myself
as things are heating up here...
-------------------------------------
* "There were pressures on them to be fighters, but this generation of black player is free to be who they are," added Cecil Harris, a former hockey beat writer and the author of "Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey."
"The pressure isn't there for a big, strong black guy like Dustin Byfuglien to be a goon. He can be himself, and he's an All-Star this year."
-------------------------------------
* "There were pressures on them to be fighters, but this generation of black player is free to be who they are," added Cecil Harris, a former hockey beat writer and the author of "Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey."
"The pressure isn't there for a big, strong black guy like Dustin Byfuglien to be a goon. He can be himself, and he's an All-Star this year."
<< Home