Hawks' top line looks to pick up its play
CHICAGO -- It was a strange sight to behold. Jonathan Toews, standing at his locker after his Blackhawks won Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, looking like he had just single-handedly lost the game.Toews was happy with the 6-5 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers, but clearly perturbed with the play of his top line. Toews, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien were held off the scoreboard and combined for a minus-9 after they were on the ice for three Flyers goals, including Arron Asham's score that tied the game at 5-5 late in the second period.
It was completely out of character for a group that had totaled 15 goals and 25 assists in nine games since they were thrown together during Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Vancouver Canucks.
"We're not happy with the way we played, especially in the first couple periods," said Toews, who had his franchise record 13-game point-scoring streak snapped Saturday. "You're bound to have a game like that where things don't go your way. When you look at the score sheet and it doesn't look pretty for our line. You get ticked off about it and you move on. We're not going to let it become anything bigger than it actually is."
The poor performance can be more easily swept under the rug thanks to the play of Chicago's supporting cast.
Shutdown forwards Dave Bolland, Kris Versteeg and Tomas Kopecky each had a goal and an assist, including Kopecky's game-winner in the third period. Troy Brouwer had 2 goals and assist while playing on the second line with Patrick Sharp (1 goal) and Marian Hossa (2 assists).
According to Kane, his line's biggest problem was puck possession.
"Five-on-five, I think we can play a lot better, collectively as a line," Kane said. "I think Buff had 10 hits, but that just shows how much we were chasing the puck around. Sometimes it's good when he has a lot of hits and he's getting the puck back and we're making plays. But we don't want him to have that many. We want to have the puck and be making plays."
The line was matched up mostly against Flyers defensemen Chris Pronger and Matt Carle along with forwards Scott Hartnell, Daniel Briere and Ville Leino. That's not exactly your prototypical checking line, but Pronger has shown throughout his Hall-of-Fame career he can dominate anyone and has the size and strength to combat the 6-foot-4, 257-pound Byfuglien.
"We'll give credit to some of their defensemen that played well," Toews said. "As a line, I think all three of us know it's not as much what they did as it is what we didn't do on the ice. I think we were maybe chasing the puck a little too much. We weren't protecting it. We weren't supporting each other."
Kane said one reason the line had a hard time getting into the game early was the lack of a power-play opportunity. Never playing with the man-advantage makes the trio's five shots a little more understandable, but certainly not acceptable for Kane.
"I think that's the biggest thing, especially with myself, is to not get frustrated," Kane said. "Hopefully we can be a lot better and step up and make up for (Game 2). It'd be nice to step up and do some special things here, especially at this kind of level. I know all three of us don't want blow that opportunity.
"We know we can play better."
-- Dave Lozo
For the most part, Chicago coach Joel Quenneville had defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook on the ice when Philly's top line hopped over the boards.
"I thought we had good looks (on Saturday) and just didn't score, and did everything but, so I think persistence is something we need to have as a line," Richards said. "We can't get discouraged by one or two bad bounces."
All three players were on the ice when Chicago's Dave Bolland scored the team's League-leading fourth shorthanded goal of the postseason midway through the first period. And they were out there again when Tomas Kopecky connected for the game-winner 8:25 into the third.
"I don't think anybody's too concerned about it," Flyers forward Blair Betts told NHL.com. "I think (Gagne-Richards-Carter) have been great throughout this playoff run. Occasionally you're going to have nights where you don't score goals. It happens a lot during the regular season and it hasn't happened much to them during the playoffs, which I think is a big credit to them.
"At the same time, it's nice that we had some other guys chipping in offensively and it was a night where we shouldn't have needed them to score but, unfortunately, the defensive side of the game wasn't great for us and that ended up costing us."
In the series-clinching Game 5 against the Canadiens, the trio combined for 3 goals, 5 points and a plus-7 rating.
"I think everything is played according to the way the game goes," Quenneville said. "I think we got a lot of respect for the guys that can make plays on their team. They have a lot of skill throughout their lineup. We saw that (Saturday), whether it's top guys, or second and third-line scorers. But everybody was jumping forward (Saturday) night in the production department, except the top lines."
Flyers wing Ville Leino, who has 5 goals and 14 points in 14 postseason games, knows the top line will kick it into high gear.
"For sure, that's what we need," Leino said. "Actually, we haven't had that secondary scoring or third-line scoring in a while. We had that (on Saturday) and hopefully we'll keep that going. We know Richie and the other guys will be stepping up and that would be good for us."
One other major topic discussed following Philadelphia's practice on Sunday was the huge discrepancy in faceoffs. The Blackhawks won 63 percent of the draws in Game 1. Richards won only 40 percent (6 of 15) of his faceoffs, while Chicago's Jonathan Toews won 75 percent (18 of 24).
"Faceoffs not only give you possession of the puck, but they also give you the state of the team and where they're at," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "Hockey is a very competitive game. It's about one-on-one battles and winning those battles, and that's most originated from the faceoff circle, so we have to compete a little better."
Danny Briere, the team's second-line center, was 33 percent on draws (3 of 9) -- most of which were taken against Toews, who leads his team with a 59.1-percent faceoff winning percentage.
"I had a tough start against (Toews)," Briere said. "I think, as a team, we did better in the second and third period. But definitely in the first period, I don't know, I haven't had the chance to pay much attention. We knew coming in that (Toews) was a good faceoff guy. In the morning, that's something I was planning on doing, taking time to kind of go over all the faceoffs that were taken (Saturday)."
Follow Mike Morreale on Twitter at: @mike_morreale
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