After some great hockey to start the series in Tampa Bay the series now moves back to Chicago with both teams looking to take the lead in the series. For the Blackhawks it will be the 2nd time they have held the series lead after taking game one. For the Lightning it would be the first time they have led the series after a drama filled game 2 victory that has left many questions going into tonight’s game. Here are some of the stories worth following going into tonight’s game.
Who’s starting in goal for the Lightning?
The 3rd period of Saturday’s game 2 saw Ben Bishop leave the net before going back in, many thought that this was probably a washroom break for him but thoughts changed after he left the game once more and rookie goaltender Vasilevskiy was forced to finish the game. Now it has been reported that Bishop did practice this morning but as of this writing it is unknown whether it will be Bishop of Vasilevskiy who will start in goal tonight. Even if Bishop does start there will still be questions as too how close to 100% he will be playing at. If Vasilevskiy starts the obvious question is how will the 20 year old handle the pressure playing a full game in a very loud United Centre in Chicago. In the final playoff prediction round table I said that in order for Tampa Bay to win that Bishop would have to be great if Tampa Bay was to prevail, I’d hate to see an injury shorten what has so far been a great series.
Bryan Bickell returns after bout of Vertigo
After only being used sparingly in game 7 against the Ducks in the conference finals and missing the first two games of this serieswith vertigo, Bryan Bickell will return the the line up for the Blackhawks. Although he has not been a huge force on the score sheet with 0 G’s 5 Assists and a +3 with 12 PIM he should still be a welcome addition to Joel quenneville’s line up. He says he is 100% so it will be interesting to see what impact he has on the game tonight.
Much adieu about nothing…
The big story of the finals has been the ticket policies of the Amaile Arena as well as a “hockey 101” going out in the paper. Now while I think that anyone should be able to buy a ticket to any sporting event should they have the cash especially the Stanley Cup final, this is a story that has been blown way out of proportion by the media in general. So lets set the record straight.
1st. If you purchased a ticket directly from the arena it does not matter what the address on your visa card is. The only time this mattered is if you bought a ticket from Ticket Master. This is all moot of course because there are not tickets to be had… they are all sold out and there was still plenty of Hawks gear to be seen.
2nd. Sorry kids leave your hawks gear at home… Again a partial truth. You cannot wear your Blackhawks swag in very specific seating which makes up about 1800 seats in a 19,000 seat arena. There are roughly 17,200 seats where you can with out issue.
3rd. Tampa fans are stupid because they need to be told the rules in the newspaper. Wrong again while Tampa Bay isn’t a hockey hotbed like Chicago or any other classic market the hockey 101 certainly isn’t for the regular people that fill the seats of that arena it was to try and grab the casual fan attention. Hockey fans are strange they want everyone to love their sport but no one wants to let fans on at the ground floor.
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