Posted by Pierre LeBrun
CHICAGO -- Geez, nothing going on here today.
Six-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings was a surprise scratch thanks to a lower-body injury. And Hawks star winger Martin Havlat is playing, somewhat miraculously, less than 48 hours after having his head unscrewed by a vicious but clean hit from Niklas Kronwall.
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville certainly has a sense of drama, putting Havlat out on the ice for the opening faceoff. The United Center exploded when Havlat was shown on the big screen during the starting lineup announcements.
Kronwall was booed every time he touched the puck in the opening period. He can expect that treatment here for years to come. Nice touch at the end of the period when he took a run at Patrick Kane. Why change his colors now?
The Wings scored the first goal, and boy, did that ever suck the life out of a United Center crowd that had been absolutely rocking. What a stringer, too -- Marian Hossa scoring short-handed on a great 2-on-1 feed from Valtteri Filppula. So, you ask yourself, would Nikolai Khabibulin have stopped that? Impossible to answer, but you know Cristobal Huet was killing himself for not making the first big save of the game.
Huet made amends with 4:30 left in the period, when he made two great saves on a Wings power play, first a reflex pad save on a deflected point shot and then the rebound backhand chance on Mikael Samuelsson.
But, boy oh boy, was he angry with himself with 20.7 seconds left in the period when Johan Franzen beat him with wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle that went top-corner on the stick side. That's a bad goal. And possibly a backbreaker.
Havlat, by the way, was no worse for the wear, looking very much symptom-free. But the Wings were the story in the opening period, outshooting the home side 14-9 and going into the dressing room up 2-0 minus their Hall of Fame blueliner and Hart Trophy-candidate center Pavel Datsyuk.
The defending Cup champs smell blood.
ESPN.com Stanley Cup playoffs blog
