It fits, that after 80 playoff games over 79 years, an Original Six rivalry about to be split up by realignment would require game No. 81 to settle things. One last, epic seven-game series before they go off in opposite directions.
And it also seems somewhat proper that the Jonathan Toews-lead Chicago Blackhawks — a clutch captain of the best team in the NHL this season, neither entity having lived up to its reputation through the first four games of this series — would deliver in Game 6 at Joe Louis Arena.
A few years ago the Detroit Red Wings would have been the teachers in this matchup. Make no mistake — the Red Wings are the plucky underdogs this time around, an underdog that has managed to draw the very best from Chicago in this series.
“If you don’t believe, there’s no way you can go out there and win it,” Chicago’s Michal Handzus told the post-game media scrum in Detroit, after he’d scored once in a wildly exciting 4-3 Chicago win. “Everybody got in their mind that we’re going to win the game. That’s what we did, and we won.”
The momentum has officially swung in this series, as Detroit failed to put Chicago away in Game 6 Monday night despite having held a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes. It is what makes watching either of these teams play so much more fun for fans of the game — no lead is safe, and the teams in this series actually get to four goals once in a while.
As for Toews, the easiest prediction in hockey this past week was that we would be talking about the Blackhawks captain before this series had come to a close. Toews switched the conversation from “What’s wrong with Johnny?” to, “Want to see how a leaders leads?” in a matter of two clutch games.
“All of our hard work is paying off,” Toews told ChicagoBlackhawks.com. “We’re finding ways, we’re doing the right things to score goals, and we’re confident when we get those chances that they’re going to go in somehow.
“It’s rare that you’re going to score any pretty goals at this time of year,” Toews continued. “Checking is so tight. Guys are on you everywhere. It’s all about … second, third, fourth efforts – whatever you can to get a stick in front of the net, a body in front of the goaltender.”
Down the hall, Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock has more members of his crew facing this type of challenge for the first time than ever before. Sure, there are veterans in that Red Wings room. But there are also a pile of untested names on this Detroit roster — which has made their run to within a game of the Conference Final so improbable.
“Well I’ll just say to you this,” Babcock began. “I thought we did tons of good things tonight. We made some young mistakes in the third period and they ended up in our net, but I liked their energy, I liked their focus, I liked how we did quite a bit.
“I thought we did lots of good things and in the end we didn’t handle it. Whether it be pressure or execution or whatever it was in the third.”
When is the last time you heard a Detroit Red Wings coach muse about his club to being able to handle the pressure of a big moment?
Yes, the shoes were on the other feet when this Chicago-Detroit series began, then they switched back as Detroit took a 3-2 series lead.
Now? With Game 7 set for Wednesday night at the United Center, they’ll argue for a good 24 hours over which team is truly feeling the most heat.
“We’re where we need to be physically,” said Toews, who is oozing confidence now. “We’re doing the right thing in front of their goaltender, we’re tougher on him. We’re getting pucks to the net, not trying to make too many plays. Eventually you’ll find the ways to pop a few in.”
And Babcock? He may have a bit of a sell job on his hands.
“I even think that tonight gives us a sense of confidence,” he began, in full hawker-mode. “It’s not like they came in here and squashed us or anything.
“If I would have told our whole team before this series, if I would have told Detroit, Michigan, before this series that we were going to play Chicago in Game 7, I think everybody would have been pretty excited about that. I love Game 7’s. I am excited about it. We got a chance to push them out of the playoffs. It should be a lot of fun.”
On that point, we can all agree.