Pure Poetry...... NHL Playoff style....

It was the fifth longest game in Stanley Cup Finals History.  It was a marathon of skill and attrition that ended exactly one minute past midnight when Andrew Shaw scratched and clawed his way to the front of the net and scored one of those so called “dirty” goals.  Amidst the flailing of sticks and bodies, the biscuit squirted past Tukka Rask and for one night, Blackhawk Nation could exhale.  You had to know though that the hockey gods wanted the Hawks to win this game.  It was there for taking, the proverbial hanging fruit that Andrew Shaw finally plucked out of mid air to the delight of twenty two thousand strong on West Madison Street.  It was a night where a puck laid dangerously in the crease just waiting for David Bolland to come and swipe it out of harms way.  It was a night where, for one brief moment, bad Corey Crawford showed up and the young goalie laid near his net in a twisted heap as a perfectly elevated shot from in close threatened to sail past him.  Alas, EVERY supporter in Blackhawk nation was never more relieved to hear the sound of a rubber biscuit hitting iron and spinning back into play.  If you’re new to the NHL, let me school you.  This  game, tonight, was the reason that hockey remains the most underappreciated  game going today.  What more could you ask for tonight?  You had the drama of two evenly matched teams slugging it out.  Neither  the Bruins nor the Hawks gave an inch.  Tonight was the pure beauty of the NHL on display.  Or should I say, the beauty and the rather cruel nature of playoff hockey.  In one instance, everything changes.  Forget Miami and San Antonio in the NBA finals, give me two skilled NHL teams going up and down the ice in search of Lord Stanley’s grail.  For this Blackhawk fan, I remain in awe of a franchise that spent many many decades simply trying to get out of its own way.  I remain in awe of a team that once again failed to answer the opening bell, yet managed to fight their way back to 3 all against of the NHL’S most stingiest defenses.  Now the hard part, three more battles to be won.  Buckle up Blackhawks fan, this is going to be a fun ride all the way to the finish.