NHL Playoff Chatroom: Is Ken Hitchcock's Job on the Line in Game 7?

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the NHL Chatroom (copyright pending), a lively and frank discussion between Bleacher Report writers on the latest goings-on in the game. 

With the NHL playoffs now into high gear, we thought now would be a good time to roll out our first panel discussion, between yours truly and B/R's own Jonathan Willis. Jonathan is Canadian, knows everything about statistics and uses the Queen's English. With him, it's "favour," not "favor." That makes him sound smarter. We'll let him think that for now, anyway.

In our first discussion, Jonathan and I discuss/debate/pontificate about tonight's Blues-Blackhawks Game 7, whether it could be Ken Hitchcock's last game coaching the Blues or not, observations and predictions on the other series and a couple other topics.

Following is a transcript of our early afternoon Monday talk:

Dater: OK Willis, we're almost at the end of Round 1. We got one seventh game tonight, Chicago at St. Louis, and one potential additional one depending on the outcome of Nashville-Anaheim tonight. First off, are the Blues going to choke AGAIN?

Willis: Well the nice thing about a 3-1 series lead is that you get three chances to knock off your opponent. They blew one of those in Game 5, then blew a bigger one in Game 6 where they had a 3-1 lead early. Given that, it's hard to pick them to win Game 7. I say that as a guy who picked them to win the series and thought Chicago was vulnerable.

Dater: I picked St. Louis in 7, so I guess I'm sticking with it. But will I be betting the farm on it? No. Of course, I don't have a farm. I can't believe the Blues didn't put 'em away in Game 5 in OT. They were all over the Hawks. They looked done finally. And then...they just find a way to lose. You know Blues fans right now are just swigging Pepto Bismol, right?

Willis: If the Blues do blow this, it's impossible to spin it as anything other than choking. Hitchcock's coaching decisions have been taking a lot of heat; if they lose that storyline is going to blow up.

Dater: Hitchcock gets fired if they lose tonight, yes?

Willis: I'd have the paperwork printed up already, just in case.

Even without his history, the Tarasenko stuff has been nuts; with his history I don't see how he could survive another first-round exit.

Dater: I love Hitch. The man is a genius. But, yeah, he HAS to win tonight. And then, you know what? If the Blues do win, I think they automatically become the favorite to come out of the West. 

Willis: Ooh, that's tough. I like them to beat Dallas, but against San Jose/Anaheim? I don't think I can get there. Whoever wins the Central is going to be the underdog against the winner of the Pacific for me. Unless Nashville somehow manages to scrape through.

Dater: See, that's where I think home ice becomes bigger, as the rounds get later. St. Louis would have home ice in a Western final against either San Jose, Anaheim or Nashville. But I will get on board the Sharks' bandwagon, now that you bring them up. They definitely do seem to have finally found that inner toughness. I mean, it was easy to think they were going to choke again the other night, right? They blow a 3-0 lead, the roof is coming off the Staples Center, and then they just went right back to dominating the Kings again and closed 'em out.

Willis: I really liked the Sharks coming into the playoffs, but I didn't think they'd get by the Kings. That was a really good test of the team, and you have to see them as true contenders now. I'm semi-secretly hoping for a St. Louis/San Jose final in the West so that at least one of those teams stops hearing about how it can't win in the playoffs.

Dater: Exactly. One of those two tortured franchises would be going to the Finals. It would be great to see. And of course, one will go back to being just as tortured.

OK, Let's shift over to the East for a minute. Has anything surprised you so far? I picked Detroit to beat Tampa Bay, but I totally underestimated that the Triplets would be back in force, that Jonathan Drouin would be that good and that Ben Bishop would look like Ken Dryden, circa 1970s. Your thoughts on the Lightning? Is this for real?

Willis: I had Tampa Bay beating Detroit; the Red Wings limped into the playoffs and to me were the weakest of the eight teams in the East, so my only real concern was injury. That's still my big concern with the Bolts. Healthy I can see them upsetting one of Washington/Pittsburgh, but sans Stamkos and Stralman it's hard to put them in the same class as the two Metropolitan clubs. I thought Philly would be a tougher test for the Capitals, but other than that I didn't see a lot of real surprises. The Islanders/Panthers series looked tight coming in and with the way John Tavares played, it's not a shock that New York came out on top.

Dater: Too bad that we couldn't see a good long Jaromir Jagr run. It would have been a great story. But the Panthers just weren't all that good in the series, and that especially goes for Jagr. As amazing as he was this year, the fact is he's been terrible in the playoffs the last few years. The man has ONE goal in the last 39 playoff games with Florida, Boston and Philly.

Willis: One goal on 104 shots, including a whopping 0-for-96 on that Boston run!

Dater: Amazing.

What about Pittsburgh? They really, really look good. And yet, they don't even have their No. 1 goalie. Question: even if Marc-Andre Fleury said he was healthy right now and wanted to play, should Mike Sullivan just keep riding the hot hand that is Matt Murray? Or, does the Flower go right in?

Willis: Murray's playing well, and I don't really see any reason to make a change for a guy with a career playoff save percentage of 0.906. If he hits a bump in the road, that's a different matter. 

I remember the controversy when Tomas Vokoun was taking playoff starts away from Fleury, and a lot of people argued that Pittsburgh had to go back to Fleury because he was the No. 1. That's never made sense to me; you dress the guy who is giving your team the best shot to win and worry about the optics never.

Dater: Pittsburgh's offensive lineup looks amazing again. Crosby, Kessel, Malkin...but those secondary guys are really dangerous right now too, like Nick Bonino and Patric Hornqvist and Matt Cullen and even Bryan Rust. Is this the team to beat in the East now, or is it still Washington? It's going to be an amazing series, this second-rounder between the Pens and Caps. I probably would lean Pens the way they're playing right now. I didn't like Washington's lack of offense the last couple games against Philly.

Willis: I rate the series pretty close to a toss-up. Maybe 52/48 for Pittsburgh, though when I look at the roster I wonder how the blue line will stand up to the Capitals' attack. If the series gets decided at 5v5, I like the Penguins, but if Washington gets the opportunity to leverage its special teams strength I'd favour the Caps.

Dater: Maybe you're right. I picked the Caps to come out of the East, and I shouldn't give up on them now. And especially since you used the Canadian spelling of favour, I think that gives 'em a slight edge too.

Willis: Oh dear. You're going to set off the comments section with that point! Pre-emptively, I'd like to remind everyone that it's the Queen's English. To your actual point, I picked Pittsburgh so I should stick with it.

Dater: Our commenters are the best. Especially Dwight K. Shrute. I call him "Astute Shrute." We love ya Dwight!

Willis: There's a reason he's the assistant to the regional manager, you know (inside joke).

Dater: Quick question on the Rangers: Should they blow it up and start over? Should Lundqvist ask out of there finally? I mean, he is the King of New York and all, but that team's window closed tight and shut with that last series. Maybe a change of scenery would work wonders for Hank?

Willis: I think Lundqvist is fine. He's had a great decade, followed by two bad games. Having said that, I look at New York's roster and wonder if the window hasn't closed, and if it has, moving Lundqvist for younger assets isn't the worst play.

Dater: I think Hank should move on. I think it's going to get ugly with the Rangers the next couple years. They're old and don't have many studs in the farm system.

OK, let's move on to some last few random quick hitters: Pat Foley kicked up a fuss the other night with a rant on live national TV about the lateness of the games in the Hawks-Blues series. Was he right? Or, is he a cranky old coot?

Willis: I loved it! Local commentators should say what they think and if the league doesn't like it, well that's the league's problem. I understand the NHL's problem—they need to act in the interests of the national TV audience—but with two teams that far East and how regionalized NHL fans tend to be, I think the league would be better off serving the interest of Hawks and Blues fans, rather than running late games for people like me to see!

Dater: Yeah, I liked it too. It was just so shocking to me, to hear any actual dissenting opinion on anything from a hockey TV broadcaster. It was a shock to the system not to hear "Bettman is wonderful, our game is the best, isn't this tremendous." That said, I do believe that was the end of Mr. Foley's aspirations, if he had them, of replacing Doc Emrick whenever he hangs up his golden lungs.

Willis: I get that the broadcasters have a responsibility to sell the game, but that doesn't mean always sugarcoating over the league's many, many mistakes. But you're right, long-term it probably doesn't win Mr. Foley any favours in the league office. To which I should add: Have I mentioned lately that Gary Bettman is wonderful, the NHL is the best and that these playoffs are tremendous?

Dater: That's SIR Gary Bettman, Willis.

Willis: My apologies, m'Lord Bettman.

Dater: Sir Lord Gary B. Bettman, got it.

Dater: OK, last couple: I expect Las Vegas to be granted an expansion team this summer at the NHL awards show. As a Canadian, what are your thoughts on Quebec? Will we see a team back there anytime soon you think, or is the value of the Loonie and second thoughts about the size of the market there sort of dooming them for now?

Willis: Well, the dollar's back at 79 cents against American currency, so I think those concerns have probably lessened somewhat. The biggest thing for any team is a modern, subsidized, money-making arena, and Quebec City now has that. I expect they get a team, but maybe it takes a year or two after Vegas gets its club.

Dater: I mean, I hope so. Quebec City is a treasure of a city, and the people there would support a team 100 percent forever. Plus, as a guy who lives in Denver, I still have some guilt over having just gotten the former Nordiques dropped right in our laps, with a Stanley Cup that first year. 

Does hockey make it in Vegas, or is this doomed to some sort of tacky failure?

Willis: Wow, that last one is tough. It's such a unique market that there's no real precedent. I think the team does well, but that a lot of nights it's hard to tell that home games are home games.

Dater: That could be the beauty of it though, Willis! You'll have 50,000 new customers rolling through there every week, with money to blow. Add the die-hard locals, and I see sellouts every night.

OK, last one: Who is the Conn Smythe winner if the playoffs ended right now? Wait, don't you have to do a slideshow for B/R in five minutes with the top 10 candidates?

Willis: I think Steve (MacFarlane) has that honour. If the playoffs ended now, I like Tavares. He was at another level in that series.

Dater: I can buy in on that. Good to see the Isles back in the later rounds of the playoffs again. Plus, we get to look at that SUV some more. OK Willis, until next time. Over and, (getting my best Canadian accent here), "Over and ooot."

 

Adrian Dater and Jonathan Willis cover the NHL for Bleacher Report.