Chicago Blackhawks: Time to eliminate the Edmonton Oilers

In Friday’s game four, the Chicago Blackhawks have a chance to eliminate the Edmonton Oilers.

The Chicago Blackhawks were very lucky to be given a second life when the NHL announced its return to play format. They came in against the Edmonton Oilers as huge underdogs and now they have a chance to eliminate them. They came back in game three from a 3-2 deficit to win the game by a final score of 4-3. They tied the game with under six minutes left in regulation before Jonathan Toews scored the go-ahead goal with just over a minute left.

Now on Friday, they will face the toughest test of them all. They have to do what they need to do to extinguish the Oilers from the playoff bubble. The Oilers are certainly going to come out flying in this game so the Blackhawks need to have their best game of the series in order to win. They probably don’t want to play a game five against the Oilers as the “road team”.

Friday will be the last chance the Hawks have with the last change against the Oilers. One of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl has scored eight of the 13 Oilers goals in the first three games. That is a remarkable percentage of goals to be scored by two guys. If the Hawks can try and limit them just a little bit in this game, they should have a chance to win. The amount of high danger chances they create is astonishing so they have to be hard on them.

The forwards and defenseman putting in the work have a lot to do with containing them but Corey Crawford is also a major factor. He has taken some criticism in this series at times but a lot of it has been misinformed. He has been a victim of bad bounces and the NHL’s two leading scorers on multiple occasions and there is not much he can do about most of it. They do, however, need a big game from him if they are going to win.

As far as the offense, there have been many players on this team that has made a big difference. Patrick Kane is doing his thing per usual but Jonathan Toews is a man on a mission. In vintage Toews form, he has brought a major amount of intensity to the table in this series. He is one of the best captains in NHL history and he is furthering the legacy even more. If those two, along with guys like Kirby Dach, Duncan Keith, and Connor Murphy keep it up, this could get really interesting.

Friday at 5:45 should be a great time for the people of Chicago. We have two baseball teams on each side of town having some success and a hockey team that is one win away from moving on. It makes it even more sweet knowing that they would be defeating the team with the best player in the world and his running mate might be the second-best. The Hawks, up to this point, have taken advantage of them not being much of a complete team and ran with it.