Hawks striving to seize the momentThe Blackhawks won't be the only out-of-towners at Wachovia Center during Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals.
Nestled in a heavy case somewhere in the bowels of the arena, the Stanley Cup will be making a visit,
duty tarpsonly emerging if the Hawks can defeat the Flyers to win their first NHL championship in 49 years. On Wednesday night,
Vintage jerseysthat can become reality as a victory would mean they can hoist the Cup above their heads in front of what promises to be a hostile crowd bordering on belligerent.
"It has been flashing in my head since Game 1 of the playoffs," captain Jonathan Toews said Tuesday of holding the Cup aloft. "Every time you win one game, it feels like you're going all the way to the Cup. I've always said when you lose a game it feels like your season is going to be over. It just has been such a crazy ride."
It's a ride that could continue if the Flyers rebound like they have all season to extend the best-of-seven series to Game 7 Friday night at the United Center.
The Hawks who have won Stanley Cups with previous teams — Andrew Ladd, Tomas Kopecky and John Madden — can provide perspective to their teammates. They know first-hand that Wednesday's game will be like no other the other Hawks have played in their careers. They key, they say, is to try to treat it like any other game — as if that is remotely possible.
Vintage jerseys"The biggest part is just sticking to our game plan as a team," said Madden,
duty tarpswho is a two-time winner of the Cup with the Devils. "Even though it's a game where we can clinch, it doesn't change anything for us. We have to play the same way we did in Game 5 (Sunday night), with the same mentality."
Kopecky was a member of the Red Wings' 2008 championship team but was injured late in the regular season and didn't play in the playoffs.
"I'm just going to prepare the same way I prepare for every other game, and maybe pay a little more attention to the details," he said. "You can't look ahead too much. Just focus on the little things and the little battles. That's when the big things are going to come."
Ladd helped the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup in 2006, with Carolina losing in Game 6 in Edmonton before returning home to clinch it. The veteran winger wants to keep this series as short as possible.
"(After) Game 6 in Edmonton, it was probably the longest flight I've ever been on heading back to Carolina," Ladd said. "I just remember feeling that heading into Game 7 that no one was going to beat us; that we were going to put our best effort out. Having lost that opportunity in Game 6, it just made you want it that much more."
Ladd isn't the only participant with that memory. Flyers
coach Peter Laviolette was at the helm for those Hurricanes and would like nothing better than to make the Hawks' night end on a sour note.
Vintage jerseys"It was nauseating," Laviolette said of losing Game 6 in '06.
duty tarps"I went back to the hotel room in Edmonton and I almost threw up. You keep fighting for it. One thing this (Flyers) team really has proven is that they're capable of fighting. We'll be ready to do that (Wednesday)."
