Blackhawks are confident - but not overconfident

TAMPA, Fla. - Game 1 is in the bag. And so is the Stanley Cup, right?

There may be some out there in hockey circles who are having those thoughts, but you certainly won't hear any of the Blackhawks - and especially Joel Quenneville - talking that way.

"No chance of being overconfident," Quenneville said Thursday, speaking only about Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, set for 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

The fact that they're even up 1-0 is - we won't call it a miracle - plenty fortunate. The Hawks were outplayed by Tampa Bay for the first two periods Wednesday and easily could have trailed 2-0 or 3-0 after 40 minutes.

"I think we know that we didn't play our best game," Jonathan Toews said. "You can go over and over the parts of the game where they could have opened it up and maybe we wouldn't have had a chance to get back and find ways to win the game."

That's the thing about these Hawks, though - you absolutely, positively, undeniably cannot let them hang around. In some ways they resemble the Bulls championship teams of the 1990s. The killer instinct ingrained into some of these athletes' psyches is something you can't teach - it's just inherently there.

Michael Jordan is probably the greatest example of this in all sports, and Scottie Pippen wasn't far behind. Jordan and Pippen's will to win, combined with their talent level and that they made everyone around them better, are all huge reasons why the Bulls were so difficult to beat four times in seven games.

The same holds true with these Hawks.

There have been so many times in this postseason where the situation seems bleak, including:

• Falling behind 3-0 to Nashville after the postseason was just 20 minutes old.

• Trailing 3-1 in the first period of Game 6 vs. the Predators.

• Losing the opener of the West finals, then going down 2-1 and 3-2 in that series vs. Anaheim.

No problem. All of those obstacles were overcome.

When Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith, Brad Richards, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Johnny Oduya and Corey Crawford need to ramp up their game to a level even you don't believe is possible, they do it.

And on the other side is an opponent staring into space the next day in disbelief, as was the case Thursday with a barely audible Brian Boyle.

"However the series plays out, you don't want to look back saying, 'We were a little bit passive there,' " Boyle said. "If you want to make a mistake, do it being aggressive, have that confidence that got us here."

Tampa Bay certainly has the confidence to come back and make this a series. Coach Jon Cooper's team lost Game 1s to Detroit and New York, yet stormed back and eliminated both of those Original Six franchises.

Cooper told everyone to keep that in mind Thursday.

"We just played Mike Babcock and the storied Detroit Red Wings," Cooper said. "We just played the Montreal Canadiens. Enough said. We just played the New York Rangers and beat them in their building (in a Game 7).

"We respect everybody, but there's no fear in the room.... We didn't come here to come second. We came here to win this. We got a taste of who we were playing against....

"We've never made it easy on ourselves. But we came here to win this thing, and that's what we're going to try to do."

The Lightning certainly played well Wednesday, and realized they can't take the foot off the gas holding a skimpy 1-goal lead against the Hawks.

Because Toews and Co. certainly have the confidence to turn things around in a hurry.

"We know if there's games where we tend to give up leads or we go down a goal or two," Toews said, "there's always that confidence we can find ways to put pressure on the team and make them stave off our pressure late in games. We found a way to get a couple bounces yesterday and walked out with a win, knowing we can play a lot better and we're going to play better.

"But I think there's that confidence in our group that we can find ways to come back if we're not in an ideal situation in a game or a series."