Imrem: Blackhawks someone find a way to get it done
Excuse me for continuing to hammer this point, but fatigue is the Blackhawks' primary opponent in the Stanley Cup Final.
Yeah, sure, Tampa Bay is tough, too. It would be difficult to beat the Lightning even if logic didn't say that the Hawks have to be tiring out.
But every time the Hawks have a shift or period where they look like they have nothing left, they somehow manufacture more energy.
Saturday night, the Hawks prevailed 2-1 in Tampa and now are one victory from winning the Stanley Cup.
Every one of the series' first five games has been decided by one goal, which is enough to wear out a team mentally as much as physically.
"We battled hard," Hawks' defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said. "Every shift is a battle."
The Hawks have battled to the point that they can seal the deal Monday night in the United Center.
If successful, it would be the first time the Hawks clinched a championship in Chicago since 1938.
Of the Hawks' three recent runs into the Stanley Cup Final, and now maybe even to a third title, this is the most impressive.
The Hawks still have their three S's (speed, skill and smarts), but this time they're riding their three G's (guts, grit and goaltending by Corey Crawford).
The young, frisky, feisty Lightning's speed has challenged the Hawks' stamina during this entire series.
Lightning players also have had a long 2015 postseason with grueling games and tough series. But this is more than a one-year ordeal for the Hawks.
Much is made of the Hawks advancing to the Western Conference finals five times in the last seven seasons and to the Stanley Cup Final three times in the last six seasons.
Underestimated is how much those achievements can tax players.
The Hawks have played 20 playoff series and 116 playoff games since 2009. That amounts to an additional 1½ NHL seasons, not even including all the extra time in the 34 overtime games.
The Hawks' core of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Hjalmarsson has been through all of that.
All of them were a part of Stanley Cup championship teams in 2010 and 2013.
How many additional miles have each of those guys skated, how many more checks into the boards have they experienced, how many more bumps and bruises have they endured?
Most of the rest of the current roster - including players such as Marcus Kruger, Johnny Oduya, Andrew Shaw - has been around a few years.
Yet not much is said about what this long run of sustained success means to their endurance level.
Maybe that's because it's hockey. Players in this sport don't make excuses of factors like wear and tear. They just continue to play and then continue to play some more.
Other NHL teams make the playoffs and then miss the playoffs. Like, the Kings won the Stanley Cup a year ago but failed to qualify for the postseason this season.
The Hawks, though, not only make the playoffs every year but go deep in them just about every year.
Yet here they still are, adrenaline flowing, with a chance on Monday night to win their third Stanley Cup in six years, and this one at home.
"I'm sure it'll be crazy (in Chicago) the next two days," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "The buzz will be off the charts."
The Blackhawks are poised to make history if they don't fall over from exhaustion beforehand.
mimrem@dailyherald.com