D must dominate for Hawks to move on

Whether this was the matchup the Blackhawks really and truly wanted, we'll never know.

But their date with the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference finals is one many of them expected.

"Sooner or later we knew we would have to go through these guys," Dustin Byfuglien said Friday. "They're that team nobody really wants to play, but you know what? I think our team is good and we're going to have fun. It's a challenge for us and we'll see what we've got."

The Hawks know what the Red Wings have - the most dangerous offense in the NHL and a power play coach Joel Quenneville calls "lethal."

This will be a different challenge for the Hawks than either Calgary or Vancouver presented in the first two rounds because of Detroit's offensive depth.

Whereas with the Flames it was containing Jarome Iginla, and with the Canucks the Sedin twins, Quenneville can't play Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, his shut-down defensemen, for 40 minutes.

A key to the series figures to be how well the Hawks' other four defensemen - Brian Campbell, Cam Barker, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Matt Walker - can limit Detroit's chances when they're on the ice.

"Our defensive game has to be in order," Quenneville said. "I just don't think we want to sit there thinking on the receiving end. We want to make sure that we give them a chance to play defense as well.

"Part of us being effective is we have to make sure when we have the puck, we want to manage it as best we can. We're going to need everybody to share in the responsibility of playing in our own zone and playing strong defensively."

While the Hawks are confident in their chances against Detroit, they understand this is not Calgary or Vancouver they're playing.

"They know what it takes to win and are a gifted team, so we definitely have our work cut out for us," Byfuglien said.

"They're the defending champs and it won't be an easy thing to dethrone them, but we believe in here," Keith said. "Anything can happen. It's playoffs and we're playing our best game.

"They obviously have a team with a lot of depth and a lot of great players. For us to keep going here we have to play the same way we have been. This is a great opportunity for us."

The Red Wings are considered by many in the game to be the NHL's model franchise. Detroit drafts well, develops its own players, finds a way to keep its stars and wins Stanley Cups.

But when the Red Wings look over their shoulder they can see a Hawks franchise getting bigger and bigger in the rearview mirror for a lot of those same reasons.

"You look at the Red Wings and all their established stars, guys like (Nicklas) Lidstrom, (Pavel) Datsyuk, (Henrik) Zetterberg and (Marian) Hossa, you can go down the list," Patrick Kane said. "Obviously we have some young guys that are fighting to be at that level. I guess you can say it's experience vs. youth in this one."

The Red Wings know the Hawks are a young and talented team capable of doing some damage to their hopes of repeating.

"Their young players have been unbelievable and they've got a championship goalie," Red Wings forward Dan Cleary said. "Keith and Seabrook - they're right up there among the top four or five pairs in the league.

"It's going to be a good test for us. They've got more depth. Chicago is a different club. They're a highly skilled club throughout the lineup. We've got to stay the course like we did against Anaheim."

The Red Wings have watched the Hawks in the first two rounds and are impressed.

"They're young, but they're not letting the Stanley Cup playoffs affect how they play," Cleary said. "They don't have a lot of experience, but they're playing loose and confident and sometimes that's pretty dangerous."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id==294091">Somewhat surprisingly, Lidstrom praises Hawks<span class="date"> [5/16/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=294093">Red Wings seeing a familiar foe in Quenneville<span class="date"> [5/16/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=294084">Hawk games snarled in corporate TV gamesmanship<span class="date"> [5/16/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>