Suddenly, it's all going Hawks' way

Call it destiny, call it a conspiracy, call it a trip to Cartagena for all it matters, but one gets the feeling that the NHL wants the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals this year.

The hockey gods, if the not the league itself, are colluding to make certain it happens.

The last few days are proof enough of that.

First in Game 5, and just seconds from trailing the Preds 3-2 in the series, Martin Erat commits the cardinal sin of a blind, backhand pass in front of the opposing net that sends the Hawks back the other way.

This unforgivable act by a player on a team that lives and dies by puck possession and smart play, gave the Hawks life and handed them an improbable tie in a decisive Game 5 that forever buried Nashville.

Then, the refs fail to eject Marian Hossa, who gets the 2-foot putt in OT, and the Mickey Mouse Club neglects to suspend him.

It's something that anyone who isn't waving pom-poms knows is just the kind of perverse NHL justice (see Matt Cooke v. Marc Savard) that makes people think the game is still run by John Ziegler and Alan Eagleson.

And the hat trick is they now get Roberto Luongo, who couldn't stop a beach ball against the Hawks last spring with Dustin Byfuglien parked in his kitchen, something we'd expect to see from Joel Quenneville and Byfuglien in the next series after the Hawks eliminated Nashville with a 5-3 victory Monday night.

Watching Luongo give up rebounds and box pucks in the Olympics, and then again for the first few games vs. Los Angeles, you have to believe a series with the Canucks plays right into the Hawks' style.

The Hawks can go up and down the ice with anyone, but they can also play great defense when so inclined.

So look for some high-scoring games and for the Hawks to have a much easier time of it than they did against the Preds, who used the Hawks' impatience and irresponsibility against them.

If it felt like being in jail against the tight-checking style of Nashville, the Hawks will now have lots of freedom and plenty of open ice against Vancouver.

And if you consider it lucky that they got by the Preds, nearly a victim of the Hawks' own youth and arrogance, consider it fate that the Hawks got Vancouver in the next series.

Nashville was the worst possible matchup for the Hawks in the first round, and Vancouver is the best possible option of the remaining Western Conference foes.

Trailing the Kings 2-1, the Canucks figured out that they needed to be more physical, and when they did they overcame a 2-1 deficit to win the final three games, just as did the Hawks against Nashville.

That also was the result a year ago, when the Hawks took the final three games of a wild and highly entertaining six-game series that started in Vancouver.

This one starts in Chicago and should end in Chicago, where thoughts of the Stanley Cup Finals are hard to avoid when you take a gander around the very strange Western Conference postseason.

Meanwhile, what might have been will never be for a proud and gritty Nashville club, coached by the most underrated bench boss in the league, Barry Trotz, but the Preds have nothing for which to be ashamed.

From a talent standpoint, they no more belonged on the ice with the Hawks than did a beer-league team, but the Preds played their guts out and pushed the overconfident Hawks nearly to the limit, and if not for a horrible mistake by Erat, the ending might have been different.

The Hawks will take that gift, as well several given them by the Preds on Monday, the biggest being the ridiculous goal off Patrick Kane's skate from outside the blue line.

So thank you, Nashville, thank you, Los Angeles, and thank you, Colin Campbell and Gary Bettman.

Hawks fans appreciate your generosity - and the feeling that a Finals appearance is in the offing.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.