Chippy battles in front of the net can make or break the series

It's that time of year again: traffic tie-ups, tempers flaring, an overall surly mood out there.

And the conditions on the area roads aren't much better.

No, what we're talking about is that sacred spot on a hockey rink: in front of the net, the most valuable piece of real estate on the ice, the spot from which games are won or lost, especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It's where rebounds are stuffed home, where screens are set and where deflections are made. And it isn't for the feint of heart.

"It's a lot of punishment, but a lot of risk-reward too," said Blackhawks forward Troy Brouwer. "You deal with pucks coming at you and players trying to clear you out with sticks or punches or whatever they can.

"There are always battles, there's always contact. That's where the grudges get made."

"You're going to take the odd shot from the goalie or the D-man," Hawks forward Bryan Bickell said. "But that's what we have equipment for. I can live with that."

It can be chaotic.

"Sometimes the goalie is yelling at the D-men to try to clear me out in front of the net," Brouwer said. "There is a little bit of talking, yeah. When the whistle blows, sometimes you'll have some words for the D-men, whether they're friendly words or not.

"And the refs are very vocal. They'll let you know when you're getting close to the crease or too close to the goalie or if the D-man or the forward is using too much stick."

And sometimes the goalie will have words for you as well, especially a goalie like Vancouver's Roberto Luongo.

"He likes to yap, but that's alright, that's part of his game," Brouwer said.

And getting to Luongo, as the Hawks seemed to do successfully in last year's Western Conference semifinals series win, is again the plan this time around. It's one of the reasons Hawks coach Joel Quenneville decided to move big Dustin Byfuglien from defense to forward for the Western Conference semifinal series that begins Saturday.

"Definitely could have been," Byfuglien said of the Hawks ability to mess with Luongo last year. "We ended up winning the series, so that's just the way it went."

Luongo sounds ready for a rematch in Round 2 with Big Buff.

"If he's in front, that's totally fine," Luongo said. "I had two guys in front of me the whole series against L.A., so he does his job and I'll do mine to find the puck and make the saves.

"It's part of every series. That's what they try to do, get traffic in front of the net and try to get the goalie off his game. I've had a lot of it in the first series and I was able to deal with it, so I'm sure it will be the same."

Whichever team deals with it best will most likely be the one that advances to the Western Conference finals.

"I think the series is going to be won along the walls and in front of the nets," Brouwer said. "Whoever wants those loose pucks more, whoever wants to battle, will be the ones who are going to be on top at the end of the series."