Rozner: Blackhawks won't get same respect in Game 2

Slowly but surely, the Tampa Bay Lightning are figuring out that they shouldn't be admiring the Blackhawks so much.

Respect is one thing. Awe is another.

Before Game 1, winger Ondrej Palat went so far as to say it was a thrill being on the ice with the Hawks, who he's watched win so often in the postseason over the years.

"They have so many great players," Palat said. "It's a very skilled team and great to watch. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are some of my favorite players to watch."

The other triplet winger, Nikita Kucherov, was equally wide-eyed.

"They have a really good team, and they have a skilled team," Kucherov said. "In all those years, they've done a good job. They won twice, and I know they can win the Stanley Cup. They know how to get it done."

But now that they've lost, look for less deference and more determination from Tampa in Game 2.

"Regardless of the outcome of the last game," said Hawks captain Jonathan Toews, "we know there's another level we have to find if we want to compete with this team in their own building."

The Hawks know Corey Crawford stole one, and even though they had a strong push in the final 20 minutes, they don't want to get caught napping like they did to start Game 1.

"We didn't play our best," Toews said. "We finally started to find our game late.

"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.

"When you manage to keep your game tight like that, especially if we feel we're outplaying a team, there's always a chance we can get a few bounces. We're definitely understanding of that and know we need to be much better in the next one."

The Bolts have taken a beating for trying to sit on a 1-0 lead, but they're not the first team to play it safe against the Hawks and get burned.

The Hawks have an intimidating group with a lot of weapons, and even though Tampa got the lead playing an aggressive five-man game, they got away from it late in the contest.

Going into a shell cost them and you probably won't see the Lightning make the same mistake again.

"This will be a different test," said Tampa captain Steven Stamkos. "We look at all the positives in that game. There was a lot. I know that was the first game for a lot of us in the Final, but I don't think that's an excuse for our group anymore. We got that out of the way.

"We played extremely well, especially the first two periods. If we're in that position again, we'll make the necessary adjustments.

"We'll learn from the mistake that we made, maybe sitting back a little too much, letting the game come to us."

Veteran Brian Boyle, who was in the Final with the Rangers a year ago, said his teammates are talking about not having the same remorse after Game 2.

"It's definitely disappointing. You wake up in the morning, you should be a little angry, a little (ticked) off that we had a chance to take Game 1," Boyle said. "It was a good opportunity for us to start the series the way we wanted to.

"You can't change it, but understanding we shouldn't have any regrets in the morning when you wake up. There are things we could have done a little bit better that were in our control that we didn't do."

The Hawks play their best hockey when they are in trouble, and Tampa has shown similar resolve this spring. The Lightning are 3-0 in Game 2s and have lost Game 1 twice before, but they can't lose Saturday and expect to have any chance to win the Stanley Cup, so they will come with all they have Saturday night.

If the Hawks can weather the storm early in this one, they'll have a strong chance to come home up 2-0 with plenty of talk about a sweep.

That makes the first period of Game 2 huge and it will be fascinating to see how the visitors handle another big push from the home team.

Tampa will come with five again and if they don't strike first, you might even see Stamkos back at center, making adjustments for both teams crucial as the feeling out period is over and the chess match well underway.

The swing game usually doesn't arrive in this series until Game 3 or 4, but for Tampa it's now or never.

For the Hawks, it's simply now.

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.