Rozner: Chicago Blackhawks have history on their side

The question is as old as the sport itself.

Do you have to win first so that you can understand what it takes to win, or do you have to understand what it takes to win before you can win?

The St. Louis Blues continue to search for the answer, knowing the three-time champion Chicago Blackhawks already possess it.

“The Hawks are a really, really competitive team that challenges you, and if you don't answer the bell, they'll push you out,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said last week. “They have knowledge nobody else has. That's like gold.

“We have to draw on what we've gotten the last three or four games.”

That was not enough for the Blues in Game 5, when they were far the superior team and came back from down 3-1 in the third to tie the game, only to lose in double-overtime because of a brilliant performance by Corey Crawford.

In Game 6, it was the Blues again coming from behind to take a 3-1 lead into the second period, only to see the defending champs storm back with 5 straight goals to force a Game 7.

They have not been able to put away a tired Hawks team.

So now what?

“There's a reason they've won a lot of hockey games and championships,” Hitchcock said late Saturday night after the Hawks won Game 6. “They raised their level a little bit in the second period. They were desperate. We didn't match it.

“They got that advantage and they were able to keep us pretty much on the outside in the third period. That's what you've got to fight through if you're going to win. You've got to fight through that stuff.

“It'll be a really interesting matchup in Game 7, but it's been great hockey and it's going to be a great game again.”

This is the 15th elimination game for the Hawks in the last seven years. So far they're 11-3 when facing the end of their season, including two in the conference finals against Anaheim last year and two already in this series with St. Louis.

“I think that when we were down 3-1, we had nothing to lose and the pressure was on them, and now it's even more so,” said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville. “It's one game. I know we've got momentum. That's what we're looking at. Let's go in there and have some fun.”

Hitchcock is the fourth-winningest coach in NHL history and he has won a Stanley Cup, but the Blues have gone out in the first round the last two years under Hitchcock and all that's riding on this one game is Hitchcock's future in St. Louis and a potential roster shake-up.

“We win as a team and lose as a team,” Hitchcock said. “We've got Game 7 at home. It's the best-case scenario we could have hoped for.

“That's what we've earned and we're going to keep it. I'm not blaming people right now. Some other people could do that.

“I think a lot of times we've had the lead and they've had to respond, or we've had control of the hockey game and they've had a response that we haven't answered probably as good as we should.

“It's unbelievably desperate hockey out there. They are a desperate team. They don't want their season to end, either. It's what's going to make for great drama.”

It's not as if the Hawks won't be nervous Monday night. They will be plenty nervous. But the Hawks know how to deal with it and channel that energy into something positive, avoiding negative thoughts and drawing on their experience as winners.

The Blues only know that they don't know how to win and that they weren't able to slay the giant when they had the chance.

Their nerves will be of no benefit in Game 7, and their history is also not in their favor.

Still, it's a guarantee of nothing.

The Blues will come out flying and it will be the Hawks' turn to hold on and survive the first 10 minutes in a loud and hostile environment.

But as for the question of which locker room you'd rather be in before Game 7 begins, that answer is as simple as it gets.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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