The Blackhawks Are The Favorites To Win The Stanley Cup. Here's Why

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Crawford will draw the start instead of capable backup Scott Darling, who replaced a shaky Crawford in 2015 and won three games as Chicago eliminated Nashville in six games to start its third Stanley Cup run. The first 15 minutes of this game they didn't even get a shot on goal.

After getting blanked 1-0 in opener on Thursday, Chicago laid a massive egg on Saturday night, getting blown out 5-0 by a Nashville team and the seemingly (and, literally) unbeatable Pekka Rinne.

Ryan Ellis, Harry Zolnierczyk, Colton Sissons and Kevin Fiala each scored their first career playoff goal.

Game 3 will be in Nashville.

But it can all go away quickly - and no team knows that better than these Predators.

Obviously, I am not Joel Quenneville and I have no say in what will happen, but this is what would make the most sense. "That wasn't fun to watch".

"I think we've got to do a better job as the series goes on", defenseman Roman Josi told The Tennessean.

So Game 3 is, in all but the most literal sense, a must-win game for the Blackhawks.

What's more, Chicago must now try and turn around an anemic offense, one that just became the seventh in National Hockey League history to be shut out at home in Games 1 and 2 of a playoff series. Despite a 4-1 record against the Predators during the regular season, the Blackhawks managed a Corsi for of 46.3 percent, shots for percentage of 44.2 percent, managed only 44.4 percent of the scoring chances and a mere 35.8 percent of the high-danger chances at 5-on-5. The game was out of reach with most of the third period to play. Both Brian Campbell, who is showing his age and has done little to help drive possession in the series, and Brent Seabrook, who has been slowing down for two years and has only been effective in limited spurts, have looked bad as well, and that has wreaked havoc on the Blackhawks' overall defensive scheme. We have to play our way, the way we've played all season.

Masters 2017: Justin Rose & Sergio Garcia share lead after day three
After a brutal double-bogey on the par-3 16th hole, Charley Hoffman settled for an even-par 72 Saturday to finish at 4 under. Adam Scott of Australia was seventh with a 69 that took his total to 213 after 54 holes at the Augusta National Golf Club.

The top-seeded Capitals came back from a two-goal deficit to take the early lead in the series.

The Nashville Predators are halfway to what would be the most surprising result of the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs: a four-game sweep of the Chicago Blackhawks.

One came when Richard Panik released a shot from the neutral zone, it deflected off a Predators' glove and dipped on Rinne in the first period. However, the Blackhawks haven't scored a goal in either game, and have barely shown any fight.

Two games isn't much. After all, the same experience and winning pedigree applies to Corey Crawford as it does the rest of the Chicago roster.

"It feels great to do it here in front of our fans, it's just incredible", Phaneuf said. "We should have a better start than we did tonight", Jonathan Toews said.

Central time is used for the above game times.

"We had some good shifts, had some good chances, didn't really materialize the Grade-A we really wanted".

Toronto 4, Washington 3 (2 OT): Kasperi Kapanen scored his second goal of the game 11:53 into the second overtime, Frederik Andersen made 47 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 Saturday night in Game 2 to even the first-round series.

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