Boo-urns

Well, this most certainly is a feeling I'm not used to.

A devastating loss that makes you doubt everything? Just hasn't happened yet this year. Think about it - Game 1 against Nashville? A fluke. Game 3? Ugly, but you still had every faith in the Hawks being able to beat the feisty but out-talented Preds. Plus it was so early, the Cup still seemed distant and the possibility of missing out on a chance at it didn't quite register. You were more pissed than bummed.

Vancouver? Game 1 was a throwaway - the Hawks clearly didn't show up. Game 5 was a joke - not only didn't they show up, but they held a commanding 3-1 lead going into it. You knew the Hawks would put the Canucks away eventually.

Since then? Nothin but Ws. A loss at any time against the Sharks would have been tough to take. Even Game 4 - to have to go back to San Jose, fear would have started to creep in. But that's not what happened. We never were forced to deal with the post-game and day-after bummed out feeling. The doubt, the worry, the disappointment.

No different this series. A loss in either Game 1 or Game 2 against the Flyers would have been tough. So close to the Cup, so much confidence in these Hawks, it would have hurt to see Philly come out of the opening pair with the edge. But the Hawks dug deep and emerged the victors in two tense games.

But not last night. And it sucks. I wrote most of this post immediately after the game, but I don't feel any different today. The doubt, the worry, the disappointment. It's still all there.

Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is. And I do think the unfamiliarity of it is a big reason why. Most teams win a title by overcoming a few junctures where things really seem bleak. We just haven't had those yet.

As a Chicago fan, we don't have a lot of experience with titles. And those that we have, really haven't been in doubt. I mean you've got to go back to the first set of Bulls titles for any real doubt-inducing drama. That's almost 20 years ago. The second set? Come on - rooting for MJ II's Bulls was like rooting for Sly or Arnold - you knew they'd win in the end, the fun was watching how they'd do it.

The Sox in 05? They only lost one time, Game 1 of the ALCS. And at that point you hadn't really started to believe and didn't really take one opening loss as a big deal. After that point, when you finally had faith and things got tense, the Sox just kept on winning.

Just like the Hawks had this done year... until last night.

Losing last night has allowed doubt that this Cup will be ours to enter the equation for the first time since I started to be fully confident it could be - probably after we took both games in Vancouver. Sure, the Hawks always had a good shot, but when we went into the Canucks' house and took them apart in two games, I really became convinced that we were the team to beat.

And of course we still are. As I said yesterday, the Hawks only needed to take one of these games in Philly to be sitting pretty. And as I've continued to repeat and always will - you have to expect to lose a minimum of two games in every NHL playoffs series. So the Flyers won one of theirs. Big deal.

But man, I can't shake that it is a big deal. I can't help but look at how they outplayed us in the third period of Game 2 and then for long stretches in Game 3, including the final few minutes of OT, and be a bit scared. These Flyers are both talented and confident. That's a scary combo. Especially when they've been out-executing the Hawks. I don't know if I'd say out-working, because the Hawks are giving it their all.

But I definitely saw stretches where the Hawks looked slower to free pucks, where they couldn't create space with the puck, where they couldn't close space when the Flyers had the puck. Long stretches. I watched only brief parts of Game 1 (stupid wedding), but in Games 2 and 3 the Flyers looked like the better team. Maybe their goaltending wasn't as good, but they seemed to be better on both ends of the ice otherwise.

And yet, the Hawks were damn close to ending this whole series last night. And they did pull out Game 2. And Game 1. And Games 1-4 of the Sharks series. Remember, the Sharks outplayed the Hawks for long stretches in that series. San Jose out-shot us on a number of occasions, demanding a pair of 40+ save nights out of Niemi. Yet the Hawks still swept.

So that's what I'm hanging my hat on. The Flyers played a great game on their home ice in a do-or-die situation, while the Hawks looked slow for long stretches... and it still took OT for Philly to get the winner. They gave us their all and it barely was enough, despite our good, but definitely not great performance. Next game, I'm not sure Philly can play as well. Or that the Hawks will be lacking that extra gear as often. If either of those two things changes, the Hawks should win Game 4.

Because as good as Philly is, as much as they've given us everything we can handle, the simple fact is that the Hawks CAN handle them. We are better and more importantly, have shown a superior ability to win. Not just in this series, but against the Sharks too. San Jose was a damn fine hockey team playing damn good hockey. Couples with these games against the Flyers and we're talking seven straight against the best the NHL has, playing great hockey, including three on the road, and the Hawks have come out on top in six of them. And I see them taking number seven on Friday.

So yeah, I won't be as eager to read all the hockey blogs and whatnot from now until the puck drops Friday night. It's just not as much fun when you just lost. And I'm gonna be nervous as balls in Game 4, unless we get out to some huge lead. And I'm gonna think about how Philly came back from 3-0 against the Bruins and how the Penguins came back from 2-0 in the Finals last year. Because I'm out of practice and I can't help it. But gun to my head, I've got every faith in this Hawks team on Friday night. We've responded to every challenge thrown our way all post-season... one OT loss on the road when the other team was playing for their whole season shouldn't make me forget that.

I can't wait to shake this feeling, and there's only one thing that will do it - more cowbell. Or just seeing these Hawks take it to the Flyers in Game 4, start to finish. It's kinda always true, but now more than ever - Friday night can't come quick enough.