Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the defending champion Los Angeles Kings and the top-seeded Chicago Blackhawks gets underway tonight at 5:00 p.m. at the United Center in Chicago. The game will be televised on NBC Sports Network and can be live streamed free here. Blackhawks fans can check out the radio broadcast at WGN 720 and Kings fans can tune in to 1220 KHTS.
Jonathan Quick looked like one of the NHL's top goaltenders in Los Angeles' seven game victory over the San Jose Sharks; he will need to top himself if the Kings are to get back to the Stanley Cup finals. During the regular season, the Blackhawks were fifth in the league in shots on goal (31.1), and in the postseason they've upped that average to 33.92.
Quick must prepare to be peppered with shot after shot from the aggressive Blackhawks, who will hope to get the revived Jonathan Toews who finally scored against the Red Wings.
Kings general manager Dean Lombardi said, "I cited critical moments last year. There were several of them this year where they were severely tested. They keep finding a way to fight through, as they've done at times during the playoffs."
The Blackhawks went through adversity of their own, going down 3-1 to the Red Wings before emerging victorious. Toews, the symbol of that emergence said, "Looking back, I think it is a good thing for our team to have gone through what we just went through, to kind of be pushed to the end, for a moment (to) feel like that was it. You have certain negative thoughts that kind of creep in. You try not to think about them, that you're up against a tough team and the odds are against you. "But we stayed positive. We stuck with it. We just had that attitude that you take it one shift at the same time, you win one game at a time, anything can happen."
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