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The bad news started for the Chicago Blackhawks even before the first puck was dropped
Marian Hossa was not able to play as a result of an upper-body injury. It was first reported that Hossa was injured in the pregame warm-up, but that was refuted by Jonathan Toews and head coach Joel Quenneville.
No matter when the injury occurred, it seemed as if the entire team slumped with the news that the dangerous Hossa couldn't play. The result was a much-too-easy 2-0 victory for Boston and a 2-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final for the Blackhawks.
Once the puck dropped, the Boston Bruins set the pace, and the Blackhawks were forced to counterpunch. They were not very effective in that area. When the Blackhawks had control of the puck in the offensive zone, they rarely tested Tuukka Rask. Most of their best chances were shots that went wide or were blocked by the Boston defense.
#Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on #Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask: "Tonight I thought we made it rather easy on him."
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) June 18, 2013
After the first period, it seemed that it was just a matter of time before the Bruins seized control of the game. Daniel Paille, the hero of Game 2 for the Bruins with a game-winning goal in overtime, put the Bruins on the board again early in the second period.
Corey Crawford had made a brilliant glove save on a wrister from Tyler Seguin, and Chris Kelly got his stick on the rebound. While he could not control the puck, he kept the Blackhawks from getting possession. The speedy Paille wheeled around from behind the net, took possession of the puck and he fired it past Crawford's glove.
That goal meant that the Blackhawks would need one of their stars to step forward.
Patrick Sharp, the only Blackhawk to score a goal in the past two games, was buzzing around the TD Garden ice and was looking for shooting opportunities and open teammates. He found little of either. Sharp had two shots on Rask, but he rarely found open teammates.
Toews, the captain who has scored just one goal in the postseason, fired five shots, but most of them were from a distance and none of them caused much difficulty for Rask. Patrick Kane put his speed on display—primarily in the third period—and he ended up with four shots.
Quenneville knows his team can play better, but he credited the Bruins for making it tough on the Blackhawks.
"They box you out," Quenneville said in the postgame press conference, via Corey Masisak of NHL.com. "They've got big bodies. They blocked shots. I think we had some chances to get some pucks through the net, we didn't. Our entries weren't great. That's something you want to look at. "
The Blackhawks simply made the game far too easy for the hosts. They were beaten soundly in nearly all the key statistical aspects of the game.
The most obvious area that the Bruins dominated was in the faceoff circle. It was a horrific beating for the Blackhawks as they lost 40 of 56 faceoffs. It seemed that nobody could contain Patrice Bergeron, who won a remarkable 86 percent of his draws.
That allowed the Bruins to hold on to the puck throughout the game, a factor that goes counter to the Chicago game plan. The Blackhawks rely on puck possession, but the Bruins' success in the faceoff circle made it nearly impossible to succeed in that part of the game.
In addition to the faceoff edge, the Bruins blocked 17 shots to the Blackhawks' seven. Boston also outhit Chicago 31-25, and the Bruins once again had the special teams edge.
The Blackhawks were 0-of-5 on the power play and they gave up several short-handed chances to Rich Peverley, Chris Kelly and Brad Marchand.
The Bruins, who were struggling as much on the power play before the start of the series, scored once on the power play when Bergeron converted a Jaromir Jagr goalmouth pass in the second period. The Bruins also moved the puck well on their other power-play opportunities.
The Bruins did a good job of anticipating where the Blackhawks were going with the puck and took the puck away six times, while the Blackhawks took the puck away from the Bruins twice.
The Blackhawks put some pressure on Rask in the late stages of the game when they were desperate to mount a comeback. Their best chance came on a Bryan Bickell wrister that hit the inside of the post in the final minute, but the rebound skittered harmlessly away.
The Blackhawks struggled on the chippy TD Garden ice, but that can't be an excuse since the Bruins were at a similar disadvantage.
The Blackhawks could not match the Bruins' energy, hustle or skill. They have an opportunity to rebound in Game 4, but it won't happen unless their stars bring their A-game.
There was no sign of that in Game 3, and the loss of Hossa hurt badly. But regardless of whether Hossa can play Wednesday night, the Blackhawks will have to take the play to the Bruins and not let the hosts dictate once again, or they will find themselves in a much deeper hole at the end of Game 4.
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