In one of those delightfully random hockey moments in the first period of Thursday's Game 1, Blackhawks forwards Richard Panik and Nick Schmaltz collided while converging on Predators center Ryan Johansen, who squirted a pass to teammate Filip Forsberg.
Forsberg ripped a shot from above the left circle, and Viktor Arvidsson redirected the puck past helpless Hawks goalie Corey Crawford for one of those pretty highlights that announced the playoffs had arrived.
Just 7 minutes, 52 seconds into the postseason, Chicago faced its first crisis. Mouths dropped around the United Center as hearts sank.
What. Just. Happened.
Immediately, it was like a pin pricked a balloon and the enthusiasm of 22,075 fans seeped out of the building. The feeling never really returned in a 1-0 loss that stunned this hockey city.
The Predators dominated the first period and protected the lead for the final 40 minutes, possessing the puck and dictating the tempo against the Western Conference favorites. They skated faster and harder. They wanted it more. Nobody told Nashville the Hawks were supposed to win in six. Or perhaps everybody told them, and the Preds simply got sick of hearing it.
The trendy preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup looked like a legitimate postseason threat on the road against the Hawks, regardless of what the seeding says. History says it's premature for the Hawks to panic, but Predators goalie Pekka Rinne played well enough for everyone in a red sweater to sleep restlessly.
Rinne, who held himself responsible for Preds playoff losses to the Hawks in 2010 and 2015, rose to the occasion like a guy determined not to let teammates down again. He didn't in Game 1, making 29 saves to shut out the Hawks at home in the playoffs for the first time in five years.
The Hawks never responded to the early deficit in a way that regained momentum enough to matter. Ryan Hartman took a dumb penalty two minutes after Arvidsson's goal _ in case anybody was missing Andrew Shaw _ and gave the impression the Hawks were rattled. And perhaps they were for a while; they managed just one shot on goal over the final 13 minutes of the first period and looked out of sync offensively.
The second period revealed a more familiar Hawks team with improved intensity and execution that eased some of the mounting tension, but Rinne made it all for naught. The most impressive sequence came when Rinne used his right pad to deny a shot by Marian Hossa, who had freed himself after Hartman blocked a shot and hit him with a nice pass.
Preds forward James Neal walked a fine line between dirty and aggressive play with three big hits on the Hawks, including one on Patrick Kane. But while acknowledging Neal should have spent some time in the box, his approach summed up the mentality the underdog Predators brought to town. Needing to kill a penalty with 8:08 left after Arvidsson went to the box for tripping, the Preds gutted their way through it as the Hawks blew their last big chance.
This was no way for the Hawks to show how motivated they were from their first-round exit last year against the Blues, supposedly the memory fueling this playoff run. This was no way to show off the rookie class or set the tone for April. The Hawks won 50 games for only the second time in team history and their 109 points fell three shy of the franchise record, but none of that matters now. The veteran core of this group understands that. The players in their first postseason will learn quickly.
Joel Quenneville's ninth season with the Hawks might have produced his best coaching job as he infused the youth with experience, relying on as many as eight rookies at various times. Four were in the lineup for Game 1: Hartman, Schmaltz and fourth-liners Tanner Kero and John Hayden, who was playing for Yale a little more than a month ago.
After an ordinary first period, Quenneville dropped Schmaltz to the fourth line in favor of Kero because Coach Q tinkers in the playoffs even more than he does in the regular season. Hayden's third-period turnover in the Hawks' zone surely drew Quenneville's wrath.
How Quenneville's juggling affects the rookies' confidence will be worth monitoring this series. Benching Schmaltz one period into his first NHL playoff game puts the onus on him to respond, not Quenneville. The Hawks need the Schmaltz who played in the final month, not Thursday's first period. They need their stars to respond like stars and their rookies to play like veterans.
"When you have younger players, there's a little bit more of a bounce and a little bit more of an excitement because they haven't experienced this," general manager Stan Bowman said before the game. "I like that element of having the young players here that haven't won before. They bring some energy and excitement, and they bring a passion and a hunger to do something they've never done before."
Like recover from a 1-0 series deficit nobody expected.
