Needs More Ditka

The Stanley Cup and NBA Playoffs will collapse on the west side of Chicago, cuing a floor changing dance that will likely move the stagehand union to the brink of exhaustion. Let’s look at how far both teams can take this trip, and how much joy they can bring to the fans of the black and red, no matter what sport is being played.

Black Ice

The Hawks took game one in Chicago versus the Flames (for more analysis see herecomethehawks.net) and look to be in the driver’s seat after showing a considerable amount of jitters for the first two periods. They’re dominance of the Flames in the regular season, and tearing their heart out in game one can bode nothing but good things for the young Hawks. If they can take care of business in game two, putting together a dominating 60 minutes, the second round will be halfway achieved.

With the Ducks and Sharks poised to go the distance, those two rivals will decide who the Blackhawks play in the second round. If the Sharks can recover from a game one loss and win the series, The Blackhawks will likely be heading to San Jose, though the NHL playoff seeing system leaves everything up in the air. Come the conference semifinals and finals, everything is up in the air, though the Blackhawks will need some help to defeat the top two seeds in the conference, San Jose and Detroit. Alas, the Hawks are only one game in, and need 15 more victories to reach the promised land. Even after an amazing win, such as Thursday’s, the Hawks cannot get too ahead of themselves.

Seeing Red

The Bulls chances of winning in round one of the NBA playoffs went up exponentially before even playing a game. Kevin Garnett, Chicagoan, will be out for the entire season, and possibly the entire NBA playoffs. The Bulls are hoping to make the end of the playoffs come early for the Celtics. They aren’t one for having teams wonder. Rondo and Rose should be a hell of a matchup, but Rose has shown the propensity for being a big game player, if college is any sort of indicator. But new kid on the block Johnny Salmons will need to match Pierce or Allen’s points with Gordon showing up every night as well. If the inconsitent can stay level, the Bulls will have a chance. If Tyrus Thomas can have a big series on both sides of the court, the Bulls will have a great chance to win. Can the deep, but highly overrated Celtics bench make the Bulls youth negatable? Can Ty Thomas be a gamechanging player? Can Joakim Noah be any uglier, or rebound effecively? All these questions will be answered in this series, and if they can be answered in the Bulls’ favor, the stagehands will be cursing their names for a long time.