Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews says the Hawks are determined to reach Game 7.  (Harry How/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Did Chicago’s Game 5 win shift all the pressure onto Los Angeles? That’s the approach the Hawks are taking as they get set to face the Kings tonight in Game 6 (9 p.m. ET; NBCSN,CBC,RDS).

• The Man-Child became The Man in Chicago’s season-saving Game 5 win. The Hawks will need another effort like that from Brandon Saad to get the WCF to a decisive Game 7 at the United Center.

• This is why I love Drew Doughty. Asked about his 39-minute effort in Game 5, he replied, “Your heart doesn’t get tired.” What a beauty.

• Is New York-Los Angeles really the NHL’s dream matchup for television? Chicago promises better numbers argues one TV critic.

• Dominic Moore’s game-winner was the latest inspirational moment for a Rangers team that seems to be pulling them out of a hat this postseason.

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By Sarah Kwak

NEW YORK — For this Rangers team, it’s been all about the bounce-back, about the response rather than the action. It wasn’t so much about the horrible start to their season (2-6-0) as it was about responding to it, eventually coming out of it and reaching the playoffs. And in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final, their ability to bounce back turned out to be their biggest step forward.

The Rangers left the sloppiness of their Game 5 loss in Montreal behind them and put together their best game of the postseason on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, a dominant 1-0 win over Montreal. Twenty years after they marched the Stanley Cup through the Canyon of Heroes on that sunny day in 1994, New York punched its ticket to once again play for the ultimate prize.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “But what took us there is the entire team really stepped up in key moments throughout the year, especially the playoffs. It makes it even more special when you have four lines stepping up in different times and just doing it together.”

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By Allan Muir

Thinking out loud ahead of Thursday night’s Game 6 between the Canadiens and the Rangers (8 p.m. ET: (NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

• For Montreal, the chances of success begin, and end, with its blue line. In Game 5, the Habs finally looked like the team that steamrolled the Lightning and knocked off the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins. Their defense was aggressive-verging-on-risky with the puck, but it wasn’t just that P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov were leading the rush or making things happen in transition. It was the decision-making in the attack zone of all the club’s defensemen, which led to effective pinches that kept offensive chances alive, created turnovers or simply disrupted New York’s breakouts.

To get this series back to Montreal, the Canadiens will have to live on that razor’s edge again. They need to trust their D to take chances with the puck and positioning, and to provide the necessary support to back up their risks when they fail. That’s what got them here, and that’s their best chance to stay alive.

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Henrik Lundqvist (30)and the Rangers must beat the Canadiens without blueliner John Moore (17). (Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Fear of a Game 7 in Montreal has the Rangers focused on doing whatever it takes to win Game 6 at home on Thursday night.

• Canadiens coach Michel Therrien says that there are players who get you there and “players who get you through.” He’s had a few step up and prove themselves to be the latter during these playoffs.

• After Tuesday’s 11-goal pond hockey exhibition, Montreal is ready for anything as it again faces elimination in Game 6.

• Dustin Tokarski was given the nod to replace Carey Price because of his reputation for coming up big in the clutch. Everything he’s done so far for the Canadiens has proved that he is a winner.

• New York will have to knock off the Habs without the help of John Moore. The defenseman was handed a two-game suspension for his head shot on Montreal’s Dale Weise in Game 5. Pretty easy call for the league, but a tough loss for the Blueshirts.

• Moore’s head shot on Weise reminds us that the NHL’s concussion problem remains shrouded in a cloak of secrecy. Not so surprising from the perspective of a league facing multiple lawsuits, but how to explain the silence of the NHLPA?

• Is the violence we’ve seen in these playoffs really so surprising? Not so much according to Cathal Kelly, who writes that in the postseason players are allowed to give free rein to their darker selves.

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By Brian Hamilton

CHICAGO — The day started with a story about their goalie spraying a fan in the face with a water bottle, and it ended long after with a trickle of hope for the Chicago Blackhawks. An exasperating 5-4 double-overtime win in Game 5 against the Los Angeles Kings, and finally, the defending Stanley Cup champions had outwilled the team that for three games had refused to be conquered. The Blackhawks found one more answer than the team with a seemingly bottomless trove of them. They survived 80-plus minutes of all-out, two-way assault, including a breathless first overtime that their coach called the best he’s ever seen. The Blackhawks, faced with another elimination tilt in Los Angeles on Friday, may yet make it out of the Western Conference Finals, but they made it out of the United Center alive, down three games to two and cautiously optimistic that they’ve discovered a way back into the series.

“It’s a special group,” Chicago winger Patrick Kane said, after his offensive wizardry returned just in time to prolong Chicago’s season and defense of the Stanley Cup. “I think we know that in the locker room. Seems like in a lot of these games, we find ways to win, whether we should or not.”

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By Allan Muir

Start clearing your calendar. The NHL has released its Stanley Cup Final schedule.

The start times are still up in the air, as are the teams that will be battling it out for the old mug, but it’s a start.

Game 1: Wednesday, June 4 (in Western champion’s city)
Game 2: Saturday, June 7 (in West)
Game 3: Monday, June 9 (in East)
Game 4: Wednesday, June 11 (in East)
*Game 5: Friday, June 13 (in West)
*Game 6: Monday, June 16 (in East)
*Game 7: Wednesday, June 18 (in East)
* if necessary

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Corey Crawford will likely get a warmer reception in Chicago for Game 5. (Bill Smith/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

You can’t make this stuff up.

According to an online report, Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford is the focus of an investigation by the Los Angeles police after he allegedly sprayed a heckler with his water bottle.

However, an LAPD spokesman told CBSChicago.com that it is not pursuing the matter.

The incident reportedly occurred near the end of the Kings’ 5-2 Game 4 win in Los Angeles after fan Clark Wong began chirping Crawford, who’d been pulled for an extra attacker. Wong, who was later escorted from the arena for taunting players, claimed that his eyes burned after the “assault” and said that the bottle he was squirted with contained “backwash” along with water.

Wong, who clearly doesn’t understand how squirt bottles work, is clearly a sorry soul…but at the same time, he has a right to be ticked if things happened the way he claims. Whether he had it coming or not, his actions didn’t free Crawford to do anything more than chirp back. It wouldn’t be surprising if the goalie is fined by the NHL for his actions.

When fans cross the line verbally, athletes need to leave it up to arena security to defuse the situation. Security personnel may have been too slow to act for Crawford’s liking, but it sounds like they did their job.

Now if they could just handle up on the glass bangers…

A flop in Game 4, Blackhawks blueliner Brent Seabrook has lots of room for improvement. (Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

The Chicago Blackhawks might be tempted to look back to last spring for inspiration before tonight’s must-win game against the Los Angeles Kings (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, RDS).

They really only need to go back two days.

That’s not to say there’s nothing to be gained from a refresher course on last year’s second-round comeback against the Detroit Red Wings. The Hawks learned to bury their seething frustration and focus on what they were doing right as they fought back from a 3-1 series deficit and finally reeled in the Wings in a Game 7 thriller. But a sense of accomplishment will go only so far against a tougher, deeper and more dangerous Kings squad.

That’s why focusing on Monday night’s 5-2 loss will be much more instructive. The secret to regaining their footing in this series can be found over and over again in the tape from Game 4, where blown assignments, bad decisions and sloppy play with the puck by their normally steady defensive corps were the norm.

Blackhawks-Kings Game 4 recap | Box score | Highlights | Observations

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The Blackhawks’ meltdown vs. the Kings has been a stunning development. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

• Rick Morrissey wonders how the 2013-14 Blackhawks want to be remembered. As the proud defending champions who roared back to make this a series? Or as the group that went away meekly? We’ll find out tonight in Game 5.An annotated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Lance Pugmire says this is the key to the 3-1 series lead the Los Angeles Kings have built over Chicago. And it will be the key to finishing off the defending champs.

• Jake Muzzin’s excellent postseason suggests he’s more than Robin to Drew Doughty’s Batman.

• So much for white knuckle, edge-of-your-seat playoff hockey. The Canadiens and Rangers engaged in a sloppy, preseason-style exhibition last night, filled with goals, gaffes and goonery, with the end result being a trip back to the Big Apple for Game 6.

• Here’s Chris Johnston on the eight minutes that saved Montreal’s season.

• So much for those vows to stay out of the box. For the second game in a row, the Rangers displayed a glaring lack of discipline. And this time, it cost them.

• At least one Ranger faces suspension as a result of some late-game thuggish behavior.

• Was that head shot just an unfortunate moment in time, or could it be the turning point that swings the series in Montreal’s favor?

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By Brian Cazeneuve

Desperation often creates frantic play in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but it can also lead to good results, the kind the Montreal Canadiens needed to stay alive in their Eastern Conference Final series against the New York Rangers. Remember all the stingy goaltending and the restraint that kept players out of the penalty boxes? Well, forget that, for this one night produced 11 goals, 20 penalties and a well-earned 7-4 Canadiens victory that assured a sixth game at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.

Rene Bourque became the first Hab to record a hat trick in an elimination game since Maurice “Rocket” Richard in 1945. The Rangers pulled star net minder Henrik Lundqvist after he allowed four goals in the highest scoring game of the 2014 postseason. New York’s Chris Kreider scored once and added three assists, and Derek Stepan returned from a broken jaw to score twice – the first multi-goal game of his playoff career — in a losing cause. The Rangers have needed seven games to win each of their first two series, and are now another bad game from going the distance again. Montreal goalie Dustin Tokarski played two questionable periods before coming up with a strong third to preserve the win.

Here are some notes from the game:

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