Killahbyte

Why is tonight's Game 5 the biggest game of the Chicago Blackhawks' season? Easy. The Philadelphia Flyers have taken the advice of Alec Baldwin's character Blake from "Glengarry Glen Ross": Always Be Closing. When they've had the opportunity to end a series, they've shut the door.

The Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out this morning that in all four series in these playoffs, the Flyers are 9-0 in Game 4's and beyond. Hitting that 11-win mark in that record would be cause for celebration down Broad Street and earn plenty of off-season questions about what went wrong after Game 2 for the Blackhawks.

There's also the challenge of the road team getting a victory in this series. Like we saw in last year's Stanley Cup between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins, the home teams have won the first four games of the series (or first six in 2009). The momentum is clearly in the corner of the Flyers at the moment, but can a trip back home be the tonic that right's the ship for Chicago? They'll need the help of leaders Jonathan Toews(notes), Patrick Kane(notes) and Dustin Byfuglien(notes) who have a combined one goal and four assists in the Final and are also a minus-12. Toews, who laid out what the Blackhawks need to do after the skate this morning, has dominated in the faceoff dot, but offensively Chicago's key components have been non-factors. Chris Pronger(notes) and his 29 minutes of ice time can take some credit for that and Joel Quenneville's move to break up his top line in the third period on Friday night may carry over into tonight's Game 5.

Spreading Kane, Toews and Byfuglien among the top three lines sparked Chicago's offense late in Game 4, but at today's morning skate, that line remained intact according to ESPN's Pierre LeBrun. That could also be a bluff from Coach Q.

At his morning press conference, Quenneville wasn't tipping his hand about any changes for tonight:

"Well, we changed the lines last game going into the game. Everybody had a little bit of a different look than in Game 3. Coming out of the game, we kind of changed them again. So we'll look at going into the game, maybe tweaking them a little bit.

But certainly we went along, we didn't change the lineup or the lines based on winning and how we're playing. I think the last couple of games we've always gone along here maybe making some adjustments based on how we're playing or what we like and what we don't like.

But I think we have a lot of options as far as moving guys in and out and around in our lineup. I think tonight we'll look at doing what we think is best."

Doing what's best would likely have us see new lines for at least the start of the game tonight for the Blackhawks. The well has dried up and losing a commanding 2-0 series lead is cause for concern, even if Chicago's two losses have been in close games. It's a best of three for the Stanley Cup and the margin for errors are getting smaller and smaller. Quenneville's decisions will either ignite his top scorers or allow Philadelphia to seize the opportunity to put themselves in a prime chance to win another Cup when the series shifts back to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Wednesday.