The Chicago Blackhawks had just lost to the Boston Bruins 2-0 in Game 3 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final. The cameras panned to Chicago coach Joel Quenneville as the Blackhawks filed past him into the visitors locker room. He had a look of disbelief on his face with a decided hint of aggravation trained directly at the TD Garden’s ice surface.

Quenneville wasn’t frustrated at the ice, he almost looked as if he was waiting for the real Chicago Blackhawks to show up. The real Hawks had blistered through the Western Conference in the regular season in dominating fashion. The team with the best record in the league and the most electrifying offense had just finished off six and a half periods of hockey with only a single goal to show for it.

The 2013 Jack Adams finalist, Quenneville is a much smarter hockey man than the rest of us. It is not time to panic yet. Not even close. The Hawks have shown resilience in addition to dominance in the postseason so far. A conference semifinal test against fabled rival Detroit showed that Chicago has the fortitude to win the dirty battles in the corners and in front of the net.

Boston is an entirely different animal though. Literally. There is no other Zdeno Chara in the league, and there have been no head to head matchups between the two teams because of the lockout schedule. The Blackhawks have found as much trouble scoring on Bruins’ goalie Tuukka Rask as the high scoring Pittsburgh Penguins did. Though they eclipsed the Pens goal total for the series in Game 1, a 4-3 triple overtime victory, the goals have been scarce ever since.

I may not be Joel Quenneville, but I do have a strategy that just may work against the big, bad Bruins. Chicago looks like it has gotten away from the formula that won Game 1 and should have been good enough to win Game 2. With the marathon victory in their pocket from the series opener, Chicago swarmed the Bruins to start the second game.

After 20 minutes the Blackhawks had outshot the Bruins 19-4 and were leading 1-0. The Hawks would take only 15 more shots the rest of the game, surrendering 24 Boston shots and ultimately, the home ice advantage. Give credit to the Bruins for making adjustments on the fly and changing the direction of the series. Facing an 0-1 deficit in both the game and the series, Boston has looked like the hungrier team since the start of last Saturday’s second period.

I predicted a Bruins’ series victory in five games, and though I enjoy being right, I am certainly hoping for a longer series. Certainly NBC and Commissioner Bettman are counting on a better effort from Chicago stretch the Stanley Cup Final longer than the NBA version.

There is no magic elixir that will help Chicago, only a reminder that through the first seven periods of hockey, they were arguably the better team. They made a mortal out of Boston’s amazing goaltender and were controlling the play for large sections of the game. People can speculate that the absence of Marian Hossa tilted the ice in Boston’s favor, but Chicago doesn’t need the big winger to keep shooting on Rask.

The Blackhawks will obviously need to be better in Game 4 and that begins with their captain Jonathan Toews and his wingman Patrick Kane. The two stars are doing their best impression of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, though the combined one point through three games is one point more than the Penguin duo scored in four games. Shots, more shots, Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw in front of the net, then some more shots, and then some shots. Followed by more shots, then repeat. Simple, right?

If the Blackhawks get skunked in Boston, I don’t think that they can hold off the Bruins in Game 5 at the United Center. Here’s to being wrong and hoping that Chicago can rediscover their mojo and make a series out of it!