Given the score and the flow of the play, the results could easily be different.

Former Blackhawks great and current WGN Radio analyst Troy Murray has underlined this viewpoint many times throughout the series.

Both Todd McLellan and Joel Quenneville–as do most of the players quoted–acknowledge the same.

If any differences can be highlighted, one might examine the relative performance of the ‘bottom 6′ rather than ‘top six’ forwards.

How have Nichol, Malhotra, Mitchell, Couture, Helminen, McGinn, fared in comparison to Bolland, Versteeg, Madden, Eager, Burish, and Ladd?

It has been said that in the playoffs, the stars tend to cancel each other out, so the “supporting cast” has to be the factor that tips the scales.

So far, the Hawks’ bottom 6 have outplayed the Sharks’ bottom 6.

Another factor has been the gaps in Nabokov’s game. They may have been infrequent, but the ones he has been guilty of, such as his apparent failure to set himself on the Bolland-to-Byfuglien OT goal, have been fatal.

When two clubs are so closely matched, even a momentary lapse can compromise a team’s chances.

There are, of course, no guarantees this is the last game the Sharks will play this year.

They will most probably give the Hawks all they can handle, and who knows, perhaps force a 5th game. The law of averages tends to favor the Sharks taking at least one.

The Blackhawks, on the other hand, must know that they can’t afford to give their enemy any hope.

Today’s contest, whatever the result, should be a thriller.