Getty ImagesBOSTON – Marian Hossa’s absence from the Chicago Blackhawks’ lineup for Game 3 wasn’t being used as a defense for their 2-0 loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday night.

“He’s a key player. But no excuses this time of year,” said captain Jonathan Toews.

But the fact is that Hossa is tied for the team lead in points, and the Chicago offense was punchless – especially on the power play, where Hossa ranks fourth in average ice time.

His loss was significant; the timing of that loss made things downright chaotic.

The Blackhawks were aware that Hossa may not play earlier on Monday, although the star winger participated in practice. He took warmups before Game 3, but was a late scratch.

But despite knowing Hossa was questionable for Game 3, it wasn’t Smith in warmups before the game. Jamal Mayers, a scratch in every playoff game for the Blackhawks, took the warmup.

Why? Speculation is that Quenneville might have been mulling another lineup change. But when Hossa went down, he called a huge audible and opted for Smith, a sparkplug player who can bring some offense.

Smith was told he’d be playing about 20 minutes before the puck dropped.

“I didn’t really know what was going on. I was ready to ride the bike and work out, as we do in the first,” he said.

“It was a scramble to get ready and get warm.”

Brian Bickell lives my nightmare.

No. 1 Star: Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins

Rask was nigh unbeatable in Game 2. He was just regular old unbeatable in Game 3, stopping 28 shots for the shutout as the Bruins took the first game at TD Garden by a score of 2-0. There are two ways of looking at his performance: on one hand, the Blackhawks didn't really seem to challenge him. But on the other hand, that might just be because he's in the zone right now and nothing challenges him. Rask has been the story of this series so far.

No. 2 Star: Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

Bergeron got the insurance marker midway through the second, and he had a game-high seven shots. The Bruins' centre also went 24-for-28 in the faceoff circle, winning 8 of 8 versus Michal Handzus and 8 of 10 versus Jonathan Toews.

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BOSTON -- Dave Bolland is still looking for the puck that got away.

Believing he was about to clear the puck out of the Chicago Blackhawks' zone, in came Boston Bruins forward Daniel Paille, who lifted Bolland's stick, spun around and fired a shot over Corey Crawford's glove for a 1-0 lead. Patrice Bergeron would add a power play tally 12 minutes later as the Bruins shut out the Blackhawks 2-0 to take a 2-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Final.

Since Bruins' head coach Claude Julien's "hunch" in Game 2 to put Paille with Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin, the line has played a role in three of Boston's last four goals. After Paille's overtime winner in Game 2, his goal Monday night put the Blackhawks on their heels.

It was a typical Bruins playoff game: They shutdown Chicago's top stars and Tuukka Rask wasn't challenged by any of the Blackhawks' 27 shots to earn his third shutout of the playoffs. There was no traffic in front. No screens, and plenty of pucks shot directly into the logo on Rask's chest.

Chicago's power play also continued to struggle going 0-for-5. They've failed to score in their last 20 opportunities with the extra man.

Chicago also failed to win the face-off battle, conceding 39 out of 55 draws to the Bruins, with Bergeron winning 24 of 28.

Blackhawks' head coach Joel Quenneville played with his lines once again, this time putting Jonathan Toews with Michael Frolik and Marcus Kruger through the first two periods, but when that failed, the captain was placed alongside Patricks Kane and Sharp for the third period, to no avail. Not having Marian Hossa -- who was scratched after getting injured during warmups -- hurt Chicago's offensive threat, but none of their other weapons were able to step up and challenge Rask.

In the battle of patience versus impatience, patience lost in Game 3. The Blackhawks were guilty of holding onto the puck a second too long looking for better opportunities, while the Bruins -- with the Paille goal as an example -- didn't hesitate to fire away on Crawford.

Sensing that impatience was the way to go, the TD Garden crowd started a We Want the Cup chant after Bergeron's goal in the second period. It may be a bit premature for that rallying cry, but they're halfway there with Game 4 Wednesday night.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

Getty ImagesBOSTON – Marian Hossa, tied for the Chicago Blackhawks’ scoring lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, was a late scratch for Game 3 at the Boston Bruins.

Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada reported that Hossa appeared to injure himself after taking a shot during warm-ups at TD Garden. As opposed to Bruins fans, who usually injure themselves after taking shots after the game (just jokes, people).

Enter Ben Smith, the 24-year-old winger from Winston-Salem, NC, who last saw action on April 27 in a Blackhawks game at the St. Louis Blues, when he scored a goal in 18:21 of ice time. He has 20 regular-season NHL games to his credit, but played in seven Blackhawks playoff games in 2010-11, scoring three goals.

If you think Smith isn’t ready for this, well, Joel Quenneville thinks you’re wrong. From RRStar.com on the Black Aces in May:

“He’s somebody we won’t be afraid to use,” Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said of forward Ben Smith. “At any point.”

Smith — who’s progress was slowed

It's the Boston Bruins hosting the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, and your pals at Puck Daddy are live chattin' this bad boy beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

You bring the insightful thoughts on the game. We bring the funny and the Hamburger Women. That's how this works.

Puck DaddyBOSTON -- The rains fell outside of TD Garden before Game 3, which stinks when you've decided to attend the game in full NHL gear. Although the helmets probably help.

The Boston Bruins "player" is David Portnoy, a.k.a stoolpresidente a.k.a. the man behind the wickedly funny Barstool Sports. The Chicago Blackhawks "player" is Big Cat, the man behind Barstool Chicago. They made the rounds outside the Garden, stopping for as many photo ops as the bear wearing the "KEEP CALM AND BERGERON" T-shirt did.

Honestly, we had no idea "Big Cat" was the nom de plume of George Parros. But it does make sense, given he's a Florida Panther.

BOSTON -- In the first period of the Stanley Cup Final’s Game 2, the Chicago Blackhawks dominated the Boston Bruins in every facet: 17 shots on goal to 4 for Boston and a 1-0 lead that could have ballooned larger if not for goalie Tuukka Rask.

It was the kind of domination one expects from the home team to open a Cup Final game.

It’s the kind of domination Patrick Kane and the Blackhawks don’t want to witness at the start of Game 3 in Boston on Monday night.

“We wanna come out and start and take it to them early. Not really worry about sustaining; just take it to them in the first 10 minutes,” said Kane.

Less than a week after acquiring the rights to Mark Streit from the New York Islanders, the Philadelphia Flyers and Streit have agreed to a deal in principle.

Considering Streit would have been the biggest-name defenceman on the market had he made it to July 5 unsigned, it must have taken some serious cash to get him under contract so early, right?

Oh, absolutely. It's a four-year contract, according to reports, that will pay Streit a whopping $5.25 million a season.

(Whoa! That's Dennis Wideman money!)

We remind you that Streit is 35 years old and there is no way to undo this contract -- which is north of both $5 million and reason -- once it's made official.

Someone call Paul Holmgren and remind him the cap is going down.

What makes this incredible overpayment even more incredible is that it can't be made official just yet because, in order to make room for this silliness, the Flyers have to clear other silliness from the books. From the Courier Post:

The issue comes with what can fit within the salary cap’s upper limit. Teams are still operating under the 2012-13 salary cap of $70.2 million until July 5, at which point it becomes $64.3 million. The Flyers will need to shed salary before then, because their cap payroll is $69.812 million.

When the new cap is in play, teams can go over the upper limit by 10 percent until opening night, but July 5 is also the start of free agency this summer. If the Flyers don’t come to an agreement with Streit before then, they lose exclusivity in negotiations and the 10-percent buffer does them no good with him. Also, if the Flyers extend an offer sheet to a restricted free agent or send a qualifying offer to one of their own, that also counts against the cap.

You'll recall, when the deal for Streit's rights was made, we hypothesized -- along with several others -- that this spelled the end of Ilya Bryzgalov and/or Daniel Briere in Philadelphia.

Well, you can consider their amnesty buyouts upgraded from "foreshadowed" to "necessitated". In order for the Flyers to seal this batcrap insane deal -- or do anything else, really -- they have to make a little room.

The amnesty buyout period begins 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final.

UPDATE: GM Paul Holmgren offered this curious statement on Monday night:

"We continue to have talks with Mark's agent. Although there is nothing to report, we remain confident that we will get something done."

The Flyers need to clear out some salary before they ink Streit. Still ... curious.