Well, it wasn’t exactly as locked in and authoritative as it could have been. But it didn’t have to be, and they certainly aroused more passion tonight than they did Monday. Against the Oilers, it barely takes a whisper of a care to win, and the Hawks managed that… at least after the first 10 minutes where this looked like a kindergarten class that got into the Jolt Cola. Yes, Jolt Cola. I know some of you drank it once upon a time.
The one big difference was the Hawks were far more engaged tonight in front of their own net than they were on Monday. The rest of the ice? Eh, comme ci comme ca. But in front of both goalies, they were determined to tie up sticks and knock over bodies. Hence, the Oil never really sniffed much.
Let’s get the bullets out of the way then so we can all move on to Friday:
It’s cold
And rough
And I kept standing six-feet-one
Instead of five-feet-two
And I loved my life
And I hated you
I bet you’ve long since passed understanding
What it takes to be satisfied
You’re like a vine that keeps climbing higher
But all the money in the world is not enough
And all the bridges blown away keep floating
I bet you fall in bed too easily
With the beautiful girls who are shyly brave
And you sell yourself as a man to save
But all the money in the world is not enough
vs. 
FACEOFF: 8:30pm CENTRAL
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio 720
THERE WAS A TIME: mc79hockey, The Copper And Blue, The Boys On The Bus
I guess when the Oilers brass are drawing up this reconstruction plan that the Oil have been in for as long as you’d get sentenced for assaulting a cop, they look at the Hawks and try and convince themselves that’s what they’re trying to create. After all, back in the spring of 2008 it looked like the two teams were in the same place.
Except the Hawks bothered to draft and develop actual defensemen and their forwards maxed out. Details, details.
This was the wrap I didn’t want to write but kind of suspected I would. There was this feeling that the Hawks just wouldn’t be up for this one and that the Nucks might because it was at home and dick-measuring contests are always their thing. So I’m going to do what I think Fifth Feather would do and point to history.
March 2009, the Hawks and Canucks engage in what at the time was a very important game. At the time, it felt like they were grappling for the 4th seed (the Flames would go on to collapse and surrender the division to Vancouver and drop to 5th). And the Canucks walked all over the Hawks at the UC that night, and was famous for Burrows’s hair-pulling antics. The whole thing that year ended with a Patrick Kane hat trick and Luongo in tears.
I think it was February 2010, and was our first ever official roadwatch at Whirlaway. The Canucks put up 7 on the Hawks that night. That May ended with Byfuglien laughing at the entire Rogers Arena crowd. In fact, it was GM Place then.
I have to admit to getting a real joy out of the no-context hockey of the past two nights. There are things I could try and make something out of. But I can’t convince myself that they really matter. Yeah, another attacked-by-bees effort from Crawford. A second night in a row a team with all the offensive punch of a possum on anti-depressants was able to muster a mountain of 3rd period shots. Some very sloppy play from the Hawks all over.
But it just feels more like a common cold to be shirked than a stronger disease sinking in. I guess we’ll find out more tomorrow night, where it’s probably not possible to treat any game against Vancouver as just another one to be ticked off the schedule.
But hey, you come for bullets.
One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.
Rich she shall be, that’s certain; wise, or I’ll none; virtuous, or I’ll never cheapen her; fair, or I’ll never look on her; mild, or come not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what colour it please God.
I have known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabour and the pipe:
I have known when he would have walked ten mile a foot to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes.
May I be so converted and see with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not.
