Everything Else

Box Score

Event Summary

Extra Skater

The Hawks got shut out tonight by Ilya Bryzgalov. Let’s let that sink in for a minute. And once it soaks in… um, can you bathe from the inside out? I guess we’ll all have to turn ourselves inside out and soap up that way.

Once again, the Hawks decided that a Game 3 wasn’t all that important. But honestly, I didn’t have too much of a problem with the first 40 minutes. In some ways it felt like a Floyd Mayweather fight. Work through the first few rounds, time your opponent’s punches, survive a couple hooks, and then slowly take away everything they do and move away in the later rounds when they’ve run out of ideas and tire.

The Hawks forgot the last part, though they did the first part ok. And they forgot the second part because of a couple lazy/non-aware plays.

The first goal sprung from a lazy and ill-advised shot from Michal Rozsival. Rozie got the puck on the point with no Hawks between him and the goal and three Wild players there. Both Kruger and Saad were waiting below the goal-line for the puck to be cycled again. Instead, he flipped a wrister so limp it might as well have been my dead grandfather’s member that was easily cut out.

This started a rush the other way, which in truth the Hawks should have had covered. But Kane lost Haula for just enough time (not sure it would have mattered as Haula is a much faster skater than Kane but considering Kane’s head start…) to bat home a saucer pass from Justin Fontaine.

The second resulted from more incompetent work after a center ice faceoff. I swear, the Hawks committed 87 icings in the St. Louis series right after center-ice faceoffs, and tonight they went the other way. Kruger lost Granlund in the middle, Seabrook was faked into a swim right along with Crawford. And that’s basically game.

Let’s get to the points:

Everything Else

oldschool at wildthings

Game Time: 8:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CNBC, TSN (Anglo), RDS2 (Franco), 87.7FM The Game
What You Want It To Be: Hockey Wilderness

For the second time in as many playoff years, the Hawks will take the brief trek up to St. Paul and the Xcel Energy center with a two game series lead having successfully held serve on West Madison St. And for the second time in as many years, the Wild and their fans figure to treat tonight as a do-or-die proposition within the context of their season.

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Patrick Costello

Despite being frigid in climate, the Twin Cities have long been a hotbed of fantastic musical acts for going on nearly a couple generations. From The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Bob Mould, Soul Asylum, The Hold Steady, Atmosphere’s Rhymesayers hip hop collective, to even fucking Prince, it might have one of the higher batting averages for excellent acts of any city in the country. And no discussion of the MPLS music scene is complete without mention of local heroes Dillinger Four and their bearded (and often shirtless and pantsless) bassist and vocalist Patrick Costello.

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Thought it was a good time to do an off-day Angry At Numbers.

40.9, 59.1

These are Marcus Kruger’s Corsi percentages in Game 1 and Game 2. I’m not sure they actually signify anything at all, other than in Game 1 Kruger was dealing with Mikko Koivu for most of it and in Game 2 that switched to Mikael Granlund. I assume this will be something Minnesota will notice and they will try and get Koivu out against him again in Game 3. Though this could be a result of the Hawks sitting back for a lot of Game 1 and no so much in the second game. Just a juxtaposition. Kruger has also struggled at the dot this series, winning 30% in Game 1 and only 45% in Game 2. Considering the amount of times he starts shifts in the defensive zone, it’s a small worry.

1.50, .951

Corey Crawford’s goals-against average and save-percentage during this six game win streak. Also, the Hawks hadn’t won as many as six in a row since the end of November.

Everything Else

demian bichirAs a country, the United States is pretty terrible for the manner in which it “celebrates” Cinco De Mayo, which originated as a holiday to commemorate Mexico’s defeat of the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1862. So rather than obnoxiously pounding Coronas (which suck anyway, Pacifico or even Tecate are better) and donning sombreros, we’ll pay tribute in our own way to one of Mexico’s true national treasures, actor Demián Bichir and his immaculate beard.