Playing with 88 probably helps: ESPN Chicago
Playing with 88 probably helps: CSN (autoplay)
Blame Canada: Trib
Insert Detroit dystopia joke here: PHT
Category: Everything Else
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Big Gun, #1: Hawks 4 – Kings 1
Before and after the game last night, Darryl Sutter called the Hawks the best team in the league. Before it sounded a little strange, especially as Sutter was saying it because of different stats people should look at and Sutter always strikes people as someone who can’t add (but of course, the Kings are one of the more advanced metric team in the league and Sutter’s a big part of that). It also sounded strange to those of us who watch the Hawks every game, who get in a little deep with picking apart cracks we see because there’s just not much else to do.
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Along The Way I Had To Sell My Soul: Hawks at Kings Preview/Pregame Thread/Taste Test
vs. 
FACEOFF: 9pm Central
TV/RADIO: WGN for the locals, NHL-N for the non-locals, Sportsnet for the Hosers, WGN Radio 720
SUNSET HONEYS THAT MAKE US SAY: The Royal Half, Battle of California, Jewels From The Crown
You would think that this would have been the game circled on the calendar before the Circus Trip started. And yet it doesn’t feel like there’s an extra charge about this one. Maybe it’s because it’s the last game of the trip. Maybe it’s because both teams know that these sorts of things in November don’t really matter. Maybe it’s because neither team has fired on all cylinders this year for the most part. Or maybe it does and I just haven’t noticed. I am kind of oblivious that way.
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Gotta Get Away – Hawks 4, Ducks 1
Box Score
Event Summary
War on IceIn what has become something of a tradition, the Hawks once again took on the Ducks in Orange Country for a Black Friday matinee. However, the Hawks bucked tradition by basically taking control of this from the word “go” in what could arguably be their most definitive victory of the year, and would be the most enjoyable were it not marred by predictable Ducks asshattery.
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California Uber Alles: Hawks at Ducks Preview/Pregame Thread/Family Spa Day
vs. 
FACEOFF: 3pm Central
TV/RADIO: WGN for both
CONSEQUENCES SCHMONSEQUENCES AS LONG AS I’M RICH: Anaheim Calling, Battle of California
After taking a break from it last season, the Hawks return to their usual Black Friday matinee at one of the biggest hives of scum and villainy in the world, Honda Center in Orange County (at least for me personally). In the past, these games have been something of a looney bin. The last two times it happened, in ’12 and ’11, the Hawks managed goal-explosions in the 3rd period to win. That would be all right this time, as the Ducks remain something of a bogey team for the Hawks, beating them only twice in the past seven meetings.
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Work Stoppage – Hawks 3 Avs 2
After a bit of a slow first few minutes of the game, the Blackhawks opened the floodgates and pummeled Avs goalie, Calvin Pickard, with shots. In the second, the Avs realized there was a game being played and sustained some zone time. In the third, things got pretty hairy with a lot of net front scrambles. Bryan Bickell provided the game winning goal with the assistance of Patrick Kane to seal it 3-2.
- Promoted. Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad…I could go on. They shot the lights out. Some laughably poor luck kept those pucks out of the net, but it was good to see some terrific shifts out of those players.
- Demoted. Phillip Danault was sent packing back to Rockford to make room for Andrew Shaw to return to the lineup. Shaw had some defensive lapses as usual, but buried a shot off of a beautiful set up from Patrick Kane.
- Benched. Adam Clendening. That didn’t take long. As is his way, Joel Quenneville decided young Mr. Clendening needed a lesson for making some mistakes…in his third NHL game. While I’m sure it’s difficult to take a chance leaving a player who is having a rough night out on the ice, I am not sure benching the young players time and time again is a sustainable way to develop young talent. Win now is a fine way to think about things, but the investment in these players needs to be weighed against that as well.
- On Leave. Jarome Iginla’s composure toward the end of the game took a leave of absence. He let noted pest Andrew Shaw get into his head and spent more time arguing back and forth with him than he did trying to win the game. This isn’t to say that Iginla is a bad player or something because that’s certainly not the case, but as a seasoned veteran, he’s got to keep himself on task a little better than he did during this game. This is probably just a boil over of the frustration the entire Avalanche roster is feeling now that their goaltending has regressed and their flaws have been exposed for everyone to plainly see without using pesky numbers like PDO or FF%.
- Fired. Patrick Roy, last season’s Jack Adams winner, may be feeling the heat soon in Colorado. Perhaps the Avs’ front office will stick with him for the season, since hopefully, despite their refusal to use any sort of “new age” analytics (or Analidiots as Glen Healy called the stats community tonight on Sportsnet), they simply must understand how Save Percentage works. The Avs rode the PDO magic carpet into the playoffs last season and now that it’s returned to the Cave of Wonders, they seem to be at a loss as to how to fix it.
It was not pretty and it certainly was not the way Chicago wants to continue playing hockey games, but the Blackhawks got the job done and won the game 3-2. Links to game pages are here for your browsing enjoyment:
