Hossa, Shaw and Montador will travel to Denver: (Blackhawks)
Defense: (Comcast)
Revenge of the stat nerds: (Puck Daddy)
Signed, Sealed and Delivered: (TSN)
So no one gets hurt: (The Globe and Mail)
Doesn’t really do anything:(CBC)
No Regrets: (Third Man IN)
Need to know basis: (ESPN)
Jesus Christ…Retire dude: (TSN)
After last night’s full slate of activity, the Hawks are now looking to change a few things up on the fly heading into the second half of the season in the wake of some of these injuries.
Sometimes I feel like I’m beatin’ a dead horse….and I don’t know why you keep bringing me down….
That’s kind of what it feels like to try and write about the Hawks these days. There’s a little left to say. We’ve entered the territory of the absurd, and very few people have experience with this sort of thing. But we’ll try.
The 3rd line – Few would argue that the troika of force that is Andrew Shaw, Bryan Bickell, and Viktor Stalberg haven’t been the Hawks most effective line for the past few games. It seems every shift, they’re pinning whoever they’re against in their own zone for minutes at a time. They’re completing line changes while the other team is still pinned behind their own net. They should have had at least two goals yesterday, got a goal for Bickell against Columbus, had the dagger goal against St. Louis, and we could go on and on.
Stop me if you heard this before: The Blackhawks and Red Wings played a Sunday matinee at Joe Louis Arena that ended in a shootout.
In the last four seasons, it seems like the two teams have engaged in roughly 33 games that followed the script from today. One team controls the tempo, then the other team. By the end of regulation, one of the teams scores a late goal to send the game to overtime and in the overtime, both teams have opportunities for the winner.
In other words, today’s game was no different than any of the previous years between the Hawks and Wings. Except for that whole winning streak the Hawks have going. So let’s get to it.
Mix-Master cut faster:(Daily Herald)
Because I feel disgrace because you’re all in my face: (Comcast Chicago)
Engine running hotter than a boiling kettle: (Suntimes)
The {dude} is crafty like ice is cold: (Blackhawks)
And I know the fly spot where they got the champagne.{and the Nucks won’t find it}(TSN)
We’re offered Moet – we don’t mind Chivas (Globe and Mail)
Hockey can be such a strange game. At no point tonight did I feel like the Hawks were out of control or in danger. And yet it took a reviewed goal and overtime to glean the two points from what felt like a pretty overmatched Edmonton team. Maybe I saw it all wrong. But I don’t think I did.
To be fair, the Hawks did some of the things you can’t do against the Oil. They had a stumble on the power play, which let them in on a counter (also didn’t help that Shaw completely fell asleep on Petry there). They gave EdMo unnecessary looks on the PP, which led to a Yakupove goal (though it was off a broken pass, and was about the only time I notice good ol’ Yaks).
And without getting out of 3rd gear, the Hawks found their way back, and found their way to two points. It seems like they’re just always doing whatever to get the two points. So I guess I won’t bitch about that.
Sometimes it’s difficult to find beauty after 18 games of not losing in regulation. Against a Columbus team that is still struggling to figure out how to score more goals than the opposition, the Hawks scored the minimum amount required to net two points. If there was a silver lining in tonight’s playbook, it was that the Hawks got a performance from their goalie that we’ve been begging for for a couple years.
No, Corey Crawford didn’t stand on his head or make a plethora of highlight reel saves. All he did was make the saves that should be expected of him. The Blue Jackets had a couple of good chances to find twine but they didn’t and Crawford didn’t give them any breaks by giving up any soft goals. It wasn’t a goalie win. It was a team win. Take it and move on.
–For a team playing its third game in four nights, the Blue Jackets played a pretty solid game. They had a strong compete level and looked way more engaged than they have the last couple seasons. The combination of a new young wave of high draft picks combined with a new coach and the loss of Rick Nash gives the Jackets a new dynamic. If it keeps going this way, it’s only a matter of time until they start winning games like tonight.
The one guy who impresses me the most is Cam Atkinson. For whatever reason, I’ve watched more Blue Jackets hockey than ever before and each game Atkinson has impressed me more and more. That little bastard is a handful.
–Another impressive performance out of Niklas Hjalmarsson. He had as much to do with preserving the shutout as Corey Crawford did. Late in the first, Hjalmarsson saved a sure goal by sacrificing his body in front. In the second, he cleared a loose puck with Crawford swimming in his crease during a scramble in front. He has been the Hawks most consistent defensemen this year. It’s almost humorous to recall his performances from the past couple seasons at this point; like he had some alien pod infesting his body during that time because the difference in his play is that drastic.
–As a fourth line player and top penalty killer, Michael Frolik is a lot of fun to watch. When you forget about the fact that he’s the Hawks 6th highest paid forward and was originally thought to be a key contributor to their secondary scoring, it makes it a lot easier to stomach.
–Maybe it’s the lack of sleep but I think I like Dan Carcillo on that fourth line. Certainly better than him on either of the top two lines.
–Did we really need a spear to the nuts to be reminded that James Wisniewski is a dirty player? This is the same guy who sent one of his groomsmen to the 12th century with a vicious forearm to the mouth. And if you think that Andrew Shaw is going to forgive and forget, you would be sorely mistaken.
–Michael Rozsival is a prototypical 3rd pair defensemen. That doesn’t mean he should be excused for letting not one, but two guys slip behind him for breakaways. Crawford bailed him out one time and the post the second time. Both times, Rozsival was caught napping and let guys slip behind him. Yeah, one guy came off the bench on a change but Rozsival was on the other side of the red line during a penalty kill. That probably shouldn’t happen.
OH Yes!! All our problems are solved: (SunTimes)
Sharp isn’t worried: (Daily Herald)
Game Preview: (Blackhawks.com)
Oh and Sharp has free time for the ladies: (Puckdaddy)
Kesler is back: (Sportsnet)
So Matt Cooke must pay: (Ottawa Sun)
What if the IOC,NHL and NHLPA all crap in our cocoa puffs:(US of Hockey)
Evander Kane and the race problem: (Puckdaddy)
Sportsmanship personified in Russia: (RT)
This needs to happen..Also click on the figurine link: (Daves Geek Ideas)
Well, I guess you can’t win them all. Maybe you can win all the ones you don’t tie. Let’s see if that can be done.
But after all is said and done (and before they make me run), there isn’t too much to get upset about. Which is weird, because just about the time I was going to start getting itchy about how the Hawks were getting pressed into waffles at even-strength in the 2nd period, one penalty kill turned it around and the Wild were chasing shadows. The 17-6 shot-difference in the last two stanzas would be evidence of that.
Still, all that possession and territorial advantage didn’t lead to a barrage of chances, which I guess is a little worrying. But not all that much. I suppose it could be argued that the Hawks got better as the Wild got more tired, having played last night and in their 3rd game in four nights. But the Hawks will find that a lot this season, as well as the reverse.
In the end, the width of the crossbar kept the Hawks from extending the shootout where they might have won it. Or might not have. It’s a fucking shootout. Just flip a coin and be done with it.
Well, I guess you can’t win them all. Maybe you can win all the ones you don’t tie. Let’s see if that can be done.
But after all is said and done (and before they make me run), there isn’t too much to get upset about. Which is weird, because just about the time I was going to start getting itchy about how the Hawks were getting pressed into waffles at even-strength in the 2nd period, one penalty kill turned it around and the Wild were chasing shadows. The 17-6 shot-difference in the last two stanzas would be evidence of that.
Still, all that possession and territorial advantage didn’t lead to a barrage of chances, which I guess is a little worrying. But not all that much. I suppose it could be argued that the Hawks got better as the Wild got more tired, having played last night and in their 3rd game in four nights. But the Hawks will find that a lot this season, as well as the reverse.
In the end, the width of the crossbar kept the Hawks from extending the shootout where they might have won it. Or might not have. It’s a fucking shootout. Just flip a coin and be done with it.
