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Never Talking To You Again: Blackhawks 2 – Wild 1 OT (Hawks Win Series 4-2)

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Earlier today, I was debating whether or not I should watch this game from home or if I should head to the bar. After a long day at work, I thought it was best if I go to my couch. I didn’t want to drink tonight, I had decided. And when Kris Versteeg put in a goal off a great move off the boards that bounced passed Bryz, I thought I might just be able to get away with a game where the temptation wouldn’t be that much. After all, a game where the Hawks score a goal before the opponents even record a shot is a damn good thing. “They’ll put this away early. I’ll get the recap up and have a good night’s sleep”, I hoped.

That plan went to shit about 2 and half minutes into the second period.

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Within Your Reach: Hawks at Wild Game 6 Preview/Pregame Thread/Underwater Pilates

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Hawk Wrestler vs. EW_Ygritte_promo_shoot_a

GAMETIME: 8:10pm Central

TV/RADIO: CNBC, 87.7 FM

BEYOND THE WALL: Hockey Wilderness

The Hawks find themselves in a position they’ve been most comfortable, holding the axe to end the season for an opponent. It’s a stat we keep coming back to, probably because it is pretty damn comforting: The Hawks are 11-2 in the Quenneville Era when they have a chance to end a series, with both losses coming to Vancouver (one a Game 7 on the road). To quote one of the great orators of our time, Ice Cube, “The Hawks don’t miss when it comes to this.”

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First The Lights, Then The Collar Goes Up, And The Wind Begins To Blow: Wild 1 – Hawks 2 (Hawks lead 3-2)

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The Wild were never going to let it be pretty. While they’ve varied their approach in the first four games, from period to period even, a pivotal Game 5 on the road saw them fall back into the trap that gave the Hawks headaches in Game 3. But after a jittery opening 5-10 minutes, the Hawks started to come to grips with what they saw. And despite conceding the opener as a direct result of a pick play that Stockton and Malone would have been proud of that opened up space for Terror From Hell Erik Haula, the Hawks began to get a tighter and tighter grip on this one.

It was far from perfect. While the Hawks support was better, they were more willing to try the middle of the ice to get out of the zone, to chip and chase, the execution was off. Every time Oduya tried to field a pass or puck along the boards, my eyeballs rolled back in my head. Keith was trying far too much dip-trip-rip-fantasia behind his goal line and at Minny’s blue line. Nick Leddy looks terrified to make a mistake (wonder why that may be). Because what the Hawks have to do when a team pinches down on them along the boards in their zone has to be so precise, when it doesn’t work it can get urpy.

But they slowly got better, got their goal to tie it, worked to get their second and then squeezed the rest out. They had to get through some chances but it didn’t feel like Crawford had to drink the blood of virgins to get through the final 10 minutes.

All that adds up to a series lead.

Let’s do it.

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Let Me Guide You To The Purple Rain: Hawks at Wild Game 4 Preview/Pregame Thread/Sauna Time

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Hawk Wrestler vs. Zakk-Wylde-by-Ivan-Chopik

FACEOFF: 8:40pm Central

TV/RADIO: NBCSN, 87.7 FM

ON THE SKYWAY: Hockey Wilderness

As they did last year, the Hawks find themselves having passed up one chance to strangle the life out of this series in St. Paul but with another to do so in  Game 4. This time, however, they have a spikier Wild team to deal with (one that’s already escaped this dungeon this spring) and not quite the doomsday arsenal they once did.

If we go off yesterday’s practice, it would appear that Joel Quenneville is going to hit the blender again and try and spread out his scoring (or watch Sharp’s and Hossa’s usefulness get completely erased by Michal Handzus getting beaten silly by Granlund, Koivu, or Haula. Take your fucking pick). That’s if you believe this wasn’t just subterfuge. Even if he’s serious about putting Ben Smith up top and Kane with Kruger and Saad, you know it won’t last much more than a period if the Hawks aren’t up 3-0 and we’ll go back to what the lines have been this series anyway.

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The Act We Act: Hawks 0 – Wild 4 (Hawks Lead 2-1)

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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:

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Somebody To Shove: Wild 1 – Hawks 4 (Hawks Lead 2-0)

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I doubt you’ll see a more h0-hum game in the second round of the playoffs than this afternoon’s. It’s clear that the Wild haven’t completely caught the attention of the Hawks’ faithful yet, and they haven’t caused the Hawks to think that they have to pull out the full arsenal. At least not yet. And the Hawks still lead this series 2-0 heading back to St. Paul.

The Hawks exerted a lot of control in the 1st period, without using it to strangle the Wild. They held them to two shots while only managed seven themselves, though they the attempts were 12-4. While the 2nd shows the Wild got 13 shots, half of those were piled in during a power play and almost all of them came on one goalmouth scramble. The 2nd wasn’t really any looser than the 1st, and came capped off with a Brandon Saad laster into the top corner right after a power play after the Wild didn’t fully deal with a cross-ice pass from Bickell.

While the Hawks weren’t as aggressive in the 3rd, it didn’t feel like they were completely turtling. The Wild got one goal off a really well-worked rush from Erik Haula and Cody McCormick (what?) but after that the Hawks soaked up whatever pressure there was and waited for a chance to seal it. They got two. Hossa hit the crossbar. Bickell didn’t. After the Wild goal they only managed six more shot attempts and it was pretty easily seen out.

Shall we? We shall.

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Oh No Lets Go: Wild At Blackhawks – Game 2 – Preview/Pre-Game Thread/Netflix Marathon

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wildthings vs oldschool

Game Time: 2:00PM Central
TV/Radio: NBC, RDS, TSN/WGN720
Hootenanny: Hockey Wilderness

Game 1 was far from perfect. There was yet another two goal lead that vanished and some glaring holes were once again visible. The Hawks are capable of pulling away from a team in a hurry (just watch whenever Kaner decides to freak the fuck out) but they’ve also shown they are more than willing to let other teams right back into games. I would be more concerned with this trait if it didn’t seem to be a league-wide thing this year. It seems every game has had its share of blown two-goal leads. Not sure of the reason for it but at least it makes for some pretty exciting, heart attack inducing hockey.