Everything Else

Boxscore

Event Summary

Extra Skater

Hockey is just weird sometimes. You can’t really ask the Hawks to do much more than they did tonight. From the opening bell, the Avs were pretty much rolled up in a rug and dumped in the snowy woods. But like the occasional Russian gangster who claims to wash his balls in ice water, even though he’s been shot in the head he escapes the mobsters (layered reference!). The Hawks don’t even have packs of mustard to keep them sane.

Sure, they could have cashed in on a power play. But it’s not as if the PP was totally helpless. It created enough chances, it just didn’t cash in. Sure, they’ll tell you they could have gotten more traffic in front of Semyon Varlamov, but that would just be covering up. The Hawks were there plenty of times, it just felt like the rebounds kept bouncing away from Hawks’ sticks aside from Shaw’s goal. Yeah, the penalty kill could have come up better than leaving Ryan O’Reilly enough space in front he would have died of exposure. But in OT, Hjalmarsson’s rushed clear could have taken any bounce off the glass. It just went to Matt Duchene.

The Hawks did everything but win tonight, and that happens from time to time during the season. Hockey is a cruel enough mistress to torture you by having luck play a role, and a big one. It just didn’t go the Hawks way tonight. Move on, and know that more efforts like that will result in pairs of points far more often than they’ll result in a solitary, lonely one.

Everything Else

oil plainview vs oldschool

Game Time: 6:00PM
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Exxon Valdez: Copper and Blue, Oilers Nation

So this is what the midseason doldrums look like. Ironically, with the Hawks’ high octane offense sputtering, and not with the previously questionable defense pulling its best matador act. Since the calendar flipped to 2014 (and even counting December 30th), the Hawks have scored more than two goals exactly once. It’s not a shock then that the Hawks have gone 2-1-3 in that stretch. Fortunately for them, the Oilers are once again in town.

Everything Else

oil plainview vs oldschool

Game Time: 6:00PM
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Exxon Valdez: Copper and Blue, Oilers Nation

So this is what the midseason doldrums look like. Ironically, with the Hawks’ high octane offense sputtering, and not with the previously questionable defense pulling its best matador act. Since the calendar flipped to 2014 (and even counting December 30th), the Hawks have scored more than two goals exactly once. It’s not a shock then that the Hawks have gone 2-1-3 in that stretch. Fortunately for them, the Oilers are once again in town.

Everything Else

Well now we know the official numbers of Hawks and who’s going and who’s not. The Hawks will have 10 Olympians in Sochi, barring injury to either them or someone else causing yet another Hawk to fill in (Seabrook and Saad could both be first call-ups in that situation, as could Crawford I suppose but doubt). They are:

Slovakia – Hossa, Handzus

Czech Republic – Rozsival

Sweden – Hjalmarsson, Oduya, Kruger

USA – Kane

Canada – Keith, Sharp, Toews

WE DON’T HAVE ANY COMMIES CUZ WE DON’T NEEDS ‘EM TAKE DAT POO-TIN!

Anyway, some random thoughts:

Everything Else

Captain Canada????NESN

Sharp deserves it:PuckDaddy

That’s what happens when your country invented the sport: NHL.com

A column about hockey and cold weather…..Mind Blowing idea: SunTimes

Rosy to represent my Great-Grandmother’s Nation: Chicago Tribune

Hossa and Zus to represent Slovakia:USA Today

Swiss Trio:IIHF

Well I think Chicago has seen that first-hand: Comcast

Actual management potential in Buffalo: Puckdaddy

 

Everything Else

Box Score
Event Summary
Extra Skater

This kind of explosion in the third period is exactly what makes this team so much damn fun to watch. While there were chances on both sides of the ice in the first, it remained a pretty even and quiet game. There were shifts where both teams threatened but neither goalie or defense was going to give anything up. So after the first remained scoreless with relatively few shots and the second period ended tied at one it seemed like it could end up being a “next goal wins” scenario. Then the third started and the goals flooded in 3 of them in about 4 minutes. It was a blink and you’ll miss it scene. When the Hawks can smell blood in the water, they can usually capitalize. It’s just where they left off last year when they scored those two goals in 17 seconds. It doesn’t happen every game (like most games against the Blues this year unfortunately) but the Hawks can make good teams look very silly and they can make mediocre teams look worse. While the Devils were able to claw their way back into this one. After Hossa’s wrister you could easily have put it in the books.