Rattlehead is playing in Game 3: Chicago Tribune
Dream a little dream: Daily Herald
Time to get excited: Comcast Autoplay
Pace: Blackhawk Up
Prove it: ESPN
Convergence? NHL
After Game 1 Mike Babcock declared that the 4-1 scoreline was perfectly justified to represent how the game went. After Game 2, Joel Quenneville was just as assured that this 4-1 scoreline was indicative of what went on. Both were perfectly correct.
While it’s hardly cause for panic or tearing one’s hair out (if you’re unlike me and have any), Detroit was the far better team today. At times, it felt as if the Hawks felt as if it would be as easy as it was in Game 1 for the final 40 minutes. However, that completely discounts that they’re playing the DETROIT RED WINGS. While it’s something you can’t quantify, no matter the talent or speed deficit, the players on that team do come with a bathtub of pride and are not simply going to let anyone have their way.
Yeah, I know. That speaks to a “flatness.” But that’s a component today. The Hawks were just simply not working as hard as Detroit, who made it clear they knew they had to have this game (which they did). The Hawks didn’t match that. That’s not the whole reason they lost today, but it’s definitely part of it.
100% Inaccurate: Chicago Tribune
Luck be a Lady Byng: TSN
Kruger sees room for improvement: Chicago Tribune
Sharp is slaying all-comers: Daily Herald
Legit or Bad officiating: PuckDaddy
Detroit will stay Datsyukian: Sportsnet.CA
68 might be done: Backhand Shelf
It’s difficult to not be supremely overconfident after watching the Blackhawks pick the wings off of the…ahem, Red Wings like a demented child would to a harmless fly but I will give it a go. It’s why they pay me the big bucks.
With the final installment of our team-wide preview of a team everyone knows pretty well anyway, we take a look at Scum’s special teams. And much like the rest of the team, there are still dragons here, but they’re not nearly as ornery or fire-breathing as they have been in previous years.
With the final installment of our team-wide preview of a team everyone knows pretty well anyway, we take a look at Scum’s special teams. And much like the rest of the team, there are still dragons here, but they’re not nearly as ornery or fire-breathing as they have been in previous years.
Oh no! I made a musical reference to a non-Detroit band! Killion’s going to shit a chicken!
Anyway, when you talk to Scum fans (at least the most reasonable ones, but boy is that a world’s tallest midget contest), you get the feeling that they have an inordinate amount of faith in Jimmy Howard. On the other side, you get it because a lot of the Wings goaltending has been so bad over the years (whatever the win-loss record might say) that an actual above-average goalie might look even better than he actually is.
Before I get a bunch of tweets and comments about how I’m totally undervaluing Howard from the Great Unwashed of Southeast Michigan (and that one dude in Kansas), let me be clear: I don’t think Howard sucks at all. He’s very good. And in a positional matchup, this is the only area where the Wings can boast even a push with the Hawks. And any goalie who punches Corey Perry in the back of the head has to be somewhat admired.
Oh no! I made a musical reference to a non-Detroit band! Killion’s going to shit a chicken!
Anyway, when you talk to Scum fans (at least the most reasonable ones, but boy is that a world’s tallest midget contest), you get the feeling that they have an inordinate amount of faith in Jimmy Howard. On the other side, you get it because a lot of the Wings goaltending has been so bad over the years (whatever the win-loss record might say) that an actual above-average goalie might look even better than he actually is.
Before I get a bunch of tweets and comments about how I’m totally undervaluing Howard from the Great Unwashed of Southeast Michigan (and that one dude in Kansas), let me be clear: I don’t think Howard sucks at all. He’s very good. And in a positional matchup, this is the only area where the Wings can boast even a push with the Hawks. And any goalie who punches Corey Perry in the back of the head has to be somewhat admired.
While the forwards that McClure previewed still have some threat and generational skill sprinkled throughout, when Hawks fans look at this back end is when they probably start licking their chops. The Scum defense was passable enough to see off a Ducks team that really only has one threatening line, as suddenly Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu looked every bit of the combined 175 years old that they in fact are. They will get no such respite here.
Here’s how the pairings shake out:
vs. 
FACEOFF: 11:30am Central
TV/RADIO: NBC, WGN 720
NOT YET KILLED BY ROBOCOP: Winging It In Motown
If the Hawks are going to snap out of this midseason malaise (if indeed that’s what it is) in the next week or so, they’re going to have to do it against the Central Division. Seven of the next eight games — all in the next two weeks, mind — come against the Central residents (and it’s a whole lot of Predators, but we’ll worry about that on Monday). It kicks off with a return brunch engagement against the somewhat resurgent Red Wings. It’s as resurgent as an elderly squad can be, like that half-pep your dad gets in his step for a couple minutes after a big shit. Or is that just mine?
