There was a moment in college, I think around my sophomore year, that I decided I would do my best to get really good at chess. I can’t tell you why exactly. I thought it would make me seem smarter, more sophisticated, I was bored, or maybe I just thought it would make me more interesting to women (that was probably it… women love chess players, right?…. I’m an idiot).
Anyways, I remember playing online on Yahoo games, which I’m not really sure people play anymore but I thought it would be a decent place to learn the game against strangers. I would do fairly well some games and just get destroyed in others. In particular, I remember one game that I lost in exactly four moves. I moved four pieces and on my opponents fifth, checkmate.
Is that how Blues fans felt when it went Toews to Seabrook, Seabrook to Keith, Keith to Hossa, Hossa to Saad and then Saad to Toews and into the net?
OK – so it might not have been that exact of a victory. The Hawks got the earliest of early goals but for the remainder of the first and all of the second it remained a close affair. It wasn’t until we saw another Bickell behind the net pass to an open Shaw (is that a thing now?) that the game finally found some comfort level. Toews’ second of the night ended any hope St. Louis had to come back and the point-streak continues. Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t anything worth celebrating.. this is fucking fun. To the bullets.
Observations
- So the weirdest news of the night has to be Crawford’s abrupt exit in the first intermission. I haven’t had a chance to pursue any other post game articles or interviews so all I’ve heard is the dreaded “upper body injury”. This is no buena. We’ve mentioned several times the Hawks have had a lousy history of rushing players back from concussions and now it seems like Crow may have not been exactly 100%… even after posting a shutout.
Emery has been better than anyone could/would have expected so far this year and this could possibly even be considered a steal from a goalie but I still don’t trust Razor as a long-term possibility. He’s still slow side to side and can’t be trusted to keep coming up with these amazing saves (no one can).
At least this explains why Crawford kept ending up facing backwards in the last game… he had no fucking clue what city he was in.
- Marlboro 72 led the team in TOI tonight but it still felt like they got a good amount of rest. Thanks to the score early in the third, most of the key players were able to get some rest in the third once the game was pretty much out of hand for the Blues.
- Bollig had a stupid penalty for Unsportsmanlike and Roughing. This is all I will say about it. You know how we feel.
- Brandon Saad.
- Blues fans can take their love for Backes and shove it. We’ve hammered it home over and over again here on this site but their love for this dolt is everything that is idiotic about the Blues.
Sure, he had 7 hits and most Blues fans will get all wet about it but he was also a -1 with only 1 shot. I think we’ll take Toews with 2 goals and 5 shots (most of anyone in the game) every damn time.
- OK – and could Toews have done anything less on the actual goals he had? He was solid throughout the game but scored both goals on a total of about 15 inches from the crease. I don’t think either goal should count as a shot since both seemed to just bounce off him and into the net. Still, he’s in the right spots setting up the plays and Backes is worried about drilling Hammer into the boards as the Swede still makes the right pass.
- And yes, Hammer finally seems to be willing to take a hit again to make the play for the good of the team. If he can start throwing some hits again this All-Sweden pairing won’t be able to get any better.
- Speaking of hits, the Blues were credited with 20 more than the Hawks. Good for them.
- Again, Emery was outstanding for someone who came in completely cold after 20 minutes. No shaky rebounds we’re used to and a quicker than expected glove hand. I still get the shakes if we’re supposed to really count on him for the rest of the year though.
- Can it be overstated how great players like Kruger and Frolik have been for the team this year? Sure, they’re not going to be on most guy’s fantasy teams but they’re doing all the little things right. Both of them have been invaluable to the penalty kill, which is second in the league right now by the by. They also do more than expected on every other aspect of the game. The Hawks ability to roll four lines is crucial right now and for the rest of the year.
- Patrick Kane had 0 goals, 0 assists and 0 shots. Weird, right?
- 3 Shutouts so far this year? We’ll take it.
- Blues fans couldn’t wait to tell you how much it meant for them to end the Hawks point streak. Now they’ll tell you how much it matters that they were missing key players. Doesn’t matter, they’re still missing two points.
