With Gate still attempting to get back from Nashville, the Blackhawks decided the show must go on, and on Sunday night they played hosts to the St. Louis Blues. The Blackhawks were looking to bounce back from a rough trip to Florida where they lost both games to Tampa Bay and Florida. With the Blues in town, it should be safe to say the Hawks should have more effort, and energy tonight, something they lacked in those Florida games.
Once the puck dropped, all eyes would be on the Blackhawks to see if they could put an end to the recent trend of sluggish starts. Early on, that trend continued, as the Hawks could only muster two shots in the opening eight minutes. That would be the story of the first period. Corey Crawford bailed out the Hawks, and kept the game scoreless while the offense did a little more than us that were watching the game.
The second period was much better for the Blackhawks, not that it could get much worse. Overall, the play in second was still boring. That was the case until the #AK72Line got the Blackhawks on the boards, by way of an Artemi Panarin snipe. In the end, the Blackhawks turned the table on the Blues, and out shot them by an 11-6 margin in the period, and took the one goal lead into the second intermission.
The final twenty minutes got underway, the same way the second period ended, with the Hawks in control. Early on, the Hawks got the game's first power play of the game, and wasted little time in making the most of it. Andrew Shaw redirected a Marian Hossa bomb right in front of the net, past Elliott to increase the Hawks lead to 2-0. Down the stretch the Blues had some chances to put a dent in the Hawks lead, but ultimately could not. As a result, Corey Crawford recorded his league leading 7th shutout, with the Blackhawks 2-0 win over the Blues.
Gate returns to the recap world on Tuesday, and will take you to the NHL All-Star break.
- Corey Crawford once again was the only Blackhawk to show up in the first period. Crawford withstood a flurry of shots, 12 in total, by the Blues.
- As the game went on, the Blackhawks got significantly better. That not saying much though, because anything was better than that lifeless opening frame tonight. This trend cannot continue for much longer.
- Whatever language barrier there is between Kane and Panarin, I hope it doesn't change, because its not bothering them. Once again, the #AK72Line put on a show, with a beauty of a pass by Kane to Panarin for the game's opening goal.
- The power play got back on track tonight, with Andrew Shaw tallying a power play goal in the third period. This was nice to see after a couple of rough games for the units in Florida.
- The Hawks allowed 12 shots to the Blues in the first period, but after that, the defense clamped down, and limited the Blues to 13 shots the rest of the way.
- You like your fancy stats, well, I like my block shots stat. Tonight the Hawks were willing to pay the price, and get in the shooting lanes, and blocked 22 shots. Grab some ice packs fellas.
- As mentioned earlier, Corey Crawford had a huge opening period for the Hawks. In the end he was able to stop all 25 shots he faced, and recorded his 7th shutout.
- Midway through the third period, the PK came through and killed off a bad Artemi Panarin penalty.
- The #GusBus got a little too cute with a backhand pass in his own zone that wound up going on net, instead of going to Seabrook. The turnover resulted in giving the Blues sustained pressure for the rest of the shift, when it really didn't need to happen.
- Artemi Panarin can't take a penalty like he did in the third period. That was a perfect opportunity for the Blues to get back in the game.
- On Shaw's goal, you saw how important face off wins are. Tonight the Hawks were beaten at the dot 31-26. Still some work to do there.
- Same old broken record showed up again for the Blackhawks tonight. Slow start, which sees them only record three shots in the opening ten minutes. Do that really miss Ryan Garbutt when it comes to starting a hockey game?
- Tonight was David Backes' 700th career game with the Blues. Someone should tell him to wakey, wakey, because he was un-fucking-noticeable tonight.
- Steve Konroyd dipped his toe into the advanced stats water during the first intermission. If this isn't enough to kill this sick fade/obsession with these fancy numbers, then I don't know what is. Remember when our parents joined Facebook? It killed Facebook. My prediction is Konroyd kills the slobbering love affair with fancy stats by the end of March.
