"I must break you"
My interest in this game was quickly being sucked out of me, until the men among boys, Shooter and Hoss, decided they had had enough of these pesky St. Louis Blues. An OT thriller was in store, and another memorable comeback. Here is a little visual description of the Blackhawks comeback, and eventual win:
The Good
For a good majority of the game, it was dull and boring. The Bickell vs. Backes fight was a little spark of excitement, that I felt was going to open up more scuffles; I was clearly wrong. Sharpie netted his 3rd game winning goal in a row, and Hossa damn near got himself a hat trick. The Jedi don't use the force; they use the Hoss. All men are created equal; Equally inferior to the Hoss.
Knock the soft goal all you want, but Turco's outlet pass to Hossa started the comeback. Down 1-0 or 2-0 there was a comeback needed, and Turco helped make something happen. He quickly got the puck to the stick of the man with the plan. Besides the outlet passes, Turco is looking more and more calm and comfortable in the net. I fully admit that ANY time the puck was thrown at Niemi or Huet, I held my breath for a second. None of that with Marty the Midget. He's confident, almost to the point of arrogance, but that's something an NHL netminder needs.
Jassen Cullimore made me look like an asshole by nicely controlling the puck to feed Kaner, who then fed Shooter for the game winner. Atta boy, Culli, make me look bad all season if it means you'll make more plays like that. Halak played a great game for the most part. The guy is good, and St Louis will win many more games because of his play.
The Bad
The David Bolland Amber Alert is back up. He was last seen getting into this van:
The Blues shut down the Hawks for a good period of the game, so much so that they couldn't even connect on a solid pass. Somewhere along the line, Hossa decided that he had had enough, though, and we know how that goes.
I'm beginning to think Fernando Pisani needs to take over the role of John Scott, because he's only shown me that he is a worthwhile penalty killer. Other than that, he's really invisible. There is too much talent waiting to play on this team to leave Fernando Pisani out there for thirteen and a half minutes. You want to use him as a primary PK guy, then sit Scott, dress the two headed Skille/Stalberg monster, and just let Pisani wait for the Hawks to take a penalty. Now that may be hard without Scott's baby Huey act, but Nick Boynton will be sure to deliver. It's an involuntary reaction.
The Ugly (and in this case I REALLY mean ugly)
This John Scott circus needs to end. Two minutes and twenty nine seconds of fucking ice time? Seriously? He ate up Victor Stalberg's spot to play TWO MINUTES AND TWENTY NINE SECONDS? Not only that, but he got himself thrown in the box with a dumb ass cross checking penalty. I'm never going to claim he's an excellent defenseman, but when he plays forward he looks like baby Huey. He's lost and just taking random liberties with opponents. After all the BS, he doesn't do the one thing he was brought here for; TO FIGHT! In theory, his presence was and is a good idea, but if you're going to jackhammer his big ass into the lineup, you're wasting valuable playing time, and having to double shift other players to make up for the fact that he has now warmed the bench for 96% of the last two games. You can try and tell me Scott was a better choice than Skille Saturday, or Stalberg yesterday, and I'll tell you're that you're out of your fucking mind. Mr. Stache? PLEASE end this charade and relegate Scott back to sideshow freak. You can occasionally let him out of his cage to chew on Matt Cooke, Sean Avery, or Cam Janssen, but this is a waste of an important spot. ENOUGH!
