Couple of days off, Coach coming back, rumored deals, and just another division game for the Hawks. This is one of my favorite times of the year, as far as the NHL goes, and it is going to be an interesting weekend. Last night was only the beginning. The first period was moving at a good pace, but the scoring chances were fairly limited. It took eighteen minutes for either team to score a goal with the Hawks taking a 1-0 into the first period intermission. Games like this are really boring as far as recaps go, especially when you have periods like the second. A couple of chances either way, but no scoring, and little major action. The third was pretty much more of the same, until the Hawks scored the huge break-a-way goal to ice the game, on a fatal Preds turnover. Big win on the road, and big shutout.
- Frolik and Brouwer showed a little chemistry for the first time, as Fro-do poked a puck to T-Brouw who ended up on a break-a-way but went a little too far past the net trying to outwit Rinne, and tried to bank it off Rinne. That was the best chance for the Hawks in the entire first period, outside of the goal.
- Finally, a Tomo-Kop sighting. He rushed out on the ice as a 6th attacker, with the Preds on a delayed powerplay, and picked up a great pass from Shooter. He took a second to settle it down, and roofed it over Rinne's blocker for a Hawks 1-0 lead. I would gather he was a little excited by that goal; just a hunch.
- Hoss came up with two HUGE plays in a matter of 6 seconds, as he deflected a pass by David Legwand enough to send himself racing the other way and raced in on a break-a-way to put the Hawks up 2-0, LIKE A BOSS.
- The combination of Toews, Bolland, Dowell, and Johnson at center is growing on me. It's amazing what happens when you have guys that are centers by trade and can somewhat do what a center needs to do. Dowell deserves the promotion and Johnson has been a solid faceoff man.
- Shooter iced the game with his second point of the night, as he scored an empty netter in the closing seconds of the game.
- Mr. Crawley was on fire all game, and got a WELL deserved shutout with 31 saves.
- Tomo-Kop made a great long, backhand pass to Ryan Johnson, who went hard to the net and tried to sneak it past Rinne. I was pretty shocked to see a pass THAT nice off Kopecky's stick.
- It's OK, Sharpie, we weren't feeling that first period powerplay, anyway.
- The negated goal by the Preds was really iffy at best. Legwand really barely touched Crawford, but it's about time a call went the Hawks way.
- Hendry only played about 5 shifts in the second period, Hammer had the same amount in the third, and Leddy only had about 8 in the second. It looks like they are going to ride the horses hard.
- Despite the win, all of the Preds centers were all around 60% at the faceoff dots, and all of the Hawks were at 40% and under.
- Kane had enough of a step on two Preds D-men to warrant a call, and possibly a penalty shot, with about four minutes left in the third. That was a "makeup" non call for the waved off goal.
