Last night the Hawks were playing the 1st of the final 10 regular season games, against a recently familiar foe, the Florida Sex Panthers. With all the Brian Campbell and Marcus Kruger hoopla going on, in the days leading up to it, this game almost seemed overlooked. Once again, the Hawks would have to face former GM, Player, and Color man Dale Tallon. This was also the first time the Hawks faced their former player, Jack Skille. There is no doubt that the Panthers will use the win earlier in the month and the Tallon/Skille revenge factor as motivation in the game. The drama was abound, and the Hawks HAD to have this win and these two points.
The Blackhawks looked a little sloppy in the first couple of shifts, but tightened up a little later in the period. Even with some decent scoring chances either way, both teams were scoreless in the period. In the second period, the Hawks took a 1-0 lead and were outshooting the Kittens 24-13. In the third period, the clouds parted and the sun shined through, with the Hawks scoring 3 more goals and decidedly shutting out the Sex Panthers 4-0. Exactly what needed to be done.
- In the second shift of the game, Pick-to-Click Vik used his speed AGAIN, to drive hard to the net. He was blasted into Tomas Vokoun by Mike Weaver, but he had a couple of steps on the defenders, and drew a penalty. That's exactly what Vik needs to continue doing. He did the same thing, again, in the second and fed Kaner for a nice chance. He also scored a big goal, but I'll expand on that more later.
- Kruger started on the third line, and second powerplay unit. As would be expected and as I predicted, he wasn't very noticeable. Maybe our new swede is broken!
- After three pretty bad powerplays, Seabs unleashed a howitzer of a one timer on a feed from Deuce, to put the Blackhawks up 1-0. It was really a matter of time, because the Hawks had an advantage in chances. The new configuration, with Deuce at the point and Seabs on the trigger side, could work nicely.
- Kaner, El Capitan, and Vik played tic-tac-toe, forty six seconds into the third period, and got the Hawks off and running with a 2-0 lead. It SHOULD look that easy all game. The chemistry between those three is going to be important, if the Hawks expect to do anything but get booted in the first round.
- Kaner added to the lead, on a hot pass from Deuce. The shot changed speeds after it hist a defender and squirted through Vokoun's 5-hole. Might have been a softy, but Vokoun was pounded like an porn star all game long. The percentages were with the Hawks.
- Open up the flood gates with a little Czech connection. Boss 81 lead the rush and fed Frodo, who sent the puck back across the ice to Tomokop, who hit a GAPING net, and the Hawks were up 4-0.
- Crow earned a well deserved shutout, but lets face it, the Hawks SHOULD shut this team out. They are inferior and really should be whipped all over the rink.
- Even with the Seabrook powerplay goal, the Hawks should have had MANY more chances against a team like the Panthers. I'm not sure what happened, but it started before Sharpie got hurt. Again, not a time to go cold, gentlemen.
- When Tomas Kopecky (3-4, 75%)leads the team in faceoff percentage, and Frodo (7-11, 64%)is right behind him, your team had a rough night at the dots. El Capitan was over 50%, but Kruger, Snake, and Johnson were all under 50%.
- In a 4-0 shutout, there can't really be much UGLY, so I'll give the team a break. I can't be a "Debbie Downer" every night.
