Nothing quite like a little early season home-and-home cooking. The Hawks made a little stopover in Colorado, Thursday, after paddling the Yotes in Phoenix. The Avalanche came in as one of the hotter teams in the NHL, and probably one of the faster teams in the NHL. No one will forget the season opening loss to them last season, where they ran ALL OVER the slower Hawks. They weren't going to sneak by so easily this time.
The first period was dominated, in shots, by the Avalanche 13-6, but the Hawks were the only ones to score. Call it dumb luck, but they cashed in on a prime chance. Things turned around in the shot category for the Hawks in the second, but THEY were the ones that suffered the unfortunate fate of giving up a goal. Tough team, close game on the road, and a crucial third period. The Hawks held it together long enough to score a late third period goal, and then finally an empty netter. Excellent road win. Bring it on home, boys!
- The Hawk opened up the scoring with just under 4 minutes left in the first period. Captain Serious sent a backhander up where mom keeps the peanut butter, blocker side on Varlamov. Leddy started the play, digging the puck out down low, and dumped it to Carbomb who was coming around the net. Bomb's vision was excellent, as he immediately hit Tazer on the stick and who set it up and put a perfect shot in the net. VERY difficult shot to stop when you're moving in the opposite direction.
- Varlamov absolutely stoned Seabrook on a one timer, after he took a feed from Cappy Serious. With no time to react, he made a ridiculous save.
- Speaking of ridiculous, That Varlamov save on Freddy Kruger is absolutely sickening. Now, Kruger helped by shooting it where Varlamov's glove was going to be, and Varlamov certainly embellished the save, but he deserves to embellish that. That's a save of the year candidate. I bow. Lets see that...in and instant replay:
- The Carcillo watch is still on Dr. Jekyll mode. How long can this last? We're all waiting for the switch to turn, and it's not. I'm glad to be wrong here, thus far. If he keeps this ridiculousness up, resign him!
- Sharpie put the Hawks up for good with just over 5 minutes left in the game, with a little snipe sauce, on the short side. All business, folks. It's about time the first line awoke from their haze.
- Super Serious was a plus 3. Much more of this please? Colorado's Eric Johnson was a minus 3. OUCH!
- Crawford stood on his head. Plain and simple. He held them in the game long enough to shake the rust off, and that's exactly what he's going to need to be able to do. He really deserved a shutout, because that goal was an awful bounce.
- Colorado tied up the game with four and a half minutes left in the second, off a ridiculous pinball goal, that Crawford had no chance on. That puck ricocheted of at least two players, one of then being Incredi-Bolly, who had his back to the puck carrier because he was taking his man. Those things happen, and no one can really be blamed. Let's forget that one ever happened.
- The Frodo Snake Bitten counter is still rolling. He's getting serious chances, but just CANNOT find the back of the net. When he DOES, I have a feeling it's going to be the start of a red hot scoring streak.
- This powerplay problem is beginning to become concerning. While the PK has been excellent, they NEED to be better on the PP to do well in the playoffs. It's early, but there is just TOO much talent on this team to not be scoring on the PP.
- The Hawks were bent over at the faceoff dot all night. The BEST was Bolly at 50%. Serious, and Kaner were both at 38%. OOGLY!