No time to enjoy the Hawks big win Friday, with the Oilers coming into town. These aren't the Oilers that we've been use to smacking around, because they were actually leading their division. The young talent includes names like Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Former Blackhawks netminder Nikolai Khabibulin was in net for the Oilers, and was leading the lead in goals against average. This was going to prove to be a good test for the Hawks before they hit the road for their annual west coast circus trip.
The Blackhawks were all business early in the first scoring 2 quick goals to stun the Oilers. Even though the Oilers were able to score a bad one themselves, the Hawks answered later on the powerplay, to go into the intermission up 3-1. Even though the Hawks held a shot advantage for the second period as well, they tied the period as both teams scored a pair of goals, but the Hawks were still up 5-3 at teh end of the second period. The only goal in the third was the empty netter at the end, with the Hawks winning their last game at home for a while 6-3.
- El Capitan just dominated the first few minutes of the game, like it was his job, and it was rewarded by a pretty first goal. Stalberg fed the puck from the corner to Tazer, who took it around the net and moved right around in front. As soon as he had a clean look, Tazer snapped a shot up over Khabibulin's shoulder, knocking the water bottle off the net. 1-0 Hawks
- Thirty six seconds after the Toews goal, Frank the Tank took a feed from Kaner, knifed through the offensive zone, and went right around Khabby, for a 2-0 lead.
- Apparently all the Hawks power play needed was...Frank the Tank. He tipped a puck past Khabby, on a long shot from Leddy to put the Hawks up 3-1 with only 16 minutes gone in the game. That was his second PPG in 2 games and 3rd overall. Hell, keep throwing him out there at forward. Play the hot hand.
- The brutal goal aside, Crawford made a couple of gorgeous glove saves in the opening period.
- Twenty two seconds into the second period, the Hawks capitalized on another Oilers turnover and El Capitan jammed a puck in the net himself. Nothing fancy, just good old meat and potatoes.
- Shortly after Eberle's goal, the Hawks capitalized on yet ANOTHER Oilers turnover, and the Deuce scored on a long wrist shot, through a screen, to put the Hawks up 5-2.
- The Hawks had a decent night at the dots, with Tazer leading at 71%, and Krugs the loser of the night, at 20%. Kruger is the worst on he team, winning only 41% of his draws. He needs that to get better, yesterday.
- Seabrook fell awkwardly in the second, on a powerplay rush, and limped off the ice, never to return. Lets hope that was just precautionary, because that may affect the Hawks more than missing Keith.
- Jordan Eberle atoned for his high sticking penalty by picking up a loose puck that had gotten past Keith just as he had stepped out of the box and raced in on Crawford. He waited....and waited.....and waited. Once Crawford was finally down and out, Eberle put it past him. This Eberle kid is a stud. He blazed past Keith like he was standing still, and that's not an easy task.
- A late second period powerplay chance resulted in an Oilers goal, as Leddy let Shawn Horcoff get position on him, and he tipped a Nugent-Hopkins pass into the net.
- Well, as I predicted, Bruno seems to have been lost in the shuffle. Under 10 minutes of ice time, mostly with the forth line, and a minus 1. The thing is, I don't think anyone misses him. The only thing left is a healthy scratch in the near future.
- The Oilers scored their first of the game on a real head scratcher. Ryan Smyth seemed to be innocently skating behind the net, and decided to take it to the net and just jammed it in the net, like a kid on prom night. That's an unacceptable goal.
- I'm not going to waste much time bitching about Big Show. He was invisible, which is about the best we can hope from him.
