What better on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Chicago, than Blackhawks playoff hockey? The answer is NOTHING. The Hawks faced the Wings in game two Saturday, after a convincing game one win. This one looked to be a little closer than game one, so lets get right to it!
The first period started a little slow for the Blackhawks, with the Wings coming out to make a statement. The Hawks were actually out shot 12-8 but scored the only goal of the period. You would expect the Hawks to use their speed to wear the Wings down in the final 40 minutes. ONE WOULD THINK!
That wasn't the case in the second period, as the Wings owned the play all period. They scored two goals on eight shots, and held the Blackhawks to only 5 shots. All that aside, the Hawks were only down one goal, and had plenty of time to wake up.
That certainly didn't happen, as the Hawks just mailed this one in. The Wings scored two goals in the third period on ten shots, and thoroughly embarrassed the Hawks. On to game three.
- With just about six minutes remaining in the first period, Shooter snuck in behind Hawks whipping boy, Brendan Smith. He lifted Smith's stick just as he was going to intercept a breakout pass and they were off to the races. Smith fell, and left Sharp, Kane and Handzus to feast on his goalie. Sharp tried to hit Kane with a pass that was blocked, but landed on the stick of Handzus. Zus then fed a wide open Kane for the easy open netter. 1-0 Hawks
- With time running out in the first period, Zetterberg had a prime chance, from the Hawks corner, to set up a back door goal for Kronwall. Hjalmarsson was able to one up Kronwall by lifting his stick, snuffing out the chance. That is a play that the casual fan doesn't notice but wins games. Plays like that are just as important as the goals.
- Not that this will show up in the stats, but Crawford made several nice saves to keep them in the game. This loss is not on him.
- Rozy Val set up Saad for a nice cross ice back door chance about 7 minutes into the game, and Saad waited far too long to get the shot off. Howard beat him to the post. Playoff hockey, kid. One timers, for fucks sakes!
- Jakub Kindl and Damien Brunner tied the game up, about two and a half minutes into the second period. The shot was a light dump towards the net and seemed to have eyes and deflect off Brunner. That's one the that Hawks and Crawford would like back.
- The Hawks broke down in their own end and Sharp allowed Brendan Smith to sneak in behind him late in the second period to allow the Wings to take a 2-1 lead. Zetterberg set the play up, but the Blackhawks laziness was a huge contributor.
- The Hawks went down 4-1 as Bolland won a faceoff, but then let Zetterberg skate right past him. Seabrook took a half assed pinch attempt and Zetterberg skated right around him, to lead a 3 on 2 chance. The puck was dropped back to Filppula who shrugged off a Bolland half assed attempt to knock him off the puck, and got Crawford to open up the 5 hole. 4-1 Wings.
- For the second game in a row the Blackhawks were horse collared at the faceoff dots. The only one over the 50% mark was InvisiBolly. El Capitan was at 40% which makes for a terrible day.
- During the Hawks first powerplay Leddy fell down between the Wings blue line and red line. Cory Emmerton ended up with a break-a-way, but Seabrook was able to catch up to him, and Crawford was able to make the save.
- Hjalmarsson looked to be on whatever was making Sharp sleepy, letting Franzen get in behind him and beat Crawford for a 3-1 Wings lead. You cannot let a player as slow as Franzen get in behind you and eat your goalie up. That's pathetic.
- Stalberg missed his second game in a row, as a healthy scratch. This has to be some of the dumbest shit ever. Gorilla Salad can run around like a mental patient doing dumb shit, and Stalberg is sitting in the press box.
- Rozy Val and Oduya were plus 1, but the rest of the defensive corp were a combined minus EIGHT!
- The Hawks out hit the Wings 36-26. So, all the fucking meatballs can quit with the "they have to get more hits", horseshit. It obviously makes no difference.
- Even though they killed all the powerplays against, Bolland alone had 3 penalties. Seriously, what the fuck is he trying to accomplish?