The Hawks were told that they were going to have a good old fashioned dogfight on their hands back once they got to LA. At least that's what just about every analyst said. This would make sense. The Kings are a proud team that didn't make it this far by rolling over and dying. A dogfight was exactly what the Hawks got, in fact.
As just about everyone expected, the Kings came out with a chip on their shoulders. There were lots of big hits, annoying little cheap shots from the Kings as well as the only goal of the period. Thanks to some penalties, they had a little more room to work than they did in the UC. They only out shot the Hawks 8-7, but it seemed like double that count.
The second period was even worse than the first period. Thanks to a really stupid Blackhawks penalty, the Hawks ended up spending almost a quarter of the period killing penalties. Luckily, one of their paltry three shots ended up in the back of the net, which brought the game back to within one goal, before the final buzzer.
The Hawks actually showed up for the third period, but weren't able to get that elusive game tying goal. According to the official scorer, the Hawks were out shot 11-10, but not in the game I was watching. Anyhow, the Hawks were going to have to recover enough for an attempt to take a 3-1 series lead, Thursday night, before coming back to the UC.
- Not sure what wild hair was up Patrick Sharp's ass, but he was perfectly willing to drop the gloves with Justin Williams late in the first period. The refs jumped on them before any hooks were thrown, but it was going down. He's been skating with an edge all series.
- Bickell continued his great play scoring a late second period goal with under a minute left. He grabbed the puck behind the net after the Kings defenders took each other out. He had plenty of time to come around the net and out wait Quick. Huge goal for the Hawks when they had absolutely nothing going on.
- Bickell WAS the offense and had the majority of the Hawks chances. He's earning himself a lot of money somewhere else this summer. Where has this Bickell been for the last, oh say, six fucking years????? All of a sudden it's a contract year and he's figured everything out?
- The Kings took a 1-0 lead, about 5 minutes into the game, off the stick of Justin Williams. The play started when Nick Leddy got a little too full of himself, and tried to pull one of his end to end rushes. He didn't make it past the top of the Hawks circle before Williams cut him off. The puck rattled around the top of the Hawks zone until the puck ended back up on the stick of William again. He let a quick one time shot go, and beat Crawford to the stick side. Williams caught Crawford trying to slide across, and Crawford didn't make it far enough across his crease to make the save.
- The Hawks got caught running around in their own zone with Keith and Seabrook on the ice and Slava Voynov ended up with a clean look at the net from about 20 feet out. He wound up and actually broke his stick on the shot, but the change up ended up slowly hitting Crawford's left pad and skidding into the net. 2-0 Kings just a few minutes into the second.
- The drooling troglodyte, Dwight King, scored an empty netter. Enjoy it, maybe it'll get you laid, but I can't imagine any woman stomaching that hideous serial killer grin. 3-1 Kings, aaaand fade to black.
- Toews? Kane? Alright, you can join the rest of your teammates anytime you're ready. Play time is over. Your team is going to slowly start to hit the IR, from the sore backs they have as a result of wearing you two clowns as backpacks. Remember when we were up in arms because they weren't mentioned for the Hart Trophy? That was fun.
- If the Hawks had even an AVERAGE powerplay, they might never lose a game but, alas, this team is enrolled at the Harvard of Clown Colleges.
- The Hawks took a bunch of completely idiotic penalties. Keith's four minute penalty for whacking Jeff Carter in the face behind the play was no exception. You have to be smarter than that. Don't become the Penguins.
- Hjalmarsson took a shot right to the inside of the knee on a Kings powerplay and was in some SERIOUS pain. I can't see him NOT missing time after that shot, even though he made it back out to finish the game. That would be a big loss on the Hawks back end if it swelled up.
- Brian Engblom actually had the balls to say "good no call" on an inadvertent high stick against Keith. He couldn't be any more wrong. The refs just plain missed the call. A high stick is a high stick. One of the easiest calls to make and one of the few black and white calls this game has.
- Hawks; Faceoffs; Suckfest Extraordinaire. Forty one percent is all I need to say. I still don't see these highly paid analysts mentioning this, but it's important. Instead we'll beat
- Anze Kopitar? Anyone? This guy is supposed to be the best center no one talks about? We can see why they don't talk about him.
Courtesy of Mighty Mike D at Cheer the Anthem, thanks to HockeeNight for starting the tradition.
