Sunday, September 22, 2013

Preseason: Blackhawks at Detroit - Win Recap

"Summer Breeze"


I guess the schedule makers didn't get the memo that the Wings were moved to the Eastern conference, with the Hawks facing the Wings twice in the first 4 preseason games. Oh joy. Better than terrible Chicago baseball, that's for sure.

The first period was fairly entertaining with the Hawks scoring two goals on 8 shots, and the Wings scoring one goal of their own, on nine shots. Sloppy hockey, for sure, the goals kept it entertaining.

The second period was much less exciting, with no goals scored. Preseason...Blah.

The Hawks opened up a big lead, in the third, scoring 2 goals fairly quick, but surrendered 2 late goals, as well. When all was said and done, the Hawks held on for a 4-3 road win despite a late flurry from the Wings.

The Good

  • Just two minutes after the Tatar goal, Byron Froese stuffed a Dylan Olsen rebound right between Howard's legs to tie the game up. Nothing really pretty about the play, especially since Howard really let the rebound get away from him. Froese just spun around and threw the puck at the net, beating Howard.
  • Joakim Nordstrom put the Hawks up 2-1 late in the first on a beautiful forechecking play. He caught Alexei Marchenko deep in the Wings zone with his back to the play, and Marchenko completely shit himself. He turned the puck over and Nordstrom drove it to the net. Nordstrom pulled a nice toe drag around the other defender, and beat Howard. Nordstrom also had a nice shorthanded breakaway in the second period, which he didn't do much with it, but half the battle is being in the right place.
  • Garrett Ross put the Hawks up 3-1 shortly into the third period. Jimmie Howard played the puck around the boards to his defender. The defender missed the puck and Ross was sitting along the boards waiting for it. Ross quickly beat Howard back to his far post for the goal.
  • Fifty six seconds after the Ross goal, Froese scored his second of the game in front of the net, on a nice feed from Seabrook. Froese had gotten position on Ericsson and was rewarded with a goal. That ended Howard's night.
  • Datsyuk and Zetterberg were a combined minus 4. Booyah!
  • Brad Mills was a plus 3. Yes, I said BRAD FUCKING MILLS.
  • I know it's preseason and the competition has been "subpar", but Nordstrom, Dahlbeck and Olsen all looked really good. Olsen is skating with confidence, which is something he hadn't had in a while.
The Bad

  • Apparently Quenneville's memory is very short, because he didn't remember the Steve Montador and John Scott at forward abortions. THIS time he lined up future Ice Hog Michael Kostka at forward. What could possibly go wrong? I guess they didn't have enough other forwards on the roster, eh?
  • Tomas Tatar opened up the scoring almost halfway through the first period. Dahlbeck got caught reaching at the Wings forward and Tatar was allowed far too much room. The puck was fed from behind the net and right to a wide open Tatar, who chipped it up and over Crawford's glove, who was still looking over his right shoulder.
  • Tatar scored his second goal of the game on a late penalty as a result of a Jimmy Hayes penalty. Nyquist took a shot from the left circle and Tatar redirected it from about 10 feet out between Olsen and Dahlbeck.
  • Jonathan Ericsson put a late slapshot past Crawford, with 41 seconds remaining, which made it interesting.
  • As has become the norm, the Hawks were schooled at the dots, to the tune of 39%. El Capitan and Froese each went 5 of 13 at the faceoff dots.
The Ugly

  • The announcers, clearly from Detroit, were fucking deplorable. They didn't mention who scored the first Hawks goal until they had played a full minute after. How hard it is to watch the replay and match up the number? They also questioned a non icing call when the Hawks were shorthanded. To finish it off, they gave Nordstrom shit for getting hurt while blocking a shot, by announcing "I don't know why you wouldn't wear pads there". Like no player ever got while blocking shots and wearing pads. How much padding can you put on the inside of the skate? So much elitist asshurt from those fucking clowns!
  • Brandon Saad took a Brendan Smith shot right in the glove and immediately went off the ice. Not good.

The Lines

Saad-Toews-Smith
Ross-Leblanc-Hayes
Bollig-Kruger-Nordstrom
Kostka-Froese-Mills

Keith-Seabrook
Roszival-Svedberg
Olsen-Dahlbeck

Whenever the NHL straightens out their video embedding issue, we'll be including game highlights.
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