2-1 Shootout Loss
- Blaming Corey Crawford for this loss, is idiotic. He held one of the more powerful teams in the West to just one goal in 65 minutes and had 38 saves. For those that are slow, that's a .974 save percentage. How anyone can complain about that is beyond my comprehension. Shootouts are stupid.
- The Pavelski goal was a marvel of physics. You can't expect Crawford to expect Pevelski to roof that shot from 5 feet, with two defenders all over him.
- Scoring a powerplay goal after giving up shorthanded goal kind of renders both irrelevant.
- The Hawks were "OK" at the dots, but Toews was a paltry 6 of 19 (32%). Since he takes a majority of the draws, it's safe to say he drags the rest of the team down with him.
- The Sharks' Mike Brown only played 9 shifts and allegedly had 4 hits. I call shenanigans.
- I'm not really sure what go into the Kings, but they were extra "Blues-y" in this game. The game started off with Drew Dough-Boy charging Patrick Sharp from behind, and the shenanigans just continued from there. In one shift, I watched Matt Greene cross check and punch Versteeg in the small of the back at least half a dozed times, putting him on the ice for at least half of those. Are we condoning this, NHL, because it wasn't exactly behind the play.
- The big story of this game was that Patrick Kane lost his grandfather shortly before the game began, and he did what great athletes do; he took care of business. Two goals and an assist, are more than anyone should ask for from a young man who just lost an important figure in his life. We can all return to poking fun at the phenom later, because our hearts should all go out to him right now. We're lucky to have a player like this in Chicago, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a complete moron.
- Bryan Bickell returned to the lineup and sunk a 2 foot putt, on a 3-on-1 feed from Pat Kane. Quenneville still had him on a short leash though, with only 8:10.
- The win will overshadow the fact that the Hawks were terrible at the faceoff dots. Toews only won 5 of 24 faceoffs. FIVE OF TWENTY FOUR! That's two games in a row that El Capitan was dicked at the dot
- I wouldn't call any of the goaltender stupendous, but it was servicable. Quick had a few really nice saves, and Crawford did as well. The Hawks were actually outshot 34-30, so you can call this a Crawford win.
- The Kings line of Williams/Richards/Brown was a combined -6. Woof! So much for running around the ice like a bunch of coked up henchmen.
- This is exactly what Corey Crawford needed going into the Olympics. With the haters piling on, he was able to quiet them with just one performance.
- The Hossa goal was an extremely impressive example of patience. He waited Hiller out for what seemed like 3 days, and tucked it around the goalie. We are so lucky to have talent like this, because he isn't flashy, but he is just so good.
- How Hampus Lindholm got the third star, with Hossa having a part in both Hawks goals, is beyond me. Stars of the game are stupid.
- Andrew Shaw was pretty much stuck on stupid. His second penalty was just stupid. A kneeing penalty against everyone's favorite 100 year old Fin, Teemu Selanne. This is probably why he played less than only Bryan Bickell.
- New acquisition Peter Regan opened his first Blackhawks game at #2 center. Of course this was without Patrick Kane, who was with his family in Buffalo for the funeral of his Grandfather, but it's still not a bad place to be.
- What can you really say about a team that is shut out? Both Coyotes goals were on the power play which were as a result of stupid Blackhawks penalties. Bollig opened the game with a dumb slew foot of Shane Doan, and later Brandon Saad was a little less than vigilant about avoiding Mike Smith as he plowed through the crease. Michael Rozsival followed up the Saad penalty with an additional 2 minutes for yapping at the officials.
- The team had no jump. Whether it was the Olympic break or the loss of Kane, the Blackhawks were not on top of their game.
- I don't want to harp on the officiating, but I'm going to. The Officials called Bryan Bickell for picking up a teammate's perfectly fine stick and using it, and later on missed a call that would have negated the second Coyotes goal.
- After Bollig's dumbs penalty led to the very early Coyotes lead, he was basically stapled to the bench, playing only 5:22. Rozsival, on the other hand, took a stupid penalty, and was rewarded with a team high 30 shifts.