The Blackhawks were in LA Saturday night to face the Kings and try to take a 2-1 series lead. Unfortunately, the Kings had other plans. The Blackhawks took both 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the game, but for the second game in a row they fell seriously flat in the third period. As a result, the Blackhawks were left to celebrate Memorial Day weekend down 2-1 in the Western Conference Final and left wondering exactly what more they needed do to even this series Monday, or go down 3-1.
- Andrew Shaw made his triumphant return Saturday night but really wasn't much of a factor. In fact, he lost all 7 faceoffs he took.
- El Capitan grabbed an early lead for the Blackhawks. Immediately after Handzus took his stupid ass penalty. He lost the faceoff but then stripped Mr Game Seven, Williams, and went in on Quick. Toews faked the slapshot to freeze Quick and then beat him low for a 1-0 Blackhawks lead.
- Michael Rozsival set the table for a 2-1 Blackhawks lead, late in the first period. He walked around a Kings defender, with a painfully slow toe drag and put a nice shot on net. The rebound ended up in the skates of Toews, where he was able to kick it to his stick and into the net.
- Hossa made a great play during a 3rd period penalty kill, when Seabrook broke his stick over Gaborik. Hoss gave his stick to Seabrook which sounds innocent enough, but it doesn't happen often when a defenseman breaks a stick and a forward passes his to the defender.
- The Blackhawks scored a long goal with 3 seconds remaining but it was really pointless. I understand that it was Patrick Sharp, but it was a fortunate bounce and irrelevant.
- If not for Shaw the Blackhawks did decent at the dots. Stoll and Kopitar took 45 of the 57 faceoffs so that tells you what Sutter's plan is.
- Jeff Carter tied the game about half way through the second period. Seabrook was working Tanner Pearson behind the net pretty well, but Handzus and Oduya left Jeff Carter wide open in front of the net. Pearson kept control of the puck long enough to hit Carter, who had Crawford dead to rights.
- The Blackhawks powerplay has gone ice fucking cold. While they had some pressure late in the second, the first two powerplays were god damn terrible. First they had no presence down low and then when they got the pressure low, the Blackhawks kept ending with players on the wrong side of the ice, so they couldn't unload the puck fast enough.
- Michael Rozsival took a bad penalty in the third period and the Kings ended up taking a 4-2 lead on the resulting powerplay. At this point the Blackhawks were shooting themselves in the foot.
- Something has to be done to get Kane and Sharp contributing.
- I thought my eyes deceived me when I saw the fact that the Blackhawks out hit the Kings for the game 32-26, which tells me one thing. The Blackhawks puck possession was dogshit.
- I won't go as far as the meatballs, but Crawford needs to be better. Two goals against in the second period on only 4 shots won't win you many games. They weren't totally his fault, but he does need to bail out team from time to time. When they needed it most, he was as bad as they were.
- The Blackhawks bad penalties continued in the first period. Handzus took a penalty for closing his hand on the puck, which is about as easy a call as you can get. Even after the Toews shorthanded goal, the Blackhawks surrendered a powerplay goal. The casual fan will blame Crawford, but when you leave a guy that much time to size the goalie up and blast a 90 plus mph slapshot off the post and in, your goalie doesn't stand a chance. How about not letting a defenseman tee up from the ladies tee?
- The Kings took a 3-2 lead late in the second period. Tyler Toffoli walked right through flat footed Oduya and Hjalmarsson, and snuck the puck by Crawford to take the King's first lead of the night. If you look at the replay, Hammer and Kruger both gave up on the play and Toffoli took full advantage. Too many guys standing straight up and not moving their legs.
- You won't win many conference final games getting out shot 18-7 in the third period and even though the Hawks out shot the Kings 10-4 in the second, they were out scored 2-0.