The Blackhawks opened up their pre-season, last night, in a pretty boring manner. After CSN plus learned to light up the Hawks feed and after it became very apparent that the United Center organ was broken, the Wings and Hawks took the ice for a sloppy and extremely boring first period. Of course, that first period yielded one of the least exciting goals we will see this year. The second period was only slightly more entertaining because the Blackhawks were able to tie the score. The rest of regulation was just as boring as the first period, which led the game to overtime. The Blackhawks eventually won early in OT, which meant that we would have to wait to see these new 3-on-3 OT rules. This was good, because the quality of play with more room to trip and fall would have been ugly.
- Crawford saved 13 of 14 shots, and was relieved by Scott Darling just over halfway through the second period.
- Speaking of Darling, he was perfect and looked much better than the scrimmage the night before. He looks ENORMOUS out there.
- With just over 2 minutes left in the second period, Deuce, Brad Dickards and Crazy 8s put together a little end to end rush that resulted in a Kane break-a-way and eventually the game tying goal. Gustavsson didn't stand a chance and every fan watching knew it was going to be a goal when Kane picked up the puck at center ice. Nice to see Richards fitting in with his new weapon.
- Roughly halfway through the third period, Marian Hossa led a magical shift where the Blackhawks toyed with the Wings, deep in their zone, for about a minute and a half. If you have only been watching the Blackhawks for a few years, you're taking his talent for granted. The guy and his talent are amazing.
- Brandon Saad nearly ended the game in overtime with an impressive knife right up the gut and then the ensuing backhand shot off the post. Saad is going to be scary good this year.
- Just a few moments after Saad almost won the game, Duncan Keith took a Toews faceoff won and beat Mrazek with a long low sot for a Blackhawks win. EDIT - The goal was eventually given to Toews on a slight deflection
- The Hawks continued their great play at the dots, with only rookie Dennis Rasmussen getting worked over.
- I didn't notice much about Dahlbeck, Rasmussen, or Danault, but that probably has to do with the collective sloppy and terrible pace. From what I saw of Danault, he could step in for Kruger at any point. This is good news, with Kruger going to RFA at year's end. Dahlbeck and Rasmussen did not look out of place, even though they did not stand out.
- Just over 5 minutes into the game, Luke Glendening tipped Danny DeKeyser shot past Crawford in a pretty vanilla play. It was a stupid fluke redirect, about 6 feet in front of Crawford. The Wings 3rd liners skated through the middle of the Hawks top pair who looked none too interested.
- The Hawks were outshot 12-4 in the second period and won the middle frame 1-0. The Wings out shot the Blackhawks overall, 22-19 thanks to that big but futile second period.
- Manshitter and Bass split the team low TOI with 7:37 and 9:19 respectively. These guys show me nothing. If you are going to tell me that EITHER of these fucking hammer throwing clowns give you more than Jeremy Morin or Ben Smith, you are out of your meathead mind.
- Rozsival was terrible all night. He looked slow and was turning over the puck relentlessly. His time might be done.
- The United Center organ is reportedly broken and has been since Frank Pelico tried to fire it up for the Training Camp festival Monday night. The national anthem was terrible as a result.
- Cementhead Cody Bass tried to fight Aaron Rome and the two of them got 5 minutes for hugging it out. It looked like a makeout session between two middle school kids.
- Cuba Gooding Jr not only scored during shoot the puck, and disrobed, but made everyone forget "The Stripper" was ever played. Click here to see the video
Sharp-Toews-Hossa
Saad-Richards-Kane
Carey-Rasmussen-Morin
Mashinter-Danault-Bass
Keith-Seabrook
Dahlbeck-Hjalmarsson
Cumiskey-Rozsival
