How fitting was it that the Colorado Avalanche rolled into town Tuesday night after the first winter storm of the year. Lets get right into it...
The first period could not have started any worse. Not even two minutes in, and the Blackhawks were down 2 on 3 shots. Things calmed down and the Blackhawks actually out shot the Avs 17-10 when they hit the intermission. I don't even want to even break it down any more than that, because it wasn't worth acknowledging.
The Blackhawks did everything but score in the middle period. They put 21 shots on net and only allowed 5. Two failed powerplays probably would have helped, but they came away with nothing to show for their effort.
The Blackhawks third period was more of the same, as they out shot the Avs 16-8. They were still unable to break down the Varlomov barrier and ended up losing 2-0. Another opposing goalie stealing a game.
- Pat, Eddie and everyone else kept talking about how shaky that Varlamov was, but he went out and made 54 saves en route to a shutout. That's not what you consider "shaky". If that is shaky, then I'll take a shaky goalie every night.
- There is nothing good about getting shutout 2-0
- The Power Play has some early chances to chop the Avs lead up, but wasn't able to tally at all.
- Marcus Kruger taking a penalty to negate a potential powerplay was pretty god damn stupid. Tyson Barrie's acting job was equally as brutal.
- The Blackhawks attempted over NINETY shots, and scored on exactly ZERO
- The Hawks were shitcanned at the dots, winning only 37%. The Captain led the way winning only 7 of 23.
- Not even two minutes into the game, and the Blackhawks were already down 2-0. First, Oduya got walked by John Mitchell, who was left in the slot to size Crawford up. Not to fear, though, Crawford made the save. The rebound ended up on the stick of Nathan MacKinnon who buried it. Oduya was flat on the ice and Hjalmarsson was covering a non existent player in front of the net, which left MacKinnon wide open. Twenty four seconds later, Oduya got caught flat footed and Hjalmarsson wasn't able to cover up for him. Max Talbot and Nathan MacKinnon ended up on a 2-on-0 with Crawford, and the puck squirted under him after he made the initial stop. Not Crawford's fault, but he'll get the blame from all the idiot meatballs.
- Midway through the third period the Blackhawks turned it over to Matt Duchene all alone in front of Crawford, and he couldn't get a shot off.
- Just after the halfway point, Jon Toews not only took a penalty, but mouthed off to the official. This awarded him an extra 2 minutes in the box. Luckily the second half of the powerplay was negated by a stupid Avs too many men penalty.
- I had the good fortune to miss most of the latter part of the first period with a 2 1/2 year old that couldn't control his incontinence. This was ironically and similarly fragrant to the Blackhawks, and Johnny Oduya's, opening 2 minutes.
The Lineblender
Saad-Toews-Hossa
Sharp-Richards-Kane
Shaw-Teravainen-Bickell
Smith-Kruger-Nordstrom
Keith-Seabrook
Oduya-Hjalmarsson
Rundblad-Roszival