Burn It To The Ground
On Wednesday night, the Blackhawks continued their 8 game home stand, as the once rival, Vancouver Canucks came into town. Since the playoff match ups of years past, the hatred between these two teams has calmed down, despite some of the media's efforts to drum up support, I'm looking at you Jim Rose. Bottom line is now that Kesler, Luongo, O'Brien, Torres, and others from the Canucks are long, this is just another match up in the season. Sure we still can't stand the Sedin sisters, or Alex Burrows, but come to grips with it folks, its over. If tonight's game was any indication, we're in for a bumpy right with yours truly in control of Puckin' Hostile for the next week.
Talk about a lackluster start to a hockey game. The first period was full of sloppy play by the Blackhawks, with much of their passes going to no one, and filled with one or some cases two too many passes. It was about as awesome as a certain Western Canadian band named Nickelback.
The second period was a complete and utter shitshow as Gatekeeper would say. Numerous turnovers wound up in the back of the Blackhawks net, with none being a soft goal allowed by Crawford. The loan bright spot for the Blackhawks was a goal by Patrick Kane in the first minute of the period, one that didn't even go in off of his stick. Thank you Dan Hamhuis.
With the Canucks up 3-1 to start the 3rd period, many (including yours truly) thought the Blackhawks were down and out after being completely outplayed. But credit the Hawks, they kept playing, barely, and the Canucks took their foot off the gas enough to give the Hawks some life. Hossa would open the scoring just past the midway part of the period, only to see Daniel Sedin answer right back. Then the Blackhawks woke up in the final 5 minutes of the game with goals by Saad and Hossa to tie the game at four. From there we would head to overtime.
The overtime frame didn't last long as Henrik (in a vomit inducing Pat Foley voice) "where's Daniel? where's Daniel?" would eventually find Daniel, for the sake of humanity, and the Sedin would bury the chance to give the Canucks a 5-4 overtime win over the Blackhawks.
The Good
- Well, I don't want to give the Hawks much credit, so I'm lumping Hossa and Kane into the same sentence. Hossa had two goals, while Kane had a goal and two assists. We'll also give an honorable mention to Saad, who had one goal and one assist.
- The other good is Corey Crawford who kept the Hawks in the game despite being down 3-1 at one point. Crawford's play is the only reason the Hawks ended up getting non deserving point tonight.
- The Hawks did manage to go 2 for 4 on the power play. Jump for joy.
The Bad
- Adequate Rundblad is no longer looking so adequate as of late. His ill advised turnover wound up in the back of the Hawks net. At least the trade deadline is coming up and the Hawks will be able to address the need of two defensemen and a center, oh wait. No cap space. Sorry to get your hopes up.
The Ugly
- The turnovers, and all around sloppy play by the Blackhawks for 50 minutes tonight was nauseating. Completely inexcusable in my opinion.
- Speaking of nauseating, next time ANY Blackhawk has an open shot, SHOOT THE DAMN PUCK on net instead of making the too cute, extra pass.
- Kris Versteeg had a return to the lineup that last year's Kris Versteeg would love. Versteeg managed to be a -3 on the night, and of course showcase his awesome stickhandling into a turnover.
- With the news that Joakim Nordstrom had been sent down earlier in the day, we knew it was coming, but still managed to act surprised. Quenneville made Teuvo a healthy scratch in favor of inserting Gorilla Salad into the lineup. Salad managed 5:43 TOI tonight. Seriously, what the fuck Q? This is exactly what I was saying when NO ONE wanted to listen to me on why Teuvo shouldn't have been brought up in the first place. How is sitting in the press box going to A. build his confidence, and B. get him accustomed to the NHL? Sending him back to Rockford isn't a knock on his game, because I thought he was alright for the most part, but its all about seasoning and ice time. Both of which he doesn't get while sitting in the press box in Chicago.