The Blackhawks followed the parade of Cubs fans to the greater Phoenix area for a late season tilt with the terrible Arizona Coyotes, Thursday night. Following a long layoff, for NHL standards, the Hawks were going to have try and cure their goal scoring ills at the expense of the Mike Smith and his wafer thin team. Just have to love these midweek 9 o'clock starts. I will not miss these.
The first period started off how you might think a rusty team would. The Blackhawks came out and gave up an early goal, which stunned the Hawks fans that had traveled to see beating. It didn't take long for the Blackhawks to tie the game, and finished the period leading in shots 17-6.
The second period resulted in even less as far as the goals go, even though the Blackhawks had several powerplays and out shot the Yotes again by another huge 17-6 margin. These are the kinds of games that worry me, because one soft goal puts the Blackhawks in a position of chasing the lead.
The third period was very much like the first two. The Blackhawks out shot the Yotes AGAIN, but this time it was a 10-6 tally. Luckily enough, the Blackhawks were actually able to manage a second goal, and thus win the contest. The game was too late, and I was too tired. On to the discussion points.
- A few minutes after the Yotes went up, the Blackhawks powerplay took the ice, which is usually call for Yakety Sax. This time the first unit bailed the Blackhawks out of their hole. Duncan Keith shockingly got a shot past the opponent's shin pad, and to the front of the net. Mike Smith bit on the original blocked shot and Andrew Shaw was able to sweep a backhand through Smith for a tie game.
- The Blackhawks are going to miss Klas Dahlbeck. The guy is really going to be a nice player
- With about seven minutes left in the third period, the Blackhawks once again went to the powerplay, and this time the second unit got into the action. Kris Versteeg pulled a really nice tor drag around a Yotes defender and snapped a shot off. The rebound lay in the slot area and Brad Richards swept the puck past Smith, very similar to the Shaw goal earlier on.
- Corey Crawford settled in nicely after an early soft goal but, let's face it, 18 shots isn't a plethora.
- The Hawks won over 65% of their faceoffs. El Capitan was the lowest at 57%, but he also took a majority of them, as well.
- Two powerplay goals. We'll take that, even if it is against a team ranked 26th on the PK.
- Just 5 minutes into the game, and the Yotes took a 1-0 lead on a pretty innocent goal. Tobias Rieder took the puck through the neutral zone, skated up the ice through the Hawks zone and cleanly beat Crawford on what should have been a pretty pedestrian save. And because I know you're thinking it, yes, Rozsival was on the ice.
- Despite the powerplay scoring early, they had a double minor late in the second period, before which Konroyd proclaimed "the Blackhawks powerplay is looking real good". They then went and, maybe, earned 2 shots on net.
- Bryan Bickell didn't exactly have that flame under his ass, after sitting the previous game.
- The Blackhawks were the fortunate recipients of an easy powerplay when Mike Smith jumped on Kris Versteeg and mugged him. Probably the best piece of action he has gotten in months.
- I know you'll all be shocked to hear this but, early in the third period, Mike Smith heard a Hawks forechecker skating up behind him and flailed to the ice like he'd been shot. That guy is a complete asshole.
- Joakim Nordstrom made a very stupid decision very late in the game resulting in a stupid boarding penalty against Oliver Ekman-Larrson, which also resulted in Ekman-Larrson getting injured. I wouldn't be surprised to see some disciplinary action following that.
- Steve Konroyd is an enormous fucking vanilla clown. He called Klas Dahlbeck, Chris. He called Patrick Sharp, Andrew. To top everything off, Edzo was back in Chicago with Dan "Frankenberry" Roan, in what could only be described as Red Forman's basement, Dumbass.
Versteeg-Toews-Hossa
Saad-Vermette-Teravainen
Sharp-Richards-Bickell
Shaw-Kruger-Nordstrom
Keith-Rozsival
Seabrook-Timonen
Oduya-Hjalmarsson