On Saturday night the Blackhawks continued their four game road trip, this time visiting the Dallas Stars. While the Stars will miss the playoffs, and have nothing to play for other than their paychecks, the Blackhawks, on the other hand, can have first place in the Central Division at the tip of their fingers with a win. Since its a Saturday night and there's beer to drink, lets get right on to the recap.
As the puck dropped it looked like the Blackhawks were missing that extra jump in their step. As the period went on that became more and more evident. Despite having two power plays in the first six minutes, the Blackhawks looked out of sorts. Their passing was off and were careless with their decision making. The Stars managed to find some momentum off those two PKs, and would score shortly after the second Hawks power play. Late in the period the Stars would add their own power play goal, and take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The second period seemed like a repeat of the first. The Stars absolutely dominated the Hawks through the first 15 minutes of the period. You can argue if the Stars had actual talent not named Benn, Seguin, or Spezza, they could have easily been up 5-0. Luckily for the Hawks sake, the Stars have Cody Eakin, and he is apparently allergic to hitting a wide open 6x4 net. In the final minutes of the period, the Hawks got some chances, but couldn't solve Lehtonen. After two the score was still 2-0 in favor of the Stars.
Whatever momentum the Blackhawks had at the end of the second period, it quickly vanished in the third period. Brandon Saad had an opportunity on a penalty shot, but was denied by Lehtonen. The careless, and sloppy puck decisions continued, and of course the turnovers wound up in the back of the Hawks net. The Stars tacked on two more goals in third period, to give them a 4-0 lead. While at the other end of the ice Kari Lehtonen stopped all 33 shots faced, en route to the 4-0 Stars win.
The Good
- Mercifully this game ended in just about 2 1/2 hours so we no longer had to see the assholes in the 100 level stand up, turn, and wave to the camera anymore.
- Unlike Steve Konroyd said, there were no positives, but like Jan from Toyota says, let go places. Like to the bad and ugly.
The Bad
- The defensive zone breakdowns allowed Dallas to have all the time and space in the world they wanted tonight. (See Spezza goal for prime example)
- Corey Crawford wasn't great, nor was he terrible. When your defense hangs you out to dry for most of the night what do expect is going to happen?
- In a game like this, it was pretty obvious from the start that the Blackhawks didn't have it or give a shit. So with that in mind I have a problem with Q giving Duncan Keith 25 minutes of ice time.
- When the best shifts in the first 2/3rds of a game are from your fourth line, that's a problem.
- Its hard to knock the PK because they've been so good for so long, so I'll put them in the bad and not ugly tonight. Either way, they yielded two power play goals to the Stars tonight.
The Ugly
- Looks like Kris Versteeg's turnoveritis has reappeared. He was a big old pile of dog shit tonight. How he got over 16 minutes of ice time is beyond me.
- Lets not single one defenseman out, lets just say the entire defense was awful tonight.
- In the "hits are meaningless category" the Blackhawks were out hit tonight 26-15. Last I checked weren't they the ones chasing the puck tonight?
- Stop being Johnny Positive everyone, and lets accept the fact that so far Antoine Vermette hasn't lived up to the expectations. Sure, he's still adjusting, but by now you'd like to see some sort of progress.
- Remember when we were drooling over the power play? Well tonight they were an 0 for again. This time, 0 for 2.
- Its sad to see Pat Foley can't remember what a good body check is. I'm speaking of course about Jordie Benn's hit on Andrew Saad, I mean Andrew Shaw.
- Fuck it, I am singling out a defenseman. Michal Rozsival was the only Blackhawk that was a -2 tonight. I've seen turtles and snails that are faster than him.