Sunday night featured a marquee, Original Six matchup on West Madison, as the New York Rangers made their only visit of the year to Chicago. Prior to the game, much of the talk in the Blackhawks world revolved around the expensive healthy scratch for the game, Bryan Bickell. To anyone who has paid attention this year, this should not surprise anyone. Of course however, that wasn't the only talk of the land. As is always the case, Coach Q made noise with his bat shit crazy line combinations. Oh boy, we're in for a real treat for this game.
As the puck dropped at the beginning of the game, we were still questioning the line of Carcill-Richards-Sharp, since the best way to get two struggling players out of a slump is to put them on a line with Gorilla Salad. How has Q won two Cups? Oh, I remember, it wasn't all about him. Throughout the first period, the Blackhawks allowed the Rangers way too much time and space and allowed 16 shot to New York. In addition to playing with fire by allowing all the opportunities to the Rangers, the Blackhawks also pissed away two power plays in the first. Some how after one, the game was scoreless.
In the second period the Blackhawks were a lot better defensively, holding the Rangers to just five shots. However all was not fine and dandy. The Blackhawks pissed away two more power play opportunities, both of which were frankly awful. I'd add more, but lets be honest that second period was flat out boring.
The third period belonged to the man in the crease for the Blackhawks. Corey Crawford made a few key saves in a sequence of chances for the Rangers just past the midway point of the third period. Meanwhile at the other end, Cam Talbot was just as good for the Rangers, denying a great opportunity by Patrick Sharp. The Blackhawks tried to hand the game to the Rangers by taking a late too many men on the ice penalty, but luckily they were able to kill it off. After a scoreless 60 minutes, we'd head to overtime.
As for the overtime, it didn't last long. Toews had an opportunity to open the extra frame, but was denied by Talbot. Following that play, the Rangers were able to get the puck out, and Derick Brassard found some open ice, and blew a slapper past Crawford to give the Rangers the 1-0 overtime win.
Next up for the Blackhawks is a quick two game road trip out west, where they will help the attendance in Glendale, AZ as they take on the soon to be former Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.
The Good
- Any NBC or NBCSN televised game without Thrillbury and McGuire is a huge plus!
- Despite the overtime loss, Corey Crawford was fantastic in net. You can argue that if it weren't for him, the Blackhawks had no business getting a point. And stop if you want to nitpick the Brassard goal.
- As bad as the power play has been, the penalty kill has been excellent. Once again they put in a huge effort with a late kill in the third period.
- Overall this was probably Teravainen's best game, but knowing Q, he'll scratch him next game for being on the ice for the overtime goal.
The Bad
- Wasn't it painful to hear Kenny Albert and Eddie O try and make this game sound exciting? Sure at some points there was some excitement, but overall, this one was a snoozer.
- The game winning goal was a result of a missed assignment by Toews. Toews never looked behind to pick up the trailing forward, thus leaving Brassard wide open.
- So apparently down the stretch we're going to have to deal with a rotating 7 minute a game grinder between Gorilla Salad and Desjardins. Tonight it was Gorilla Salad's turn to barely break a sweat.
The Ugly
-While I've been an advocate of him being in the press box, it still doesn't make it okay that, Bryan Bickell and his $4 million dollar cap hit were a healthy scratch tonight.
- Sharp hasn't scored in 18 games, and Richards in 22 games, so lets stick them with Gorilla Salad. What the hell is Q thinking??!
- The power play. That is all. We've already pointed out the problems. But if you were wondering, it was 0-4 tonight.