On Tuesday night the Blackhawks played their final regular season home game at the United Center, facing the now cooled down Minnesota Wild. The most noteworthy news of the day that came out was that prized summer free agent signing Brad Richards will miss the remainder of the regular season with an upper body injury. With Richards out of the lineup, that meant new signing from the toothpaste factory, Kyle Baun made his NHL debut. Since this game has division standings on the line, lets get right to the recap.
The first period was, well, about as exciting as waiting for election results we all knew that were going to happen. Aside from a couple of chances, neither team could crack the twine, and after the first period the game was scoreless.
To say the second period was just as bad is an understatement. Both teams were awful on their own power play opportunities, with the Blackhawks looking especially pathetic on theirs. Somehow the Blackhawks managed 15 shots, but still after two, the game was scoreless.
The game got a little more exciting in the third period, but that's not saying much. Watching paint dry would have been more exciting. Corey Crawford made what was probably the save of the year just past the midway point of the period. However in typical Blackhawks form, 5 seconds later off a faceoff, Minnesota would score. Just 4 minutes later, Minnesota would add to their leading, making it a 2-0 game. Bryan Bickell and his 45 foot wind up wrist shot would pull the Hawks to within 1 late in the period, but that's as close as the Hawks would get. Behind 32 saves from Devan Dubnyk, the Wild would go on to win 2-1.
The Good
- Lets all bask in the glory of this photoshop gem from our photoshop guru Derek Harms.
- Just like calling the power play a shit show, this is also beginning to sound like a broken record. Corey Crawford was great in net again, but his defense didn't do him any favors.
The Bad
- Kyle Baun wasn't bad, nor was good, but we don't have a mediocre category on recaps on Puckin' Hostile. Lets just say Baun was Chinese toothpaste minty fresh in his NHL debut. I mean come on, he did have 5 hits! GRIT! SANDPAPER!!
- The only reason Bickell doesn't end up in the ugly category is due to the fact he had the lone goal, but his inexcusable playing after jumping on the ice before Versteeg got to the bench was blood boiling. That's taught in pee wee hockey. Needless to say it led to one of my favorite penalties, too many men on the ice.
- Despite his shot block on the empty net, what the fuck are Versteeg, Rundblad, and Rozsival doing on the ice in the last minute of the game? Come on Q, you're supposed to be a 2 time Cup winning coach. Or are you throwing up two middle fingers to Bowman?
The Ugly
- The lone Blackhawks power play was vomit inducing. Take about a buzzkill.
- The Teravainen-Kruger-Desjardins line looked great the last little while, but hey when you have the itch to press the line blender button, you just have to do it.
-Anyone else notice any other Blackhawks other than Crawford, because I sure as hell didn't.
- Antoine Vermette playing the fourth line. Hahahaha, that's funny Dr. LineBlender.
- What the hell happened to Dan Aykroyd? He looks like he ate the Ghostbusters version of Dan Aykroyd. And who the hell does he think he is wearing a Blackhawks #00 jersey?! That is the ultimate jersey foul. Plus I'd put my money on Clark Griswold to beat the shit out of him.
- Fuck it, I've spent way too long on this recap already, I'm done. I suggest you listen to last night's Shoutcast, because it was awesome to say the least.