The Blackhawks opened the second round, Friday night, against the Minnesota Wild, once again. Thanks to the dense idiots at the NHL and NBC, the game started at 8:45 local time, which is just stupid. Make the east coast game start earlier, you fucking morons. Whoever scheduled this mess should be jobless.
In better news, the Blackhawks came out on fire in the first period. Even though they were out shot 13-8, the Blackhawks scored 3 times. The Wild looked like a bad AHL team defending against the Blackhawks, and it cost them dearly. The worst thing that could have happened to the Blackhawks was that horn at the end of the period because they were just getting hotter and hotter.
As predicted the Blackhawks came out in the second without that same fire, giving up 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the second period. The official scorer must have been as tired as we all were, because the recorded shot total was 12-12, which seemed highly unlikely in the Blackhawks case. Whatever the case, the Blackhawks scored a late goal to take a 4-3 lead into the second intermission, and they were damn lucky to have it.
The third period wasn't as locked down as we all would have liked. The Blackhawks played run and gun a little with the Wild, and while it made for entertaining hockey, it was about as stressful as you can imagine. The Blackhawks were credited with out shooting the Wild 15-8 in the period but, again, it sure didn't seem that way. When the dust settled, the Blackhawks had a 1-0 series lead.
- Just over a minute into the game, Brandon Saad walked right through Ryan Suter and ended up 1-on-1 with Devan Dubnyk. We have all seen this one before, and the puck saw the back of the net. 1-0 Hawks.
- Late in the first period, after Wild had controlled the majority of the play, Brad Richards started a scoring play after Antoine Vermette won a faceoff deep in the Hawks zone. Richards then raced up the ice on a perfect breakout spinning Marco Scandella like a top and found Kane just inside the Wild blue line, who snapped the puck past Dubnyk for a 2-0 lead.
- Two minutes after the Kane goal, the fourth line got into the action. Andrew Shaw did enough to force the Wild to turn the puck over deep in their own zone. The puck worked back down low to Kruger who was wide open in front of Dubnyk and beat him. Three goals on seven shots, at this point.
- With under a minute left in the second period, Teuvo Tervainen grabbed the lead back for the Blackhawks. Pretty much just a hard nosed goal. He picked up a loose puck on the half boards and threw a long shot on net that Dubnyk just missed. We'll take it.
- Crawford was not great, but he was good. Saving 30 of 33 is pretty good, especially when the team in front of him seems destined to take at least one period off per game.
- Some important faceoffs were won, which cost the Wild, and other important ones were lost, which cost the Blackhawks. In the end the Blackhawks won the battle, but by much.
- Just a couple of minutes into the second period the fourth line that scored the third goal cost the Blackhawks. Marcus Kruger lost a faceoff deep in the Hawks zone. Seabrook was eventually late to get to Zucker wide open in the slot and he beat Crawford to cut the lead to 3-1.
- About five minutes into the second period Michal Rozsival took another lazy fucking penalty putting the best PP in the playoffs on the ice. Any guesses how that story ends? Crawford made a couple of saves, but failed to freeze the puck when he had a free pass. Zach Parise was then given way too much room in front of the net and poked it through Crawford to cut the lead down to 1 goal.
- The Blackhawks took too many late game lazy penalties. Oduya and Richards should both know better, especially Richards. Offensive zone penalties are just stupid.
- The third and fourth lines played really low minutes, which needs to be fixed. You cannot roll 2 lines and 4 defensemen. You just can't. The top 4 defenders were all over 21 minutes in a 60 minute game.
- For the Wild, Justin Fontaine played 6:55. Why bother?????
- Lets get this out of the way right off the bat. Making two central time zone teams start at 8:45PM is one of the most stupid thing I've ever heard of. Eat shit NHL, and NBCSN. Seriously,you're the WORST.
- the Wild tied the game when the duo of Keith and Rozsival, ONCE AGAIN, couldn't manage to get the fucking puck out of the zone. Mikael Granlund walked out of the corner completely unopposed, as Rozsival stood flat footed and watching, and beat Crawford to tie the game. You HAVE be aware, and you HAVE to slide over to provide support.
- Timonen and Rozsival were, once again, huge gaping liabilities. Timonen didn't crack 11 minutes, and Rozsival was a pylon. How Q just throws them out there without heavy medicating himself is beyond me.
Saad-Toews-Hossa
Bickell-Richards-Kane
Tervainan-Vermette-Sharp
Desjardins-Kruger-Shaw
Keith-Rozsival
Oduya-Hjalmarsson
Timonen-Seabrook