Despite the absolute shitshow and embarrassment going on in Buffalo New York, The Blackhawks wrapped up their preseason opening "home and home" series with the Red Wings in Detoilet, last night. When 21 year old, former 6th round draft pick Vince Hinostroza is your starting first line center, it's pretty clear that you've iced a young thin squad, and the final results backed that up. No Toews, No Kane, No Hossa, No Keith, No Seabrook, No Hjalmarsson. You get the point. It was half the Wings against the Rockford Icehogs.
The first period started out heavily in the Blackhawks favor, but that changed about 7 minutes in. The shots were 13-5 overall in the first twenty minutes but the Blackhawks went into the intermission down 1-0.
Even though a majority of the second period was boring, and the Blackhawks led in shots, again, they went into the second intermission down 2-1. Everything after the first period was generally boring, so I will spare you the rest...
- The 4th line of Mashinter, Hatrman, and Kero started a dominant, almost 2 minute, flurry in the Wings zone early in the first. Hartman almost scored a few times, and the Blackhawks were able to make a full line change. Despite that pretty good first period, they were each -2 on the night.
- I didn't hate Daniel Paille out on the ice, but there is nowhere for him on this team.
- Late in the second period, Andrew Shaw used some rare powerplay time to snap a long wrist shot past the Detoilet goalie Jared Coreau, tying up the game. This was really the lone bright spot.
- Mike Liambas drew 3 penalties. That is a plus, right?
- Trevor van Riemsdyk led the Blackhawks in time on ice.
- The Blackhawks went down 1-0 when the trio of Ryan Hartman, Ville Pokka and Jan Hejda all backed far too deep into the zone and let Tomas Tatar pick their goalie apart.
- Five minutes into the third period, Brad Richards and Tomas Tatar victimized the back end of Jan Hejda, Ville Pokka and Michael Leighton to take a 3-1 lead. Hejda did a fly by past the net, leaving Tatar in the crease all alone to jam a Leighton rebound into the net. Pokka's play to push Richards outside wasn't really all that bad, but the support behind him didn't help him out whatsoever.
- Tomas Tatar ended up with a hat trick, scoring a late empty net goal.
- Can we put this Jan Hejda experiment to bed? He's awful.
- The Jurco/Richards/Tatar line were all +3. Enjoy it while you can, Detoilet.
- I was anxious to see Tikhonov, Kero, Pokka and Gustafsson play, and I was greatly disappointed. Tikhonov had a decent tip off the post, but none of them really had strong games, despite what the postgame crew will tell you. Each did a thing or two well, but with a chance to really show Hawks fans something, they all fell short.
- Brandon Mashinter sucks. Bad. Now I know why he was sent to Rockford early last season. Purely as a hockey player, he might be a shade above John Scott. That's not saying much.
- Shortly after the Shaw goal, a brutal Blackhawks line change left Justin Abdelkader all by himself at the Blackhawks blue line. Kronwall hit Abdelkader on the tape and he was in all alone on just inserted Micheal Leighton. 2-1 Wings and it was pretty much over from then on out
- Ryan Hartman went from having a great start to taking 2 penalties, later. He's right on track for taking over that Shaw spot, someday.
Kopecky-Hinostroza-Paille
Bickell-Shaw-Tikhonov
Liambas-Knott-McNeill
Mashinter-Kero-Hartman
Hejda-Pokka
Svedberg-van Riemsdyk
Gustafsson-Rundblad