The Blackhawks travelled to Montreal, Friday night, to take on the Canadiens in their 3rd preseason game. The lineup was once again full of unfamiliar names, and lacked big names like Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Nonetheless, the kids were out to make an impression on the coaching staff, which was fun for us prospect geeks.
Earlier in the day, the team announced that 10 players had been sent to Rockford and two other players (Tropp/Morin) were put on waivers to be sent there, as well. As the roster was taking shape, we could probably expect this to be the last game for a few of these kids.
All roster moves and press conferences aside, there was actually a game that actually happened.
- After Daniel Paille was stopped on a breakaway, while drawing what should have been a penalty shot, David Rundblad did the one thing he is actually pretty good at. Shoot the puck. It only took the Hawks a few seconds into the powerplay to open the scoring, as Ryan Garbutt redirected a long David Rundblad point shot past league MVP Carey Price.
- Just a little over a minute after the Garbutt goal, the line of Andrew Desjardins, Garrett Ross and Kyle Super Baun-Baun played a little tic-tac-toe. Desjardins took an intercepted pass right up the gullet and took it the other way. After hitting the Habs blue line, he dropped the puck to the trailer, Kyle Baun. The Habs defense bit on the Desjardins "pick", as he drove the net. Baun was left way too much room to hit the stick of a wide open Ross, aka Shaw 2.0, on the back door for the tap in.
- The Baun, Desjardins, Ross line picked up his second plus of the night in their next shift. Desjardins got the puck deep, Ross kept the puck moving behind the net, and Baun eventually picked up a blocked Trevor Daley shot in the slot and pumped it past Price.
- Shortly after the Habs were able break the shutout, the Blackhawks line of the night (Desjardins,Ross,Baun) scored their 3rd of the night. Desjardins actually tried to send a pass across the slot and it was tipped by Kyle Super Baun-Baun, beating Carey Price, who was cheating the pass and leaning the wrong way.
- Scott Darling was solid once again. He saved 30 of 31.
- Call me crazy, but Daniel Paille looks useful. He may not have a spot on this team, but he has shown he can contribute as a 4th liner.
- Just 25 seconds seconds into the second period, Zack Kassian broke in on the Hawks defense and was able to squirt a shot past Scott Darling to finally put the Habs on the scoreboard. The bad part for them is that they were still down 3-1.
- About five minutes into the third period, Ryan Garbutt got himself into a precarious position as he was bearing down on the Habs Ryan Johnston. Johnston turned his back just before Garbutt got to him and ended up with a face full of end boards. I can't fault Garbutt, because he was committed to the hit already.
- Chris Desousa caught the Habs Gabriel Dumont lazily admiring his chip of the puck and labeled him with what looked like a good hit. As a result he was pulled into a slap and tickle. The drama was after, as he earned himself a 5/5/10 and was booted. I didn't really see it as that bad of a hit. If you ask me, and you didn't but it's my website, he left his feet AFTER contact. You can decide for yourself HERE
- Hawks centers were clowned at the dots, winning only 35%.
Dano - Teravainen - Garbutt
Rasmussen - Tikhonov - DeSousa
Ross - Desjardins - Baun
Kopecky - Paille - Labrie
Svedberg - Visnovsky
Hejda - Daley
Pokka - Rundblad