On Friday night the Blackhawks opened up their road portion of their season in Brooklyn, New York, the new home of the New York Islanders. In addition to the opening of a new era of Islanders hockey, it was also the first game of a back to back with the Islanders. (You'll hear more about that later) The night also featured a couple of lineup changes which saw a pair of Viktors inserted into the lineup while Kyle Baun and David Rundblad enjoyed the press box.
The opening period featured great chances for both teams, which resulted in 12 shots for each team. Who says 5 on 5 is boring and doesn't result in scoring chances? Just prior to the midway point of the period, the Hawks would get a chance on the power play, but would fail to convert. Later in the period the Hawks would get penalized for too many men on the ice. Instead of yielding a power play goal, the Hawks would actually net a shorty courtesy of the much coveted Artem Anisimov to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead after one.
The uptempo pace of the game would carryover into the second period. Early on, the Hawks would have another opportunity on a power play, but just as was the case in the 1st period, they would be unable to score. Building momentum off the penalty kill, the Isles would answer right after the kill as John Tavares would net his 1st of the season. With just under 5 minutes remaining in the second period, Patrick Kane would put the Hawks ahead with a goal line wrist shot following a sweet from Jonathan Toews behind the net. The Hawks would hang onto that 2-1 lead after two periods.
As the third period got underway, the Hawks lead would prove to be short lived. Just over a minute in, a Marek Zidlicky point shot would beat a screened Corey Crawford to tie the game at two. Midway through the period, Jonathan Toews would put the Hawks shorthanded after taking an interference penalty. The PK would come through for the Hawks and keep the game tied at two. Corey Crawford and the Hawks would survive a furious attack by the Islanders in the final minutes of the third to force overtime.
There would be no shortage of the slobbering lovefest talk over the idea of 3 on 3 overtime. Thankfully, the only gimmick worse than the shootout didn't last too long. After an extremely soft slashing call on Nick Leddy, Patrick Kane would cash in and score the game winning, giving the Hawks a 3-2 win.
- I'll throw these three guys who stuck out the most into one here. Kane, Keith, and Hossa all had strong games. Kane had 2 goals, while Keith had 2 assists, and Hossa had an assist and drew the penalty that led to the game winning power play goal.
- Corey Crawford had a strong game in goal, making 34 saves. On both of the Islanders goals, Crawford didn't have a chance. Hjalmarsson was in bad position on Tavares' goal, and on Zidlicky's he was battling a screen. But again, by all means blame Crawford.
- New Blackhawk center Artem Anisimov netted his first goal in his Blackhawks career. Hopefully this is a sign to come for the long term solution to the 2nd line center issue for the Hawks.
- Because everyone hates shot blocks, I'll point out the Hawks had 20 tonight.
- Special teams came into effect for the good tonight. The Hawks scored both shorthanded and on the power play.
- Bryan Bickell must be loving the fact the Hawks signed Viktor Tikhonov. These guys will battle it out for most frustrating Blackhawk to watch this season. Both were meh tonight.
- Viktor Svedberg had an up and down night. At times he looked a bit overwhelmed, but as the game wore on, it seemed he gained a little more confidence. That will last until Q decides to healthy scratch him next game and send him back to Rockford in two days, only to seem him traded in 3 weeks.
- The Hawks were dominated at the dot 27-40.
- A big two thumbs down to this move to Brooklyn for the Islanders. The whole night I felt I was watching the World Championships with that damn car on display behind the boards in one of the corners. Not to mention seeing how some of the fans had to turn to watch the action at one end was vomit inducing. Smart money is this move to Brooklyn only lasts 3 years until a new arena on the heart of Long Island is built. Oh and did you hear what the players are dealing with when it comes to home games??? WOOF as Gate would say.
- Of course my first game recap would go to overtime. Deciding games 3 on 3 is an insult to hockey. Its not more exciting, its a complete joke. Go back to ties, and change the points system to 3-2-1-0.
- Finally, nice job NHL schedule makers. 3 games into the season and the Hawks will be done playing the Islanders. I know I'd rather seeing a Bruins/Flyers "game of the week" on a Sunday afternoon in February on NBC, than a Blackhawks/Islanders.