After Wednesday night's rematch of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final, the Blackhawks continued their brief two game road trip out east with a trip to the nation's capital. The Hawks were coming off a 3-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Flyers, and looking for redemption against a familiar face behind the bench in D.C. For a team coming off a shutout loss, the last coach you want to see if The Catfish Barry Trotz. Remember all those explosive games the Hawks had against the Predators?
As the puck dropped, it was quite obvious that one team was ready to go, and the other was stuck on the bus. The Capitals came out firing, but Scott Darling was able to keep the Capitals at bay. Just after 8 minutes in, the Caps would get on the board by way of a T.J. Oshie power play goal and jump into the lead. Late in the period, the Hawks would get their own opportunity on the power play, but couldn't muster anything and went into the locker room down one after the first period.
Early on in the second period, the Capitals would add to their lead, by way of a John Carlson shot, to go up 2-0 on the Hawks. As the period went on, the Hawks would finally find their legs and outplay the Caps for the majority of the remainder of the period. Artemi Panarin had a great chance to get the Hawks on the board, but he rang a wrist shot off the pipe. As the horn sounded the Hawks would still find themselves trailing 2-0.
The opening minutes of the third period would feature tallies by both teams. Just over two minutes in, Matt Niskanen would beat a screened Scott Darling from the shot to give the Caps a 3-0 lead. That lead would prove to be short lived as Viktor Svedberg would register his first career goal to cut the Caps lead back to two. That would end up being the closest the Hawks would get. Later in the period, a sweet passing play between Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ovechkin with Ovechkin putting the dagger in the net to seal the Hawks fate. When the horn sounded the final would end up being 4-1 in favor of the Capitals.
- The Hawks were a lot better in the second period, than the first. They ended up outshooting the Caps 17-7 and had a lot of quality chances.
- Thank the Lord we didn't have to see Troy Brouwer's mug tonight.
- Just as I was going to give Shaw credit for having a strong game, he goes and takes a lazy, selfish slashing penalty. That's the Andrew Shaw I know.
- Aside from the second period, the Hawks lacked fire power, and frankly looked like they could give a rat's ass about playing.
- Keith, Teravainen, Tikhonov, and Baun all had solid nights. All ended up with a -2 on the night.
- Speaking of Baun, what's the point of using his "spark and energy" if he's going to be playing just over 8 minutes a night.
- I'm not panicking, but its quite clear the Hawks are turning into a bad piece of Swiss cheese with the holes they have. I looking at you back end defense, and left wing.
- I really wanted to put Viktor Svedberg in the good category, but its clear he's a work in progress. Despite that, I would like to see him stay up and get some more time.
- I understand that Viktor Tikhonov was trying to defend Jonathan Toews, but there's a time and place to retaliate. This isn't the KHL, we care about dumb penalties here.
- That was a nice finish by Andrew Desjardins in the second period. Oh wait, nevermind.
- The MoonCam made its return again tonight. Goddamn it NBC. Just as I give you credit for good coverage, you have to introduce something as stupid as the FoxTrax puck.
- Coach Q had no issues pressing the panic button, I mean the power button on the line blender. I'm not even going to waste my time listing them.
- The Hawks had a nice start to the game, being outshot 5-0 in the first 7 minutes.
- Goaltending wasn't an issue tonight, unlike some of you that always want to make it one because of a bad loss.
- Please CSN, get rid of Jamal Mayers. I'd actually rather listen to Konroyd. That is scary.
- ANDREW SHAW WAS THE BEST BLACKHAWK TONIGHT. That is a HUGE problem, and something I hope to never type again.