by Patrick Stankus
On Monday the Blackhawks welcomed the struggling, soon to be formally led by Bruce Boudreau, Anaheim Ducks to the United Center to conclude the Blackhawks 4 game home stand. Through 7 games, the Ducks have only scored 6 goals. To say Bruce Boudreau is on the hot seat is an understatement. Would this turn out to be Boudreau's final game behind the bench for the Ducks? Only time will tell.
The first period can be summed up pretty easy. It was about as enjoyable as watching two teams playing catch. Not did both teams lack energy, but the crowd was extremely flat, giving the Hawks nothing to feed off of. The best scoring chance for the Hawks occurred in the waning seconds of the first, but Ryan Garbutt couldn't connect on a bouncing puck, and as the horn sounded the game would be scoreless after one.
The start to the second period was by far more exciting than the entire first period combined. In the opening minutes, Corey Perry had the best scoring opportunity of the game, beating Crawford with a wrist shot, but ultimately drew the iron to keep the game scoreless. Other than that, the highlight of the period was Frederik Andersen playing the puck in the trapezoid (dumb rule), and Ryan Garbutt made contact with him, thus resulting in Clayton Stoner dropping the gloves with him. Other than that, the second period can be summed up with a giant yawn.
The snoozefest of a game carried on, into the third period with not much to get excited about, until Frederik Andersen did what every goalie has done at least twice in their careers. (Listen to next Shoutcast, Gate and I will tell our stories.) With Panarin wide open in the slot, and one timing the puck, Andersen pushed off his left post off its moorings, thus the referee's waving off the goal. After the Ducks dominated play in the first 15 minutes, the Hawks finally came on strong the final 5 minutes, but couldn't get one past Andersen, and the game would go into overtime scoreless.
As was the case on Saturday, the overtime joke of 3 on 3 wouldn't last long. Jonathan Toews beat Ryan Getzlaf along the boards, and fired a wide open twisted wrister top shelf and beat Andersen to give the Blackhawks 1-0 overtime win.
- Corey Crawford was outstanding tonight. For the second consecutive game, Crawford recorded a shutout, this time registering 39 saves.
- Sticking with the last game theme, Jonathan Toews recorded the game winning goal. Too bad it occurred in overtime. You'd like to see Toews score a goal, you know in 5 on 5 play. Still it was a hell of a shot.
- Once again Ryan Garbutt was a noticeable force out there. This kind of scares me, because its Ryan Garbutt we're talking about.
- On defense, Viktor Svedberg had another solid night that is worth noting. Isn't it nice when players are given a chance to develop without the threat of being sent to Rockford looming over their head?
- The first period was flat out boring. No energy whatsoever. The Blackhawks came out flat, but lucky Crawford was on his game, to make the saves when needed.
- The Hawks dodged a couple of bullets in the first period. Corey Crawford took a shot, after an offsides whistle, up high from Sami Vatanen, but was able to continue. TVR also took a slapper off his foot and was clearly in pain, but like Crawford was able to continue on.
- Apparently Tikhonov is Russian for Bickell. Who knew?
- The Blackhawks had two power plays tonight. Anyone notice them? I sure as hell didn't.
- The no goal call on Panarin was the right call. Bitch and moan all you want, but if your all important replay system was so awesome, that call would be deemed reviewable. Its not, therefore supporting my opinion that replay is a flawed system and should be dropped altogether.
- The ticky tack penalties in the first period were quite annoying. The Hawks benefited by receiving one power play as a result, but you wouldn't notice based on the play during it.
- David Rundblad is a Chinese fire drill on defense. How in the hell Bowman extended this guy absolutely baffles me.
- Against a bigger team up the middle, the Hawks struggled at the dot tonight 34-24. That's going to have to change.
- The power outage has now taken over the Blackhawks offense after reeking havoc on the Cubs last week. Maybe a 1st line LW would help. Who knows though.
- I will miss Bruce Boudreau. Just follow the McRib sauce to see where he lands next.
