The Tampa Bay Lightning made their first trip back to Chicago, Saturday night, since surrendering the Stanley Cup championship to the Blackhawks, last June. Clearly they were going to be looking for a little revenge, but nothing they did Saturday would make up for the pain of falling short in cup final. There were also quite a few new faces that the Bolts would need to adjust to, as well, including rookie scoring leader Artemi Panarin, among others.
Thanks to a few Tampa Bay powerplays, a good majority of the play was down in the Blackhawks end of the ice. The official scorer must have been high or drunk, because the scoreboard said the shots were tied at 9. Either way, there was no score after the first, so no harm, no foul.
The second period was much more in favor of the home team, with a majority of the action in the visitors end. The official scorer finally sobered up, and gave an accurate count, showing the Blackhawks leading 10-4. Again, though, neither team scored, which gave one the feeling that any goal could be the only goal. On to the third frame.
The third period was, again, in favor of the Blackhawks but, again, yielded no goals. The Hawks led in shots 11-8. As a result, the Blackhawks faithful would get their first look at 3 vs 3.
It took seventeen seconds for the Blackhawks to win it in overtime, which sent everyone home happy.
- Both first period Lightning powerplays yielded very few shots and was killed off wonderfully by the Blackhawks.
- Ryan Garbutt finally showed some flashes of production. He had several nice chances early in the game and played well on the penalty kill.
- If Viktor Tikhonov is going to be the missing piece of the lottery line, I'm perfectly OK with that. He clearly knows how to play different role, albeit none of them extremely well, which is fine. He just needs to be adequate. Late in the third, though, Quenneville moved Teravainen up.
- After having a very mediocre game, Jonathan Toews took only seventeen seconds to split Valtteri Filppula and Anton Stralman, then knife towards the net. Toews was being hooked and hacked all the way to the net, but he was not only able to get his initial shot on net, but poke the rebound though the legs of Kristers Gudlevskis' legs.
- Corey Crawford stopped all 21 shots he faced, for a shutout.
- Can't take anything away from Bolts goalie Kristers Gudlevskis. He shut the Blackhawks out for 60 minutes and 16 seconds.
- The Hawks were solid in the faceoff circle, winning 56%.
- I still don't understand the hate for Viktor Svedberg. He's logged a lot of time and done nothing to show that he has been overmatched. Just wait until Michal Rozsival gets out there. You'll all be begging for Svedberg.
- The second Lightning powerplay of the night was as a result of a terrible Vince Hinostroza grenade pass, that Hjalmarsson couldn't do anything with. Hjalmarsson tried to slow up the Lightning forechecker and ended up with a hooking infraction. Of course, Foley and Edzo blamed Hjalmarsson, with no mention of the live grenade Hinostroza lobbed at him.
- If I have one criticism of Panarin and Kane, it is that they pass TOO MUCH. There have been several times where they attempt that fancy pass, and the chance is squandered. Of course, this is being extremely critical, but it should be pointed out.
- While Rundblad and Daley looked better, I still get anxiety when they are out on the ice together.
- It pains me to say this, but Jonathan Toews is getting in the way of production on the powerplay. Something is off with him, and the first unit looked much better with Artem Anisimov against Florida. I feel guilty for even thinking it, but this is the harsh reality, at this point. Quenneville obviously felt the same way because when they had an important powerplay in the third period, Toews wasn't with the first unit.
Tikhonov - Toews - Hossa
Panarin - Anisimov - Kane
Garbutt - Hinostroza - Teravainen
Desjardins - Kruger - Shaw
Seabrook - Svedberg
van Reimsdyk - Hjalmarsson
Rundblad - Daley