Before I get to the shenanigans, I want to point out how touching it was to have the Blackhawks each bring out a young cancer patient. If you have anything shitty to say about that, you're a scumbag.
After yet another successful Shoutcast, Tuesday night, it was back to hockey. Who better to jump back into action with than the St. Louis Blues? They were delayed coming in when we all woke up in the morning to some incredibly dense fog, in Chicago. Personally, I think it was the cloud of stench coming off the Blues players and their recently fined dopey meatball, Ryan Reaves. It wouldn't be a Blues game without an inappropriate David Backes reference, so here we go:
A little gif for tonight's hockey festivities. @PuckinHostile @Patrick_Stankus pic.twitter.com/LwKCLP2qFT
— Pokka Fan Club (@Hostile_Derek) November 4, 2015As far as the Blackhawks are concerned, this game couldn't have started out much better. While they gave up two goals, their offensive problems were on display for everyone to see...by scoring FIVE goals. They chased the Blues starting goalie, Brian Elliott, from the game TWICE, and even scored on a penalty shot. If we wanted to get picky, we could complain about the two Blues goals, but it was much more fun imagining the mental meltdown going on in the peanut brains of Blues fans. The Hawks out shot the Blues 18-8, out scored them 5-2, won 18 of 20 faceoffs, and just flat out dominated the #BLOLues. Why did this period have to end?
Of course everything fell apart in the second period for our heroes. The Blackhawks gave up 3 goals on 12 shots, completely blowing their big lead and losing all momentum. Sprinkle in a bad penalty, lazy defense and just general complacency. That best describes the Blackhawks performance in the second period. Nothing good to speak of, and just a tale of two completely teams.
The Blackhawks regained some of their lost momentum in the third period, but it was nothing like the first 20 minutes. In the end, that's what cost them the extra point. The shot differential was 14-7 in favor of the Blackhawks but there were no goals, which eventually led these two teams to the always exciting 3vs3 overtime. The Blackhawks had several chances in the overtime but could not finish, and eventually the Blues did finish.
- Just two minutes and ten seconds into the game, a Ryan Hartman forecheck on Carl Gunnarsson led to a puck spitting out into the slot for Marko Dano. #FreeDano pumped the shot through Elliott for a quick Blackhawks lead, and his first Blackhawks goal.
- Not to be out done, a minute and thirty five seconds after the Alex Steen goal, Andrew Shaw decided it was a fine time to score his first goal of the year. For the "drama" multiplier, he did it on a penalty shot. Andrew Squared, Shaw and Desjardins, came in on an unusual 2-on-0 but Colton Parayko was able to catch up and get enough of a piece of Shaw to throw him off, but it was also enough to earn an infraction. Less egregious than the non call on Shaw the other night, but I digress. Shaw was all business on the penalty shot, beating Elliott low to the stick side. 2-1 Blackhawks.
- Teuvo Teravainen decided to jump in on the Blackhawks action while the iron was hot. He was standing in all alone behind the Blues defense, for some odd reason, and was able to pick up a Trevor Daley rebound. Teravainen had a pretty easy time tucking the puck in around Elliott's leg, which earned Elliott a shift on the bench.
- Two minutes after the Fabbri goal, Patrick Kane set up Brent Seabrook for what looked like a pretty innocent long point shot. Somehow, the long howitzer from Seabrook cleanly beat Elliott for a 4-2 Blackhawks lead.
- Less than a minute after the Seabrook goal, Captain Caveman pulled some of his usual caveman crap. Toews had a step on Backes and was able to get a clean shot off. Backes then cross checked Toews in the back, and into his own goalie. Elliott had to leave the game injured, in what some speculated as a concussion. Jake Allen came back in the game, and ended up finishing. Patrick Kane used an Andrew Shaw screen, among others, to beat Allen on the first shot he faced, giving the Blackhawks a 5-2 lead. Gotta love that leadership. Take a penalty, injure your goalie, and eventually give up a powerplay goal while you're sitting in the box. Fuck David Backes. Enjoy your President's Trophy banners, loser.
- Late in the first period, young Robby Fabbri rushed up ice, curled in behind a streaking Blues forward and Andrew Desjardins, using both players as a screen. Once both players passed in front of Crawford, Fabbri sniped a shot to Crawford's stick side.
- Just over three minutes into the second period, a lost faceoff deep in the Blackhawks zone led to a long Colton Parayko rebound being poked in by Alex Steen. Trevor van Riemsdyk was covering Steen and made a weak attempt. You have to tie up Steen's stick on that play. That is your sole job in that scenario. That is not a time to be half-assing it.
- After the Blackhawks played their fancy overtime passing drill, the Blues hung in long enough to get their best goal scorer, Vlad Tarasenko, with a wide open look. He'd been invisible all game, but when it counted most, he delivered.
- Artem Anisimov was brutal at the dots, winning only 7 of 21.
- Elliott wasn't the only Blues player to go out injured. Ball bag, Steve "The Pirate" Ott went out after a get together with Brent Seabrook, and didn't return.
- Only Marko Dano and Ryan Hartman played less shifts than Trevor Daley. Sign of the doghouse in the near future.
- Less than a minute after the Dano goal, Blues stud D-Man Colton Parayko took a long shot that hit Alexander Steen in the leg and floated over Crawford like a fluttering injured bird. Ugly.
- After the Teravainen goal, Paul Bearer Hitchcock pulled Brian Elliott and put Jake Allen in for a total of 41 seconds and no saves, before putting Elliott back in the game.
- Late in the second period, a Teuvo Teravainen interference penalty turned into a Jay Bouwmeester powerplay goal, cutting the Blackhawks lead to just one goal. Definitely not the Blackhawks best effort in that second period.
- The Blackhawks weren't finished with their collapse just yet, though. Captain Caveman gathered a weird carom off the UC boards, along the goal line and snapped a tight angle shot past a helpless Crawford, to successfully complete blowing their 3 goal lead.
- The Toews, Garbutt, Panarin line were each -2, and Panarin was on the ice for the OT goal, so he ended up -3. They didn't look that bad, but overall they weren't all that great, either.
Panarin - Toews - Garbutt
Teravainen - Anisimov - Kane
Dano - Kero - Hartman
Desjardins - Kruger - Shaw
Seabrook - Svedberg
van Reimsdyk - Hjalmarsson
Gustafsson - Daley
