Nothing like a back to back weekend night games for the Blackhawks, in early November. Weather in Chicago was absolutely gorgeous, even more so for a Sunday night in November. The Blackhawks were coming off an immensely emotional win the previous night in St. Louis against the rival Blues. Both Duncan Keith and Michal Rozsival made their returns to the lineup in St. Louis as well. Something that only those close to me really knows is that I was a huge Calgary Flames fan in the 80s and early 90s. I'll always have a bit of a soft spot for them, but that is a distant second to the Blackhawk nation. This was going to be an entertaining one because, despite their record, the Flames have a lot of talent and a very good defensive corp.
The Blackhawks certainly didn't shot the effects of playing a road game just 24 hours earlier. The controlled a majority of the play in the first period with 10 shots on net, to the Flames 3 shots. Clearly the Hawks had all of the premium scoring chances bu, as often happens with this team, neither team was able to open the scoring.
The second period was fairly boring for about 15 minutes but, luckily for the Blackhawks, there were another 5 minutes that needed to be played. There were 4 goals scored in 4:51, three of which were from the Blackhawks. Not only did they score three goals, but they were three unanswered goals, after going down 1-0. The Hawks also led in shots once again, but by a much more slim margin 15-12.
The third period was more eventful than the first, but not much. There were a couple of scoring chances both ways, but the only goal was an empty netter. The Hawks out shot the Flames for another period, 16-10 and closed out their last home game in a few week, with a 4-1 win. On to the circus trip....
- I know there is no way they could have paid for him, but I miss me some Michael Frolik.
- As has happened pretty often this season, Patrick Kane brought the Blackhawks back into the game with a backhander from a tight angle.
- A minute and three seconds after the Kane goal, Marian Hossa followed up with a 45 foot one timer that handcuffed Ramo. For some reason Ramo tried to reach completely across his body instead of just using his blocker, and it cost him.
- Artemi Panarin didn't want to be left out of the excitement, so he completed the hat trick of goals in 1:55, putting the Blackhawks up 3-1. Patrick Kane threaded the needled from behind the net to a wide open Panarin who snapped a shot over Ramo's left shoulder.
- I really like Kruger playing a third line role like he did in this one. It's time, especially with his pending free agency next season.
- The Hawks were good at the faceoff dots once again, winning 56%. Anisimov was the low man, winning only 5 of 14.
- #LemontNativeScottDarling rebounded from a few very average starts to have a really solid 25 save win, even though Eddie wanted to switch it up to #ChicagoNativeScottDarling.
- I will give Michal Rozsival some credit. You know exactly what you're going to get. Solid positional defense. Other than that, you're on your own. He IS slow as all shit, and it showed right before the Jones goal. He just can't win a race to the puck, unless that race is with John Scott.
- Even thought the Blackhawks were severely out shooting the Flames, it was the Flames that opened the scoring. Just a couple of minutes into the second period, David Jones was able to poke a Joe Colborne rebound around the left leg of Scott Darling on just their 6th shot of the game.
- According to the drunken official scorer, Ryan Garbutt had 8 "hitz" and Andrew Shaw had 7 "hitz". In what fucking parallel dimension did these stats come from? I'd like to know because I'd hold the NHL record in shutouts in this fantasy land.
- Brent Seabrook took a redirected Michael Frolik shot above the right eye at the end of the second period which required him to go to the locker room early for some cosmetic work. My quess would be about a dozen stitches. (Picture via @SarahLauch)
- Just over a minute into the third period, the usually solid as a block of ice Niklas Hjalmarsson tried one of the most stupid plays I've seen in a long long time. He was in his own corner and tried a blind backhand pass which was right to the stick of streaking Flames forward, Matt Stajan. Lucky for Hjalmarssson, Darling bailed him out with a huge save.
- The one criticism I have of Artemi Panarin is that he doesn't always shoot enough. It was most evident at the end, when he fucked around too long and blew a chance at an open net goal. Just bury it and be done. Fuck!
- Greg Boysen from Let's Go Hawks.net had to point out that meatball hero Brandon Bollig actually played in this game. I am as surprised as you all are. USE-LESS.
- Speaking of utterly useless, Brandon Manshitter played a team low 8:05 and I can't remember a single shift he was out there.
- Remember all those meatball idiots claiming the end of the world, and the Blackhawks not making the playoffs? Yeah, that was a thing.
Dano - Toews - Hossa
Panarin - Anisimov - Kane
Shaw - Kruger - Teravainen
Garbutt - Kero - Mashinter
Keith - Hjalmarsson
van Riemsdyk - Seabrook
Rozsival - Daley
