On Thursday night, the Blackhawks traveled back to Canada for their one and only visit to Ottawa to take on the Senators. In the last two games, the Hawks have only one point to show for it, so they'll be looking to right the ship. Standing in their way is the #ChicagoNative Craig Anderson in net for the Senators.
When the puck dropped the Hawks looked like they had some extra wind that was in their sails. Unfortunately that wind didn't last long. Mike Hoffman one timed a puck past Corey Crawford to make it 1-0 Senators 90 seconds in. The Senators controlled play for the most part the rest of the way. Following a bad penalty by Marian Hossa, Bobby Ryan would score on the ensuing power play to make it a 2-0 game. Towards the end of the period the Hawks had a couple of good shifts, but in the end they produced nothing. After the opening period the Hawks would trail the Senators 2-0.
When the second period got underway, the Hawks were forced to kill off the remaining time of a late first period penalty by Andrew Shaw. Following that successful kill, the Hawks were rewarded with back to back penalties by Ottawa four seconds apart. On the 5 on 3, Patrick Kane would score to bring the Hawks within one. From that point on, the Hawks dominated play for the remaining time of the period. With just over 3 minutes remaining, Artemi Panarin clowned the Ottawa defense and fired a wrister past Anderson to tie the game at two. Despite getting a couple more chances in the final minutes, the game would remain tied at two after two.
As the third period started, the Senators were gifted with an infamous "Blackhawks too many men on the ice penalty." The Sens would waste little time in making the Hawks pay as Mark Stone cashed in after batting a puck out of midair to give the Sens a 3-2 lead. Just over six minutes into period, the Hawks had a chance on the power play, but couldn't convert. The #AK72Line show would continue later in the period. Patrick Kane fed Artem Anisimov with a no look pass from behind the net, and Anisimov hammered it home to tie the game at three. In the final seconds of the third period, the Sens had a great chance to end the game as time expired, but couldn't and the game would head to overtime. In the overtime Keith got caught in deep and turned the puck over to Erik Karlsson, and the race was on. Karlsson and Hoffman beat Kane up the ice and Hoffman fired a wrister on a 2 on 0 to win the game for the Senators 4-3 in overtime.
- Patrick Kane extended his points streak to 21 games, tying the franchise record for the Blackhawks, with a power play goal in the second period.
- Artemi Panarin's skating ability was on full display on his goal that tied the game. It was nice to see this outburst since he looks like he's been fighting it of late.
- Wasn't it nice to see the Hawks take advantage of a 5 on 3 power play?
- Just watch Anisimov's goal. That pass by Kane was a doozy.
- So in summary of the good tonight, it was basically the #AK72Line
- Towards the end of the first period, Andrew Shaw took a bad roughing penalty. I know you're upset Hossa got hit, but time and place. Down two, late in period, and in offensive zone is not the place.
- If I have to watch any more 2 on 1s featuring Shaw and Garbutt, I'm going to throw up.
- For a defenseman that doesn't shoot a lot, Hjalmarsson being the shot leader (5) in a game where you have 38 shots is a problem.
- Marko Dano was the Hawk player who drew the short straw and had the least amount of ice time at 8:25. I didn't think he was bad, but apparently someone behind the bench felt he was.
- Someone finally joined Jonathan Toews at being 50% or better at the dot tonight. Thank you Marcus Kruger.
- Corey Crawford had a meh kind of night. He wasn't terrible, but he certainly wasn't great either.
- Hossa and Toews had breakaways tonight, but neither could convert their chances.
- Someone inform Marian Hossa that hitting is a part of the game. His retaliation penalty was brutal, and he needs to be smarter than that. It also led to the Senators increasing their lead to 2-0.
- The lengthy delay in the first period to fix a hole in the boards was annoyingly long. You'd think a team in Canada would have all the essential parts to fix it right away. I'd expect these kinds of delays in Arizona and Florida.
- The PK has hit the skids of late. Tonight they killed off two of the four power play opportunities for the Senators.
- If any other of the Hawks lines want to start scoring, it'd be nice. Who would have thought the 1st line left wing slot was a bigger hole than 2nd line center. At least with 2nd line center, the plug n' plays were working to an extent.
- And just for my buddy Gate, Marian Hossa had two hits tonight.
