by Gatekeeper
The Blackhawks headed to the birthplace of Corey Crawford, Thursday night, to face the historic Canadiens. Before the game, the Blackhawks announced that Erik Gustafsson was injured at the morning skate and Artem Anisimov hopped a flight from Chicago to make the game. This meant that the #Scrozsival monster was going to grace us with their presence. Just swell.
The first period went quite well for the Blackhawks as they came out with some energy. After a few solid chances both ways the Blackhawks traded goals with the Habs, before taking the lead back. They also out shot the Canadiens 12-11 before the period horn sounded.
To the naked eye, the Blackhawks were in deep trouble for most of the second period. If you just read the box score, it told a different story, though. The Hawks were only out shot 12-11 but it certainly didn't feel that way. Just before the period ended, I mentioned that it was one of those "just a matter of time" moments, before the Habs tied the game. Luckily the Canadiens ran out of time.
The third period was even worse for the Blackhawks, but their goalie was unbeatable. The Canadiens peppered the Blackhawks with 17 third period shots, and not a single one ended up in the net. How the Blackhawks managed 10 themselves is a miracle. It seemed like the entire period was in the Hawks end. After weathering the storm, the Blackhawks walked away and headed to Toronto with a hard fought 2-1 win, Joel Quenneville's 783 regular season win, a 9 game winning streak, and a tie for first place in the division.
- Halfway through the first period, Andrew Shaw used his recently found offensive game to set up Jonathan Toews for a back door goal. Shaw lost a defender on the half boards and made a bull rush towards the net. He tried to take a shot that Michael Condon bit on, but Shaw never got the shot off. Shaw instead dumped the puck off to Jonny Toews, who found a wide open cage in front of him.
- A few moments after the Canadiens goal, Ryan FartButt grabbed the lead back for the Blackhawks. The play was a fairly harmless one, with FartButt finding a loose puck at the half boards, and just unleashing a clapper that surprised Condon.
- Corey Crawford. Plain and simple. The hometown kid came back and made 39 saves. The series of saves he made in the second period were insane.
- The Hawks were over 55% at the dots. Only Anisimov was under water.
- In a game with a lot of action, there were only 2 minor penalties.
- Just a few moments after the Toews goal, Paul Bryon scored a goal by going hard to the net. Byron drove the net and David Desharnais threw the puck towards him, from a tight angle. The puck hit Byron in the leg and ended up in the net.
- As previously mentioned, rookie Erik Gustafsson missed the game with a lower body injury that he got in the morning skate. Hopefully this won't last long.
- After having the luxury of #GusBus for a while, seeing the #Scrozsival pairing out on the ice is panic inducing. Every time they are on the ice together, the Blackhawks seem to get pinned in their own end.
- During a third period penalty kill, Marian Hossa took a Galchenyuk follow though right in the grill. He went down and didn't get up until the trainer brought a towel out. Clearly he was in some distress. Like the Terminator that he is, he only missed a couple of shifts and was right back out on the ice.
- The Blackhawks defensemen did their goalie NO favors, and he bailed them out SEVERAL times in huge fashion.
- Not Patrick Kane's best game. He was second worst in Corsi, behind The Great Suckderi
- That said, the Toews line was solid in possession numbers.
- Subban was up near the top of Canadiens players in possession, as you might expect.
- Montreal led in just about ever possession category, which just goes to show how important Corey Crawford was in this one.
Shaw - Toews - Hossa
Panarin - Anisimov - Kane
Desjardins - Danault - Teravainen
Garbutt - Rasmussen - Panik
Keith - Hjalmarsson
van Riemsdyk - Seabrook
Rozsival - Scuderi
