by Gatekeeper
After the big news Thursday afternoon, regarding the 2017 NHL coming to Chicago, the Blackhawks had to face the pesky Dallas Stars. This came on the heels of a bring and uninspired 2-0 loss to the Sharks two night previous. This would be the first regular season back in Chicago for Blackhawks Stanley Cup vets Patrick Sharp and Johnny Oduya which definitely strike up some old feelings. This was all, of course, irrelevant because the Stars had already been awarded the 2016 Stanley Cup after their 4-0 shutout win the day before Christmas, which had the Chicken Little brigade crying doom and gloom.
The first period didn't help the matters any, either. The Blackhawks came out and gave up not one; not two; not THREE; but FOUR first period goals to dig themselves a huge grave. Two of said goals were on the powerplay. Not much more really needs to be said. The Blackhawks were out shot but not like you might expect with a 0-4 hole, 18-12. Now two more excruciating periods. That's what we get for allowing Stankus to go to a game.
Scott Darling came out in net for the second period, as one might have predicted. Not only that, but Quenneville pulled the old lineblender and fired it up on the "liquify" setting. Neither event did much to help the Blackhawks, as they went into the second intermission still down 0-4. The shots were 12-12 but the Hawks still looked off.
The Blackhawks actually looked like they cared about what was going on, or what wasn't going on, when they came out. The Hawks almost immediately put a goal on the board, and followed it up with another one before the period was half over. Amazingly, the Blackhawks out shot the Stars 21-2 in the final period, but none of that would be enough. You simply cannot spot most any team 4 goals and expect to make that up.
- It took almost 41 minutes for something good to happen for the Blackhawks, but just 32 seconds into the third period Duncan Keith took a long point shot that deflected off two Stars players and past Kari Lehtonen. Life.
- With 12 minutes remaining in the third Patrick Kane got the Blackhawks back within 2 goals. The faceoff was won by Jon Toews right to the stick of Kane, who sent a shot through about 5 players and over Kari Lehtonen. Looks like the Blackhawks actually cared whether the game was even interesting or not. Go figure.
- Fatrick's biggest fan in Lemont will be happy to hear that Scott Darling came in and stopped all 14 shots he faced, looking much better in the process. This, of course, was 4 less shots than Corey Crawford faced in the first period alone. Hey, small wins, right?
- With barely 10 minutes gone in first period, the Stars took a 2-0 lead on a 4-on-4 situation, after Travis Moen and Brandon Manshitter took their personal grooming discussion to the penalty box. Teuvo Teravainen looked to put in a less than stellar effort into his back check with ended up leading to young defensive sensation John Klingberg banking a backhand shot off the inside of Nik Hjalmarsson's leg and through Corey Crawford's legs.
- The Stars followed up that goal with another first period goal to take a 3-0 lead before the Blackhawks even made it to the first intermission. Once again Patrick Eaves was the goal scorer.
- The Stars weren't done yet. Patrick Eaves finished up his first period hat trick on the powerplay with under 30 seconds to go in the first period. Hjalmarsson and Keith weren't able to tied up Eaves after a rebound came off Crawford's pads.
- Artemi Panarin missed his second straight game, with an illness, and no one was able to fill that hole successfully. Get well soon, Kiddo.
- Corey Crawford wasn't exactly sharp at all, not that anyone helped him. When the Hawks needed him to be their best player, he was about as good as the rest of his teammates. That just wasn't going to be good enough.
- Just a couple of minutes into the game, with the always stellar Blob Suckderi on the ice, Patrick Eaves sat in behind the Hawks defenses and roofed a shot over Crawford from a tight angle. The fact that he was able to hit the small space over Crawford's shoulder, on a one timer, from that angle has to be a little impressive.
- After the first period, the geniuses on twitter were yapping at the beat writers about what bust Teuvo Teravainen is. Shut up. The guy plays with offensively anorexic linemates and you expect him, at 21, to carry theses players. Get the hell out of here.
- Blackhawks were 0-2 on the power play and the Stars were 2-2. That's the game, folks.
- Can we please throw Blob Suckderi into the sea? We've seen way too much of this worthless pylon.
- I don't care what they thought they knew, the Boston Bruins are dumb as all hell for trading Tyler Seguin. The guy is a bonafide "star". See what I did there?
- Despite being shielded, Trevor van Riemsdyk was eaten alive with a -7 Corsi.
- Duncan Keith was pretty bad i nthe first period, but rebounded for a team leading +8 Corsi, with his goal.
- Fourth line? Not good. Rasmussen and Manshitter were pretty heavily under water, while each playing under 10 minutes.
And to my friend Selina, in Dallas, you're awesome as hell but:
Shaw - Toews - Hossa
Panik - Anisimov - Kane
Desjardins - Danault - Teravainen
Mashinter - Rasmussen - Sekac
Keith - Hjalmarsson
Gustafsson - Seabrook
Scuderi - van Riemsdyk