by Gatekeeper
First of all, I'm never going to stop bitching about 8:30 central starts. They are asinine. If you don't want to hear it, tough shit. Minimum 11:15 to 11:45 PM for game end times is completely unacceptable for two teams that call the central time zone home. Lick my ballbag, NHL.
Wednesday night the NHL playoffs began, with the Blackhawks travelling 5 hours south to that disgusting butthole of America, St. Louis. We are all very familiar with the history of this insufferably entitled team and fanbase, and their history with the Blackhawks. Not only are they entitled, they are completely undeserving of praise or respect on top of it all. They have earned nothing relevant in their entire existence. If the Blackhawks can beat them, it will be colossal asshurt circus for months upon months. If the B-Lose actually win the series, we can look forward to a "first round win / finally beat the Blackhawks" banner raising, in the fall, because they won't make it much farther than that. On to subjects that don't incite extreme nausea or violent diarrhea...
The Blackhawks came in nursing some injuries and the had a significant forward that had to rush from a Chicago delivery room to St. Louis for the game, in Andrew Ladd. Corey Crawford was coming in having played a grand total of 60 minutes in the last month. Artem Anisimov, Marian Hossa, and Andrew Shaw all spent significant time with the team doctors resting their injuries, over the last few weeks as well. Duncan Keith was also off the menu, while serving the final game of his suspension for swinging his battleaxe in the face of Charlie Coyle. This could be two weeks of pure hell.
The first period was somewhat the pace you might expect from these two teams. The Blackhawks looked extremely sluggish while the Blues threw their bodies around like a bunch of clowns. Unfortunately, the Blackhawks weren't able to take advantage of the three gift powerplays they were handed. That cannot continue to happen. The Blackhawks out shot the Blues 11-4 and, if I was a betting man, I would say there were a few missed shots on net by the home scorer in favor of his team. Miraculously, the Blackhawks and Blues were still scoreless, when the horn sounded.
The second period was less physical, and saw the puck handlers showcased much more often. This let to a more even shot total, as well as a few really tense moments. The Blues actually led the middle frame in shots by a slim 10-9 margin. This time, the Blackhawks were the team taking brainless penalties, but they magically avoided any harm done. There was no way that Quenneville didn't have smoke coming out of his ears in the locker room.
The third period was a little cleaner, but the rest of the action was business as usual. THe Blackhawks out shot the home team, once again, 8-2. Without their top defender. That's amazing. Other than that, it was a pretty pedestrian period, ending up 0-0, and sending this one into overtime. The OT lasted about 8 minutes and the Blues got a fluke goal to win the game. Morally and emotionally, this was a win for the Blackhawks. Back at it, Friday, with Duncan Keith back.
- Andrew Ladd was just all over the ice. Maybe he needed to just not think about what was going on back in Chicago, but he was as physical as any Blackhawks player without doing stupid things. He had some nice looks on net as well.
- Corey Crawford did everything he could, to win this game. He deserved a better fate.
- The Blackhawks held a team to 18 total shots and 1 goal, in their own building. Oh, right, without their best defender. Nothing at all to complain about there.
- The Hawks didn't learn their lesson from the Blues first period ass hattery, and came out in the second and Rozsival quickly took a poor penalty.
- The few times that Erik Gustafsson was pressured by the Blues, he completely pissed right down his leg. Welcome to the NHL, kiddo.
- The Blues came back out in the third period with their usual physical goonery, laying big hits on Rozsival and Svedberg, which left open spaces elsewhere.
- Seven seconds into overtime, the Blues took a delay of game penalty. Should be game over, right? The Hawks had a chance or two, but spent a majority of the powerplay was spent chasing the in their own zone.
- Watching the Blues players take whacks at the Hawks players after the play is just maddening. Bunch of cheap shot artists. Patrik Berglund is a prime example. Complete bag of douche.
- The Blackhawks moved the puck with urgency during their first period power plays, but could not get their shots through to the net.
- The Manshitter took a late second period, lazy, offensive zone penalty. He is completely overmatched on the ice. Joel Quenneville will continue to put him out there to do everything badly, without any logic. Clearly he's on the "does no wrong" list, in Q's eyes. Weise, and Ehrhoff would like answers as to why. For example, late in the third period Ryan Reaves hit Erik Gustafsson pretty heavily with Mashinter on the ice, without a worry in the world. Seeing Q throw this meathead out on the ice in OT is both baffling and frightening.
- The game winning goal was as ugly as most of the Blues fans' family trees. Backes was deep along the Blackhawks goal line and tied to send a pass across the crease to a Blues player, but the puck went off Trevor van Riemsdyk's skate and between Crawford's legs. Super weak.
- The overall Blackhawks corsi was at 54%. I'll take that every game
- Hjalmarsson was a team worst -22 overall corsi, but a lot of that had to do with the Blues powerplays.
- Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin were the best overall Blackhawks possession player, each having a +19 overall corsi
Ladd - Toews - Hossa
Panarin - Anisimov - Kane
Mashinter - Teravainen - Fleischmann
Desjardins - Kruger - Shaw
Svedberg - Hjalmarsson
van Riemsdyk - Seabrook
Gustafsson - Rozsival