by Gatekeeper
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With the Cubs season finally over, after their Cinderella run and unbelievable game 7 win, the now division leading Blackhawks were right back to work, Thursday night. They welcomed the Colorado Avalanche to the United Center, who aren't your insane homeless Uncle's Avalanche, anymore. This is bad news for the entire Western Conference. They have finally broken free from the restraints of that gray old French lunatic, which means that they may play to their actual strengths. Based on their defense, however, they may give up 4 goals a game, every game, as well. Either way, this team should be better than they have shown. This would be the first of many meeting between these two clubs, so get used to more Avs speed.
The Blackhawks were all clearly up late celebrating the Cubs game the night before, because they came out rusty. They stepped on the ice physically, but were in a complete mental haze. The Hawks spent a good majority of the first period in their own end doing damage control, and killing penalties. Shockingly enough, the Blackhawks only needed thirty eight dominant seconds to take a 2-0, and thirty eight dominant seconds is pretty much all they had. They were out shot 13-7, and generally out played overall. Total head scratcher, but who are we to complain?
They came out in the second period and looked like an actual functional team, for most of the period. They lost momentum in the second half of the period, partially due to the long delay from ice problems, right in the middle of their powerplay. The Avs out shot the Hawks, once again, 14-10, and held a 26-17 advantage overall.
The Blackhawks ended all hopes of a comeback very early in the third period, and then iced the game late in the period. If the Avs had any goaltending whatsoever, they could have been in the game the entire length of the game. Despite getting out shot 38-21 overall, the Blackhawks headed off to Dallas with a 4-0 win and their second shutout in 3 games.
See you in Dallas, Blackhawks and fans.
- I'm putting him at the top, because fuck everyone. Corey Crawford was outstanding. He had 38 saves, and earned his second shutout in three games. He has only given up one goal in those three games, and had no chance on that goal. If not for one Duncan Keith stick shredding PP gaffe, Crawford would have been on a 3 game shutout streak. If you don't like Crawford, you're just flat out fucking wrong, and I refuse to debate that with anyone.
- With about 5 minutes remaining in the first period, the Hawks decided to wipe the sleep out of their eyes and do some actual damage of their own. First, Jonathan Toews picked up a rebound in front of Semyon Varlamov and chipped it up over Varlamov's glove for a 1-0 lead. Not 40 seconds later, 38 to be exact, Artemi Panarin broke Marian Hossa loose and in on a breakaway. Hossa controlled the puck with one hand while using his right hand to fend off Fedor "Rootin" Tyutin, and beating Varlamov glove side.
- A minute into the third period, the "steadily declining" Marian Hossa scored his second goal of the game in very similar fashion. This time, however, he had one defender on his back and another bearing down on him quickly. He still had enough wherewithal to get a shot off over Varlamov's glove (a trend?) giving the Blackhawks a 3-0 lead. Tell me how bad Corey Crawford's glove is, again.
- In the third period, the PK was put to the test once again when Artemi Panarin got a high sticking infraction. Not only did the PK not give up a shot, but Patrick Kane set up Panarin, who was fresh out of the box, for a nice back door goal to give the Blackhawks a 4-0 lead.
- Marian Hossa had a pretty damn good night, despite his -13 corsi. Sometimes numbers lie.
- I realize we are all feeling better about the penalty kill, but taking stupid ass penalties like Patrick Kane did in the first period is just tempting fate. Get your fucking acts together!
- Michal Kempny got his feet caught underneath him, in the neutral zone, and just completely ate shit. Reminded me of the way David Ross ate shit in game 7 on the Jon Lester wild pitch. Otherwise, Kempny looked better this game. Lets hope this is the turning point.
- The Blackhawks spent the first 5 minutes of the game in their own end looking like a gaggle of monkeys trying to bang a football, but their goaltender kept the opponents off the board.
- The 5 minutes delay in the second period while the ice crew fixed the net pegs was painfully draining. Not only that, but the Blackhawks powerplay lost any momentum.
- I can see where Richard Panik could piss people off, especially Joel Quenneville. Sometimes he just makes immensely stupid plays. He was deep in the Hawks zone with the puck on his stick, and he tried to make some fancy between the legs blind pass, that ended on the tape of an Avs forward. That is the type of play every dopey men's league player thinks he's good enough to pull off, and ends up with me screaming at them. You want to get on your goalie's bad side quickly? Pull that dumb shit. Nothing makes me more mad than needless blind passes ending up on opponent's sticks. Totally avoidable. I still like Panik a lot and will defend his usefulness, but he's becoming Andrew Shaw. This was evident when Foley droned on about how he led the Hawks in hits the previous game, with 6.
- Semyon Varlamov SUCKED a monkey's red ass. Four goals on 19 shots is fucking terrible. You can't blame a defense that gave up under 25 shots on a road. Launch that dude into the sun.
- The Blackhawks were mushroom stamped at the faceoff dots again, winning only 42%.
- Three quarters of the Blackhawks team was underwater in corsi. Honestly they had no business winning this game 4-0. The Avs were just brutal.
Left Wing - Center - Right Wing
Panik - Toews - Hossa
Panarin - Anisimov - Kane
Motte - Kruger - Hartman
Rasmussen- Schmaltz - Tootoo
Keith - van Riemsdyk
Kempny - Seabrook
Forsling - Hjalmarsson
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