by Gatekeeper
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Sunday night the Blackhawks welcomed the red hot Canadiens to Chicago for, "One of those great six o'clock starts". The Hawks also welcomed back their former mangy mutt, and now overpaid agitator Andrew Shaw, as well. The Montreal Canadians came in on a hell of a hot streak, but that hot streak involved all world goalie Carey Price. The Hawks didn't face Price, Sunday night, which was an advantage right off the bat. Chicago native Al Montoya was in net for the Habs, and his last start really didn't go so hot, to the tune of a 10-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. After this game the Blackhawks were hitting the road for their annual pain in the ass circus trip and 7 straight on the road until the 29th, when they return against the Panthers. Perfect timing after just ending a 7 game winning streak, eh?
The Hawks organization started out with a Denis Savard tribute called "One More Shift". It was pretty cool and I know my brother was at full mast. The biggest Savard fan I've ever known. This is for you, Skeeter:
Following the short Savard ceremony, the Blackhawks came out with a little jump in their step. For a while, at least. The one thing that you'd imagine them gaining even more momentum on is the powerplay, but that's been proven wrong time and time again. They eventually took a 1-0 lead but they certainly didn't have the same pep in their step. Shots ended up in favor of the Blackhawks 9-7 and the Habs carried over a powerplay into the second period.
To say that the Blackhawks didn't start the second period well, is a bit of an understatement. They gave up two pretty soft goals in the first three minutes of the period. Thankfully, they were able get back on track and score two goals in the latter minutes of the period to take a 3-2 lead into the final frame. Overall, the Hawks also out shot the Habs pretty heavily 13-5.
The third period started out really well for the Blackhawks but they were not able to solve Al Montoya. In the latter stages of the period, the Canadiens were able to use 4-on-4 play and a pulled goalie to generate some pressure but the Blackhawks were able to hold on for the 3-2 win.
- Not only did they honor Denis Savard, but they honored Andrew Shaw with a little scoreboard tribute.
- Gustav Forsling put the Blackhawks up 1-0 with about eight minutes remaining in the first period. Andrew Desjardins and #DickFuckingPanik created some traffic in front, while Al Montoya's defenseman knocked his stick out of his hand. This gave Forsling an advantage on the shot, and he beat Montoya glove side.
- Following another failed powerplay the "Can't we just trade or LTIR him" Marian Hossa scored his 9th goal of the season. Al Montoya made the save on a long Nick Schmaltz clapper, but the rebound laid right at the feet of Hossa, who jammed it in.
- With just under 4 minutes left in the second period, Patrick Kane paid his homage to Denis Savard with a highlight reel goal of his own. After the refs missed a puck hitting the netting in behind the net, the play worked back around and Kane dangled through Jeff Petry and Max Pacioretty, then beating Al Montoya to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead.
- With about 7 minute remaining, Andrew Shaw looked to have a wide open net and Corey Crawford kicked it away with an incredible toe save.
- This might be the most complete and dominant game that the Blackhawks have played in quite a while. They had a few minute lapse in the second but, otherwise, they were spending most of their time in the Habs zone. The Blackhawks out shot the Habs 35-23.
- A minute into the second period, Duncan Keith had to take a penalty when Daniel Carr got in on a partial break-a-way. The Habs tied the game on a bizarre goal. Shea Weber tried to center the puck from the goal line extended, and it went off Michal Kempny's stick and into the top corner of the net.
- A couple of minutes after the Weber goal, Andrei Markov found a lane at the blue line, after Hawks neutral zone turnover and beat Corey Crawford cleanly. That's one Crawford would love to have a "do over" on.
- It took about 25 minutes for Joel Quenneville to fire up the lineblender, swapping 1st and 4th line left wings. Hinostroza ended up with the golden ticket while Hartman went down to the shithouse.
- With Al Montoya playing a great game and about 3 minutes left, Ryan Hartman got him all fired up and Montoya came up swinging. All this led to a 4-on-4 situation.
- The powerplay opened up struggling to get the puck out of their own end and, if not for Corey Crawford, they would have given up yet another ugly shorthanded goal.
- Pat Foley sat and told everyone watching the broadcast that Andrew Shaw was never drafted. Andrew Shaw was drafted in the 5th round(139th overall), in 2011.
- Max Pacioretty took a deflected puck right in the yap and left the ice bleeding pretty heavily, in the first period. Ouch.
- I still have no respect for Alex Radulov. He's an over rated bum slayer who dominated an inferior league and caused the Predators a bunch of drama.
- With his team trailing by a goal, and about 12 minutes remaining, the $5 million Andrew Shaw took the puck in his own corner and threw it to Richard Panik. The problem is that Shaw no longer plays on hte same team as Panik. Then he almost broke Michal Kempny's neck with a borderline hit, very late in the third period.
- Jordin Tootoo sat for this one. THANK YOU, JOEL QUENNEVILLE! Coincidence that they played their best game of the year? It's nice when you have 4th line skill that you can roll up 3 lines and not lose much.
Left Wing - Center - Right Wing
Hartman - Toews - Kane
Panarin - Anisimov - Hossa
Desjardins - Kruger - Panik
Hinostroza - Rasmussen - Schmaltz
Keith - Campbell
Kempny - Seabrook
Forsling - Hjalmarsson