by Patrick Stankus
Tweet to #Fatrick
After traveling down I-55 to visit their rival St. Louis Blues, the Blackhawks returned home on Friday night to face the Washington Capitals. Coming into tonight's game, the Hawks were riding a seven game winning streak, while the Capitals were looking to find their elite Eastern Conference team status. With a couple teams in the Central Division struggling and the "Circus Trip" looming at the end of next week, its important for the Hawks to pad their point total now.
The first period featured the offense we would expect out of both of these teams. As good as the offense was, the goaltending was even better. The Hawks peppered the Capitals net with 13 shots, but were only able to beat Holtby once via the power play. That however wouldn't be enough for the Hawks enter the intermission with the lead. Jay Beagle tallied two goals in the opening frame to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
As entertaining the first period was, the second was a goddamn bore. Holy shit. Aside from Corey Crawford leaving the game briefly, there was literally nothing to talk about. The Hawks had a power play opportunity with five minutes remaining, but it resembled that of a Jeb Bush Presidential campaign, and couldn't get anything going. After the 40 minute mark, the Hawks still trailed the Capitals 2-1.
The snore fest of a game continued into the third period, as there really wasn't much going on. Throughout the period Holtby made some big saves to preserve the Capitals one goal lead. For Christ's sake, there wasn't even a penalty to talk about. In the closing seconds, Artemi Panarin throw a puck on net, that was deflected by Brooks Orpik, right onto Marian Hossa's stick and he stuffed it in the net to tie the game at two.
In the ever exciting 3 on 3 overtime, through the first two minutes, neither team recorded a shot on net. Talk about thrilling. The lone shot of overtime came off of Marcus Johansson's stick and beat Corey Crawford to give the Capitals the 3-2 overtime win.
- Stick taps to both goalies tonight. Corey Crawford and Braden Holtby were outstanding. An honorable mention also goes to Scott Darling, who had to come in for a brief time in the second period. Darling was literally thrown into the fire and had to stop a breakaway.
- Jump for joy, the Blackhawks power play finally scored a goal.
- Remember when Marian Hossa couldn't score his 500th career goal at the end of last year, and people deemed him "done"? Yeah, that was fun times, wasn't it?
- The Hawks stayed consistent at the dot. Tonight, they won 55% of the draws.
- Corey Crawford gave us a scare in the second period as he pulled a Ben Bishop, and left the game briefly. What can you say, diarrhea can be a real bitch.
- Anytime Jay Beagle scores two goals on you, that calls for smashing your head off the wall.
- Patrick Kane had an off night as he was virtually invisible and was a -2.
- For a little bit, it looked like the Capitals were going to challenge Marian Hossa's goal. That would have been icing on the cake for how ridiculous challenges for goalie interference has gotten.
- Artem Anisimov missed the game. Hopefully the day to day status stays true to form and he returns for the next game.
- The Hawks second power play of the game was, insert your own awful adjective here.
- Somehow Jordin Tootoo managed over eight minutes of ice time. Simply amazing.
- The Hawks loss tonight cost me a goddamn Jimmy Johns sammich bet with the Capitals fan at home. I believe that is 5 bets in a row I've lost to him. (See my twitter avatar for the most costly one)
