by Gatekeeper
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Friday night, the Blackhawks welcomed the New York hockey Rangers to the United Center for a mid December tilt that not many of us were looking forward to. Not only were the Ranger coming in hot, but they also boasted two young players that spurned the Blackhawks in Jimmy Vesey and Kevin Hayes. Hayes came in second on the blueshirts with 11-9-20, and Vesey came in with a respectable 9-7-16 but was injured. Those aren't the only two names the Blackhawks fans would recognize, as Antti Raanta started instead of Henrik Lunqvist, Brandon Pirri was centering the Rangers 4th line and Adam Clendening took his familiar spot in the UC press box for unlimited shrimp cocktail. Both teams came in pretty injury ravaged with the Blackhawks missing Jonathan Toews (Upper Body/Back), Corey Crawford (Appendectomy), and Brent Seabrook (Bump on the noggin), while Rangers were missing Rick Nash, Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich and Matt Puempel. With Seabrook out you'd think that Quenneville wouldn't do something crazy like sit Kempny, right? You would be wrong. Michal Rozsival was in the lineup against one of the faster teams in the entire league. Makes total sense.
It can't go without mentioning the Steve Larmer "One More Shift" tribute. The guy is a legend and deserves so much more credit than he has ever gotten. Larmer for Hockey Hall Of Fame!
You might not have recognized that team in red you saw at the beginning of the first period, because they were wearing Hawks colors, but they actually had some sustained pressure on the Rangers. For a little while, that is. They started fast caught the Rangers on their heels, but it wasn't long before the Rangers woke up and gave the Hawks fans a few scares. Neither team was able to get on the scoreboard, but the Rangers finished the period out shooting the Blackhawks 12-9.
The second period turned into the wild fucking west in this contest, with both teams going end to end a few times and getting several grade A chances. There were no goals up on the board at the end but the scoring chances had everyone on the edge of their seats. The shots favored the Rangers 11-10 which showed just how close the period was played.
The third period was just more of the same for these two teams. Both goaltenders played excellent and thanks to an offsides negated goal, these teams took the game to overtime tied at 0-0. Shots were 13-7 with the Ranger outshooting the Hawks for the third straight period, and 36-26 for the game. It only took the Rangers one shot and about a minute into overtime to catch the Blackhawks in a bad change, and the Rangers were able to leave the UC a winner.
- Pat Foley, for the second time in as many weeks, went into a tirade about Bob Pulford forcing Steve Larmer to end his iron man streak. I love it. Preach on, Pat. Pulford was an enormous piece of shit and held the Blackhawks down for a majority of the 80s both behind the bench and as a GM.
- Both Annti Raanta and Scott Darling put on a goaltending show. In the second period, alone, Raanta made an old school pad stacking save and then Darling made two fully out stretched saves.
- Patrick Kane was flattened from behind in the second period and there was no call, so he went ape shit and highsticked JT Miller and took a penalty. After the play, Kane ended up in the locker room for an extended time, but eventually returned.
- #DickFuckingPanik was able to poke the puck past a defender and it turned into a 2-on-1, but there was a small problem. The other forward was Andrew Desjardins.
- The Blackhawks got a little enamored with their puck movement in the overtime and forgot to cover their guys, leaving Defenseman Nick Holden to have a breakaway. Of course he ended the game.
- The ever valuable Jordin Tootoo with 4:26 of playing time.
- Sitting Michal Kempy for Michal Rozsival, especially with Brent Seabrook on the shelf, is a fucking dumb move. This is the shit that Quenneville pulls that is utterly infuriating. The Rangers are a blazing fast team, and Q purposely makes the Blackhawks SLOWER? Lets not even get into the fact that Trevor van Slows-dyk is anchoring that 3rd pair, too.
- Six minutes into the third period, Ryan Hartman fed Marian Hossa. who beat Raanta for what looked like a 1-0 game, but the Rangers challenged the goal and it was ruled to be offsides. This stupid replay system is dumb.
- In the third period Pat Foley not only called Scott Darling, Raanta once, but they he did it again just seconds later. I praise him for his Pulford rant and then he does this.
- The Hrivik/Lindberg/Fast line were possession beasts all night and led all players.
- No surprise that Ryan Hartman and Marian Hossa were the possession leaders for the Blackhawks, while the Motte/Rasmussen/Panik line got eaten alive.
- Faceoffs were right down the middle. Derek Stepan was able to win 70% of his faceoffs, so thank god the rest of the Rangers sucked a donkey's ass.
Left Wing - Center - Right Wing
Hartman - Kruger - Hossa
Motte - Rasmussen - Panik
Desjardins - Hinostroza - Tootoo
Defense
Keith - Hjalmarsson
Campbell - van Riemsdyk
Forsling - Rozsival