by Gatekeeper
Yell at Gatekeeper
Game two, post All-Star break, was in tropical Arizona, Thursday night. The Blackhawks were going to get to see a couple of potential trade deadline targets up close in Kevin Connauton, Luke Schenn, and Martin Hanzel, as mentioned on the previous night's Shoutcast. This was a game the Blackhawks needed to win, and win convincingly. They were coming in on the heels of a three game losing streak where they they simply looked awful. Their weaknesses have been exposed, as of late, and their energy has been lackluster. The Coyotes came into this contest with a home record that wasn't terrible. They were only one game under .500 which, for this team, was pretty good. It was up to the Blackhawks to make sure they didn't hit .500.
For at least the first period, the Blackhawks came out looking like world beaters. Before the game was ten minutes old, they had two goals on seven shots while giving up only two shots against. They weren't done there, though. With about six minutes remaining in the period, on their second powerplay, the Blackhawks took a 3-0. Clearly this was not so much that the Blackhawks were amazing, but that the Coyotes were just godawful. The period ended with the Hawks up 3-0 while out shooting the Yotes 14-6. I honestly couldn't remember the Coyotes having two shots on Corey Crawford.
In typical Blackhawks fashion, they came out in the second period and took three stupid ass penalties in the first four minutes of play. This gave the Coyotes enough opportunity to break the shutout on a 2-man powerplay, which is exactly what happened. The Blackhawks gathered themselves and put their big boy pants back on long enough to get that three goal lead back with about five minutes gone, but stumbled again. The Coyotes scored their second and third of the period before the second intermission, making this game much, much closer than it ever should have been. Can't make it easy on us, can they? The Yotes completely flipped the script on the Blackhawks, out shooting them 14-6 in the second period.
The final period was much more controlled, but that didn't completely keep the stupid penalties off the board for either team. This said, there was no scoring off the powerplays, or scoring in general. Not to say there weren't a few scary moments, but the Blackhawks held the Coyotes at bay, for a half assed win. This is not a game that the Blackhawks deserved to win, but their opponent was just that much worse.
Also, go listen to this week's Shoutcast where we talk, at length, about possible Blackhawks trade deadline targets, and rumors of a possible Scott Darling extension.
- Just under halfway through the first period Patrick Kane ripped a snapper over Mike Smith's glove for a 1-0 Blackhawks lead, on the powerplay. Nothing special about this one. Kane just ate Mike Smith alive when the defenseman gave Kane way too much room to size the big greasy man-baby up.
- About a minute after the Kane goal, Ryan Hartman took advantage of a Coyotes defender with no stick, and blew a long clapper through about a million sets of legs, including Mike Smith's. Two goals in 1:12 had us fans looking for a landslide that never came.
- The Blackhawks also scored on their second powerplay of the game, with six minutes remaining in the first period. Artemi Panarin and Marian Hossa hooked up on a nice looking zone entry, and Hossa was able to knife right through the Coyotes defense to beat Mike Smith on the stick side. Smith, for some reason, was super deep in his net and left way too much real estate for Hossa to shoot at. The Blackhawks were off to the races, right?
- After the Blackhawks finished shooting themselves in the foot, for the first 5 minutes of the second period, Artemi Panarin put the Blackhawks back up by 3 goals. Panarin's one timer isn't quite as dangerous as Ovechkin, but it's not far behind, either. He hit a small area of the top shelf surgically. It was really and extremely underrated goal, because one timers are hard enough, but to get them off with such precision is seriously amazing.
- Jonathan Toews used his pure speed to get himself one on one with Mike Smith, shorthanded, in the third period. Tell me some more about how the Blackhawks need to trade him, meatball imbeciles.
- The Coyotes got their second goal of the game with five and a half minutes remaining in the middle frame. Christian Dvorak pretty impressively redirected a long Shane Doan shot past Crawford to cut the lead back down to two goals.
- The Coyotes weren't done there, though, folks. With under 5 minutes remaining in the second period, Brendan Perlini banked a long shot from the half boards off the skate of Brent Seabrook past Corey Crawford and into the Hawks net. Just wonderful.
- Andrew Desjardins not only got his first point of the year in the first period, but he got into a fight with Luke Schenn when Schenn stood up for teammate Radim Vrbata. Schenn came racing at Desjardins after Desjardins put an aggressive bump on Vrbata after a whistle.
- The Hawks opened up the second period taking two penalties on the first 19 seconds of the period. This gave the Coyotes a long 5-on-3 powerplay and they were able to cut the Blackhawks lead to 2 goals with a back door Oliver Ekman-Larsson goal. They weren't done making themselves look like assholes yet, though. The parade to the penalty box continued to force the penalty kill
- The Blackhawks ended up taking three delay of game penalties in the first 40 minutes. How does that even happen? Sloppy ass hockey.
- I know that Mike Smith is kind of a sweaty douchenozzle, but I feel for the guy, as a goalie. Getting your ass handed to you night in and night out cannot be fun. His save percentage is respectable and yet they just get absolutely shelled. I can't blame him for flipping the fuck out a time or two. I certainly would, and probably on a nightly basis.
- Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson were pretty well under water in Corsi but, at least in Hjalmarsson's case, it was all the shorthanded time. Hjalmarsson alone was on the ice for just a shade under 6 full shorthanded minutes. That's insanity.
- The fourth line and third defensive pair held their own in possession, albeit sheltered minutes.
- The Coyotes out hit the Blackhawks 46-8.
Left Wing - Center - Right Wing
Schmaltz - Toews - Panik
Panarin - Anisimov - Kane
Rasmussen - Kruger - Hossa
Desjardins - Kero - Hartman
Keith - Hjalmarsson
Forsling - Seabrook
Campbell - van Riemsdyk