by Gatekeeper
Yell at Gatekeeper
The Blackhawks sent their kid squad to Boston to face the Bruins, Monday night. Most of the regulars were left back in South Bend and it showed. The only regular players that were in this game were Brandon Saad, Connor Murphy, and Corey Crawford. That should tell you some things right off the bat. Not only that, but the roster listed Luke Johnson as #82, and playing defense. Jordan Oesterle gets no respect. It's preseason for everyone, I suppose.
If not for the final minute, the first period was a complete disaster. The Hawks gave up two goals on the first handful of shots and then later gave up a third goal before they were able to stop the bleeding.
The second period couldn't have possibly been any worse, so there was only one way to go: UP. The Hawks were able to hold the Bruins off the board while scoring a goal to bring the game back within one goal.
In the third period, the Blackhawks gave up a powerplay goal that put the game out of reach and, much like Saturday night, they didn't have enough time to complete the comeback. Not a terrible showing for the Blackhawks, but certainly not an overly impressive one, either. Let's hope we get to see more regulars in the final two preseason games.
- Brandon Saad was able to cut the lead to just 2 goals, with under a minute remaining in the first period. Cody Franson, hit Erik Gustafsson across the ice. Gustafsson then turned and saw Brandon Saad just about 5 feet to Malcolm Subban's right, wisely hitting Saad's tape with a pass which was redirected by Saad off Subban and into the net.
- Midway through the second period, a gassed Jordan Oesterle desperately flicked the puck up to Tanner Kero. Even though the pass was behind him, Kero was able to corral the puck and make a slick pass to the streaking John Hayden. Hayden drove hard to the net,
protecting the puck, and beat Subban. The puck hit the back post and was originally waved off, but the war room in Toronto signalled the horn and ruled the play a good goal. - For the second game in a row, the Blackhawks were pretty good at the faceoff dots, winning 58%.
- Corey Crawford only saw 23 shots and gave up 4 goals. Thank god it is preseason.
- The Golden Child Debrincat had his time to shine, and was virtually invisible. Three shots on net and no points. If I didn't know he was on the roster for the game, I might have even doubted that he played.
- Under a minute into the game, on the first shot on net, David Pastrnak caught Corey Crawford deep in his net, and Pastrnak ate him up from a sharp angle.
- thirty six seconds after the Pastrnak goal, defenseman Jeremy Lasuzon flipped an innocent dump in shot towards Corey Crawford, and Crawford just flubbed it. If you thought the first goal was bad, this one was even worse.
- About 8 minutes later, the veteran Bruins caught Gustav Forsling hanging onto the puck too long and trying to stickhandle with one hand on his stick right up the gut, in his own zone. Marchand and Bergeron stripped him, and the late forward Anders Bjork was the lucky recipient of a backdoor tap in goal.
Left Wing - Center - Right Wing
Brandon Saad - David Kampf - Ryan Hartman
Lance Bouma - Vinny Hinostroza - Tomas Jurco
John Hayden - Tanner Kero - Alex Debrincat
Jordin Tootoo - Laurent Dauphin - Tommy Wingels
Gustav Forsling - Connor Murphy
Erik Gustafsson - Cody Franson
Jan Rutta - Jordan Oesterle