by Gatekeeper
Yell at Gatekeeper
The Blackhawks preseason came to a close last night, at home, against the Boston Bruins. For those of you that spent your Saturday night at the United Center, I feel for you. It was a boring game. Most of the players seemed uninterested and most roster battles have been decided already. Since I wasn't even supposed to recap this one, you'll have to excuse the Cliff Notes version:
- One player who was interested was Corey Crawford. He pitched in a 38 save shutout, and looked ready for the regular season. He was aggressive and square to the puck all night. I am sure that even in a shutout, the meatballs will find a way to complain about him.
- The only goal of the game was a powerplay snipe by Patrick Sharp. Shades of the old sharpie at the left circle, before anyone knew just who Artemi Panarin was. Sharp had about 3 inches to score this goal and used every bit of that. For as much angst that the Sharp signing caused me on July 1st, seeing him out there and scoring gives me the chills. He may not be the Sharp of 2013-14, but the team seems to enjoy him being back.
- Anton Khudobin was excellent for the Bruins. Any time you lose a game 1-0, it is not on the goalie. This game was a coin flip as to who was going to win.
- The Blackhawks won an amazing 65% of their faceoffs, and they were 1-5 on the powerplay.
- Both Connor Murphy and Jonathan Toews left the game early with minor injuries. Quenneville said after the game that they "Should be alright".
- No one really stood out. Not even "the amazing" Alex Debrincat. Jan Rutta continued to look good, but even he had some issues. Speaking of Debrincat, I said earlier that I understand them keeping him on the roster, but that doesn't mean I think that he's going to make it more than 10 games before he runs head first into the NHL wall.
- The Bruins looked like they had tied the game almost midway through the third period, but Jake Debrusk interfered with Corey Crawford's ability to make the stop and the goal was negated. Honestly, Crawford wasn't making the save on the clean backdoor chance from Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson(say that name 5 times quickly), anyway.
- I still see no redeeming qualities in Lance Bouma. He's probably going to make the team over John Hayden, and that is a damn crime.
Left Wing - Center - Right Wing
Brandon Saad - Jonathan Toews - Richard Panik
Patrick Sharp - Nick Schmaltz - Patrick Kane
Alex Debrincat - Artem Anisimov - Ryan Hartman
John Hayden - Tanner Kero - Lance Bouma
Duncan Keith - Connor Murphy
Gustav Forsling - Brent Seabrook
Michal Kempny - Jan Rutta
