Blackhawks vs. Jets 2-0 Shutout Win Recap

"Top Gun II"

by Patrick Stankus

The Blackhawks returned home on Friday night to take on the Winnipeg Jets for the second time in five days. After a pathetic effort on Thursday night, the Hawks would be looking to bounce back, and frankly any kind of effort would be more than what they displayed in Nashville. The one thing the Hawks had going against them is the HUGE news of the day. Did you hear that the Cubs signed Jason Heyward? Oh my God! Why continue with this recap? No one is going to care. All that matters is the Cubs won the 2016 World Series on December 11, 2015. Alright enough of this boring ass baseball shit, onto more important things.

Right from the drop of the puck, the tone of the game would be set. Just over 3:30 into the game, the Jets took a penalty, and the feature of special teams was on. The Hawks wasted little time in cashing in on the power play. Jonathan Toews score just over a minute into the man advantage to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. The rest of the period the teams would trade power play chances, with a total of three more penalties, but when the horn sounded, the score would still be 1-0 in favor of the Hawks.

The parade to the penalty box would continue in the second period. The Hawks would end up being shorthanded three times, with the Jets shorthanded two times. The lone goal of the period would come at the midway part of the game. While on the power play, Patrick Kane extended his points streak to 25 games with a power play goal. The remainder of the penalties would be killed off and after 40 minutes, the Hawks would lead the Jets 2-0.

In the third period, the penalties would tail off with the Hawks taking the lone penalty. For the majority of the period, the Jets had the momentum, but couldn't get a shot past Crawford. Actually that was it. Aside from an Andrew Shaw breakaway, I damn near fell asleep. In the end the Hawks would hang on for the 2-0 shutout win over the Jets.


The Good

• The Blackhawks power play ended the night 2 for 5. I'll take that after knowing how awful they can be at times.
• Patrick Kane extended his points streak to 25 games with a power play tally in the 2nd period.
• Jonathan Toews had the opening goal in the 1st period, and was 65% at the dot. For someone who has struggled for the majority of the season, there are no complaints with that line.
• The Hawks blocked 23 shots tonight. Can't complain when guys are willing to sacrifice themselves and block a shot.
• Unlike Thursday night, the effort for a full 60 minutes was there for the Hawks. It was a great bounce back performance.
• Corey Crawford recorded 25 save shutout tonight. That's back to back performances where he has been stellar.
• See what happens when the Puckin' Hostile Crew doesn't go to games when the Jets are in town? We will no longer attend games against the Jets.
• Trevor Daley "massively outperformed" Brent Seabrook tonight. Daley had 8:44 of ice time, while Seabrook had 25:09 of ice time. By all means Daley is the heart and soul of the Hawks defense. That's why he's out there at critical points of the game.

The Bad

• The Hawks took 5 penalties tonight. FIVE. Luckily the PK came through and killed off all five. Seriously how terrible is the Jets power play???
• Artem Anisimov was crushed at the dot again. Tonight he was 39%.
• If I wanted to nit pick, I'd say the Hawks could have been better in the third period. After Thursday's performance though, lets just enjoy this win.

The Ugly

• Dustin Byfuglien is a joke. If there is anyone out there who misses this gigantic marshmellow, go get checked for a concussion.
• Bryan Bickell's presence was felt again, mainly on the bench. He was a team low at 6:45 of ice time.
• Did you guys hear the Cubs signed Jason Heyward???!! Seriously enough. Its December.

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Hat Trick Of Trades

by Patrick Stankus


Well, well, well, we knew it was coming, and we knew the return wouldn't be great, but the much anticipated trade of Patrick Sharp finally went down on Friday evening. While the return was what was expected, the package that StanBo sent to Dallas was enough to warrant me coming out of my summertime writing coma to bitch and moan.

Just as my blood pressure finally got back down to healthy levels following the blood boiling deal of Brandon Saad to my bromance town of Columbus (I already stated my opinion on that during the last shoutcast), StanBo decided to pull off another stunner last night in the Sharp deal. The fact that Sharp was dealt doesn't piss me off, its the fact that StanBo included yet another highly touted defensive prospect go in a deal. Remember last year's cap casualty Nick Leddy? How about Adam Clendening? Or maybe even Klas Dahlbeck? Well now you can add Stephen Johns to that list. What a lovely list it is isn't? For a team that is already wafer thin on defense, lets throw in another defensive prospect in a Sharp deal. Before I get the "Stan had to throw him in to get rid of Sharp" bullshit, let me remind you, StanBo had NO leverage whatsoever in making a deal. He was his usual self and overvalued Sharp at the draft, and thus held onto him instead of taking a package of prospects and picks. So while holding out and being stubborn, Stan was rewarded by have his balls in a vice by teams and had to THROW in a high prospect to rid the salary of Sharp. Terrific move. Let me give you a standing ovation on your stubbornness.


Hang on, I'm still clapping.

The part that aggravates the hell out of me in the inclusion of Johns in the Sharp deal is, you gave away a future NHL defenseman to a team within the division, and got nothing for the future in return. Nothing, nada, zip. Not even a 2017 draft pick. The inclusion of any sort of prospect would have been acceptable to me as well. But to get nothing, makes this trade hard to comprehend. What the Blackhawks received for the package of Sharp and Johns was puck moving defenseman Trevor Daley and an older version of Andrew Shaw in Ryan Garbutt. I guess we should jump for joy that noted dickbag Antoine Roussel.

There's nothing that makes me more happy than to hear StanBo and the rest of the Blackhawks management go gaga over their prized prospects, only to see them all shipped out of town in deals. For every good Andrew Desjardins for Ben Smith deal that StanBo pulls off, there's more "what the fuck is this" type deals that he makes. Rewind to that Leddy trade. Here the Blackhawks are less than a year after trading him, and all the Blackhawks have to show for it is PH photo shop guru Derek Harms' favorite future career AHL defenseman Ville Pokka. Now the jury is still out on Pokka, but to have him as the only piece left in the Leddy trade is disappointing. The other pieces received in that deal were; TJ Brennan (who was flipped in February for Spencer Abbott, who recently bolted Rock Vegas for Sweden) and Anders Nilsson who had his NHL rights traded to Edmonton earlier in the week. Fast forward to the Saad trade, and I'm honestly surprised someone (I'm looking at you Jeremy Morin) hasn't been deal already.

So before everyone gets drunk on the 3 Cups kool-aid, and the "keep the faith" garbage, just remember the Blackhawks third pair on defense is currently penciled in as the Chinese fire drill of Rundblad and TVR. That's comforting to know. I can already hear the whispers of "the Hawks did it with 4 defensemen in the playoffs" talk. Oh please, give me a break.

Fuck it, until the next #BatShitFuckingCrazy trade StanBo pulls off (cough, cough, Corey Crawford or Brent Seabrook) you can find me on the golf course.

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Blackhawks Make A Trade:Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies

by Gatekeeper

The Blackhawks did it to us once again. Bowman made the trade everyone knew was coming for the last 14 months, to a team in their division, and also gave up their top prospect at a position they were noticeably thin at already. Just another day in the life of a Blackhawks fan.

It was announced last night that the Blackhawks had traded Patrick Sharp and Stephen Johns to the Dallas Stars for Trevor Daley and Ryan Garbutt. Not a dream, or a nightmare. This happened.


The worst kept secret in the NHL was that the Hawks were shopping Sharp. They had been shopping him since, at the latest, early spring of 2014. His age and cap hit were just not something the Blackhawks could retain. Bowman failed to put together a deal of his liking, realistic or not, and the Blackhawks carried Sharp into this past season. Keep in mind Patrick Sharp was an Assistant Captain and vital powerplay piece, on a 2 time Stanley Cup winning team, who had just come off an appearance with the Canadian Olympic team, and a career best 78 point season. But, Stan Bowman couldn't find a single team that would be interested in taking that off his hands, for just a reasonable return.


Fast forward to this last June, before the draft. The Blackhawks had traded away their first round pick, which Bowman values very highly (until they mature after cooking in the system, then he trades them). Sharp had taken a hit in the production department, dropping to only 43 points, and dropping down in the lineup to the third line. Bowman was not able to put together a deal of his liking, once again. They carried Sharp through both the draft and free agency, until last night.

I personally don't care about any sort of return on Sharp. Honestly. He needed to be dumped. His salary was much more than the Blackhawks could swallow. If they got some unsigned 7th round pick from 2013, I would have understood. This was not a deal that they needed a return on. They are pretty deep at forward, wanted to simply shed cap space.

Instead, the Blackhawks packaged their only NHL ready defenseman prospect, and only one with size, into the deal. This is baffling. Don't give me this "Bowman had to give up their best AHL prospect to get a deal done".


If Bowman that bad at dealing, then he needs to be doing something else. This is not some kind of creative cap wizardry. This is straight out larceny. Complain, whine, and be mad at me all you'd like, but being a hugely successful, deep NHL franchise does not require fleecing most of your young talent for spare parts. It is supposed to mean that teams come to YOU, to clear out the wealth and take it off your hands. The Blackhawks essentially gave up some veteran leadership and the future on defense, in a single deal. For a Johnny Oduya replacement and an agitating face puncher.

I will never understand Stephen Johns being traded. In fact, I would have understood Teuvo Teravainen being traded, before Johns. I thought maybe if I slept on this part of the trade, it would somehow make more sense. It doesn't.

The Blackhawks have traded their 3 top defensive prospects, in the last 5 months. four if you count Mike Paliotta. All. Gone. After developing them for years. Adam Clendening, Klas Dahlbeck, Mike Paliotta and Stephen Johns are all playing elsewhere, while this already thin organization scratch their collective heads. Remember, just a month ago, the Blackhawks were forced to play their top 4 defenders nearly into the grave for the Cup, because their defensive depth was such utter garbage.

How do we fix that? Trade 2 of the top 3 young ones away. Daley is a wash, because he just replaced Oduya. The Blackhawks gained a couple of years of youth, but lost Oduya's experience. All this for, $2.5 Million in cap relief, because they took $4.2 Million back. From a team that still has OVER $6 Million in cap space remaining.

Let us not forget that the Blackhawks just traded their top young forward, in Saad, just a couple of weeks ago with Paliotta.

One last thing. For the lazy assholes that can only come back with "were you in the room negotiating?"


Take that, your #3CUPZ defense and shove them up right up your ass. The only thing that says is, "I know nothing, so screw it, I'll stick my head in the sand"


Once again, here are the Blackhawks NHL Cap Hits:

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