Skip to main content

The Boys Are Back! Well, Sort Of.


CHICAGO, IL -- What the hell even just happened?

 Well, let's break this down.

 Even though it took them 13 minutes to warm up, they scored first! Good job, boys. Anisimov snatched the first goal up with ease, shooting it past Rask with a sort of sloppy play. Doesn't matter. He scored, and it was awesome--Panarin and Seabrook got the two assists for that one, and not five minutes later, Kane answered with his first goal of the game. That was a beautiful breakaway, too. But, he's not stopping there!

 Kane scored again not a minute into the second period, driving right up to the goal and earning his 98th point of the season. And, Toews wasn't too far after him, scoring two minutes in! (Sometimes watching the Blackhawks is dizzying, frankly.) Hossa was trying to get a goal in, but made a beautiful pass to Toews who was able to tip it in.

 This was the point that they pulled Rask from the net, putting in Gustavsson. He only helped a little, still allowing for a goal from Panarin. That ended in possibly the cutest celly in the world, with a hug from Kane and getting him to 99 points.
See? Cutest celly ever. (source: tazertantrum on Tumblr)
But, they're not done yet. The Bruins were sent off the ice for too many men on the ice (I swear this stupid call follows me around), and the Hawks capitalized. Kane tallied a nice goal and his second finished hat trick this season--which was also his 100th point on the season! I'm telling you guys, this was not the game to miss this season. It was unbelievable.

 And, as of the second period, with 72 points, Panarin has the most points in a rookie season since... Patrick Kane. Talk about crazy coincidences.

 Still, the Bruins came back and scored twice before the second period ended, just a mere 11 seconds apart. Chicago challenged the second call, but came up empty-handed, and the goal stuck. (Even though the fans seemed to think otherwise, cheering as the ref skated to center ice only to crush their dreams.)

 And, they score at the beginning of the third period, as well. Another goal came quick in the second period, sending Blackhawks fans into a frenzy as the boys scrambled to keep their lead.

 Not much else happened in the third, aside from rising heart rates and a possibly injured Hossa. I swear, if he's injured again, I'll be very, very unhappy. He needs to wear bubble wrap from now on, I think.

 Anyways, Hawks cleared (barely), and won. An almost-empty netter attempt was made by Desjardins with less than a minute left, but Kruger was offsides. Boo.

 While I think the first two periods were good, the last really rubbed me the wrong way. I think they need to work on defense a little, since Darling had to work much harder than necessary to keep them in this game. Granted, with Keith out, the defense was pretty good today. Especially early on, with a 6-0 lead. I'm frustrated they lost that, and they definitely shouldn't have. Hopefully by the time playoffs roll around, they'll play like they did in the first two periods.

 That being said, the boys are back. Six goals is a pretty nice tally, and though it was stress-inducing later, they needed that lead to win, and the Kane-Anisimov-Panarin line really stepped it up today.

 Playoffs, look out. The Blackhawks are picking up steam, and hopefully not showing signs of stopping.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Checking In - Breaking Down the Blackhawks' Play Over a Month

CHICAGO, IL — I’m going to be absolutely real with you—I had no idea what to write about for the blog this week. I’ve written about the Blackhawks being good, bad, and everything in between, I’ve written about Patrick Kane a couple times now (#Kane4Hart), and I’ve even written about the best goal celebrations from the Hawks this season. The idea tank is running dry, my friends. So, I thought we could throw it back to a post I made a while back about what the Hawks really needed to do to make the playoffs, and grade them on how well they're meeting all three of those items a couple of weeks later. Let's just get right on into it, shall we? 1) With 27 games left, you have to go 18-9 to get to the 88-90-point range that would potentially get them into the playoffs. So, the Hawks currently sit at 71 points through 70 games, and since the date of this article (February 8th), the Hawks have gone 9-6, which is not terrible, but also only gives them a b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Measuring the Blackhawks Rookies and Newbies

CHICAGO, IL -- I know I did a quick measure of the entire Blackhawks roster back in February, but I thought since the season is likely coming to a close (save for a miracle), it might be nice to get an idea of where the newbies and rookies to the Hawks roster are. For this article, I did create some guidelines, like I did with the mid-season report cards (end of season report cards are coming soon, by the way!). This isn't really going to be a report card, but more of just my general thoughts on how the player is doing in his first season with the Hawks--I'll give a more specific/"graded" report in the post-season report cards article. The basic guidelines are as follows: Must be currently on the Hawks roster (not in Rockford) Must have played less than 82 NHL games OR less than 82 games with the Blackhawks (all stats will be just for this season to make things easy) Must be their first full year playing with the Blackhawks With that out of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hawks Bounce Back with a Huge W over Penguins

PITTSBURGH, PA -- Well, this Hawks team looked decidedly better tonight, and much more like themselves.  The Hawks certainly started strong, taking just three minutes to score--and of course, it was another Artemi Panarin and Patrick Kane beauty (with Tanner Kero's help as well). This was Panarin's 26th goal on the season, and boy has he looked good this season. And, incidentally, all three of these players that helped on this goal are the three stars of the night. Well deserved, too. But, back on track. Not but a few moments later,  Scott Wilson took a penalty for whacking the back of Ryan Hartman's head with his stick--in the words of referee legend Mike Leggo: you can't do that. Hawks went to the power play, but nothing came of it and they were back to even strength. Corey Crawford made some incredible stops tonight, and I thank my lucky stars every night that the Hawks are lucky enough to have him in net. He and Scott Darling are an unbelievable duo. The ...
Post a Comment
Read more