You Get a Win, You Get a Win, You Get a Win! - Hawks Recap (10/19 - 10/26)

CHICAGO, IL - Well, kids, I never thought I'd see the day.

The Blackhawks are 6-2-2 in their first ten outings. Yeah. Let that sink in for a second.

I'm just as shocked as you are, believe me. I know I keep saying it (and so does everyone else), but this is not where I expected the Hawks to be ten games in. I was expecting the worst.

To say I'm happy with this early result would be an understatement--these games have been so fun to watch (yes, even the loss to Tampa Bay--we'll get there), and I can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store.

I can't say I've raised my hopes that much, mostly because I don't like being disappointed, but I'm interested to see what they do with the remaining 72 games.

Let's get into this.


BLACKHAWKS AT COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS: W, 4-1

A win in regulation! It's not just a myth!

In all seriousness, I think this is the best game the Hawks have played to date. You could make an argument for a different game, but we'll get there when we get there--the main point of this one is 'Oh my God, they can win in regulation!'

Look, I was just as shocked as you were. This was Corey Crawford's second game back, so I really was not sure what to expect from him--I thought he played well against Arizona, the boys just didn't play well in front of him. But, could he do it again?

Yes. The answer is yes.

And, to start the game, Crawford made a crazy save, the puck went down the ice the other way, Dominik Kahun passed to Alex DeBrincat, and the rest is history. The Hawks were up 1-0 early on, which was fantastic and a little surprising. This allowed for DeBrincat to continue his 7-game point streak, which, I've gotta say, is pretty incredible, especially for a guy in his sophomore year in the NHL.

But, the Hawks took a stupid penalty just minutes later and, of course, Zach Werenski scored on the Jackets power play. As the familiar tune goes, we've got ourselves a tie game.

The Hawks took another stupid penalty and the Jackets scored again--only, they didn't, actually. The goal was ruled as goaltender interference, which makes sense since a Jackets' player's stick was stuck up under Crawford's pads. For once, the referees were able to make the right call there.

After a busy first period, the second period lacked a lot of substance. A couple of Hawks penalties, a couple of power plays, but nothing of note. I've gotta say, Crawford looked amazing through two periods. I was impressed, and honestly, if you'd told me that he never missed a game, I'd believe you.

The third period is where things hit the fan. Surprisingly, in a great way.

Alexandre Fortin notched his first of the season--oh, wait, it tipped off Kruger's stick? Oh. Okay. Well, the Hawks were up either way, so I guess that's still good?

As of late, the Jonathan Toews line (Kahun-Toews-DeBrincat) has been on fire, and it was certainly true of this game. 

But, as usual, it was Patrick Kane's game. Isn't it always?

He scored on a great basically-empty-net situation, capitalizing on Sergei Bobrovsky's miscue--I really wasn'y sure what Kane was going to do with that wide-open net, but he definitely did the right thing.

And with just a few minutes left and Bobrovsky back to the bench for the empty net, Kane all but walked the puck right up to it. Boom, baby.

A three-goal win over a team that isn't terrible? I never thought I'd see the day, folks--yet, here we are!



BLACKHAWKS V. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING - L, 6-3

With high highs come low lows. This certainly felt like a low low.

I can't say that I was really expecting the Hawks to win this one--the Tampa Bay Lightning always seem to be contenders, and they're always a tough opponent. I also didn't exactly think the game would go the way it did.

Right off the bat, the Hawks let Nikita Kucherov (yes, him) on a breakaway. As good as he's been lately, poor Cam Ward had absolutely zero chance of stopping him. The Lightning had an early lead and immediately I kind of knew the direction this game was going.

The Hawks (namely, the Kane line) had some great chances--some ridiculously great chances that they just could not capitalize on. Until they did.

Fortin is one of the fastest--if not the fastest--players on the Hawks, and he put on a clinic about midway through the first period. Jan Rutta was stuck in the corner near Ward's net, and somehow flicked it all the way to center ice where Fortin grabbed it and went off to the races. That goal was legitimately a beauty, and my friends, we have another tie game. Oh, jeez.

Ward looked outstanding the rest of the period, but there wasn't much in the way of scoring--some great chances, for sure, but nothing on the board. The period ended knotted at 1-1.

Now, the second period is where--pardon my French--shit hit the fan.

The Lightning somehow scored three goals--one on a bad read from Ward, one on the powerplay, and another by seemingly sheer accident. It was a nightmare top to bottom, my friends. I don't even want to rehash that nightmare--and I honestly feel the worst for Cam Ward, who faced a record 33 shots in just that period alone.

I mean, yikes.

To be fair, the Hawks did try to stage a comeback in the third period. Victor Hedman scored early in the period to make it 5-1, but David Kampf scored his first of the season shortly after and suddenly, I felt some sort of hope that the Hawks could come back and win this thing.

Yeah, they couldn't. They certainly tried, but there was no coming back from that. Nick Schmaltz earned himself his first goal of the season, off a weird play in which the refs were not entirely sure if the puck went in (spoiler: it totally did). But, Ryan Callhan notched an empty net goal that basically put the last nail in the coffin.

It was not the prettiest game by far, but the Hawks seemed to use it as motivation for the next game.


BLACKHAWKS V. ANAHEIM DUCKS - W, 3-1

There are a couple of notes I feel compelled to make before we get into this game--which, was a really good game, and dare I say it... the best one of this season thus far. Defensively, at least.

Anyways, at the start of this game, the Hawks led the NHL in even-strength goals with 27--you might be thinking, "Wow, Meghan, that's awesome!"

Yeah... it's not. It means our power play isn't great. But, that's not new. It's definitely a sore spot, and something they'll need to work on if they want to stay at the top of the Central Division.

On a brighter note, this game was Jonathan Toews' 800th game, which is a really nice milestone for the Captain. I'm thinking he's pretty happy with the way his 800 games have turned out (save for maybe the games last year), as he should be. He's been a great captain for this team, leading them to three cups in six years (yeah, not dropping that any time soon), and I don't think you can really ask for more.

But, as I was saying--the best game defensively.

The Hawks defense was able to hold Anaheim (a normally offense-heavy team) to only one goal, and even then, it was on a 4-on-4 situation that they scored on.

The real takeaway here, though, is Brandon Saad. The Saadfather has started staging a comeback. With a beaut of a goal in the first period and the empty netter in the third to really seal the deal, I thought he looked like his old self against Anaheim. It was so strange seeing him so... lackluster, so I'm certainly glad he's picked up the pace again and hopefully he can really get going here.

I'm getting sidetracked. (Shocking, I know.)

After a lot of quality chances throughout the game, Kane finally squeaked one past John Gibson, who I thought really stood on his head this game. Kane ended up with the game-winner and the first star of the night, both well-deserved.

There isn't much more to say here other than I don't think anyone expected them to be in this position this season. As of this game, they were sitting at 5-2-2, which... is not a bad start by any means.

Much better than what I was expecting out of the first nine games.

Something I did notice about the way the Hawks have been playing lately (mostly in this game and against the New York Rangers) is that they are passing through defenders' legs more. I guess Manny and Sunny Quinn (the two mannequins that I've taken upon myself to name) have paid off. Q, what's their salary hit?


BLACKHAWKS V. NEW YORK RANGERS - W, 4-1

Hi. The Blackhawks have won six of their first ten games. I felt like that was just worth saying again.

Okay, look, I know the Rangers aren't the best team in the league (they're actually sitting in, ahem, 29th place in the league as I'm typing this), but I was still a little nervous going into this game.

You can't deny that the Rangers typically have a pretty solid defense and certainly a strong goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist. I know the Hawks do typically light Lundqvist up like a Christmas tree, but he's still a solid goaltender--he just happens to have a mediocre team in front of him.

Pretty early on in the game, the Rangers defensemen (and maybe a forward or two) seemed to lose their footing, letting Toews steal the puck and put one right past Lundqvist. It was a great goal, and I do think it counted as a breakaway goal (not that the NHL keeps track of those--they should, actually, now that I think about it).

Just a minute and change later, Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich scored on an unusually distracted Crawford. Tie game.

I feel like I say tie game a lot, and it'd be really nice to not say that once in a while. Just sayin', Hawks.

Anyways, the Rangers took a couple of penalties, the Hawks did a whole lot of nothing on the power plays, and by the end of the period, the Rangers got a few good hacks and whacks on Crawford--I was surprised they didn't score there in the waning seconds of the first period.

The second period wasn't anything too spectacular to start--the Hawks let the Rangers have a power play (but luckily nothing came of it--if the Rangers are good at one thing, it's the power play), the Hawks had a power play, but nothing.

About midway through the period, after the Hawks had had some great chances, I finally yelled at my TV, "C'mon, Hawks, let's score here!"

Just as I finished yelling, Schmaltz found the puck on his stick, shot, Fortin tipped it in, and boom. Ladies and gentlemen, the Hawks took the lead in the second period.

(Let the records show that I really like the Schmaltz/Fortin/Luke Johnson line!)

The rest of the period was pretty lackluster in terms of scoring--I did feel bad for poor Neal Pionk, who got a puck to the face late in the period. I'll give him props, though--he didn't go back to the locker room and played the rest of the game. In fact, he had over 28 minutes of ice time for the game, which is pretty impressive.

The third period is really where things got a little crazy.

Hawks got a powerplay early on but did nothing (I really should stop saying anything about it). A few minutes later, as he always does, Patrick Kane put the damn thing in the net. He and Brendan Smith just about went in, too.

In fact, the goal was ruled a good goal on the ice, but the horn didn't sound and everyone looked confused. The refs deliberated for a few moments before ruling it a good goal, and the horns blared and Chelsea Dagger played.

But, wait! The Rangers wanted to challenge the challenge. Yes. You heard me right.

After more deliberation, the goal was again ruled a good goal, no goaltender interference, and boom, horns and Chelsea Dagger again. It was the weirdest sequence I've seen in a while--both the Hawks and Rangers benches looked confused the entire time, and I was just as confused as they were.

With that goal, Kane was the first Hawks player to record 9 goals in 10 games--the first player in Hawks history to do so since Jeremy Roenick. Pretty great stuff there.

The Hawks weren't quite done scoring yet; the Cat himself wanted to get on the board! DeBrincat capitalized on an empty net and boom, we have ourselves a hockey game.

There was a funny little kerfluffle right there at the end between Brandon Manning and Jimmy Vesey, and I honestly couldn't tell you where that came from. It sure was entertaining, though, just like the rest of this game!



So, by some miracle, the Hawks are 6-2-2. Yes, I'm going to keep saying it.

I think the week ahead could be a tougher one--with St. Louis on Saturday, Edmonton on Sunday, Vancouver on Wednesday, and Edmonton again on Thursday, they're certainly in for an interesting week.

We'll see how they'll do here--I'd predict maybe a 2-1-1 record this week? Not sure where the wins/losses would come from, but I wouldn't exactly be mad at that record.

Let's see what these Hawks can do.