Blackhawks vs. Canucks Game 2 Preview

This is not a real preview, I just felt the need to post this youtube video that I found on @RunsOnDuncan site. She got it off youtube, but I thought I would give her credit, check her blog out here: http://aeryssports.com/runs-on-duncan/ and also check out the other aerys sports blogs, they are all by women and they are all amazing.

The Price Was Right Hawks Lose 2-1 in OT

The best thing about tonight's game was probably the amazing play by both goalies. One got the win, but each goal given up was a good shot and good attempt at a save. Crawford went back to his hometown in this game, and was not treated as a hometowner would expect. He shrugged that off and played his ass off. I was very impressed with him in this game. It seemed like every few minutes I was tweeting a tweet that had the hashtag #CRAWESOME in it. That's always a good sign.

For the past few games, he has been the only guy stepping it up and that needs to change. When your goalie is the only player who decides to play you aren't going to win. Most good goalies can't make that many saves, so don't expect it. The Blackhawks need to learn from this rookie and learn from his work ethic and the way he always plays 110%. My favorite thing about tonight's game was that Turco had another heart to heart, goalie to goalie talk with Crawford. I don't know how he does it. If I was a professional hockey player that was sitting on the bench, I could not be mature enough to coach the rookie who took my place. I admire Turco so much for the way he has stepped up and helped Corey out.

The worst part of tonight's game was another injury. Brouwer went down in the 3rd period with a bad shoulder. I don't know the details, but I do know that we can't afford to have any more injuries. Sharp will be skating soon, but if we make the playoffs he probably won't be back for the first playoff game. If we make the playoffs these injuries need to end. We can't make a run at keeping the cup without Sharpie.



The only Blackhawks goal scorer was Patrick Kane. In doing so, he got his 300th career point. This is extremely impressive because it was done in only 314 games. Statistically that means that he only went 14 games without a point, literally he probably went more because he has had 18 multipoint games. Kane is an impressive player. He got cold through the middle of the season and I think people forgot that he is one of our best players. He has been the hot guy lately and has had a point in each of the last 8 games. (That's if my stats are right) Kaner is being the leader of the team right now. I heard that Toews was mad in the locker room after the game and that might lead to another win streak, but until the Hawks play again Kane is still the hot guy.

This game unfortunately and fortunately went to overtime. This was good and bad. I didn't want the Hawks to lose so overtime would have not been necessary if we didn't play like idiots during power plays. I like that we went to overtime because we still got a point. It's better than losing and not getting any credit even though your goalie and a few players played really well.

The Blackhawks started the game as if they had urgency, but did not continue to play that way throughout the game. Their energy trickled and led to them losing this game. They need to play a full 60 minutes of full on urgent lose you go home hockey. This team can win games if they all pull together and actually play well. I think Toews will get a goal the next game, and I think Kaner continues his awesomeness. Just for fun, I'll predict that Johnny gets an Ovechtrick.

Shutout, Hawks Win 4-0

This game was the first game of our new forward Marcus Kruger who we called up for this game. He played well, he had his first penalty but overall had a good performance. I think he will do a lot of good things in the future and look forward to seeing him play more with the Blackhawks. This game was a first game for someone else too, this is the first game for Campbell after his ankle injury and he seemed to skate just fine. Sharp was still out today, but the Hawks didn't need him, because they scored pretty well by themselves.

In the second period, it was still tied 0-0 when Toews passed to Keith who passed to Seabrook who rocketed it towards the net and got the first goal of the game. Toews had another assist on the stalberg score in the 3rd Period. Also in the third period Kane scored on a sweet pass by Keith. Both Toews and Kane had multipoint games, this was Toews' 24th and Kane's 18th. Later in the 3rd the three slovs were together and teamed up to score an awesome goal. Frolik and Hossa got the assists and Kopecky got the goal.

The biggest story of the night in my opinion was that Corey Crawford was amazing. I can't even count how many times I tweeted something with #Crawesome in it. He was a beast and ending up holding on to get a shutout, his 5th of the season. He has been in net night after night and is still performing like that, I think we have a winner here with him.
The big problem of the game, at least in the first part of the game, was that there was terrible passing by the Blackhawks. They had plenty of chances that were killed because certain players couldn't pass the puck well. They have to improve on that, but later in the game the passes were the things that shined, so maybe Q mentioned it during intermission.
The three stars of the night were crawford, toews, and the number one star was seabrook because his goal opened up the shooting spree and helped lead the Hawks to victory. All three stars deserved it and they all played extremely well.
Overall the Blackhawks played a good game and played like they needed to win, which they did. Toews was a monster as always, and Kane got another goal. I don't think I could be any happier right now about this game.

HAWKS WIN. 2-1

The Blackhawks had a terrible loss a few days ago, and they knew going to Pheonix that they had to play well or they would not be in the playoffs. They rose up to that challenge and played a really good game. This game could have been a blowout for the hawks, but the coyotes' goalie made a lot of good saves, and most of those good saves were on Toews.
Nick Leddy had his birthday yesterday, and as a present got an assist on the Keith goal in the first period and got blamed for the yotes' goal. Kind of an up and down effect there.
The bad news from this game is that Patrick Sharp got hurt on a delayed penalty call. It is a knee injury and there has not been a comment on when he will be back or how he is doing. I hope he is back soon, he has been a vital part of our team this year and losing him for this final playoff push could be fatal.

The good news from this game is that Chris Campoli got his first Blackhawks goal. That is the goal that broke the tie and ended up winning the game for the hawks. Both goals were great goals and from almost the same spot. Great setups on both, one from Leddy and one from Toews. I was really happy for Campoli when he got the goal and I hope that is only the first of many on this team. He fits in well with the rest of the team.
The final minute of the game was crazy, but the Blackhawks ended up holding on. Hossa was about to put it away into the open net, but the shot was blocked and the yotes still had a chance to put the puck in the net and make the game go to overtime. That was huge, I'm done with the overtime thing. The Blackhawks have played too many overtime games, yes it gives you a point but if you end up winning you just give the other team a point. The Blackhawks played well and the score doesn't really show that but they are back to the form they were in when they went on that 8 game win streak.

I thought I would share this because Keith scored last night. Great song and video. I love all the songs that the score puts out.

Hossa Scores Two

Last night the Blackhawks played a must win game against the Sharks. If we lost this game we could have dropped out of the playoffs for the time if we didn't win. The first period was shaky and the Blackhawks started to look like the team we had seen during the 3 game losing streak and no the team during the 8 game winning streak. The second period was a whole other story.
In the second period the Blackhawks scored 5 goals, and two of those goals came from Marian Hossa. Hossa recently has had some problems getting the puck in the net, but last night he almost had a hat trick. He was a beast and was fed by some crazy good passes from patrick sharp.



I have to admit I wrote this little post just so I could post this youtube video and song on my blog. You know you love it too.

The Two MVPs

I just thought I would write about the two players in Chicago that are making a big impact on their teams, so much that they are MVP candidates, at least in my book. The first is Jonathon Toews. Lately he has led the team on an eight game winning streak and has scored a goal in the last three games. This is not the only reason that I think he should be MVP. It takes all year to earn the award. All year long Toews has been stepping it up as the team's captain. Together with Sharp they have helped the blackhawks get back into the top of the standings and into playoff position. Toews recently gave a big speech during intermission in St. Louis that fired up the whole team and really helped them get out of their slump. He has stepped up and really showed that he deserves his captain role. Right now he is scoring goals, getting assists, pumping the team up, and just flat out playing good hockey. I think that qualifies him for MVP.

The next player is a guy that I have been talking about being the MVP for a while now. Derrick Rose has had a great year. All year long he has stepped it up and has put up major stats. He is a great player to begin with and this is one of his better years. The Bulls are now 2nd in the east because of him and they are rolling. Every game that the Bulls play against a top team he steps up and scores tons of points. While scoring all those points he also gets little turnovers and a lot of assists. Derrick Rose is MVP and I don't think anybody can truly argue that. Everywhere he goes he gets MVP chants and everywhere he goes he deserves them. He is a scoring machine and also plays the point guard position well by getting a lot of assists. He is the real deal. I won't be surprised if the Bulls win the NBA Championship this year, but I really think that next year is their year. Derrick Rose can change that, he can make what I think the Bulls aren't ready to handle into something they handle very well. He is the NBA MVP. No question.

Patrick Sharp 300 Career Points

I realize that I am late to the party on this, but if you have ever read my blog you know that I am late to the part on blogging on most things. Patrick Sharp got his 300th career point on Thursday. One of my twitter friends was asking for photo-shopped pictures of sharps head on a 300 character. I did not post this to her, I made this today. I saw her blog and you can visit her blog by click the MsBlackhawks link at the bottom right of my blog page. I saw the images that she got and I decided that I should make my own so that I could blog about how amazing my favorite Blackahawks player is. Okay, I'm done with the citing and boring stuff, onto Patrick Sharps amazingness.
When I saw that he got his 300th point I was super happy, he ended up getting another point for scoring on the open net later in the game. I was really happy when I saw this, though because I have known for awhile that he was a good player. I chose him to be my favorite around 2007 or 2008 when the Blackhawks started to be talked about again in Chicago. This year he has shown his talent the best and it just seems right that this is the year that he hits a great milestone. He is a beast and he has been scoring goals like a machine,(refer to my last post for a great pic to represent that) and he has also been getting a lot of assists. That leads to a lot of points. I guess what I'm trying to say is CONGRATS SHARPIE ON 300 POINTS!!

Blackhawks Struggles

I was planning on posting this basic post about four days ago, when the Blackhawks were making me very mad and they were not playing well at all. Now they won last night and they won earlier today, against pretty good teams, but not great teams. This is a step in the right direction, but we still need a lot more wins and not to lose a couple days after a win. There is something in hockey called a winning streak. Apparently the players don't understand what that is this year. The Blackhawks players can't seem to get it in their head that just because they won last year doesn't mean that they will automatically be in the playoffs this year. It doesn't work that way. They have to play like they want it, they have to play like it is last year. I have a feeling that Johnaton Toews' speech pumped up this team in a major way, no matter what he said. If we get a 10 game winning streak starting with these two games I would not be surprised. People say that Toews is not a good leader for our team. They must be kidding. He was the reason we won the game today and he is the reason we win many games. Just because he isn't a bitch like Crosby and doesn't have a big personality like Ovechkin doesn't mean that he isn't a good leader. He is a big leader for our team and a lot of the players on this team say that.
Back to the Blackhawks struggles. One of the reasons I think they are having a bad year is the beginning. They are a young team. I am as old as Patrick Kane. I know if I won the Stanley Cup the next year I might not play as well; I would feel invincible. I think that is what happened to a lot of these players. They won and therefore thought that nobody could ever beat them now. That caused the beginning of the season to be not such a great start and now we are in a tough situation as we get into playoff push mode.
Another reason for the slow start and not great season is that we have had a lot of injuries. Kane has been injured once for a long time. Toews was out for a little while. Hossa has been out for a lot of this year. Those guys were the first line last year. If you expect a team to win a lot of their games with those guys gone at points, you are crazy and have very high expectations. I knew from the point when they all got injured that this wasn't going to be a fabulous year. You can't blame a team for that, and I know I sound like a Cubs fan pulling the injury excuse, but Kane, Toews, and Hossa??
I'm going to end on a positive note. My favorite player since 2008 when I started paying attention the blackhawks again is having a monster year. He is, obviously, Patrick Sharp. He has 30 goals and most of those were while the other big parts were injured. He stepped up in a big way this year. He knew that some of the better players were injured and the Blackhawks would have an even worse year if somebody didn't step up. He knew this and he stepped into that position and scored like crazy. @blinkfink182 even made a great photoshopped picture of him. Everyone reading this follow him on twitter at that name.

(visit blackhawksdl.com for more)
I think that picture sums it up well.

Blackhawks Season Preview

Yes, I know it seems weird to be writing a blog post about the preview of a season that has already started. Well, there are two reasons why I am doing this. The first is that I just plain didn't have time to write a blog earlier this week about the start of the season before it actually started. And the second reason is because I thought I would do something a little different for my season preview. I will give my idea on how good the Blackhawks will do, but I want to talk about the pressure on these young guys and the expectations in Chicago. So first, my outlook on the season.
Even though we were forced to get rid of a lot of our good players we kept the core five. Yes, we got rid of our goalie which isn't a smart idea, but we got possibly a better goalie and he is more of a veteran. A lot of fans keep saying how good Niemi is. That's because all they remember is the playoffs. During the playoffs, he was great. But during the regular season, he wasn't that great he was our weak point. So now I think we have a good team, its not better, but I don't think it is much worse. Looking at the two games we have played it looks like we aren't very good, but both games were close and its only the beginning of the season. So I think the team will do very well this year. They are definitely a playoff team, and when you get there you never know what will happen. So I can't really make an accurate prediction other than that they will make the playoffs.
Most fans in Chicago if they are reading this are saying just making the playoffs isn't good enough. We have to do better than last year. You may think that is impossible, but it is possible. We could do better we can lose less games in the playoffs. We have a team that is built for the playoffs, but when you get there you never know who is going to win. The Capitals are a good team that got knocked out in the first round, so don't make high expectations. Remember Jonathon Toews is only 22 years old. When you put too much pressure on a young person like that they may explode. I know you are probably thinking now, Toews can handle pressure very well and I agree. I'm just saying to be careful. But the Blackhawks expectations for the year couldn't be higher.