Andrew Ladd, Blackhawks Fly Past Jets
Apparently four in a row was enough.
The Blackhawks skated to a very vanilla draw in the opening 20 minutes, but took care of business with a flurry in both the second and third periods that produced two quick goals in each.
Patrick Kane, skating with Winnipeg-native Jonathan Toews and former Winnipeg captain Andrew Ladd, opened the scoring with his 39th of the season at 16:56 into the second.
Only 26 seconds after Kane’s goal, Marian Hossa scored his 12th of the season and the 498th of his career to extend the lead to two. Hossa skated with Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov; Anisimov picked up the assist on Hossa’s goal.
After a lovely tribute video was shown in the arena to welcome Ladd back, the Jets let their former captain score a goal three minutes into the third period. Toews and Kane picked up assists on the tally, giving Kane a two-point evening after a tough couple weeks for the league’s leading point producer.
Less than two minutes after Ladd’s goal, Tomas Fleischmann scored his 13th of the year to push the score to 4-0 in favor of the visitors. Teuvo Teravainen, who missed the morning skate because he’s still under the weather, didn’t look very bad on the ice. He was credited with the lone assist on Fleischmann’s goal, his 20th helper of the season.
Chicago’s penalty kill was perfect in four short-handed opportunities.
Scott Darling started with Corey Crawford ailing and pitched a fabulous shutout, making some acrobatic saves in the early going to keep his team on top. Friday night was the second shutout of Darling’s career – and came on the one-year anniversary of his first in the NHL. Darling stopped 27 shots in the victory.
Richard Panik returned to the lineup and led Chicago with five hits in 11:20. Kane predictably led the Hawks with six shots on net. And, perhaps most importantly, the Hawks were able to roll four lines with a big lead late; Ladd was the ice time leader for Chicago forwards, but skated only 16:16 in the win.
Four of the Blackhawks’ six dressed defensemen blocked two shots, and Michal Rozsival played a much better game than his Wednesday performance as the Hawks also spread out the ice time on the blue line. Niklas Hjalmarsson and Duncan Keith were the only Hawks over 20 minutes in the game, but skated only 23:23 and 24:19 respectively.
The win comes at an important time for the Blackhawks, Nashville lost 4-1 in Washington on Friday night, and Dallas announced Tyler Seguin’s regular season is over earlier in the day. St. Louis is now only one point ahead of the Blackhawks for second place in the Central, but the Hawks have five more regulation wins than the Blues. Dallas’ lead is down to three points, with all three teams atop the division having played 72 games.
Minnesota visits the United Center on Sunday, and the Hawks will look to keep rolling against a Wild team that hosts Carolina on Saturday night.
It’s all good. Stick to the plan. Happy for Kane’s 2 points..keep it going Kaner! Some big big stops by Darling lead to the shutout and boosts his cred. One year anniversary eh? So every March 18th we make darn sure Darling is in net. Ladd and Fleischmann 3 goals each in nine games ….not too shabby at all.
I realize that the Jets aren’t a great team, but I like the lines with Kane and Hossa swapped. It balances out the size a little more and I like the cycle game with Hossa and the Ruskies better than Hossa with Ladd and Toews for some reason. Toews looks quicker with Kane on his line somehow. I think the 2nd line with Kane and Panarin works great in the regular season when teams aren’t playing playoff caliber defense every night. Again, this was against a not so great Jets team, so maybe any line combination would have looked good, but I liked the look of the lines with Kane and Hossa swapped.
So far the 2 top lines have worked well and that’ll be good flexibility to have for the playoffs. Without Kane on the 2nd Panarin takes a little more control. Having Hossa on the 2nd also looks to help Anisimov. 3rd line was also great tonight and hope Q keeps them together. Weise had a good game against Philly, too.
Shaw and Desi are always great together so looking forward to Kruger’s return! 4 lines! but until then Panik should be kept on the 4th
Still looking for Erhoff though to get more ice time!!
Bingo Bango.
Yee Ha! Jesters dead.
Excellent “stop the bleeding” win for the Hawks. Now they need to protect home ice and take it to Minnesota on Sunday, the way they smoked us in the outdoor game in Minneapolis.
One other note, I believe that was Little Marko who could not catch Kane on that first goal and chased him all the way down the ice as Kane roofed the backhand. Poor little Marko. Just some political humor.
Finally, finally, a decisive possession win for the Hawks. Hard to read too much into it though… the Jets suck at exiting their zone. So many ugly turnovers!
Not sure about swapping Kane and Hossa. I know they scored, but the top two lines really struggled overall according to the advanced stats.
Teravainen’s line was by far the most effective (and scored on one of said ugly Jet turnovers). The fourth line was also very good. But Toews finished even Corsi, Kane and Hossa slightly positive, Anisimov slightly negative, and Panarin had a rough one.
I think Panarin really needs Kane to be his most effective. Keep the second line together. We really need that production. Use the Toews-Hossa line in defensive situations more often, and the Kruger line gets the toughest defensive assignments (yes, that’s well worth $3M per year). Then we’re left with the Teravainen line, which I think is crucial to a deep playoff run.
We can’t go far on 1.5 lines of consistent production. With Toews and Kruger getting the top assignments, Teravainen has to go full bumslayer mode and shoulder some of second line’s load. The last few games have been very, very positive in that regard. If we repeat, it will be because that third line is causing havoc for opposition’s third pairings and bottom forwards. 2.5 lines of production is enough to win the cup.
If we win it all, it wouldn’t surprise me if the trade for Weiss and Fleischmann is recognized as the “key move” that got us over the hump. Not Ladd.
Did anybody else hold their breath when Panarin had that late scoring chance with the Hawks already up 4-0? I was so glad he missed. Literally yelled “cap space!” at my computer screen :D
Oh, and I watched Caps-Preds. Wow. The Caps remind me of the 2013 Hawks. Really fun to watch, and really, really good.
A win is a win, even when it comes against a Jets team that isn’t too good to begin with and even worse after they fell behind.
Hopefully Kane’s mini-slump is over because he’s as much of a difference maker as difference makers go. Go Kaner go is code for go Hawks go.
14-86-25 – finally. I really like Weise, especially on that line. He has more speed than I thought he did. It nice to have his wild hare type of play to go with the smooth rhythm of TT and Fleischmann.
Hopefully Q keeps the top-9 intact (switching Kane and Hossa as game conditions dictate), but I’d like to see Rasmussen between 11 and 65 – let Shaw get used to playing back at 4RW in preparation for Kruger’s return.
Darling – way to keep us in there until Kane broke through. It’s games like last night that makes me feel pretty good about our goal tending. A confident Darling saved our bacon against Nashville last season and he may need to do it again at some point this season.
Team defense still a concern – even in a shutout. Still too many giveaways and positioning is too loose too often. But – 10 games remaining to work on it and hopefully Q slows down the blender for the sake of continuity over those games.
Not a Rubio fan eh Craig?
No real opinion one way or another on Rubio, but that label did stick. And for some reason as I saw Dano chasing Kane and meekly trying to stick check him, I thought to myself, look at little Marko.
Glad our guys got the W last night. It certainly breaks the negative momentum of a 4 game losing streak.
Btw Ernie, som Great college hockey this weekend. I caught most of the BC/northeastern game. Our guy Dylan Sikura was noticeable. Very quick, good offensive instincts.
Craig N. – “little Marko”-now that’s funny, good one. Quite the entertaining nomination races you folks have going on down there. We are now lead by a former snowboard instructor and part time drama teacher. Thank God we all have the Blackhawks to keep us in the real world.
Sasquatch Darling really played good on the road, vs a really average Jets team. Darling was called upon to make 4 great saves and did, and then the Jets went home early. Kane burst by slow footed and two handed reaching (my boy ) DANO and go start the car.
Darling had a great on the road . . . if he plays the same vs the STARS on SUNDAY well I’m will be tipping to a fan! I like Darling personally and his story, and now on the road he did seem more relaxed? If he shuts down the Stars . . . Crow Show could be on hold and that “competition” is good.
TNT played well as did FLASH ( slick inside move ) a I guy I really like as well as Weise ( reads the ice ), and Panik too, Panik is about as good as DEZI. But we gotta keep Flash and Weise next year! These guys get to net; they don’t GET LOST ON THE BOARDS or get wrapped up in the check to big and too smart. Shaw gets caught often in the corners, like many fore checkers do. These new guys get in, make contact, stick, puck and move. Always moving always. In fact Weise moves without the puck better than any hawk, keep an eye on him, and he is very physical watch him without the puck how fast he reacts to open ice and reads the play. Very TEVO like but with speed ability to hit and grit, TNT Tevo has other skills. I think Flash and Weise are great! LAdd is we can keep him ensure a run for 3 more years . . . period.
The Artist continues to be a fly on the windshield in the neutral zone, not good and last night if a playoff game and if Jamie Benn we lost!
We need Christian Ehrhoff on the ice . . . period.
Good rebound game took awhile
Save of the year Darling made on Stafford. He sure deserved the shutout. Panik is a big improvement over Mash. Really like Fleischmann’s skills in tight spaces. I think Q put Hossa with Panarin temporarily to help the kid defensively. 72 is a turnover machine. Hossa’s defensive prowess will hopefully rub off on Panarin. Sure is nice to be able to roll out four lines.
I don’t know 61… Maybe Darling’s save vs. Toronto at the UC.
What a difference one game against a bad team makes around here.
Mudturtle- I forgot about that save he made on Nick Sparling. I went back and looked and that was one nice glove save.
Ernie, Phil was right it was against WIN that we kick started good play that year as well. That’s why guys like Sr. Brad, Phil, etc. and others are really good posters because they tell it how it is when we win a few and for everybody who stays positive when we take a few hits. Wining makes everything in life good.
The guys need another Swig road game gathering. Good Vibes.
Just returned from the “Peg”… was at the game and sat next to #2’s cousin and Posse.. all decked in signed Keith Jersey’s… If I was a little pushier… could have worked my way in to the Post game with her and the rest (had special wrist bands)…
My Take… another poor 1st period… Jets have really gotten bad quickly…
Panik ( I just don’t know why the guy doesn’t get more time over 53)???
Panik had some really good shifts… and I can tell he is working hard on trying to be better “cycle” guy… he still isn’t there… but way better than 1st games.
TT- line was solid… I always thought Fletch was great (against Hawks/like Janik Hansen is)… he really does have some nice skills…
Nice to see Darling play a great game…
BUT… Jets – really are NOT good right now!!! I want to see the Hawks do it to a Great team…
Panarin- needs to be better in Neutral zone
Really good group of posters here. Quality over quantity any day.
Just watched Tyler Motte score his 30th goal of the season. That’s an accomplishment in any league. He’s very hard on the puck and loves the greasy areas, much like a smaller sized Saad.
Schmaltz scored again for NoDak today. A friend of mine here in Omaha, who played in the NHL in the 90 s, believes Schmaltz has Jason Spezza upside. That’s his opinion. Pretty lofty company when you look at the career Spezza has had.
Craig, Spezza is 6’3″ / 220lbs – Schmaltz is 6’0″ / 170lbs. BIG difference. Hopefully he comes close to Spezza points wise but I doubt he’s going to have the same type of game.
Motte’s linemates the other night, wow. Compher 5 assists. Kyle Connor 4 goals. Motte just two assists
Unfortunately we’ve seemed to have lost some of that quality due to some quantity.
Regarding the Schmaltz Spezza analysis. Craig’s friend was more than likely referring to the similar games the player plays. Both players are more facilitators than goal scorers. Today’s game is more quickness and skill than size. Size doesn’t mean as much as it did. It’s why guys like Shaw and Gallagher despite being “small” could probably be considered power forwards. Don’t need to be big for a hit to be effective