Blackhawks Lose to Bruins in Shootout
On Saturday night, the fans at the United Center were witness to a game that had playoff intensity and the last two champions on the ice. At the end, the Boston Bruins skated off with a 3-2 shootout victory.
But the action was worth every penny.
Tim Thomas may not have received the game’s number one star, but he was outstanding all night for Boston. He stole two or three goals from the Hawks in the first two periods, and made 27 saves against 29 shots on the night. In the shootout, he stoned good shots by Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane before pushing Patrick Sharp’s effort aside to preserve the victory.
For the Blackhawks, despite playing without Marian Hossa, the game developed an intriguing box score.
After electrifying the lineup on Thursday, Daniel Carcillo appeared to be fairly quiet on Saturday night. Without Hossa on the line with Kane, Carcillo wasn’t able to take the attention away from Kane as easily; Boston didn’t respect Viktor Stalberg in his first game of the season very much. Still, at the end of the night, Carcillo was credited with eight hits and three takeaways.
The Blackhawks third line of Bryan Bickell, Dave Bolland and Michael Frolik was good again. Bickell scored the game’s first goal, and the three combined to register 10 hits in the game (six from Bickell). Bolland skated 20:18, but lost 17 of 29 faceoffs.
Corey Crawford stepped up and went round-for-round with the reigning Vezina winner. While Thomas faced 29 shots, Crawford allowed two goals on 37 Boston shots. The momentum was captured by the Bruins early in the third period, and they held it through the shootout; Crawford faced 14 shots in the third and overtime, stopping 13 of them.
John Scott wasted over six minutes of ice time, some of which was as a forward.
Rostislav Olesz was scratched for Stalberg’s return. That, and the use of Marcus Kruger for over a minute on both special teams and in some crucial late-game situations, might indicate that the coaching staff is leaning towards keeping the rookie in Chicago when Hossa is healthy and Ben Smith is ready to return.
The loss of momentum in the third period, and Chicago’s continued struggles on the power play, will be something to watch this week as the Hawks go on the road for two games before hosting the Avalanche next Saturday.
The powerplay was absolutely awful… especially the second unit. The shorty killed us in the end. Who’s running that show? Ick!
Even though it is only 4 games in, there are some disturbing trends and issues with this hockey team…those who felt we simply reloaded this season for another cup run, might be a little delusional at this point…
Point 1 – Depth…What depth??? Bowman spent all summer adding player after player to this roster and so far we have played short a forward on 3 nights…this team DOESN’T win with only 3 lines on a consistent basis…plus, in terms of QUALITY depth, it is clear we don’t have a lot…
Point 2 – Injuries…this team will not go far with injuries to it’s key starters…game 1 we didn’t have Bolland…we were flat, soft, and lost…Game 4 we didn’t have Hossa and we were strong for the first half of the game and then ran completely out of gas playing 3 lines…we lost in a shoot out…
Point 3 – Physicality…Carcillo??? Awesome…in fact he has been my favourite player in his first 2 games…Bickell??? Great, he has been very good in all 4 games so far this season…Frolik??? Great, he is not one of the biggest guys on the team but he is being constantly physical…if he can learn to hit empty nets with his shot, he would be a top player…Mayers??? Not on the ice enough to make much of an impact…and that’s it…even Seabrook has been less physical than normal so far this season…the rest of this team has got to understand that taking the body is synonymous with winning championships…they don’t have to be huge hits, but you must be physical by taking the body to win games, and I just don’t see enough of it…
Point 4 – Slow Starts…Sharp is NOT in game shape and his knee is not 100% as he continues to struggle and take reaching penalties…Tazer…there has to be something wrong with him…has to…this is not like him…too many turnovers, inconsistent effort, sloppy with defensive zone positioning, not overly physical, and not himself in the face off circle…now we all know that these two will turn it around, but until they do, we will continue to look like this…
Point 5 – Defence…WOW…where did we go from 2 years ago when it looked like we had one of the best groups in the league??? Keith has been AVERAGE at best, and perhaps, less than average…Nick Leddy has been the more consistent and steady of the two, and Leddy has made a few miscues on his own…Seabrook, I think, is still not 100% from his concussions…he is good when he is focused, but too often he seems tentative and slow to react…which is NOT like Brent Seabrook…Hammer has simply not returned to his form from 2 years ago…and while I think he will get better as the season progresses, he has not been very good thus far…Montador, O’Donnell, Lepisto, Scott…INCREDIBLE…while I have seen some decent things from O’Donnell, I haven’t from the rest…and that included Montador that Bowman paid a small fortune to…he has looked AWFUL at times, and okay the rest…he is really starting to worry me, as he shows me things that I don’t think he can improve on…and the rest, thus far, are simply not good enough…and until they are as well, this team will continue to be up and down, and struggle on the road…
It will be interesting to see how things go Tuesday night…hopefully Ben Smith will be back in the lineup, along with Marion Hossa…Victor Stahlberg was AWFUL Saturday night, and Olescz is playing himself right out of town…
Here’s hoping for things to progress, but for right now, we are the product of a favourable schedule thus far, and not one of the 10 best teams in the league…
Brad great post! I have been posting similar concerns… I hope you are wrong on Sharp’s knee ( hope it is the appendectomy/ effects of no preseason) , but I was at the game and he skated off of most shifts with his head down… knee or no gas and no compete in the tank??? I have also said that the “1st line” has been the thir best line.
Sharp is off but more importantly Brunette can’t skate ( it is a two man line!). John Scott is the only guy on the team that is slower than Bruno!!! 1st line–PLEASE!
Montador signing—bad!
Olesz—bye bye!
Stalberg or Smith need to go on 1st line…
Best thing to happen to Hawks… struggle 1st half, and bring up some more kids.
Next year they should be dangerous… They should have enough money to “really add some talent” not Montador and Bruno!!!
Isn’t it a little early in the season for the “wait until next year” mentality? There are still 78 games to play if I’m not mistaken.
Certainly there is room for improvement in several aspects of their game, but they still took 5 out of 6 points during this brief home stand and I will take that anytime.