Saad Returns, Blackhawks Remind Him What Winning Looks Like
Brandon Saad returned to the United Center on Saturday night, leading a winless Columbus Blue Jackets into a matchup against a Blackhawks team that had struggled in their last couple games.
When the final horn sounded, Saad and his teammates left win a doughnut still showing in the win column.
Artem Anisimov, one of the players Chicago acquired in the trade sending Saad to Columbus, opened the scoring for the Hawks with his second of the year. Artemi Panarin showed great patience on the play and eventually found Anisimov, who buried the backhand shot for his second of the season.
Anisimov played a terrific game against his former teammates, winning 10 of 13 faceoffs with one hit and one blocked shot in 16:38. He saw time on both special teams and the Hawks’ second line got back to dominating almost every shift. Anisimov, Panarin and Patrick Kane combined for nine of Chicago’s 29 shots on net in the victory.
Panarin had two assists in the game.
Teuvo Teravainen was credited with the game-winning goal on the powerplay 65 seconds after Anisimov’s tally. Teravainen threw a shot to the front of the net that banked in off a Jackets skate for his second of the season.
Marian Hossa added the Hawks’ second power play goal of the night early in the third. It was Hossa’s first of the season and put the game out of reach for a defeated Jackets team that may be looking to make a coaching change soon. Hossa also picked up an assist for a multi-point effort.
Jack Johnson ended Corey Crawford’s shutout bid at 16:21, but the Hawks’ netminder made 21 saves in the win. Kane added an empty net goal for his fourth of the season later to put the final nail in the Columbus coffin.
In the final minute, tempers flared as the Jackets’ frustration boiled over. Vince Hinostroza, making his NHL debut, skated past the net as Curtis McElhinney made a save and the skaters came together in the corner. Dalton Prout and Hinostroza were assessed matching roughing penalties after a scrum that included Kerby Rychel and Trevor vanRiemsdyk dropping their gloves. Rychel, also making his NHL debut, started throwing punches and vanRiemsdyk obliged him with a few of his own. Both players were sent to the showers 50 seconds early with matching fighting majors.
Ryan Garbutt returned to the lineup and was credited with four hits in 12:01 in the game. Andrew Shaw led Chicago with five hits and two takeaways in the game. Jonathan Toews won 14 of 22 faceoffs and picked up an assist with one blocked shot, one hit and one takeaway.
Bryan Bickell was credited with three hits in 14:31.
The Hawks are now off until the Florida Panthers visit the United Center on Thursday.
TVR was excellent tonight. He drew two defenders on the first goal, played responsible defense and stood up for Tuevo after a cheap shot from the Jackets. Job well done.
Anisimov wins 76.9% of his face offs tonight. Yes!!!!
A little bit of old-tyme hockey there at the end…that Panarin has a bit of pepper in him as well. Crawford had a great game, made some top notch saves, TVR was very good…Hossa steal a thing of beauty. Looking good all around tonight…total turnaround from the last 2 tilts. Whats up with Columbus 0-6, yokes…looks like the Ducks kinda suck too…bonus!
Riemsdyk is like my little brother. Donot touch me.
The shot of 72, 86, 88. Then 11, 65 and 28 lurking with Q turning his head. Look out.
WTF. More to come later.
Meanwhile in Rockford … Ice Hogs fall in their home opener 5-2 vs. Stephen Johns and Texas. McNeill with a power play goal and Pokka with one late on a nice pass from Tanner Kero. Other than that, nothing really positive or negative stood out, kind of a meh game …
Ice Hogs having a hard time staying out of the penalty box, some very questionable calls but it is what it is. Six or seven minors against, they need to clean that up.
The two teams play again today, for some reason it’s Ed Olczyk Day at the BMO in Rockford, game starts 4 pm.
Correction on the recap, looks like they gave that last Hogs goal to Kero, he must have gotten a piece of it on the way.
It’s not that Hinostroza was a world beater, but just the fact he’s on the ice made that 3rd line a better line by freeing Teravainen on to the wing. i hope they give that line other chances to see what’s what.
Van Rieamsdyk has been the best player since the start of the season. He and Daley have also been fortunate/good to fit with the Kane line as they are the pairing Coach Q wants on the ice with them. That helps them from a statistical point of view.
I thought the Blue Jackets have a solid chance to win the East this season. Their forward group is top notch. They way they played up until now is stunning. But I don’t think it’s all players. I also saw a lot of bad coaching signs since the season started. One of these things…. Saad doesn’t kill penalties and they’ve been bad last year in that area.
Saad is an elite PKer and short-handed threat. He should be killing penalities. Ok…maybe they found a great replacement for Anismov so they feel protected there, but you have to make Saad PK even as a message to the mindset of the team.
Speaking in general, if I were the 0-6 Jackets coach I’d put all my superstars on the PK. Dubinsky, Saad, Johnson, Hartnell, Foglino….my 5 PKers. Force them to find the fight and pride inside of them, maybe it even helps them find a damn rhythm.
Gutless move by the Blue Jacket who punched TT for no reason. I’m very glad they are 0-6. Keep losing and for Saad enjoy being on a horrendous team in a tiny market nobody cares about. He will also make less money there over the long haul than if he just paid his dues here plus endorsements in the NHL’s top market. Big mistake and obnoxious demanding more money than Duncan Keith makes. GO HAWKS.
Not that bickell was a world beater but he did have some game and some grit. He looks 2 steps slower, reflexes are not there, he keeps falling on the ice. How much of it is physical, conditioning? Injury? Vertigo? Or is it between the ears? Anybody? Hof? Tab?
Hawks did what they should do vs one of the worst teams in the NHL.
Against such a weak team the bright spots? Hard to say . . .
TVR and Daily played very well and for TVR thats two games in row. Also liked how he stepped up in the late FIGHT. Turning point was his goal last week and now this so called fight, confidence is growing. TVR is showing ME a lot!
The TnT back-line Trevor and Trevor had a nice balance last night and Daily really brought it on the offensive end. SVEDBERG look okay too, he has a crisp accurate pass out of our zone and is getting a fairly heavy and accurate shot on net too. Fans gotta know playing with Dunk and Seabrook and Hammer all year in practice just makes YA BETTER so these “kids” have no excuse not to improve, that’s how i see it!
The Artist (ARTEMI ) is Amazing and he needs to SHOOT more, he passes a lot, great passer but passes up a lot of good shots. The Hawks as a team still LOVE TO OVER PASS again like the Ice Capades, especially on power play. I liked the second unit tonight but they gotta execute better, period. Team collapse and Hawks move the puck too wide, they LACK A POST UP, net presence on both lines and movement! Puck movement is good but NO PLAYER Movement?
GARBUTT was okay, he is BETTER than what he’s showing, the right line might help him but he will get better. Hawks need him to SHOW UP!
Anisimov has played great, consistent and YES he’s owning the dot. LOVE love love his “backhand” a big body with a big backhand is dangerous and hard to find! Reminds me of Frank Mahovlich to show my age, but similar.
go hawks
Will someone tell Foley you don’t pronounce the J as a Y in Ryan Johansen’s name?
Pete, Keith’s cap hit is low because he has a few 1 million dollar years at the back end. He had been making 8 per year. This year he makes 1.5 more than Saad. I can’t remember the number the Hawks reportedly offered. But he got 6. When you have 19,88,2,7 on a roster endorsements are tough to get. Don’t bash the kid for getting more money. His career could end tomorrow. Then what?
Bash him for saying he’d take less and was shocked when he was traded.
Ernie he didn’t respect the salary structure here and pay his dues. In my opinion it was short sighted for him.
Well, there surely will be a coaching change in Columbus. That team is a full scale mutinous dumpster fire.
Shaw proved once again his immense value to this team. Gets a stick up in a guy’s face, no call, and Columbus goes beserk. And hence why he is among the miss hated Hawks in the league. Lol.
Hinostroza was ok. Wasn’t asked to do too much. Let’s see how he looks after 10 games or so. The role was really destined for Danault, and I think it still will be once he is done with his rehabilitation and gets some AHL games under his belt.
Daly still sucks. He will continue to be a liability in the blue zone and get owned by good offensive systems. At the age of 32 he is not going to transmogrify into something he’s never been, and that is tolerable defensively. Go ask good Dallas fans their fully formed assessment of the guy. And again last night he pulled the bull fighter move when a puck was sent his direction and in Crawford’s blind spot. I was at the game and I can tell you Crawford was very pissed off and had a couple of choice words with his new teammate.
Curious why Runblad isn’t playing at all. Svedberg playing full time is flat out strange. He did dump the puck and played the very very simplified assignments given him well. But Q doesn’t have him do a lot. So not sure how that works against the good teams. Let’s get Runblad in the mix too. Better still let’s get Rosival back.
Saad made the right move, and just like 99% of NHL players he sought to maximize his payday. Careers in this league aren’t always long and the percentage of players making “big” money isn’t very big. Endorsement deals that Saad could have had in Chicago? Meh. That would have hardly put a dent into the salary deferential. Even Keith, Seabrook and Crawford don’t see a lot of money off the ice. They each have a few endorsements they do, but they are localized in nature and “five figure” deals. Nice spare change, but nothing beyond that. And let’s face it, Saad isn’t exactly photogenic or dynamic and well spoken.
Good game. Lots of positives. The offense woke up a bit, but still much work to do. Patience will be key as these guys get used to what it means to be a team. Anisimov really impresses me, as does Panarin. Hoping that Garbutt will settle in and really contribute. Vinny looked okay, had nice speed at times and opened things up for that line. Seeing Saad on the ice just reminded me of how big a hole we have on LW on the first line. Hopefully we will work that out soon. Bickell is not the answer, though I’m glad Q is giving him the chance to try and recapture his mojo up there. If we have to play him, which we do for now, might as well pair him with 19 and 81. At least it takes the anchor off of the third line.
And, of course, the biggest takeaway from last night – Daley sucks. He sucks big, fat donkey dicks! He’s a waste of time, a ridiculous liability, a painful sight to see, a moronic moron, and a terrible human being. I wasn’t at the game, but I can tell you that Crawford had a few choice words for his new horrendous douche bag team mate, and it wasn’t pretty. In fact, I can read lips, I really can, and Crawford said, “you horrendous douche bag, you 24 carat shit sandwich that we were forced to eat to get rid of Sharpie’s cap hit, you pathetic excuse for a defenseman, get off my team right now. Oh, and fuck you, too!” To which Daley replied, “Dude, relax. I’m getting better and settling in, I’m learning your system and if you have patience, I’ll make you proud.”
Other than that, it was a pretty boring game.
Rufus – how about van Riemsdyk ? Aren’t you going to tell us how much of a ‘just another guy’ he is ? Especially seeing him live… I bet you have a lot of nuggets about his glaring weaknesses or/and complete lack of qualities.
Nice victory, now 4 days off to work on some defensive coverage and some puck movement on the PP. Having TT on the wing is a big improvement.
This team will come to the realization that they are way ahead of the other teams….free spirited, relaxed, a perfect mixture of seasoned experience and highly skilled fast youngsters. This is a better team than last year. My spidey sense is telling me Crawford and Hossa are going to have banner years. No one else around the league did as much of a real serious upgrading. Best team out of the gate…Montreal so far …hahahahahah, ok, A few tweaks here and there and some chemistry to develop will come soon enough but the lightbulb that we stand alone as the finest has yet to be activated. This is one hell-of-a team.
Tony I’m still laughing
^^ (Tony + other Daley and TVR naysayers) :
Last time I checked, Daley and TVR are tied for first with the best +/- among our D-men. Obviously, this is a small sample size (SSS) but you’re using that same SSS to conclude they both suck!
Go, Hawks!
@dropthepuck – are you kidding? You totally missed my point if you think l’m a Daley naysayer. Reread my post and maybe a few more prior to mine to see the point I was hoping to make. I think Mike got it. Have you ever heard of exaggeration for effect? Well, now you have. Laughter was the intended result, and the fact that I have to explain that probably says more about me than you, but anyway…re-read it. Just trying to keep the conversation lively!
On another front, Raanta shut out San Jose in his Ranger debut. I think we made the right move keeping Crow and Darling, but that has to make the NY fans happy. Good for Raanta, I’m happy for him. Unless he really was pulling against the Hawks last year as some accounts contended. In which case, fuck him!
Good one ( or two) Tony. We just elected a far left government up here tonight in the Great White North so some humour is well appreciated and needed.
Duncan Keith out 4-6 weeks with a right knee miniscus problem and procedure. Let the speculation begin … Keith’s cap hit is about $5.5M.
I just read that too HOF…Ouch that hurts looks like a trade may be coming for a Dman afterall. I read a trade proposal between NJ and Chicago Severson and TT. Severson a top 4 D prospect for a centre that prefers RW and the Hawks already have two allworld RW…Any thoughts???
Is this the same procedure Rose had? Wonder when it happened. Now what? Cumiskey? Great.
Goldenbladz….source?
Sorry…no real source just rumour mill stuff. Any thoughts?? apparently Severson (oddly enough) seems to be a Keith type clone.
Severson was a recent scratch. Had a breakout year last year. Teuvo isn’t going anywhere. Shaw may.