Game 29 Preview And Open Thread: Blackhawks vs. Flames

I was thinking about how teams like to put a couple of guys on Havlat to cover him, that will only open up some room for Toews and Kane. This will also force the other team's checking lines to be on the ice quite a bit.

Lang had a nice tip-in on a shot from Byfuglien at the point. Not a bad period, got out-shot 12-8 but we still had some pretty good scoring chances. Need to improve on the PP, however, wasn't too good in the 1st.

Flames have taken this game over, Hawks need to wake up. Not doing much offensively right now, Calgary is cycling on us easily.

It's a 3-2 final and this is still very frustrating. NKB's soft goaltending continues -- I'll grant him the third, on the deflection -- but the first 2 -- no frickin' way.

On Calgary's first goal, he had a clear view -- he just failed. I think he's not playing the angles correctly. Kelly keeps claiming the second Flames goal was a tip, but he's just 'homering.' That's BS -- another shot NKB should have stopped.

The Hawks outplayed the Flames all through the third period, but K-Soff's great work kept them off the board.

Then, the Flames are able to finally make a break and before you know it, the befuddled NKB sees the light on in back of him....whatta way to deflate a young team.

I cannot wait until he, and his bloated contract are gone. He's had one damn good year, at the right damn time.
Unfortunately, Hawks management at the time took this sucker bet. This is the way he played with the Coyotes years ago -- soft, soft, soft.

The Flames have been as tight as a wet T-shirt on Pamela Anderson. This was a winnable game. Scoring is still a problem, but NKB can't keep letting them down. Give Lalime a shot again....substandard goaltending will ruin this young team's playoff chances...

4 losses in a row, and we keep losing to teams that have much less talent than us. Seriously, what does Calgary have? Not much, as evidenced by how they've played lately. We shouldn't be only one game over .500 at this point. There is too much talent here. Maybe time to shake things up? Khabibulin played a bad game, two soft goals and looked pretty shaky all night. Guys like Lapointe, Burish, Fraser seem to be pretty useless right now, and probably could be replaced by guys like Brouwer or Blunden from Rockford. Koci had one shift for 50 seconds tonight. What's the point in dressing him if he continually gets no ice time? Better hope we can get a win on Weds vs. the Kings.

It seemed as if Fraser had more ice time than Kane -- probably not, but it just seemed like it. And, why are Perreault and Samsonov healthy scratches? (I missed the first 10 mins of the telecast, if it was explained there -- I need to roll that back)

And, Fraser's time was pretty useless.
The Kings are VERY beatable. But, so were the Flames, at this point in time.

Yeah, he had 11:38 of ice time to Kane's 16:26, I think that's too much for a 4th liner who really isn't bringing anything to the table, he's really not that physical and has very little offensive talent, if any. The same can be said for a lot of the 3rd/4th liners on this team.

I don't know why Sammy and Perreault were scratched, but they should have been playing instead of guys like Koci and Burish. Samsonov may not have any goals but he has created chances, skates well and moves the puck nicely. Perreault has been a face-off master and helps us with puck possession. The coaching here is very questionable, as it has been often with Savard.