Yes. They did look bad on TV. It seemed to me that they had no gas in the tank during the third period. Legs weren’t moving. They were just chipping away at the puck; no crisp passing. The precision of Scum was evident once again. Detroit did not seem to have any problem moving the puck (or getting in front of the net for that matter).

The Hawks have to get over their mental block that is the Detroit Red Wings and move on.. That time is coming. It may or may not be this year, but it is coming.

Was it me or did the ice look really soft?? Big fail on the “Von Trapp” fedoras that Detroit coaching was wearing. Not sure what that was about….

Nice check by Seabs to put Cleary ass over elbows into the bench. That needed to be done. Great replay on NBC.

I watched from the comfort of my own home, with a few hangover remedies to combat a joyful new year’s eve.

The 2nd and 3rd periods were brutal to watch, especially compared to the 1st, which was some inspired hockey. What? We’ve got a 2-goal lead so let’s play it soft? Passing was soft, shooting was non-existent, and we couldn’t get the puck out of our own end.

I noticed one thing about the Scum that was really impressive, every time a centering pass seemed to miss the intended target, it was actually going to the next guy who was licking his chops to fire off a free shot. Every time the Hawks threw the puck out front it was sloppy and there wasn’t anyone there to finish.

I was fortunate enough to land some tickets behind the first base goal, lower level behind the polls (which weren’t in the way), section 236 row 15 for those that know wrigley.

Anyway, the NHL wanted to make this a coming out party for the league, and I think they did just that. It was tough to say how it looked on TV, but in person, I don’t think I’ve experienced a better atmosphere at a sporting event. The national anthem was deafening, with the fireworks going off and the crowd as loud as it was. We could see the jets coming in over the stadium but couldn’t even hear them as they came over, we could just feel the rumble as they passed.

As most are going to say, the 1st period was outstanding, and the rest was shit, but that still couldn’t put a damper on the day. I would love to see some aerial photos of the pregame ‘stunt’ that they had the crowd do. I was sitting on the first base side and when we flipped over our cards we realized (thanks to the projection screens in left) that we were holding up red wings signs. Once everyone realized this, we began throwing the cards all over the place and start chanting DETROIT SUCKS, I thought that was a pretty humorous moment.

All in all though, the Winter Classic was a huge success, despite the result not going our way. I believe that the NHL and the city were big winners among many today. I’m glad I could be a part of it and lets get back on track this weekend! GO HAWKS!!!!!

ps – DETROIT SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They did a good job getting Wrigley ready for hockey.

I was watching from my living room here in AZ and was glued to the TV the entire afternoon. I think NBC did a great job, the videos of the pond players and all that reminded me of back in the day when my bro and I got up early to go to Hart Park and skate and play hockey back in Blue Island.

For a few seconds, I thought the Hawks would actually win this game, When it went to 3-1, I felt pretty good, but told my wife that these are the Red Wings, and 3-1 will not be the final score. When they tied it, I knew it was over. We outlplayed them for the first 20 and they took over from there. I don’t know if the young Hawks got tired or cold or Detroit finally started playing their style. Probably a little of both. The energy definitely wasn’t there in the 2nd or 3rd periods until the last 2 minutes of the game. Huet gave up 2 softies which didn’t help. On Pavel’s gem, I was surprised that on a one on two, neither defender but a body on him.

I hope these Hawks are resilient enough to bounce back from these 2 schoolings from the champs and learn from it. We cannot afford this team to go into a tailspin now. They are in a great position to finish in a decent slot in the conference and I would love to see them get pissed and take it out on the next team they play and not get down and lose their confidence.

I loved the game yesterday, nonetheless, and I think this year’s Classic is the new standard to beat.