best. game. ever.

way to correct a sinking ship. If we can tighten up our netminding, we will be INVINCIBLE.

You’ve made the right decision. This is a historical evening which deserves the state of drunkeness I currently reside within. I await with baited breath your a.m. (or whatever) wrap. Game thread reads like a natural roller coaster. Deal!!

For 12 minutes, Calgary dominated the Hawks like nothing I have seen, but with a 5-goal lead and 48 minutes to play, they just wanted it to be over.

Hilarious! To take a body shot like that and win, we just gotta own these guys for the rest of the season.

“There’s not really words to describe it … a huge lack of mental toughness within the group,” Sutter said. “It just says more and more about how much work needs to be down with this group. It’s not about structure or anything like that. It’s about stuff between their ears.”

Muahhh!

To all you fags who booed- Hah!

It looked like the 100-level was caught off guard by the early start, then, typically, they must have had a big day today, so they packed it in early.

The first period was the most disgusting display of hockey I’ve seen in my lifetime. Guys were just standing around, and I blame at least 2 of the goals on the defense. Huet sucked too, but he shouldn’t get all of the criticism. We’re going to have to go back to the tandem goalie routine. I don’t think Niemi is anywhere strong enough to have back to back starts.

Check out the WGN goal calls from last night. Pretty awesome

Being at the game, the bigger statement than the boo-birds being out were the sarcastic cheers from saves after the Flames’ 5-spot had been put up.

In the words of Lou Brown -

Nice catch, Hayes. Don’t ever fuckin’ do it again.

The team’s head obviously was not in the game for the first period. I’m not sure what the issue is, but this was a reoccuring problem last year as well. I’m no expert, but I feel the coach should shoulder some responsibility for ensuring his team is mentally prepared and ready for the game.

After being drubbed for 5 goals on the first 8 shots in the 1st period in a span of 5:29 including 3 in 53 seconds the Hawks had all the excuses in the world to just pack it in and start to prepare their post-game speeches of ‘this stuff happens in an 82-game schedule’ rhetoric. But they didn’t? Instead they responded the way Championship teams so often do and chose not to quit and reply, and reply they did resulting in the largest comeback in team history (the previous was set back in 1989 against the Jets after being down 0-4 rallied to win 7-4). The first 2 games at the UC have been as dramatic as any regular season games I can remember being in October and the fans have definitely received their money’s worth.

After Madden’s goal it was more like ‘Well…at least the Hawks didn’t get shutout", but when Kane scored it was like “alright, if we can just get one more…” then Byfuglien answered our call shortly there after (from a beautiful feed from Kane) to make it 5-3. All of a sudden it was “Imagine if we could get one more?” and one more the Hawks would receive when Bolland outbattled Phaneuf to slide a loose puck past a sprawled Kiprusoff to into an empty-net to make it 5-4. Now it was like “Could we actually do this?”
After a couple missed PP (which needs some work) opportunites the Hawks finally responded with the tying goal at the 5 minute mark of the 3rd period by tipping in Keith’s pass by Kiprusoff who’ve must of been wondering “what is happening here?”.
After a couple posts and several missed opportunities the Hawks managed to force the game into OT resulting as one person posted “the most deserving point in team history” and they could be right. For in the 21 years I’ve been a Hawks fan I’ve never seen anything quite like that.
Then it was off to OT and at the 26 second mark Seabrook picked up a bouncing puck that nobody seemed to want to touch and ripped it past Kiprusoff sending the UC crowd and any Hawks fan into instant euphoria. Down 5-0 and comeback to win 6-5 in OT has to be one of the biggest highlights in Hawks recent history.
It was one for the ages and a game with a result that many of us will never forget and with that LET’S GO HAWKS!!!

Both in the first period were ridiculouly terrible in the first highlighted by Niemi’s gaffe on the fifth goal which resulted in the pouring down of vented frustrated from the UC faithful and with that came the subsequent heckling afterwards – it was that bad.

But to Niemi’s credit (and he does deserve this much) he picked himself back up off the mat and made a terrific (and maybe game-changing) breakaway save on Jokinen and continued to make solid saves especially late in the 3rd when the Flames decided to make a push. With that said though, once again Niemi wasn’t really tested and after the Jokinen breakaway really didn’t see one true quality scoring chance. Question though: Did anybody notice Niemi wearing a different mask last night?

As for Huet he really didn’t have much help in front of him last night as the Hawks continued to give up quality opportunities one after the other. The first goal was a direct result of bad defensive posture as Boyd was left all alone in the slot and ripped by a helpless Huet and the second was really no different with Campbell providing a beautiful screen, unfortunately it was on his own goaltender with Nystrom slipping it by Huet, who could’ve been better but was not entirely at fault. The 3rd goal was a result of a bad bounce in the neutral zone which turned Keith around and landed right on Iginla’s stick resulting in a breakaway. 2-time 50 goal scorer Iginla on a breakaway…how many netminders stop that? Not many as he made Huet look absolutely foolish sniping it between the legs and right at that was the end of Huet’s night. It wasn’t for his play as much as it was for the team’s play at the time.

As for who should be the starter Wednesday night against the Oilers? Niemi, for the reason being that it might be better to have the rookie start at home and have the veteran start on the road as opposed to vice-versa. Niemi right now is the feel good goaltender right now and as the back-up is feeling all the love for as we all know the back-up ‘can do no wrong’, not to mention that the Oilers are red-hot offensively right now and it might be better to put in the goaltender that has the more confidence in his game. Add to it that the last thing Huet needs is more pressure and a one-on-one battle against Khabibulin might just be that, as Huet has been struggling with his game and another poor performance in front of the boisterous UC crowd against Khabibulin may have his confidence steep even lower and that’s the last thing the Hawks need right now. In fact for Wednesday night’s game I wouldn’t be opposed to having Crawford called up from Rockford and having him back-up Niemi in case he fails for Huet could use the mental break and concentrate solely on his start in Nashville.
Huet is our starter until a deal is made for his replacement. Do I believe Huet will be the guy when the playoffs come calling? No, I think a deal will be put in place before the playoffs roll around with Huet unfortunately placed on waivers, and if cleared, sent directly to Rockford due to salary-cap concerns.

sec 313 row 3. loved every minute of the comeback. I new it was the biggest come back for the Hawks ever. But I thought I also heard in the NHL history too. is that correct?
Go hawks! All this with 3 players on IR. I can’t amagin what it will be like when Hossa comes back and Burrish along with Eager. This is like the Dream Team.