Paperwork - Hawks 5, Wild 2

A nod to his gritty, electric style

and Scott got like 3 minutes, I’ll take what I saw from OD and Monty tonight. I’d like to think that they were better than you say, but even if they weren’t, I’ll take it.

(1) That opening montage and light show at the UC is pretty cool, really professional
(2) Jimmy Hayes has really spindly legs, gets knocked down too easily…he needs to grow a Toews-butt, then he’ll be unstoppable. He’s not real fond of contact for his size, don’t know if we need a 6’6" sniper, he’ll probably grow into a power-type forward at some point
(3) Kaner is not real engaged right now, he gets by on some pretty amazing natural talent
(4) Montador is not a deep thinker, he makes all kinds of dumb plays
(5) I thought OD was really solid, he plays a simple game but knows the right thing to do almost every time, I liked him a lot
(6) Duncan Keith is a great defenceman, and in person he is pretty damn fast, not as fluid as Leddy but elite describes him well
(7) Leddy is beautiful to watch, a smoother skater than Soupy was
(8) Brian Bickell skates as well as anyone in the NHL, but geez, no impact on the game, just a shame given what he could be
(9) The Hawks really do look like they have a few holes to fill, they just don’t look like they are mature enough all around to engage other top teams easily at playoff time
(10) The Hawks have the best overall skating team in the NHL, with a couple of more solid defencemen they could easily be the champs this year and relevant for many years to come

FUCK SCUM and all that, but this shootout goal was pretty rad.

Sentimentality is wicked, but cynicism is worse. Still calling him Shank in the privacy of my own home. It doubles as a dagger synonym.

I mean, it’s not that 4th liners avg 8:30 mins and 13 shifts and that’s what they got, right?

Q must have it in for those guys since the 4th line actually scored a freakin goal and they were both +1’s. And who needs secondary scoring anyways? It’s not like everyone’s been whining about it lately.

Funny stuff!

but still feels like a “you’ll be back in rockford before long” number… yeah #65? where the hell did he come up with that?

Shaw and Hayes are certainly passing the eye test, even not taking into account the goals scored. They’ve certainly done much more to impress than Smith and Bickell. I’m not going man-crush on them, for sure, but I like what I see and hope it continues.

that for the majority of the first period Foley kept referring to the Minnesota goalie as “Backstrom” despite the fact that Harding was in net and Hacket was his back up, i.e. Backstrom wasn’t even suited up for the game? Every broadcast he becomes more and more Harry Caray-esque…

Pretty good time for Dave Bolland to finally wake up, huh?

Sometimes I wonder “Is he mailing it in?”

Product of playing with Hossa, probably. But more so a product of not playing with Bickell and Frolik. Really liked the top two lines tonight at even strength. Thought they were able to sustain some nice forechecks and that 2nd line was backchecking better than anyone on the ice. Saw a few nice neutral zone takeaways from both Bolly and Hoss.

The Mayers line also had a few nice shifts against the other squad’s bums.

But Nik Hjalmarsson… what are we going to do with you? If not for the backchecking by some of those forwards, you’d be responsible for at least one other tally for the Wild tonight. He was making Duncan Keith 2010 passes from his own end that never passed the blue line, firing the puck up the boards from behind his own net and leaving his defensive partner out to dry. That type of shit won’t fly against Detroit and San Jose.

As an aside, every time the 39-36-81 line was out there and Hayes managed to maneuver his way into the slot I kept hearing this in my head: “Jimmy’s in the slot! Pass it to Jimmy! Jimmy wants the puck!”

Can one of our illustrious photoshoppers take one of those accident signs that you’d see in factory, you know, like “X days since our last accident” and create one that says “It’s been X days since Michael Frolik has scored a goal?”

I think he may never score again.

The Shawker?

PROTEST! RIOT! ANARCHY!

Also, I was literally dumbfounded by an argument I had last night with the dude sitting next to me about John Scott

“Say whatever you want, when we put him in the lineup in the playoffs last season against Vancouver, we won three games in a row. There is something to be said for that. Vancouver was playing scared.”

Jaw, meet sticky United Center floor.

was just replying to mcclure and both our comments just disappeared.

Chainshaw.

Steve Montador might have future in television though.

can be attributed to one thing, and one thing only: he is no longer the best player on his line. That’s not an indictment, just a statement of fact; he’s been teamed with guys who were several notches below him in talent level since October. So the guy’s been skating with offensive anchors tied to each side of him most of the season, while at the same time being asked to defend the other squad’s best players. Is it really a surprise that when you pair him up with — I dunno — real honest-to-goodness hockey players, he can still do the things he was always capable of doing?

-It’s nice to see the kids stepping up, especially with Shooter on the shelf and Kane in full on “Humpty-hump mode”. It looks like one of them is going down though with Kruger coming back. Not sure which one but I guess this qualifies as a good problem to have.

-The fact that Kane made the all-star team (and that Keith didn’t) is as good a piece of evidence as any that it is, after all, a popularity contest. When in doubt, toss aside stats and choose the more marketable guy.

-Every time I get worried about the Hawks I make myself think about the angst that must currently come with being a Penguins’ fan and everything immediately becomes sunshine and lollipops.

-No suggestions at the moment for a Shaw nickname but it makes me very happy to see that I’m not the only one who thinks that “Shawshank Redemption” is a massively overrated piece of schlock.