A Tale Of Two Cities

Well that sure sucked! The Blackhawks look like a different team in white and if you listen to Keith Jones it is all because of the Wild fans. Yep, it was all the fans and nothing to do with the great Wild defense and the poor positioning of Corey Crawford. Paid analysts on the NHL’s flagship broadcast should know that.

The early game pace favorited the Blackhawks but it was the Wild that scored the opening goal. Matt Cooke stole the puck from Michal Rozsival and got it back to Justin Fontaine just below the right faceoff dot. Fontaine took advantage of Corey Crawford going down a bit too early and flicked a wrist shot past him for his first career playoff goal. Patrick Sharp, yes that Patrick Sharp, got the Hawks on the board with just 39 seconds left in the 1st period. As he was streaking down the right dasher boards he decided to just get the puck on net and was rewarded with his second playoff goal. Marian Hossa and Rozsival assisted on the play.

The 2nd period got a little crazy as the team combined for three goals. Jason Pominville gave the Wild a 2-1 lead, at 3:51, when he was allowed to get the puck behind the net and given the space to shoot the puck back towards the front of the net, off of Jonathan Toews‘ stick and into the Blackhawks’ net. Michal Handzus, yes that Michal Handzus, tied the game up about three and half minutes later. Handzus got the puck out of the corner to Marian Hossa, and went right out to the front of the net to deflect a Brent Seabrook shot past Ilya Bryzgalov for his first goal of the playoffs. Nino Niederreiter would give the Wild the lead back just 44 seconds later, when he shot the puck over Crawford’s glove hand.

The Wild would score the only goal of the 3rd period when Jared Spurgeon, who was able to go knee to knee on Marcus Kruger while elbowing him in the head in the 2nd period, scored a power play goal at 3:47. Spurgeon started the play with a nice keep in and then the puck found him below the right circle where he roofed a pretty shot up and over Crawford.

* Oh no, people are doubting the Blackhawks. How are they ever going to recover? I’ve learned my lesson, this team plays their best hockey when their are doubted. Just remember, the Wild have to win a road game in this series and the Blackhawks don’t. If the Hawks win on Sunday this series is over because the Hawks are cold blooded killers when they can end a team’s season. They are 11-2 in games when they can end a series since 2009.

* The Corey Crawford haters sure got to bust out the hand lotion and tissues tonight. He wasn’t very good and his positioning was poor all night long but I can only fault him on two of the Minnesota goals. He went down way too early on the Fontaine goal and there is no reason that third goal should have gone in. I won’t blame him for the the Pominville goal because it is hard for a goalie to see the puck take a bounce off the glass behind him. He did give up the near post too early but there is no way Pominville should have been allowed to get that puck out front. The last Wild goal was just a great shot by Elbow McKnees, not many goalies are going to get that one.

* For all of you that want to blame the last two games on Crow, the Blackhawks have 39 shots in the last two games on Ilya Bryzgalov, who is fucking terrible! Shoot the damn puck! The Wild are doing a great job at keeping the Hawks pinned to the outside. Get to the middle of the ice,shoot the puck and have guys in the dirty areas to clean up the mess. Bryz gives up a ton of rebounds but no one is there to take advantage of them. Andrew Shaw is not the greatest player, but I have to believe he’d have at least one goal in the last two games by getting to the net.

* Wow look at all the energy Matt Cooke has! Of course someone who was suspended for the last two weeks for being a shitbag has an extra jump to his step!

* Jonathan Toews was invisible most of the night and finished with a 27.6 CF%. That shouldn’t be a surprise considering he started the game with two bottom six forwards. I am not knocking Bickell and Smith but they excel when they are the third guy on a line with two goal scorers, not vice versa. I saw a lot of Tweets about benching Handzus, but he scored a goal and that line was the best offensive line all night so they will stay together. Peter Regin needs to get a look, and Brandon Bollig has to go away. All he did was take a dirty boarding penalty and suck at hockey. If I were coach and not just a stupid blogger my forward lines would be the following for Game 5 : 29-19-88, 10-26-81, 20-12-28, 23-16-11.

* Michal Rozsival was great in the 2013 playoffs but you could not have a worse game as defenseman than what Rozy did on Friday night. If Q is all about holding guys accountable and wanting to “see more” than Sheldon Brookbank has to dress Sunday night, right?

Jen will add the advanced stats at some point in the morning. #HawksInSix

Player	Pos.	ES TOI	CF%	CF% Rel	CF% Close	CF%Rel Close	O/Dst%
Keith, Duncan	D	19:57	32.1	-14.9	17.6	-28.5	43.8
Hjalmarsson, Niklas	D	14:35	42.3	0.8	52.4	23.8	50.0
Seabrook, Brent	D	19:33	32.1	-14.9	15.8	-32.9	41.2
Leddy, Nick	D	15:48	52.2	14.7	50.0	17.5	75.0
Sharp, Patrick	R	14:46	43.8	2.5	41.7	5.3	60.0
Morin, Jeremy	L	07:09	50.0	9.7	25.0	-13.5	75.0
Kruger, Marcus	C	12:51	65.4	35.2	60.0	35.0	33.3
Toews, Jonathan	C	19:48	27.6	-22.4	16.7	-30.7	56.3
Saad, Brandon	L	15:10	57.1	23.8	50.0	20.6	50.0
Handzus, Michal	C	08:21	40.0	-2.2	33.3	-5.3	54.5
Oduya, Johnny	D	14:33	42.9	1.7	43.5	10.1	42.9
Smith, Ben	R	09:48	0.0	-50.0	0.0	-44.7	40.0
Bickell, Bryan	L	16:28	29.6	-18.4	20.0	-23.9	58.3
Rozsival, Michal	D	15:36	54.2	17.8	46.7	12.5	75.0
Nordstrom, Joakim	C	06:30	16.7	-29.6	18.2	-24.0	14.3
Bollig, Brandon	L	04:38	28.6	-14.5	33.3	-4.7	40.0
Hossa, Marian	R	15:15	47.1	6.7	45.5	9.9	66.7
Kane, Patrick	R	22:23	52.8	20.2	51.7	29.5	71.4

Player	Pos.	ES TOI	CF%	CF% Rel	CF% Close	CF%Rel Close	O/Dst%
Ballard, Keith	D	05:30	50.0	-8.9	50.0	-14.0	50.0
Coyle, Charlie	C	15:19	53.8	-5.2	66.7	5.0	35.7
Stoner, Clayton	D	11:08	31.6	-35.1	40.0	-27.4	40.0
Scandella, Marco	D	18:48	55.6	-4.9	64.3	3.6	66.7
McCormick, Cody	C	07:02	25.0	-39.2	20.0	-51.7	50.0
Koivu, Mikko	C	16:36	50.0	-10.3	70.0	9.1	40.0
Parise, Zach	L	15:06	64.7	11.4	67.9	10.7	70.0
Fontaine, Justin	R	11:04	50.0	-10.7	66.7	5.0	100
Heatley, Dany	L	4:58	28.6	-32.5	33.3	-32.7	33.3
Suter, Ryan	D	25:58	63.9	10.4	66.7	7.3	39.1
Brodziak, Kyle	C	11:09	41.2	-21.7	20.0	-51.7	22.2
Niederreiter, Nino	R	15:25	68.8	13.2	77.8	18.2	35.7
Brodin, Jonas	D	14:55	52.2	-8.5	53.8	-11.3	42.9
Moulson, Matt	L	24:17	69.4	20.6	73.9	19.4	36.4
Pominville, Jason	R	12:30	71.0	21.0	73.1	19.7	75.0
Spurgeon, Jared	D	15:36	59.3	1.6	59.1	-5.6	71.4
Haula, Erik	L	13:45	68.4	13.4	72.7	12.7	42.9
Granlund, Mikael	C	11:55	72.4	22.4	73.1	19.7	55.6

*all data collected from www.nhl.com and www.extraskater.com

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