Well.. all good things come to an end at some point, eh? After a first period that looked as sloppy as the hotel bar after an open bar wedding the Hawks were sunk. Things started off poorly as David Booth opened the scoring off ugly play all around. Nick Leddy got his costly mistake out of the way early with a turnover at the Hawks’ blue line, allowing Michal Repik to gain the puck and fire a shot. Not done yet, Leddy then rolled out the red carpet to the net for David Booth allowing him a straight shot at the juicy rebound left by Crawford. Before anyone accuses me of going to hard on Leddy… well.. he really fucked up here. He wasn’t alone though. Crawford has to either stop that shot or get it to the corners… and Duncan Keith had let Marty Reasoner the same god damn clear path to the net.
The bonehead plays weren’t over though – just halfway through the first Super Nintendo Hjalmers takes a dump in from the Panthers… looks up ice.. skates to the center of the Hawks zone, then turns his head and makes a blind pass to center ice that was easily picked off by the Panthers and brought in by Sergei Samsonov. The Hawks were flying around their zone with heads firmly up their asses for a few seconds and after a few bounces Clay Wilson scores his first goal ever off a shot that was likely deflected in off a sliding Brent Seabrook.
To close out the first – the Panthers got a lucky break as a shot or pass or something was deflected off a Hawk and bounced right to Marty Reasoner who found the puck on edge and fired it top shelf. Good bye Crawford.
The Hawks put up a valiant effort in the second and third as they absolutely dominated the play for the final forty minutes. Tomas Vokoun stood tall and despite two goals from Hossa and Kane the Hawks win streak comes to an end…
Bullet Train To Vegas:
- Well there goes Corey Crawford’s streak as well. Now the big question is – who gets the start tomorrow in Tampa? While I don’t think you can pin any of the goals on Crawford, he certainly didn’t have his greatest game. He’s had a great streak but he’s looking tired. Turco on the other hand had a pretty solid game, not allowing a single goal and making some big saves. Give him the start tomorrow, split them again Sunday/Monday. There’s no doubt Crawford is the number 1 – but he needs some rest.
- I don’t know if it was a case of crappy ice but the Hawks passing was off from what we’ve seen in the past few games. The puck bounced over plenty of sticks (bad ice) but there were plenty of cross ice passes that were a foot or two behind their target.
- Both goals the Hawks scored were pretty. Campbell fed a puck between the net and defender to find a streaking Patrick Kane (not that kind of streaking) and Hossa set up a beautiful passing display that led to his goal. So that’s nice..
- Yup… trap game. They happen. Get back to winning tomorrow.