There was something for everyone on Wednesday night at the U.C., some good, some bad, nearly all of it meaningless. Let’s take a look shall we?
- Patrick Kane at center. It didn’t look all that different from Patrick Kane on the wing. But it was against Scum’s bums. Kane had “Fuck You Mode” jump, and won 8 of 12 draws, and showed nearly no ill effects from the wrist surgery. Ultimately, he probably won’t end up at center, but for a night (or maybe two), I suppose it’s nice to have that card in the deck.
- The defensive zone coverage was certainly…lackadasical. I’m sure it’ll give Q plenty of material for the next week and a half to tighten things up, as the Hawks were clowned a couple times down low, with Sami Lepisto looking particularly out of sorts at times. Lepisto looked pretty alright 150 feet away from his net, though.
- Right after Ben Smith scored an exquisitely grindy goal sure to moisten the drawers of a certain language challenged “reporter”, he got dropped on a blantantly illegal hit from Brandon Smith of the Wings. It looked pretty nasty and Optimus Grind was very wobbly getting off the ice, and Smith of the Wings is sure to feel the wrath of the Shanahammer in the coming days, even though he won’t be in the NHL to start the season. Smith’s injury, along with Stalberg’s earlier in the game nearly assures that Brandon Saad will get at least part of his 9 game sneak preview to start the season.
- Niklas Hjalmarsson looked as composed as we’ve seen in a while with the puck, but again, it wasn’t exactly world-beaters bearing down on him on the forecheck.
- Duncan Keith and Nick Leddy paired together: STOP THAT.
- So there’s the Rusty Olesz we were expecting to see (or not see, since he wasn’t skating with Toews).
- Get well soon, Sharpie, so we can stop with the line juggling sillyness, or at least a slightly higher degree of sillyness than we’re used to.