The Blackhawks cleary didn’t give a shit during the game, so I’m not going to give a shit recapping it. Time to pass the Fuck Yous around.
Observations
- I guess this is the primary point tonight, but we’ll start with it. Seriously – what the fuck? From top to bottom, minus Jack Skille and Jake Dowell, absolutely no one gave a shit. Absolutely every 50/50 puck went to the Flames, and every single board battle was lost. Those wearing the letters were just as listless as everyone else, which is a major fucking concern. Even Turco after the 5th goal couldn’t be bothered with stopping the sixth or the PAT, and had a look of disdain on his face through his mask. Whether there was a minute left or not, and regardless of if he’s a veteran, I’d have put Crawford in there, just to give him a wake up call. This was a team that had lost 6 of 7, and looked pretty bad doing it. Not to mention the Hawks have paraded the Flames around like they were in a gimp suit for the last 3 seasons in their own building. Apparently everyone in white thought that those previous efforts were going to dictate what happened tonight. Not so damn much, huh?
- Coming off an inspired performance on Wednesday against a team it’s real easy to look inspired against, captain and supposed catalyst Jonathan Toews was just as wanting on the Give-A-Shit-O-Meter as the rest. As Sam pointed out, it’s easy to be a frontrunning captain on a juggernaut. It’s quite another to drag a team kicking and screaming by the short and curlies into being competent. Put this team on your back and carry it, slow starts be damned. It’s getting late pretty early, isn’t it Jon?
- Jack Skille was the only Hawk with any effort for a full 60 minutes tonight. Jake Dowell’s was there, but he left with an injury. Wonderful. Even Dowell astutely picking his spot to scrap when he did, and summarily tossing Mark Giordano couldn’t put the cattle prod to this team’s balls.
- Speaking of Skille, his was seemingly the only shot that was attempted low, and wouldn’t you know it, it went in. I know those scouting reports are tough to read, but even your in-game experience should have told you that high on Kipper wasn’t happening tonight.
- Tomas Kopecky’s was the most egregious of the three offensive zone penalties tonight, and should earn him a seat in the pressbox tomorrow night. It’ll give him more time to catch up on Hossa’s accounting for the upcoming end of the fiscal year.
- Speaking of threes, the Hawks were only credited with 3 hits. THREE. While it’s a subjective stat that ALWAYS tilts in favor of the home team, the eye test doesn’t deviate too far from that.
- If I have to watch Niklas Hjalmarsson blindly throw the puck up the right boards with no one home one more time, I swear to fuck I’m going to stick my head in a microwave.
- Put your fucking arms down, Troy Brouwer.
- Viktor Stalberg got tossed around like a frisbee tonight.
- …and it was more often than not Robyn Regehr doing the tossing. Regehr was an absolute force on the back end for Calgary. I don’t recall one person even coming close to winning a board battle with him.
- Of course I had to call out Jarome Iginla in the preview, didn’t I?
- I hope the Bellagio or wherever the fuck they thought they were staying starting Sunday allows for cancellations 48 hours out.
- If you thought tonight was bad, if the Hawks put forth the same kind of effort tomorrow night in Vancouver, they’re going to get a dozen dropped on them.