Got Me A Ride And A Reason To Ignore You – Hawks 6, Ducks 5

Nice Catch Hayes….

If it’s at all possible for a November afternoon game against the Ducks to stand as a watershed performance, what was witnessed this afternoon certainly has the potential to. After spotting the Ducks 2 goals in the early going, the Hawks began to claw back and fire away, with the levee finally breaking early in the third. Leading the way was Jonathan Toews, whose 2 goal, 3 assist afternoon was accentuated by the fact that 4 of those points came in the first half of the third, where Toews factored in on every goal, putting the Hawks up 2 until the waning seconds, where the Ducks pulled back to within one, but it ended up being for naught. Hawks 6, Ducks 5. Re-headed, gravy-drenched bullets, coming right up.

• As stated above, Jonathan Toews’ third period was something else, where he did his best impersonation of the San Andreas Fault with how much devastation he inflicted on Orange County. His will was perfectly illustrated on the Hawks’ last power play, where the play was sustained in the Ducks end and Toews took a pounding and lost his helmet, only to go right back to the front of the net to score his second of the game, and what would end up being the game-winner. Again, it was only the Ducks, but that’s about as inspired a performance from a captain as anyone could ask for, and just another bit of evidence speaking to how lucky we are as fans to get to watch 19 will a team to 2 points.
• Oh yeah, that Patrick Sharp guy had a pretty alright game too.
• On the other side of the coin, Brent Seabrook didn’t look all that fantastic in his first game in almost 2 weeks. Q kept his ice time to a minimum, with only 21:27 played, and only seeing power play time when the Hawks were protecting a late lead. Seabrook was caught woefully out of position on Bobby Ryan’s second goal, where he was above the rings when the goal mouth pass was made. The Hawks will need him to rediscover his game soon if the ship is going to be fully righted.
• Even in spite of Seabrook’s return and no John Scott in the lineup (mercifully), Duncan Keith still skated a team high 29:11. That number has to come down. Fortunately, for the last 40-45 minutes of the game, we got to see Norris-caliber Keith and not ’10-’11 turnover machine Keith. I don’t know about anyone else, but I like that version a lot better.
• Speaking of lost games, Corey Crawford has been pretty putrid for a while now with only the occasional solid performance intermingled. Crow hasn’t been helped out much with spotty d-zone coverage, but there are some saves you just have to make. He’s been getting beat laterally on scrambles and passes lately, so he might want to rein his aggression at the top of his crease in a little bit in order to get some confidence back. Either way, he’s got to be better.
• Once again, on Dave Bolland’s power play goal, we see what Andrew Brunette is capable of when utilized properly. That pass was too pretty.
• Not that any numbers are really needed to back up what the eye test revealed, but the Toews line thoroughly porked RPG at even strength. Credit Joel Quenneville for landing triple 7’s with his latest spin of the line generator slot machine after swapping Sharp and Hossa between the top two lines.
• Yeah, he’s really annoying and that mustache isn’t doing any favors to his already odd complexion, but Teemu Selanne is really something to behold with the way he’s performing at 963 years old while carrying around a colostomy bag in his equipment and using those specially made orthopedic skates to help with his gout.
• With the quick turnaround tomorrow night at Staples, for as invigorating as this win was today, it doesn’t mean a goddamn thing if the Hawks don’t learn from what went wrong in the early going and correct it, because the Kings are an entirely different beast. And if a hellacious performance from their lettered captaincy can’t serve as a boot in the ass for everyone, there are far bigger issues at hand.