I Am The Law – Hawks 6, Flames 4

Apologies for not getting the wrap up sooner, but with a later start to the game there was always the possibility that this could happen. By now you’ve all gotten the blow-by-blow from one outlet or another (maybe even from Chris Kuc, who delivered the ultimate dis by un-following us on Twitter). So let’s get right to the bullets, shall we?

Observations

• Jonathan Toews had yet another two goals tonight (27 points in 17 games for those of you scoring at home), both of which where quite aesthetically pleasing. On the second, Michael Frolik (more on him in a moment) took a hit to make a pass to spring Toews in transition with the Calgary D backing up, and Toews took care of the rest. The first…well, that’s just a thing, isn’t it?
• There was concern going into the game that the Hawks would have trouble playing the chip and chase game that had worked so well against Minny due to the size of the Flames’ D. The Hawks adjusted properly to get their entry chips more shallow to be able to enter the zone with speed, yet not have to go all the way into the corner and fight it out against the likes of Robyn Regehr, who in the three games prior had been choke slamming Hawk forwards.
• With DLR loosening up in the bullpen during the 2nd intermission, the Flames had other ideas, starting with yanking Kiprusoff. The Flames managed to get all their goals from working a low-high game with bodies in front of the net…bodies which the Hawks don’t have enough bulk or snarl to move even if they were ever interested in doing so in the first place. Hopefully this doesn’t serve as a blueprint for other bulky forwarded teams in the west, namely San Jose and Los Angeles.
• One more bit about the third- while they did get the icer from Dave Bolland to widen the gap back to 2 at 5-3, there needed to be far more rubber on Karlsson, who had come in cold in relief of Kipper, at the very beginning of the period with an opportunity to bury them and coast for the remaining 15-17 minutes. But, it didn’t quite turn out that way, did it?
• Good on Michael Frolik for finally denting the twine, his first in 32 games and first as a Hawk. Hopefully that breaks the dam for him, and the Hawks will be a deeper team if it does. Having seen him live twice now, Frolik’s game away from the puck is solid, but if he can contribute offensively (what he was brought here to do), it’ll have been a sound trade for Bowman. He almost gave me an embolism when he deferred on the open net to Marian Hossa for whatever his reasons were. That pass was almost snared, and that could have resulted in bad things the other way.
• Oh, Marian Hossa has scored in 5 straight games in which the Hawks have won. Once again, this is not a coincidence.
• Viktor Stalberg’s first NHL fight went about as well as you can imagine it going.
• Brendan Morrison looked to sustain a pretty painful knee/ankle injury in the third. If he’s out for any substantial amount of time, that could be a serious problem for the Flames, as he Alex Tanguay, and Iggy have been setting the western conference ablaze for the last few weeks.
• During the post game interview, the chants of “MVP” rained down from the UC rafters while Jonathan Toews spoke. And even though it was written by David Haugh AND Barry Rozner, when you put up the numbers Toews has and drag your team from 11th place to a home ice position in the playoffs, it starts to become warranted.
• Hack’s links will be closer to lunch time today due to my lack of punctuality.