Corey Crawford and Jimmy Howard stood on their heads all game and were rightly rewarded with the first and second star of the game. Both stopped 32 of 33 shots through 65 minutes of play, stopping many chances that could have swung the game one way or the other.
Crawford and Howard kept the game scoreless through the first two periods, Howard getting tested a lot more in the first, with Crawford only facing 3 shots in the first. But the Red Wings found their opportunities eventually and Crawford was able to come up big on almost all of them.
For my 4th Star I am going to recognize Andrew Shaw.
Shaw has been a player who I haven’t completely come to embrace yet, because of his propensity to stick his head up his ass and forget how to play hockey.
But at other times, when he’s focused he can make dazzling passes and disrupt his opponents game with his physicality and willingness to go to the dirty areas.
In the middle of the second, Shaw and the third line which was mixed throughout the game was able to create about 90 seconds of solid zone pressure and some quality chances against Howard.
Unfortunately, for Shaw and the rest of the Hawks, Howard was able to turn all their chances away until Patrick Kane was able to beat him twice, once at the end of the third and in the shoot-out to earn the Hawks two more points.
EDIT: From the intro, I would rather lose to a quality team like Detroit while my friend thought losing to Detroit would give them more “ammo” against the Hawks in the long run. What do you think? Would you rather the Hawks streak end against a good team or a bad team? Not that there are a lot of bad teams in the West, but to over simplify… Leave your opinions in the comments