Nice Catch Hayes…. – Stanley Cup Finals Game 1 Thoughts.

…don’t ever fuckin’ do it again.

To give a blow-by-blow recap would just give us flashbacks equivalent to just spinning yourself around in circles in the front yard until you vomit up last night’s pizza, beer, and cat hair, so let’s just skip right to what we saw from last night.

• Chris Pronger logged 32 minutes of ice time, had two assists, was a stupid +17 in CORSI (the next closest was Hartnell at +6) and kept the Toews’ line off the scoresheet and saddled with a combined minus-9. However, maybe it was just me and all the High Life catching up with me, but he didn’t appear to be nearly as big of a factor in the latter half of the game as he was the first.
• Even with Pronger’s stat line, Danny Briere was the best player on the ice for either team last night. He was absoultely everywhere, and even managed to backcheck a couple of times, which naturally happens after the entire SCH staff unequivocally declares he’s going to avoid his defensive zone like I avoid showering.
• Not too far behind him though, was Marian Hossa, who had multiple “I’m Marian Hossa And You’re Not Moments”, two of which resulted in Troy Brouwer goals. That entire line was dynamite for the entire evening, putting Braydon Coburn in the burn unit with a -3.
• The Flyers top line of Richards, Carter, and Gagne were also a -7, and barely noticeable other than Carter’s walk out chance early in the first.
• While the Toews line was bad, he did dominate on faceoffs, going 18 for 24, and the Hawks team as a whole going 40 for 64. At one point in the first, the Hawks had won 13 of 15.
• The officiating was horse shit. Every call the Hawks had against them they rightfully earned, but to think the Flyers (THE PHILADELPHIA GODDAMN FLYERS) could play an infraction free game is ludicrous.
• That Tomas Kopecky scored the game winner while being a late insert into the roster only due to Andrew Ladd’s injury should show everyone just how deep this Hawks team is,
• Brian Campbell had the inevitable “Brian Campbell Game”, where he made decisions that could most complimentary be described as “curious”. Antti Niemi could have also played better (though he did make the saves he needed to make). And fortunately, the Hawks survived the “Brian Campbell Game” and the “Antti Niemi Game”. One down, three to go.

While Brouwer had two huge goals, they were made possible by Dat Horsa Guy, who was appears he’s not going to be denied during his third straight go-around with this sorta thing.