I want to sit here and provide you with something original or unique in some way, but I’ve said what I would say after a game like this so many times, I can’t even think about it. It’s the same old story, same old song and dance. I literally have run out of answers, and maybe I am the last one who has to accept what this team is, which is a bubble playoff team, if that. It never dawned on me it could be that before or at any point during the season, but here we are. It simply is what it is.
-One of the aspects of this season I’m most tired of is how the press runs to get the right quotes from Jonathan Toews, and then we absolve him of blame. I know Toews only dreams of winning, but his line got absolutely clobbered after the first period, and that’s on the Captain. -12 in CORSI for him doesn’t lie. It was his line that often got cute at the Stars’ blue line and sent the play the other way. Yes, Toews has been a monster the past month, and the 1st looked awfully good, but after that? It’s not enough, and where else should some blame go than to the team leader?
-They can sing all the praises they want, but Nick Leddy simply should not be in the NHL, and he certainly shouldn’t be skating on what is your default top pairing with Duncan Keith. It’s not bad enough that Keith is allergic to his own crease, but we have to watch the tying goal go in because both of them want nothing to do with it?
-We can sit here and wail about the refs all night, and the Hawks should have been up 4-0 with any common sense, and you can’t convince me that Morrow didn’t hit the puck with a high stick, and even more certainly Marc Fistric should have seen a major and a game misconduct for his elbow to Pisani’s face, but should any of it really mattered?
-I want to sing Marty Turco‘s praises, I really do. He’s getting a fair amount of hate for reasons I can’t understand because he’s cheap and a backup now. To boot, giving him this start was ok by me because Crawford has not dealt well with his last two back-to-back. If we keep going, Turco’s last 30 minutes were exemplary, and a shootout is a shootout, but would we be here if he doesn’t let that knock knock joke of a goal from Robidas in?
-That said, stop sending Patrick Sharp out for shootouts, because he outright sucks at them.
–Mike Ribeiro is a salad tosser.
–Michael Frolik has better wheels than I thought. I’m excited to see more, but after a couple games, whether he likes it or not, it’d better be at center.
-I don’t remember Duncan Keith being abhorrent, and yet there he is leading the team in giveaways.
-After his goal, why doesn’t Patrick Kane shoot more?
-It all boils down to that after up three, the Hawks decided they weren’t going to get the puck deep where they had been terrorizing the Dallas D for the entire 1st period. I know the meatheads amongst us will point to the hit stats, but those are always tilted off to the home team. Not that the Hawks were some physical juggernaut. But they were outdoing the Stars in the 1st with their speed by a fucking large margin. And that went away, and no one can tell me why.
We’re going to find out a lot about this team’s sack tomorrow. Down to 9 forwards for the last half of the game, we know they’re gassed. They’ll be facing a team that’s been off since Wednesday. It’s the last game of a long road trip, and the second of a back-to-back. There are plenty of excuses the Hawks can grab if they don’t show up tomorrow. And yet they can still prove to us that when they have to have it, they can find the balls to find the two points they have to have. What will they do? Last year I knew the answer. This year? I know the answer too, but it’s completely different.
Still, you should come to the Bottom Lounge for Chicago Pucks Cancer, and we can drown our sorrows together.