Another dominating, entertaining and impressive effort from the Blackhawks. The team opened up the scoring early on as Toews pestered Ladislov Smid (which is just a great fucking name) behind the Oilers net, Patrick Kane came in to tap the puck away and Toews picked up firing two shots, the second goes bar and in. It was a perfect corner shot and it looks like Toews was fond of that area. Jeff Drouin-Delorean never stood a chance.
The Oilers didn’t wait long to even it up as Sheldon Souray was credited with a goal that Cam Barker helped in. The Oil must have felt guilty though. Brent Sopel fed a pass to Kris Versteeg who the Oilers convientely left all alone in front of the net. When Kris wasn’t able to bury the shot, Souray punched it in while trying to clear the puck away. Thanks guys but that kind of sportsmanship isn’t really necessary.
From that point on it was almost all Blackhawks who seemed to do whatever the fuck they pleased with the puck. The passing in the Oilers zone was simply a clinic on puck possession. I remember one game last year where the Hawks were able to completely change lines while holding the puck in the other teams zone… this was close to that level of dominance.
Outscoring the opponents 12-3 so far on the circus trip is a damn good sign but the Hawks will have to keep it up as they face the Canucks tonight.
Quick Thoughts:
- Patrick Kane’s goal was almost as pretty as the Hawks puck possession. Once you saw him get the slightest bit in front of Liam Reddox and lower his shoulder you knew it was going to take an act of god to keep the puck from the back of the net.
- Madden scoring is always a welcome sight.
- Toews’ second goal might have hit the exact same spot on the post before going in. Worth mentioning too that the Hawks now have two games in a row with a forward getting multiple goals.
- Another power play goal too – that’s also two games in a row with those. Don’t look now but they’ve moved into the top 10 in the league with the man advantage. Going 5 for 7 in the last two games still relatively early in the season will do that.
- Lets hope Bryan Bickell isn’t hurt too bad. He’s actually been playing well the past few games but he looked scrambled after hitting his head on the ice following a hit on Dustin Penner.
Player of the Game:
No poll on this one – Two goals and an assist makes it easy:
