Last night, the Blackhawks (minus late injury scratch Jonathan Toews) hosted one of a few NHL teams worse than they are this year—their former rivals, the Vancouver Canucks.
These were the starting lines:
Patrick Sharp– Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane
Brandon Saad – Vinnie Hinostroza – Matthew Highmore
Tomas Jurco – Artem Anisimov – Alex DeBrincat
John Hayden – David Kampf – Andreas Martinsen
Duncan Keith – Jan Rutta
Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook
Jordan Oesterle – Connor Murphy
In net, JF Berube’s number was up—while all Hawk fans could do was hope the number of goals allowed was, ummm, down.
First period.
The newly cobbled line of Brandon Saad, Vince Hinostroza and Matthew Highmore had a couple of really strong shifts about 5-7 minutes into the action, peppering Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom with shots—but to no avail.
At 12:49 of the first, Vancouver defenseman Alex Edler pinched into the slot and fired a puck past Berube. 1-0 Canucks.
On literally the next shift, Patrick Kane laid a nice drop pass right on Brent Seabrook’s tape as he pinched in on the right side and launched a bomb that was deflected by Nick Schmaltz and past Markstrom. 1-1.
The Hawks went down a goal after losing a defensive zone faceoff, which led to a point shot that Berube allowed to rebound right on to the blade of a waiting Henrik Sedin. 2-1 Vancouver at 2:17. And that was how the period would end.
Second period.
At 17:28, Hawk forward Andreas Martinsen won a short fight against Benoit Pouliot, after absolutely launching another Vancouver player into the boards. Apparently, Martinsen pretty much starts every period on a mission to destroy somebody. The Hawks ended the ensuing power play by nearly giving up a goal on a 2-1 created by some bonehead puck handling by Duncan Keith.
After a Schmaltz scoring chance, and with the Hawks caught off guard, Vancouver center Bo Horvat had a breakaway chance, beating Berube five-hole at 13:01. But NBC Sports color man Ed Olczyk was quick to remind the viewers that Berube had made a couple of saves on the previous power play. So that was “ok.” 3-1.
Less than three minutes later, Edler notched his second goal of the night on a 60 foot shot, with no screen. Berube was put out of his misery, which likely had the same effect on several thousand fans in attendance, Anton Forsberg in. 4-1.
From about the 6:00 point on, the pace ramped up and both teams traded chances. The Hawks had a couple of grade A chances, especially on one shift by the Kane-Schmaltz line, but could not finish.
Third period.
With the Canucks holding a 4-1 lead, and the Blackhawks being one of the worst teams in the league at comebacks, the third period was a mere formality.
Just over three minutes into the final period Forsberg took his first lump on the noggin.
The Blackhawks were caught deep in their own end and were not able to get the puck out of their zone. Michael Del Zotto threw a long point shot at the net that went off the leg of Brandon Sutter and into the net past a bewildered Forsberg. 5-1.
A couple of minutes later, Vinnie Hinostroza had a wide open net, after a feed from Brandon Saad, but the puck somehow went off a prone Jake Virtanen and harmlessly into the netting above the glass.
At Pat and Eddie’s favorite point in the period, tree-turdy-tree, Matthew Highmore redirected a precision Brandon Saad pass from the half boards past Jacob Markstrom for a virtually meaningless goal, for anyone but Highmore. 5-2.
That was it for the Blackhawks as they dropped 36th game of the season while, again, outshooting an opponent by a considerable margin.
Pluses
- Before we get to the Hockey, Eddie Olczyk announced between the first and second period that he has been diagnosed as cancer free. Wonderful news for Edzo and his family.
- Andreas Martinsen might not be the next great NHL power forward, but he brings something to the table that the Blackhawks have been lacking, especially since Ryan Hartman was traded. In each of his two games, he has made a big (clean) physical play which has kept the opponents looking over their shoulders when he was on the ice.
- Brandon Saad has not been scoring but he has been playing setup man, and doing it pretty well. On the surface, the casual meatballs will cry for DA GOALZ, but Saad has had underlying value. Keep an eye out for a big bounce-back season next year.
- Nick Schmaltz took advantage of his first game as the Blackhawks number one center by scoring his 21st goal of the season. He has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal 2017-18 season.
Minuses
- The goalies are just simply awful, at this point. Their confidence is as durable as paper mache and this season cannot end fast enough for Jimmy Waite. Maybe the Corey Crawford haters will finally realize how spoiled they have been. The again, maybe not.
- The Blackhawks were 0-4 on the power play and out shot their opponent 41-27. This was a winnable game. Unfortunately the Blackhawks are just a bad team.