by Gatekeeper
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Brandon Saad – Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – Artem Anisimov – John Hayden
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – Ryan Hartman
Jan Rutta – Brent Seabrook
Michal Kempny – Connor Murphy
Just saying…
The Blackhawks hosted the Philadelphia Flyers at the United Center after a terrible showing in Colorado on Saturday and a Tuesday morning bag skate. These recent developments made for some interesting storylines and the biggest of which was the Joel Quenneville line blender getting a good working over. This line blending did little to help the Blackhawks slump early on in this game, but they eventually generated some offense. The Blackhawks were missing injured Gustav Forsling, while the Flyers were missing one of their best defenders, Shayne Gostisbehere.
The first period performance by the Blackhawks was a great example of the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” They came out and let the Flyers run them up and down their home ice. If not for a big Corey Crawford breakaway save on Valtteri Filppula, the Blackhawks would have been down early in the period. Instead, they were able to finish the first period scoreless and on the power play. Somehow, they also outshot the Flyers 11-8, although some of that was because of the two power plays the Blackhawks had.
As the Blackhawks opened the second period, they continued to fumble their powerplay opportunities long enough to eventually give up a terrible 3-on-1, which Crawford had to perform a magic trick on, once again. I know this might come as a surprise, but the Blackhawks finally scored a power play goal after eighteen straight failures over three games. We spoke about the fact that the Blackhawks needed to speed up their passes and open up lanes on the Rinkcast, Tuesday night, and guess what they did?
Patrick Kane quickly set the puck up on a platter for Cody Franson to hit the net with a big one-timer, which Brian Elliott saved, but the rebound laid in the crease for Artem Anisimov to sweep into the net. That goal was Anisimov’s third goal in three games, which should get him out of the fanbase doghouse for a little while.
The Hawks weren’t finished there, either, because 20 seconds later, Captain Jonathan Toews took advantage of a long breakaway and easily beat Elliott through the 5-hole with a really slick move. The remainder of the second period ended up turning into a makeup session for the referees, with the Flyers drawing a couple of Blackhawks penalties. As a result, the shots on net were tied at twelve.
As the third period opened, the Blackhawks went right back on the penalty kill. Crawford stood ten feet tall, once again, and held the Flyers off the board, even long after the powerplay ended. In fact, Crawford held the Flyers scoreless for the entire third period and earned his first shutout of the year. A late Alex Debrincat empty net goal sealed the Flyers’ fate, giving the Blackhawks a much needed home win.
Pluses
- Corey Crawford, Corey Crawford, Corey Crawford. The Blackhawks netminder was insanely great all night, stopping an endless onslaught of odd man breaks and bouncing pucks. Some nights you just “have the Motts,” and Corey “had the Motts,” 15 saves in the third period alone, and 35 saves overall was almost masterful.
- I really haven’t had much room to defend Connor Murphy other than just saying that his play has been “OK.” His play in the first period was much the same, but he did lay out Taylor Leier on a borderline interference play. Tommy Wingels later laid out Jakob Voracek with a clean hit, while Voracek was looking at the puck in his feet. Luckily these weren’t the only highlights.
- I brought this up on social media, but I got the impression that not having Forsling out on the ice handing over the puck like terrible Halloween candy helped the Blackhawks keep their composure until the offense decided to awaken.
- Franson had yet another good night, which has been more often that not, lately. He was a huge reason the Blackhawks broke their power play scoreless streak, and later made a sprawling block of a 2-on-1 pass. The Franson/Keith defensive pairing had cartoonishly good possession numbers, putting up a +7 and +8 respectively at 5-vs-5
- This is hard to fathom, so bookmark it. This game might have been one of Alex Debrincat’s best. He wasn’t exactly dominating, but he had enough impressive rushes with the puck, a nice spinning pass, and some nice stuff attempts on a shot that came off the end boards. I’m not proclaiming him “ready” just yet. One good game and empty net goal does not an NHL player make. That said, he also had a team worst -9 Corsi at even strength, so don’t shine up that Calder trophy just yet. Baby steps.
Minuses
- Every time I see Nick Schmaltz get flattened, I cringe. He needs to get his head up and avoid this physical abuse, or he is going to spent a good amount of time on injured reserve in the future.
- Speaking of injuries, Patrick Sharp took a boot to the ribs, in the third period and will, no doubt, be nursing a sore midsection for a week or so.
- If the Blackhawks would have put a little more attention into scooping up the plethora of rebounds that Elliott gave up, they might have even been able to put up a five spot.