Sloppy Hawks Almost Pull Off The Comeback

photo from reuters.com

It was amazing that the Blackhawks made it out of the first period of last night's game without conceding a goal, but an equally sloppy second period left them with a two goal deficit to make up. Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane both had multipoint night, and Hossa even scored in the last minute of regulation to force over time, but Daniel Sedin and the Canucks handed the Blackhawks their second overtime loss in a row just over a minute in.


Marian Hossa's shooting percentage has increased from just over 7% to 9.9%, scoring on six of his last nine shots. He's still got a ways to go in recorrecting the shooting percentage that's been wonky all season long, but like Brandon Saad said in an interview with Mark Lazerus (beat reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times), when Hossa starts scoring, it's going to be "scary". He has now scored two goals in three straight games, and his 70 multigoal career games are fourth for active players, behind Jaromir Jagr, Jarome Iginla and Alex Ovechkin.

Patrick Kane had a three point night last night, reunited with Kris Versteeg for the first time since New Years Day. Versteeg was held pointless, but after starting the game on the third line, he rapidly got put back in his old spot and the second line started to look dangerous again. Kane now has sole possession of first place in the league in points, with sixty two, and he's seventh in both goals and assists. Tied for second are Jakub Voracek and Tyler Seguin, neither of whom play tonight and who have a game in hand again the Blackhawks.

Kane and Versteeg, along with Hossa, were the only players on Chicago that looked like they were actually putting the effort in. The defence was about as weak as it's been recently, some especially awful defence from Duncan Keith and David Rundblad on the 2-1 Canucks goal. Although Chicago managed to outshoot Vancouver in the third period to even up the shots at 41-36, the defence pretty much left Corey Crawford out to dry. Crawford I thought had a good game. Not as good as we've seen from him recently, but every single Canucks goal came from a failure to clear or gain possession after a turnover, and he can't be expected to save everything if the defence can't be bothered to bail him out once in a while.

The power play saw some interesting new looks throughout the game, David Rundblad getting some power play time for the first time this season, and Quenneville mixing up the forwards and putting them out there in their normal lines, for the most part. The 4-3 Blackhawks goal was scored on a 6 on 4 power play (empty net Chicago), and the tying goal was just over a minute later, Chicago still with the extra attacker.

It was a sloppy, disconnected game for the Blackhawks, who dragged themselves out of two goal deficits twice to steal that overtime point. If they'd won the game, it would have been daylight robbery, but, unfortunately, the better team won, last night. All Chicago can do is learn from it's mistakes, and hopefully play better on Friday, when the Devils come to town.

My Three Stars of the Game

3. Patrick Kane. Kane did everything he could to win this game. He led the team with five shots on goal (tied with Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews) and recorded his ninth three point night of the season. If anyone on Chicago deserved this win, he did.

2. Marian Hossa. Hossa's third two goal night moved him into sole possession of 29th overall in Blackhawks goal scorers. He's the hottest player on the team right now, and he shows no signs of cooling off any time soon.

1. Daniel Sedin. After scoring only two goals in his last nineteen games, Sedin scored two last night, including the overtime game winner, after some beautiful passing between him and his brother Henrik.