It's a little late, but I am still wound up after an unbelievable Blackhawks game tonight against the St. Louis Blues. The Blues are very much improved after adding Jaroslav Halak to be their number one goaltender. They also have a number of highly skilled offensive players, and their defense is very stingy, especially in the neutral zone. The Hawks' forwards had very little room to skate with the puck coming out of their own zone. The Blues also had extremely active sticks in tonight's game, making it extremely difficult for the Hawks to complete long pass plays, which are important for their transition offensive style of play.
The Blues got the scoring started in the second period. David Perron scored a weak goal on a fake wrap around shot. He faked going around the net, got Hawks goalie Marty Turco to begin sliding across the crease, then chipped the puck off his pad, off the inside of the post and in the back of the net. Perron scored again midway through the third period on a 3 on 1 breakaway. A nice pass by T.J. Oshie set him up for a one-timer, and Marty Turco had no chance to stop it. The Blues went up 2-0, and it looked like the Hawks were going to drop their third home game of the season.
Enter Marian Hossa. Hossa had an unbelievable week last week, where he collected 4 goals, and earned second star of the week from the NHL. The Hawks earned a well deserved powerplay with about 8 minutes to go in the game. After struggling to get anything at the net for the first 90 seconds of the powerplay, the Hawks shot the puck at the net, then kicked around a rebound which found its way to Hossa at the side of the net. He backhanded the puck past Halak to cut the Blues lead to 2-1. It was the seventh straight game for the Hawks in which they've scored a powerplay goal. That is a very impressive streak to start the season.
Two minutes later, Hossa scored again on a very similar play. The Hawks through the puck to the net, crashed with all three forwards (Toews did a great job of sucking in 2 Blues defenders). Hossa then fought off a weak attempt by Oshie to get him away from the puck, stole it from Halak, and shot the puck between his legs and into the goal. It was a hi-light reel goal to tie the game 2-2.
The game went to overtime, where the St. Louis Blues had a number of great chances for the first 3 minutes. Marty Turco came up with several gigantic saves to keep the game tied. Finally, the Hawks got the puck into the Blues' zone with room to skate and time to make a play. Jason Cullimore got the puck to Patrick Kane with a Blues' defender down and out of position. Kane looked like he was going to shoot, but instead made a terrific pass over to Patrick Sharp, who tapped the puck into a wide open net for the game winning goal. It was Sharp's third straight game with the winning goal.
Overall, the Hawks have played much better in the past week. Turco has won three consecutive games, and is playing fantastic hockey behind a defense that has been giving up far too many shots. Hossa and Sharp have gotten off to blazing starts (Hossa leads the league in goals and points, with 7 goals and 11 points overall). Sharp is also in the top 5 in the league in points and goals. Hopefully the Hawks don't make a habit of falling behind early, but you have to like their ability to bounce back. They are never out of the game. Twice this season they have overcome two goal deficits to win games, and once they forced overtime after falling behind by two goals. As long as they figure out how to avoid the slow starts, they should be fine.
The Hawks improved their record to 4-2-1 to begin the season. If they would have beaten Nashville like they should have, they'd be staring at 5-1-1, which would be a terrific start. Let's hope they can beat Vancouver (I hate them!), before heading to St. Louis for a rematch with the Blues on Friday. I will be at that game, so I am definitely looking forward to it. Go Hawks!
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