Jonathan Toews' first career hat trick came late in the second period Friday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He tipped in a rocket from Cam Barker that Marc-Andre Fleury had no way of stopping.
If you've ever been to a hockey game on a night when they are giving away free hats you will inevitably hear someone say: "Can you imagine if there was a hat trick tonight, it would be insane!" or something similar. Well not only was it free hat night, it was free Hard Hat night. So following Toews' goal the ice was showered with plastic hard hats for the better part of five minutes. For future reference, if you are at a game with a hat trick and you are sitting in the upper deck. You CANNOT reach the ice from there. I promise. Luckily, the euphoria of the moment kept the lower deck from retreating for shelter from the upper deck hats and they simply passed them on to the ice.
Imagine the disappointment when the officials announced the goal was under review and eventually disallowed the Toews goal. This was followed by the longest and most unified Bull-Shit chant I've ever heard. To be honest they didn't replay the goal at the stadium so it was impossible to tell if it was the right call. That didn't really matter after all the hat throwing hoopla. However, now that I've watched the replays about 7 dozen times, I don't understand how they can make that call. The goal was disallowed because of a high stick (the stick can't be above the cross bar of the goal when scoring). There must be conclusive evidence to overturn a call on the ice. How the control room in Toronto, full of the lastest video equipment and a thousand TVs, found a way to reverse that call I will never know.
At any rate it was a huge momentum shift, and essentially a three goal swing as the Penguins went from being down one to up two with a couple of quick goals as the period ended.
Cristobal Huet continued his Love/Hate relationship with Hawks fans as he remained woefully inconsistent. He played amazing for four straight games, then gives up 4 goals in the 3rd period against Nashville and then serves up juicy rebounds to the Pens all night Friday. Coach Q had seen enough and gave upcoming rookie Niemi a shot in the third period. I was not impressed. I'm assuming it was the nerves, but even on the simplest of plays he looked like a chicken with his head cut-off. For me, Khabibulin can't get back fast enough.
Meanwhile, Toews was a man on a mission. He got the "Cheater's Proof" hat trick on his FOURTH goal of the night early in the third period and again the ice was showered with hard hats. Frankly, I was shocked there were any left from the first go around. Bolland managed to score one more to send it to overtime, but a couple of roughing penalties left the Hawks short-handed to start OT and Frankenstein impersonator/NHL Points leader Evgeni Malkin took advantage of the extra room to close out the Hawks. The Hawks walk away with a point to maintain their hold on fourth in the conference but you had to be excited with the way the Hawks played, especially Toews. Who would have thought that after not scoring for the first 11 games of the season, that he would eventually lead the team in goals with 22 games left to play. When Kabibulin and Sharp come back rested and healthy this team could start clicking at just the right time, especially with 15 of their remaining 22 games at home.
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