I'm really not even sure where to start with this posting. The Blackhawks have given me angina pectoralis, and I think total heart failure is just around the corner for me (this is a blog by medical students, so don't hate on me for the medical jargon). For the first time in this entire post season, the Blackhawks were exposed in all aspects of their game as the young, unexperienced, undisciplined team that many people have suggested they are. They came out sloppy once again, turning the puck over and hesitating on their shots. This is especially depressing since the Red Wings were missing Kris Draper, Pavel Datsyuk, and Nicklas Lidstrom (easily the Wings best defender and a future Hall of Famer). There were 3 points in the game though that really stood out to me as turning points in the game:
1. Johan Franzen's goal at the end of the 2nd period. The shot was a simple wrist shot from the right circle with no one screening or distracting Cristobal Huet. And yet the shot sailed directly over his right shoulder and into the upper stick side of the goal to put the Wings up 2-0. Huet's goaltending during the first ~24 minutes of the game was unequivovally atrocious. Plain and simple. He looked uncomfortable when the Red Wing rush came past the blue line and seemed to panic at certain instances when he had to go behind his own net. This is really worrisome since he still has 3 years on his newly minted contract and was thought to be our future in front of the net at the beginning of the season. The Blackhawks should only be so lucky that Khabibulin wasn't claimed by another team when he was put on waivers at the beginning of the season, as he has been the workhorse for this club all postseason long.
2. Marion' Hossa's goal in the 2nd period. The Blackhawks finally looked like they were giong to right the ship in this game when Jonathon Toews beat Chris Osgood for a powerplay goal in the opening minutes of the 2nd period. Unfortunately, the momentum and crowd excitement (which seems to be pretty crucial to the Hawks' success) was extremely short lived as Hossa scored only 8 seconds after Toews' goal. This sucked the air out of the United Center so fast that the roof almost caved in. After this, the Blackhawks never were able to regain their composure. All the Blackhawks with the exception of Patrick Kane, Jonathon Toews, and Andrew Ladd (who played somewhat sloppy and really needs to start winning faceoffs (5/18)) looked mentally defeated and seemed to really just go through the motions of the rest of the game while on the ice. There was no passion or desire to chase down the loose puck or really fight for position in front of the Red Wings net.
3. Kris Versteeg's stupidity. This was just one of many silly penalties that the Blackhawks committed that ended up coming back to bite them in the butt. Versteeg and Walker picked up cross checking and interference penalties, respectively, midway through the 2nd period. Of course, in good executive fashion, the Red Wings made us pay on a Henrik Zetterberg goal. After killing off the other penalty, Versteeg comes out of the box and exactly 5 seconds later picks up another penalty for roughing. This just plain can't happen. You are already down 4 goals and can't afford stupid penalties that force you to play shorthanded. These are more mental mistakes that can change the tide in a close game or, in this instance, only made it that much easier for Detroit to continue to control the puck and clock. Oh, and Versteeg's 10 minute misconduct later was just a cherry on top of this already poor play.
Honorary mentions for this stupidity also go out to Ben Eager (10 minute misconduct) and the rest of the Blackhawks team (56 total penalty minutes).
Finally, the Roughing call on Matt Walker to end the 1st period was ridiculous as he barely made contact with Darren Helm. I'm not one to usually jump on the referees, but this was a silly call in a sport that promotes violent hits and fighting. It turned out not to matter in the end since the Blackhawks were outplayed and lost by 5 anyway, but this seemed to be a little bit on the ticky tacky side of penalty calling.
All in all, it was a pretty lousy day to be a Blackhawks fan. They now head back to Detroit for game 5. The series isn't over, but with a commanding 3-1 lead and Lindstrom and Datsyuk probably back for game 5, the Red Wings look in control of this series.
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