Observations From Section 321: Wash, Rinse, Repeat

I can’t help but thinking back to January 2oth.  I was sitting in a bar, in Nashville, TN watching the Blackhawks beat the Florida Panthers.  At that point the Blackhawks had the most points in the NHL, with 64.  Flash forward 3 weeks, the Blackhawks have only 65 points and are now 11 points behind the Detroit Red Wings.  Don’t look now but the are only 3 points ahead of the 8th seed.  This team looks like they just don’t care anymore.  They are looking like a team that is trying to get its coach fired.

And why the hell not fire Q at this point? Yes he did win a Stanley Cup two years ago, but hockey is a “what have you done for me lately” business.  The Blackhawks backed into the playoffs last season and are now in jeopardy of missing the playoffs this year.  This is not exactly what was talked about when the word dynasty was thrown around after winning the Cup.  It is the same things killing the Hawks every single night.  That tells me that the players have tuned out the coaching staff.  Since you can’t fire all the players it might be time for a change behind the bench.  Whatever changes are going to be made they need to be made fast, like 3 days ago fast!

• Yes the first Phoenix goal banked off of Sami Lepisto, but even if the pass went through it was going to be a goal.  Ray Emery took forever to get over to near post.

• The Hawks made Mike Smith look like Patrick Roy last night.  38 shots and nothing to show for it!  Taking 38 shots is good, but some of them have to be good shots, not all from the perimeter.  Most of the Hawks shots didn’t challenge Smith.

• I had a better shot at winning the Powerball last night than the Blackhawks had of scoring a power play goal!

• Is it possible to find a line combo or two that works and just leave it be?  The line juggling is getting ridiculous!

• The Coyotes must lead the league in guys with girl’s names.  They have an Adrian, a Lauri and a Taylor.  And the Blackhawks got pants by them!

• I am starting to get concerned about teams having their way with Jonathan Toews.  For the 2nd straight night Toews was getting mugged.  This can not continue much longer.  This could be the reason that Stan Bowman is kicking the tires on bring Adam Burish back.

• Andrew Shaw needs to talk to Jamal Mayers on when starting a fight is a good idea.

My Blackhawks Player of the Game

Going to give player of the game honors to Patrick Sharp.  Shooter lived up to his nickname by leading the Hawks in shots with 7.  You know its not a good game when taking the most shots makes you the player of the game.

My Turd of the Game

Dylan Olsen proved that he needs a bit more seasoning down in Rockford.  He finished a -2 and the Yotes’ 2nd and 3rd goals had a lot to do with him.  On the 2nd Phoenix goal, Olsen followed Lauri Korpikowski up above the faceoff dot for some reason.  This left a ton of space in front of the net.  Olsen got a major chase of wind burn from Kyle Chipchura on the Yotes’ 3rd goal.  I feel Olsen is going to be a really good defenseman in the near future, he just isn’t there quite yet.