Observations From Section 321: All Control Is Lost

The asylum is being run by the inmates.  Thanks to Brendan Shanahan and some of the worse officiating I’ve ever seen, the NHL is out of control.  These players have no respect for the game, and even worse, no respect for each other.  What Raffi Torres did last night was inexcusable and disgusting.  An example needs to made out of him.  He is a skid mark on the underwear of life who doesn’t deserve to privilege of playing in the NHL.  That’s right, playing professional hockey is a privilege not a right.  Some people need to lose that privilege and it starts with Torres.  Watching Marian Hossa lie motionless on the ice made me want to throw up and really made the outcome of the game not matter as much as it did before.  Thank God he was able to leave the hospital on his own power.  The fact that no penalty was called and the Coyotes got a power play out of that mess is a disgrace.  The referees need to be held just as accountable as the players.  The first week of the playoffs has been hard to watch, even for a die hard fan like myself.  If Shanahan really wants to protect the players’ safety then he needs to resign effective immediately because he is a failure.  I am expecting him to completely drop the ball on Torres’ “punishment.”  On to the actual game:

• It was a shame that Corey Crawford lost the game on such a weak goal.  Patrick Kane got too cute and instead of shooting the puck went the other way.  And then Niklas Hjalmarrson does what he does best, or worst, and gave the puck away deep in his own zone.  It was a tough way to lose when Crow was on top of his game again.

• Nick Leddy had a rough game despite having an assist on the first goal.  He was completely pushed around on the Yotes’ first goal.  Leddy will get better at this as he puts on weight. Just let the kid spend the summer with me.  I will put him on a cheeseburger and Budweiser diet that may make him a diabetic but at least he will be bigger!

• Who is this guy wearing Johnny Oduya’s uniform?  It certainly isn’t the guy that played so good the final 6 weeks of the regular season.

• Brent Seabrook is all that is man.  He blocked a shot in OT that would have made me cry like a schoolgirl who lost her puppy.  He stayed out on the ice and finished an extended shift.  He has been the best player for the Hawks in this series so far.

• Now that Hossa and Andrew Shaw are going to be out Brandon Bollig needs to sit.  You can not waste on roster spot on a guy who is only going to play 5 minutes a game, you are already shorthanded enough.  The Hawks looked absolutely gassed last night because they were playing with only 10 forwards for the majority of the game.  For Game 4 I would dress Jimmy Hayes and give Brandon Saad a look.

• Mike Smith is a douche.  Way to be a tough guy giving shots to Patrick Sharp.  Corey Crawford gets a giant stick tap for letting Smith know exactly where he can go.

• We had to spend all day Tuesday listening to Dave Tippett and Shane Doan talk about head shots and how they don’t appreciate them.  Oh really Doan?  Let’s ask Jaime Benn about Doan’s hits to the head.  And if Tippett was really against head shots why didn’t he man up and bench Torres for the rest of the game?  A couple of hypocrites!

My Blackhawks Player of the Game

You had to feel happy for Michael Frolik when he finally scored last night.  He was the best forward of the game.  He was all over the place on both sides of the ice all night.  I have been calling for Frolik to be in the lineup since before Game 1.  He was very good against Vancouver last season and can be very effective from here on out.

My Turd of the Game

Many of you are probably asking yourselves “who the hell is that guy?” That is Tyson Nash who, until last night, I had no idea who he was.  On the Phoenix radio broadcast he called Torres’ hit a hockey play and “as about as clean as you can get.”  Are you kidding me?  This is coming from a guy who amassed 673 penalty minutes in 374 career games.  I’m sure those penalties were all on clean “hockey plays.”  I guess you can say whatever you want on a radio broadcast that no one is listening to.  Have fun in the unemployment line once the Yotes leave your dumb ass behind when they head for Quebec.