Observations From Section 321: Soft Serve

The Blackhawks have painted themselves into a corner and are now one more loss away from a second straight 1st round elimination.  The Coyotes have a 3-1 series lead with 2 out of the last 3 possible games on their home ice.  The Hawks must win 3 in a row to advance to the 2nd round.  We saw the Hawks win 3 straight against Vancouver last year, so it’s not impossible, but rather unlikely.  It’s rather simple why the Yotes have a 3 games to 1 lead.  First and foremost, Mike Smith is outplaying Corey Crawford, especially in overtime.  Secondly, Dave Tippett is out coaching Joel Quenneville.  It is clear what Tippett’s game plan is in this series and that is not letting the Hawks’ big guns beat him.  He is fine with  Bryan Bickell, Michael Frolik and Brendan Morrison beating them.  He doesn’t want the likes of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane doing them in and Q and the Hawks don’t have an answer for this.  I don’t want to hear how the Hawks are missing Andrew Shaw and Marian Hossa.  The Coyotes have been missing Martin Hanzal, Lauri Korpikowski and Raffi Torres so the shorthanded excuse just won’t fly right now.  The Blackhawks dominated the play for the first 2 periods but had nothing to show for it.  For the 3rd time in this series they socred a goal after pulling Crawford for an extra attacker.  This is the first series since 1951 where the first 4 games have gone into overtime.  If you go back to last season the Hawks have now played in six straight overtime games.  The Hawks have proven they have heart and will not quit.  They could have folded when Toews was out for 22 game but they didn’t.  They could have folded at the end of regulation of Games 1,2 and 4 but they didn’t.  I don’t expect the Hawks to lie down.  They will go down fighting.  Afterall, if the Hawks would have had a couple of bounces go their way they would have the 3-1 lead.

• 2 straight games Corey Crawford has let in a soft overtime goal to Mikkel Boedker.  Crow had to make some big saves in regulation but his defense continues to let him down.  Bottom line is the last 2 game winning goals need to stopped, those are too easy.

• Been saying for months that the Hawks lack of a power play will kill their chances for the Cup and that is exactly what is going on.  The Blackhawks are 1 for 13 on the power play this series.  A series where they have lost in overtime 3 times.  The Hawks came out firing last night and had some good momentum after a few good early shifts.  They got an early penalty on which they did nothing and it stopped all that momentum right in its tracks.

• Does Patrick Sharp still play for this team?

• I hate when Q does something stupid and it works.  Playing Morrison made me very angry and then he scores his first goal as a Hawk.  It reminded me about how mad I got when he played Steve Montador as a forward on the power play and then he scored too.

• Can we please get the Jonny Oduya from the regular season back? The playoff version sucks.  The Coyotes first goal is on him.  Shane Doan was able to pick pocket him and turn it into a 1-0 lead.

• Speaking of players who have disappeared in the last week, what happened to Viktor Stalberg?

• Q lucked out on Morrison but can someone explain why in the hell Sean O’Donnell was playing last night?  The game winning goal all started with Old Donnell trying to pinch.  That is a play he should never try and make anymore, especially in overtime of a playoff game.  Nick Leddy didn’t do his partner any favors as he did a bad job of trying to Boedker off the puck.  Still, in the end there is no way Crawford should let that one in.

• How many times must we watch Patrick Kane try and skate through 4 Coyotes in the middle of the ice leading to a rush going the other way? Knock it the %$#& off!!

• Stop with the Brandon Bollig, pretty please.  

My Blackhawks Player of the Game

Two games in row Michael Frolik gets the player of the game.  I don’t like to toot my own horn very often, but “Toot, Toot!”  I called for Frolik to be in the lineup before Game 1.  He was one of the better players last season versus the Canucks and he has been very good in 2 games against the Yotes.

My Turd of the Game

This honor goes to Paul “Biz Nasty” Bissonnette.  First he had a staged fight with resident meathead Brandon Bollig, which is just stupid.  Then he got a game misconduct penalty for not strapping down his jersey.  I know he isn’t used to actually getting out of the pressbox but at least put your uniform on right.  The thing that upsets me the most is this idiot got paid more than I make in 2 months to play a grand total of 13 seconds.