Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Thanks For Coming Out, Chicago Blackhawks

(While many have their obtiuaries for teams eliminated.....I'll do the same thing, but in a different/same way as others. How is that going to happen?? Well, I don't know until I do them.This all meant in good fun and to really make you think....or something) 

If there's a bright spot to Game Six is that at least it didn't go into overtime. 

Yet, the Chicago Blackhawks exit in the first round again with their goaltending being put into question and their scorers not being able to solve a solid goalie. However, the big thing to it all was the undisciplined nature that threw the Hawks the most. If nothing else, the play of Andrew Shaw hitting Mike Smith set a tone which included the thuggery of Raffi Torres taking out Marian Hossa-- which the Hawks could have used for these games-- especially at home.

That said, if you lose in front of your home crowd three times, odds are you aren't going to go far anyway.

Corey Crawford looked very indecisive at times, not seeing many shots and the ones he did see went right past him. Ray Emery could have been a little switch-up/wake-up call for the team, but the moustache of Joel Quenneville seemed to have known better when he's between yelling at the referees. Though, Crawford is there for a couple more years and maybe this is going to be motivation for him to get better as he went through last year as an unknown and then established himself later on. 

While the Hawks did have their scoring spread around, the fact remains that they couldn't get their top guys the ability to score, as Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane did all they could, but couldn't find a way. Though they could have used Marian Hossa, I doubt he was going to be much of a factor if the other top guys couldn't score. 

The blueline scoring was almost as unseen as the forwards, but Johnny Oduya came to play....or something. The fact Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook couldn't get going is a bit alarming, but at the same time-- no one on the Hawks seemed to pick up the motivation in order to shut the door of the Desert Dogs. 

All-in-all, a one possible dynasty is out in the first round again, searching for what went wrong and what to do to adjust. When you run into a hot goalie, though, sometimes you just have to take the loss and hope next time you're able to crack him faster. And maybe Vince Vaughn could come out for a game...

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