[A] Poor Play Costs Hawks: CHI 1, STL 5

[Ton]

This match was nothing short of physical domination by the Blues, forcing the Hawks back into their shell and displaying the submissive culture that has grown over the course of the season.



The Blackhawks will never be a dominate physical team -- they simply aren't built to play that way. In order to be successful the Blackhawks must rely on puck possession and burning physical teams on the power-play in order to force them play cautiously rather than recklessly. They simply could not accomplish that against the Blues; having no issue taking the penalty to strike fear into the Hawks.



Not only did the Blackhawks go 0-for-6 on the man-advantage, but they conceded a shorthanded goal early in the 2nd period to go along with their struggles. From that point on, they were deflated. There was no coming back.



Although they had a setback in power-play production, they have found some success prior to this game. Anyone expecting consistent results is fooling themselves after poor methods have tainted their power-play production. But there is still hope that they can rekindle their success with Barry Smith leading the charge, but it must show an immediate bounce back if they are to falter for a short stretch.



To say Jaroslav Halak had an easy night ahead of himself is an understatement. The Hawks flung 20 shots on goal throughout the game, very little of the opportunities translated into quality scoring chances. Along with that, Ray Emery could not seem to gain ground as he allowed 5 goals on 31 shots for an abysmal .839 save percentage.



I think it's fair to say Corey Crawford will get the next start, but will he keep the reigns or turn it back over to Emery after a short run? The bottom line is, neither goaltender has provided enough quality for a prolonged stretch of the season in order to ride them to the end. The starting situation remains in the balance with a mere 14 games left in the season and likely not to change heading into the final stretch, something Joel Quenneville has not yet experienced as the Blackhawks bench boss.



Regardless of the Blackhawks goaltending woes, they have a team that can compete on any given night and win despite the tragedy between the pipes along with poor special teams. The question is consistency, do the Blackhawks have what it takes to right the ship and put forth the effort to win this year?



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[the canadian dream]

Special teams



Blues are good and forecheck better and harder and have a goalie who is hot shit when hes on his game. Also a very good defense and Andy McDonald is a good hockey player who has been forgotten about because of his injuries. He hasn't missed a step since returning. Blues are my dark horse out of the West..if they can even be classified as. I don't want to face them in the playoffs if the Hawks make it. Hopefully somehow they will face the Canucks and those 2 teams can beat the shit out of each other.



We need Toews back now.



That's pretty much it.

 

[Shantz My Pants]

Interesting. A team physically dominates the play and wins 5-1. Guess being physical doesn't matter...



/sarcasm

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Beat by the best and most physical team in the West.



After watching tonight... anyone who doesn't think physicality is a part of winning hockey, go fffff....ly a kite.

 

[DBQHawkFan]

Non-existant response to their physicality. Emery should have stopped the first one. Looked like it slipped through the 5 hole after the deflection. But there was more wrong than Emery. Hossa with a brutal game. Power Play....not even worth wasting breath on. Bollig fight wasn't needed but was entertaining. At least that was a positive note.

 

[Shantz My Pants]

Plain and simple, the Hawks look timid after the 1st period. The SH was a prime example.



Hossa turns away as he's trying to avoid the check and Scott Nichol comes by and steals the puck and creates a turnover and eventual assist for the shorty. That is what phyiscal hockey does. Reduces players time and space and puts the thought of getting ready for a hit before playing the puck.

 

[Larmer83]

Interesting. A team physically dominates the play and wins 5-1. Guess being physical doesn't matter...



/sarcasm

Beat by the best and most physical team in the West.



After watching tonight... anyone who doesn't think physicality is a part of winning hockey, go fffff....ly a kite.

From a friend this evening:



"Stan Bowman is not a war time consiglieri"

 

[Shantz My Pants]

Not much you can do in this situation outside of show up. Problem is the Hawks are not built to be very physical, which sucks because teams like St. Louis, NYR, Boston, Vancouver are going to keep bringing their physical game to every team.



The Rangers game will be quite the repeat of this shit show tonight...

 

[puckjim]

Score a power play goal and the chippy stuff will stop.



What team is going to be afraid of giving the Hawks a man advantage when they manage a putrid three shots on five power plays?

 

[Pez68]

Hossa with probably his worst game as a Blackhawk. Kane not far behind, with Sharp pulling in third in the SUCK FEST. Hawks were afraid of getting hit all night long. Completely intimidated and taken off of their game. Five power plays with three shots on goal? Yeah, nice job guys. Way to really hammer out the issues. Not only that, but you gave up a SH goal too?

The casual observer might blame lack of effort on this game, but the Hawks were physically dominated from puck drop. When push comes to shove, the Hawks fall down and cry.

 

[the canadian dream]

Yah sucks the top 3 forwards while toewsless had bad games all at the same time. Im not stunned by the result tonight though. The special teams are an issue that havent been fixed because it looked better in two games and because someone else is running it in practice. Time for the players to take the heat here on that issue. Im tired of watching every play develop on the right side. The lack of creative left wingers will be the death of this team. Sharps not creative with the puck..hes a shoot first player. Stalberg has no puck creativity he is simply creative with his speed..hes useless in a set play style. Meyers isnt a pp center. four left handed shots on the pp doesnt work either nor does five on the ice at the same time help either. Left wing creativity is what this team has needed all season up front..games like tonight exploit that hole yet again.



And yes agree a little physicality never hurt any team. What we saw tonight was sad. Guess the hawks figured they got by detroit and two eastern teams who arent that good thus meaning they could play soft tonight because they deserved the break.



Wasnt an impressive effort anywhere on the ice by ninety percent of the team.



Ps they almost allowed two sh goals against. Keith got fucking hammered trying to carry the puck out on that first pp..or the second i cant remember. That was fucking sad.

 

[winos5]

Another team using an aggressive, physical fore check to take the Hawks off their game. No surprise, the game plan for beating the Hawks is no secret. Our "core" failed to show up. Stalberg probably best forward on the ice last night. Loosing Lepisto means more OD I'm guessing, unless Monty of Hammer are ready to come back. Uhg. Bad game. On the bright side I managed not to through the remote at the TV.



Have to give Halak some cred as well, he stoned us on the good scoring chances they managed to generate. Can't expect to win games going 0-5 on the PP.

 

[R K]

Interesting. A team physically dominates the play and wins 5-1. Guess being physical doesn't matter...



/sarcasm

Well all three games they were out hit 2 of the games they got W's. Was it hitting or team play? Which is it.



So far 4-6pts in ALL three games where they were out hit.



no sarcasm. Last time they were they were there they were out hit and won 5-2. Wonder how the hell that worked.



How about they score a PP goal, or 2 or 3 in this one?

 

[PatrickShart]

PP needed to score...Hossa had a baaaad game. Definitely had their chances to score.



Two out if three on the road trip, I'll take it. Especially without a number 1 or 2 center dressed.

 

[Ashor-redtribe]

Well all three games they were out hit 2 of the games they got W's. Was it hitting or team play? Which is it.



So far 4-6pts in ALL three games where they were out hit.



no sarcasm. Last time they were they were there they were out hit and won 5-2. Wonder how the hell that worked.



How about they score a PP goal, or 2 or 3 in this one?

As I know what your saying and can hold some truth, but RK those games that we get out hit and win, it really depends on the other teams talent. I am sorry to say that will not go well for us come playoffs, as we will get pushed over easy, this team we have seen can get frustrated and tend to lose focus of the game when other teams with talent out hit us. The Hawks have lost grit every year since winning the cup, I really don't think we would have been down three games to none last year if we had the players that hit right back. And we lost more of this this year with the expection of Mayers, I like the new guys but they don't know when to do it and at what time, not just yet. So all in all, the team is not built to hit back, that can haunt this team come playoffs.



Now for the game, I had posted we were not going to win this game, St louis had to prove something the way they lost the last game. I think winning 2-3 on the road against two great teams is a good sign and with Toews, Hammer, Monti out. as long as we go .500 we will be in good shape.

 

[howcho]

It is not always the hitting, that shows a team is being physical. The Hawks likely get out hit most every game. It is the contests of strength in the corners, along the boards, and in front of the net, that are not necessarily hits, but yet show a teams physicality. The blues not only out hit us, they 'leaned' on us all night long and imposed their will.



Blues = Dominant

Hawks = Submissive

 

[IceHogsFan]

Well all three games they were out hit 2 of the games they got W's. Was it hitting or team play? Which is it.



So far 4-6pts in ALL three games where they were out hit.



no sarcasm. Last time they were they were there they were out hit and won 5-2. Wonder how the hell that worked.



How about they score a PP goal, or 2 or 3 in this one?

While popping a few points here and there may get us into the playoffs, our soft play on the ice will get us routed early especially by the teams in the West. Detroit, Van, Nash and St. Louie all know that playing physical on us will dominate us and we can not depend on the players called up from the A to carry us.

 

[LordKOTL]

...So...doesn't Emery need to steal us a game?



All sarcasm aside, completely lackluster team effort tonight from goalie on out. 1st off, I don't care who's on D, who's on the ice, who's in net, or who's the coach...someone has to stop the team from easing back once someone becomes a de facto #1. We've seen it happen to Crawford, Turco, Khabi, and Huet. If somoene doesn't right that aspect to the team soon, we'll need to get Emery a straightjacket to match Craw's and Huet's. Not that Emery doesn't deserve any blame here--he was shit warmed up as well.



Now, that the obligatory slam on a completely absent team D is out of the way, the O looked completly disorganized. We could barely get anything going--it looked to me like the only quality chance was from Stalberg (which Halak robed him on).



Not that St. Louis didn't play a very good game as well...but if we were going to lose, we could have at least lost fighting tooth and claw, rather than taking on the attitude of "I can deal with a loss--pain is a much bigger issue". I swear it's like the team gets one or two wins and is completly stuffed and runs out of hunger for the next 4 or 5.



And no, I haven't bailed on the team, I just know that who we have, even without Toews, Hammer, and Monty, can be so much freaking better than the way they played last night...buncha goddamned pussies!

 

[IceHogsFan]

It is not always the hitting, that shows a team is being physical. The Hawks likely get out hit most every game. It is the contests of strength in the corners, along the boards, and in front of the net, that are not necessarily hits, but yet show a teams physicality. The blues not only out hit us, they 'leaned' on us all night long and imposed their will.



Blues = Dominant

Hawks = Submissive

Ding!

 

[R K]

While popping a few points here and there may get us into the playoffs, our soft play on the ice will get us routed early especially by the teams in the West. Detroit, Van, Nash and St. Louie all know that playing physical on us will dominate us and we can not depend on the players called up from the A to carry us.

Not sure I agree with this. Sorry.