Game 4 IGT: Blues @ Blackhawks 4/19 at 8:30 p.m.

[DMelt36]

Feels like I just woke up after a lengthy night of drinking and that I have no idea what the hell happened last night.

 

[MassHavoc]

I is depress.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Much sad...very sad...such sad.

They are not helping my bandwagon fandom...they're just piling onto that other UC team's failures

 

[RacerX]

Hawks getting Mike Smith'd.

What i was thinking the entire game, and prior couple games.

 

[DMelt36]

This feels so, so much like the Hawks/Coyotes series from 2012, just missing a few brutal OT goals surrendered by Crawford.

 

[DMelt36]

Exactly. We need Shaw to skate into Elliott next game and the comparison will be complete.

I think this series is basically Elliott/Tarasenko have outplayed Crawford/Kane. All the other stuff is irrelevant.

Shaw may not get that chance if he's suspended.

Usually the typical results in a series is that the stars cancel each other out and the depth scorers make the difference. But the Hawks stars haven't done much of anything in this one.

 

[LordKOTL]

Sucks that Shaw went full Kim Davis.

I think at this point it's time for Q to start managing egos. For one, more players than Keith and Hjammer have to *actually* play defense. Seabrook cannot lollygag it on plays anymore as if it was 120 degrees on the ice--especially if he wears a letter (when it can't be more than 114). TVR and Rosie should never try their Harlem Globetrotters impersonation ever again--they liked like the Washington Generals--worse than Cullimore and Zyuin. As much fun as it was to see Crawford go Hextall, we can't do that anymore.

And more players that just Shaw need to go to the netfront. Elliott is way to comfortable and he's saving all of the easy goals--and we're only shooting easy shots. Crawford is dealing with a lot of netfront presence--Elliott isn't. If that means T² takes abuse from Ott, then so be it. At this point no player should be above going to the net because no player so far has proven they have the talent to beat Elliott cleanly.

Series is not over, but at this point the usual suspects have to man up. Everyone needs to be better by some degree (some more than others).

 

[RacerX]

Sucks that Shaw went full Kim Davis.

I think at this point it's time for Q to start managing egos. For one, more players than Keith and Hjammer have to *actually* play defense. Seabrook cannot lollygag it on plays anymore as if it was 120 degrees on the ice--especially if he wears a letter (when it can't be more than 114). TVR and Rosie should never try their Harlem Globetrotters impersonation ever again--they liked like the Washington Generals--worse than Cullimore and Zyuin. As much fun as it was to see Crawford go Hextall, we can't do that anymore.

And more players that just Shaw need to go to the netfront. Elliott is way to comfortable and he's saving all of the easy goals--and we're only shooting easy shots. Crawford is dealing with a lot of netfront presence--Elliott isn't. If that means T² takes abuse from Ott, then so be it. At this point no player should be above going to the net because no player so far has proven they have the talent to beat Elliott cleanly.

Series is not over, but at this point the usual suspects have to man up. Everyone needs to be better by some degree (some more than others).

Agree with ALL of that. However, another observation i have is that this Hawks team: (a) may not be as hungry as the Blues, and (b) have only a negligible (if any) advantage in overall skill and depth over the Blues.

I never count these guys out, but the fat lady is warming up.......really hopeful that after tomorrow night I am not reduced to exclusively following the Cubs.

 

[LordKOTL]

Agree with ALL of that. However, another observation i have is that this Hawks team: (a) may not be as hungry as the Blues, and (b) have only a negligible (if any) advantage in overall skill and depth over the Blues.

I never count these guys out, but the fat lady is warming up.......really hopeful that after tomorrow night I am not reduced to exclusively following the Cubs.

(a) I think is a real possibility, but in that case you'd think some of the incoming personnel would make it know for their hunger if Toews and Co are like, "meh."

(b) on paper the top 'hawks should be far better than the top blues, but parity may be coming into play. Even Kane and Panarin should be able to outmatch Tarasenko and someone else. Maybe, just maybe, the 2nd O tier for the 'hawks really isn't that good right now.

What it looks like to me is that the blues are completely on board. They're supporting Elliott (the same cannot be said about the 'hawks supporting Crawford), No one on the blues seems adverse to getting ugly goals, while Shaw and Ladd seem the only ones willing to muck it up.

I'm hoping it's not all over on Thursday too, not just because the Timbers are faring about as well as the 'hawks in defending their league title, but my wife made it well known to me she's suffering greatly since I shaved for the Beard-a-thon, and my facial hair can only grow back so fast--I'm not Burns. I'd hate to think it was all for nothing!

 

[MassHavoc]

It feels more like the salary cap finally catching up with them and not being able to reload fast enough... Got some very nice pieces on the team especailly with Breadman and some young D, but it wasn't enough to overcome the loss of Sharp, Saad, Oduya, ect... They're not out, but I don't know that they can win 3 straight against the blows. They seem to be not as composed as previous. It's going to take a hattie from Toews to snap them out of it. 6 years ago I'd already have moved on to the cubs, but recent history has been re-written to tell me it's still possible for them to come back.

 

[DMelt36]

Ya know what really sucked last night? I think the Hawks had the Blues on the ropes at the end of the second period. They already led 2-1 and were getting all the chances. Another goal there probably would've buried the Blues in that game and then it may have been the Blues self-destructing in the third period, as they are so usually so good at doing.

 

[MassHavoc]

Yep, I thought they finally turned the corner, then Kane boneheaded it.

 

[clonetrooper264]

I am still sad

 

[RacerX]

(a) I think is a real possibility, but in that case you'd think some of the incoming personnel would make it know for their hunger if Toews and Co are like, "meh."

(b) on paper the top 'hawks should be far better than the top blues, but parity may be coming into play. Even Kane and Panarin should be able to outmatch Tarasenko and someone else. Maybe, just maybe, the 2nd O tier for the 'hawks really isn't that good right now.

What it looks like to me is that the blues are completely on board. They're supporting Elliott (the same cannot be said about the 'hawks supporting Crawford), No one on the blues seems adverse to getting ugly goals, while Shaw and Ladd seem the only ones willing to muck it up.

I'm hoping it's not all over on Thursday too, not just because the Timbers are faring about as well as the 'hawks in defending their league title, but my wife made it well known to me she's suffering greatly since I shaved for the Beard-a-thon, and my facial hair can only grow back so fast--I'm not Burns. I'd hate to think it was all for nothing!

Good post. So many factors contributing to this predicament, no need to spell them out again. I do find myself missing a vintage Rat Bolland shorty, JO in place of TVR, a Saad baby-bull breakway, or a Sharp snipe - but the underlying problem is with the players we have, not the ones we are missing.

 

[DJMoore_is_fat]

Horrible, horrible feeling last night. Tough to comprehend how Kane could high stick in Game 3 and Shaw can interfere in Game 4 at such critical times. In all seriousness (and this is a horrible thought to contemplate) but Shaw has a strong possibility of having CTE. So one can understand how he made such a bone headed play last night. His brain is scrambled. He literally looked like a wolverine in the brawl after the game.

But Kane's high sticking penalty was incomprehensible. How a HOF player in the midst of such a spectacular year could do that is mind blowing. It's near impossible to win a series with two unforgivable penalties like that.

Perhaps the most disappointing player this series has been Seabrook. I'm not sure if he's just exhausted from 5 years of title runs or what -- but he's either not giving max effort or is just totally beat. It seems like we have two legit D-man at this point. With giving up so much to acquire Ladd, I was hoping for a long playoff run this year.

Anyways three cups since 2010 has been a phenomenal feat. I just hope we get one more with our core of Kane, Toews, Keith, Nic, etc. It's only going to get tougher from here on out so Bowman will have to be creative.

But for right now it's one game at a time. We came back from a 1-3 hole against the Red Wings and we took San Jose to 7 games after being down 0-3. So let's see.

Go Hawks.

 

[Ares]

Horrible, horrible feeling last night. Tough to comprehend how Kane could high stick in Game 3 and Shaw can interfere in Game 4 at such critical times. In all seriousness (and this is a horrible thought to contemplate) but Shaw has a strong possibility of having CTE. So one can understand how he made such a bone headed play last night. His brain is scrambled. He literally looked like a wolverine in the brawl after the game.

But Kane's high sticking penalty was incomprehensible. How a HOF player in the midst of such a spectacular year could do that is mind blowing. It's near impossible to win a series with two unforgivable penalties like that.

Perhaps the most disappointing player this series has been Seabrook. I'm not sure if he's just exhausted from 5 years of title runs or what -- but he's either not giving max effort or is just totally beat. It seems like we have two legit D-man at this point. With giving up so much to acquire Ladd, I was hoping for a long playoff run this year.

Anyways three cups since 2010 has been a phenomenal feat. I just hope we get one more with our core of Kane, Toews, Keith, Nic, etc. It's only going to get tougher from here on out so Bowman will have to be creative.

But for right now it's one game at a time. We came back from a 1-3 hole against the Red Wings and we took San Jose to 7 games after being down 0-3. So let's see.

Go Hawks.

Seabrook looks like if Eddie Lacy ate Eddie Goldman and then tried playing hockey...

 

[HawkWriter]

http://www.tsn.ca/blackhawks-shaw-i-ll-never-use-that-word-again-1.475255

Good on Shaw for owning it - a lot of guys wouldn't even with video proof. An extremely stupid thing to say/do in the first place (hell, his actions outside of the word were stupid as well) but good for him on coming out today with an apology. Just have to hope he learns from it and gets back to playing hockey. Wouldn't surprise me if the league suspended him.

 

[DMelt36]

Shaw's out for Game 5. Also fined $5,000.

 

[mikita's helmet]

Shaw's out for Game 5. Also fined $5,000.

Really change things up for game 5.

Bickell, Toews, Kane
Panarin, Anisimov, Ladd
Panik, TT, Hossa
Fleischman, Krueger, Wiese

 

[DJMoore_is_fat]

Really change things up for game 5.

Bickell, Toews, Kane
Panarin, Anisimov, Ladd
Panik, TT, Hossa
Fleischman, Krueger, Wiese

Bickel on the first line? Uh, no. I'd rather take my chances with Jose the hot dog vendor outside the UC.