Sometimes you look back at something you used to have and think that you remembered it too good. That it wasn’t nearly as meaningful as you thought it was at the time. When you rediscover whatever it was you remembered, it doesn’t come close to what your memories of that thing were.
Unless that thing is Red Wings–Blackhawks.
Seriously, what a game. The Hawks came into town with the stars and the swagger and the Cup rings and the Wings remain injured and inconsistent and maddening. I’m sure a lot of people figured this one would be a laugher going away for Chicago. Unfortunately for them, the Red Wings came out with one of their best efforts of the season and went toe-to-toe (and arguably were better throughout 65 minutes) with the Hawks. A couple of lucky bounces allowed the Hawks to jump out to an early lead, but the Wings roared back to take a lead into the third period. A Marcus Kruger goal tied the game up and it went to first overtime and then a shootout. And the Wings won. Yep. That’s not a typo. They beat the Blackhawks.
- This is a team I can get behind. That has got to rank up with one of the best efforts of the year for the entire team. After the dumpster fire of Monday night, to bounce back against a great team like Chicago and play up to their level is a testament to the pride in that room.
- Giving up a lucky bounce goal to the Blackhawks is like getting intercepted on your first throw of a football game and having it returned to the 1 yard line. You’re behind the 8-ball before you ever get started.
- Ed Olczyk said “Quincey with a good job there” further cementing the fact that he has no idea what he’s talking about. At one point Danny DeKeyser broke up a quick 2-on-1 and then Quincey immediately gave the puck up and the Hawks maintained zone possession for another 30 seconds.
- If you don’t smile when Patrick Eaves scores, you have no soul.
- Kyle Quincey scored a goal. See you all on the other side, friends.
- I was anxious to see the Blackhawks’ potent power play, and once again they disappointed me by taking a grand total of 6 seconds to score a goal. Stupid sexy Sharp.
- Jonathan Ericsson’s confidence is surging since being named to the Swedish Olympic team, but imagine what actually playing real games will do for him!
- Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco need a nickname on par with the Eurotwins. The furthest I got was Jerk Sauce, which is terrible on several levels. Whatever, you guys come up with something.
- Speaking of Tatar, there was a play where he had an offensive zone rush and missed, but raced hard to get back and nullify the odd-man rush that the Hawks had developing. The more I see him play, the more excited I get for the future.
- Dan Cleary. I love you buddy, but I have come to the realization that you’re just not helping this team any more. Yes, I’m sure you’re great in the room and a wonderful teammate, but you have no knees, which means you have no speed, and you can’t finish offensively, and you’re too slow to kill penalties.
- Todd Bertuzzi, see above, your shootout goal notwithstanding.
- When Brendan Smith figures out to not try and pass the puck in the middle of the Wings’ zone, he’ll win the Norris.
- “Hey Helm, welcome back to the lineup.”
“Thanks Mike. Glad to be back.”
“So listen, we’re going to give you some new linemates.”
“Cool. Who?”
“Cleary and Bertuzzi”
“I’m hurt again. Like, really, really bad. And this cough just won’t go away.”
“We’ll let you shoot in the shootout if it gets far enough.”
“Fine. But if I don’t get a chance tonight, I’m going on LTIR.” - I tweeted this after the first period and it didn’t come back to bite me. I’ll chalk this up to my further good luck for tonight:
I’ll probably regret saying this later, but are Kane and Toews even playing?
— Graham Hathway (@GrahamWIIM) January 23, 2014
- The Blackhawks allowed a goal to Kyle Quincey and were beaten by Jonas Gustavsson in the same game. Condolences on failing to repeat as champions (psych I’ll never feel bad for anything to do with the Blackhawks).
- In case anyone wondered whether the Wings got lucky tonight, the Wings had 54% of the Corsi eventsthroughout the game, 53.7% at 5v5. This was a very even game where the Wings controlled play for long stretches. This should be something they can build off of, starting Friday night when they take on the Canadiens, one of the teams they are chasing for a playoff spot and is in the middle of their own free-fall.
