Wednesday 14 December 2016

Even A Broken Clock is Right Twice Each Day: Hawks 2, Rangers 1

That applies to cuckoo clocks as well as any other timepiece, of course.
In a spirited, fast-paced and hugely entertaining do-over of the weekend matchup between these original six teams it was The Hawks' turn to eke out a win.  Both teams had many chances thwarted by two of the hottest goaltenders in the league, right now, including several saves on second chances.
The Hawks kicked off the scoring when Trevor van Riemsdyk snared a hot pass from Artemi Panarin whilst coasting through the high slot, somehow getting a shot away and past Antti Raanta before falling over for no good reason. The Rangers would tie the game on a bunt single by Jesper Fast (love that name) but that would be all that Scott Darling would allow.  Artem Anisimov would pot the game winner late in the second on a sneaky-good pass from Brian Campbell that Raanta probably expected to come from the other side of the net.
I know I'm a full day late but here are some quick Bits.

I'm grateful that TVR was able to score, even a bit glad for him, but he's still effing brutal and the sight of him on a power play, again, made me taste bile.  Ok, he scored in front of his mom & dad, can we put an end to this, now? (Yeah, that's purely rhetorical; TVR is back, he has the coaches' support, and there's feck all we can do about it.)
Jonathan Toews looked fine, I thought.  He would probably bitch about his timing being off and he'll be royally pissed for having missed that empty-netter, but an ever-so-slightly wonky Toews is infinitely better than no Toews at all.
How can they pump the brakes on Duncan Keith and his crap shooting?  Midway through the second period The Hawks had their longest and best offensive attack completely undone by Keith taking a shot that sailed well wide of the Rangers' net and ricocheted back down into their own end. Seriously, for every shot he gets through there are 5+ that hit legs etc. or just plain miss.  That's not the first time this season that Keith's poorly timed misses have blunted an attack.
Lots to choose from in this game, despite the low score.  Both Arthurs were excellent, Hossa had 10 seconds of absolute heroism and Campbell was very good, as well, reunited with Seabrook. In a 2-1 game, though, in which you're outshot and gave up several second chances, Stormare always looks to the net; Scott Darling's stellar relief stint continues.



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