GameBlog 02-06-10: Blues vs. Hawks
Chicago Blackhawks
vs.
St. Louis Blues
Pregame
So we meet again…
Earlier this week the Blues traveled to Chicago and took the Hawks league best home record down a notch. In the 3-2 victory the Blues grabbed the tiger’s tail and held on for the win. Can the Blues find the same goaltending performance and effort level at home?
With Calgary’s last two wins teh Blues are now seven points back of the Flames for the spot in the West. Calgary plays tonight down in Tampa Bay. Detroit also plays LA tonight. Worst case scenario could be a win for both Calgary and Detroit and a Blues loss. That would set the Blues back by nine points. Best case scenario the Blues crawl back to five points out. The situation is dire here. The Blues are only seven back, but have to leapfrog five teams just to get in. Sadly Detroit is getting healthy, Dallas and Anaheim are improving and Minnesota continues to stay close. The Blues are up against a wall tonight and need to come out with a better effort than what we saw Thursday.
Chicago has lost three in a row coming in to tonight’s game. The Hawks will be just as hungry to end their skid and start putting points back on the board to keep up with San Jose. The race for the top of the West is all Chicago has for motivation right now and they are four points back of the lead. San Jose is in action against the Predators in Nashville. Expect the Hawks to want payback for Thursday’s loss. This is the Hawks longest losing streak of the season.
Can the Backes line rebound? Will the Tkachuk and Berglund lines stay intact? So far all we know today is that Chris Mason will get the start in net tonight. Cam Janssen will likely be in for DJ King. BJ Crombeen skated today, but is still out. Thanks to Lou Korac for the info. earlier this week Andy Strickland tweeted that Carlo Colaiacovo will be scratched for tonight’s game. I haven’t seen any confirmation of that yet. Andy says a trade is not imminent (or should be implied), just that Carlo’s play is likely not where Head Coach Davis Payne wants it. Carlo has resembled Jeff Woywitka as much as he has resembled himself from the 08-09 campaign. Carlo is missing a golden opportunity in a contract season to show he can be a “Top 4″ guy.
There was a great quote by Payne in the Post following the game Thursday.
“It’s extra effort,” Blues coach Davis Payne said. “Those kinds of things make a difference in this game. You never know when that extra effort is going to pay off … that’s why you have to give it.”
It will be the Blues commitment to that extra effort that will keep them in this game (and the playoff race) or shut them down (and out of the race). The Blues need that second effort from many players who just have not given it consistently.
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Update 12:55pm CST: Andy Strickland just tweeted that Carlo Colaiacovo will be in the line up after a meeting with Davis Payne. There are some expected line up changes. Not sure if that’s more than just Cam in for DJ.
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Recap
In ou rbetter late than never addiiton I just have a few thoughts.
- How did so many Hawks fans get tickets to this game? When I first sat down with about 10 minutes left in the warmup, I saw more red jerseys than blue. By game time it evened out to about 1/3 of the crowd…but still.
- Even with the many drunk and disorderly Hawks fans, there was a great atmosphere about the game. In the six or seven games I’ve been to so far, this game had the most “in to it”crowd since the playoff games last season.
- Mason couldn’t come up with big, timely saves the way Niemi did. The Blues couldn’t come up with timely goals like the Hawks did. Well they did, just the ref had an intent to blow…and blow they did.
- The officiating appeared inconsistent and lazy. Status quo in the NHL.
- Brad Boyses has zero confidence in his game right now. Just as he get’s some, the refs take it away. I have never seen him weaker on the puck that he was Saturday.
- Patrik Berglund continues to have more good games than bad games under Payne. The other Swede, Alex Steen continues to play well on the power play…and just about everywhere else.
- The two “fights” were rather lame. Barker picks it with Jackmn coming in as a 3rd man on a play, then won’t man up and fight? Why bother if you know Jackman is going to throw the gloves down? Brewer v Ladd? Meh.
-Patrick Kane is one of the laziest players I’ve ever seen. The kid has skill, but a total one zone player. If the Hawks want to win, they better show tape of Crosby to show him how a smaller player can be physically effective and play hard in all three zones.
- I have not been impressed with Duncan Keith the last two times I’ve seen the Hawks. Maybe I am missing something?
- I thought Johnson has an effective game, mainly in bringing the puck up ice. He was not the only Blues player afflicted with a new disease, call grip it, rip it, and watch the forwards block it. Just a terrible job at moving the puck quickly and getting open lanes. The team in general was slow in decision making and execution for the second game in a row.
- The Blues can further improve on the Stempniak for Steen & Colaiacovo trade by moving Colaiacovo at the deadline. He resembles Backman and Woywitka more so than himself from last season.
Next up is Colorado in Denver Monday night. The Blues begin the biggest week of this regimes history, can they pull out a win? Should they?
