With these goalies being razor sharp, shooters often try to make the perfect shot and miss the cage entirely.
- philco28

Very true. Compare this to my college roommate who always said he aimed directly at the goalie's logo because he knew it wouldn't go exactly where he was aiming.

Kinda how Rosy took out Upshall with the puck no where around. Fabbri hit Rosy clean and is the size of Marty St Louis.
- Gerk

Gerk -- Upshall was a clown all night-- he should have been called for embellishment on the phantom make up call interference by Seabrook--

On the Rosy penalty-- Upshall lost a battle period-- both BS NHL playoff make up calls--

And the Rosy hit-- like I said debatable-- I think he had taken a few steps into the hit thats all--

Very true. Compare this to my college roommate who always said he aimed directly at the goalie's logo because he knew it wouldn't go exactly where he was aiming.
- Jason Millen

He must have been watching the Hossa files

Kinda how Rosy took out Upshall with the puck no where around. Fabbri hit Rosy clean and is the size of Marty St Louis.
- Gerk

If it was a clean hit why was his elbow up in Rozy's face, since hes such a small fella like you say. Rozy is a big guy. He went to the dressing room to get his face taken care of. That was a cheap shot. Rozy planted Upshall, which was interference for sure, because he was steaming straight for Crawford Kreider style. Wasnt dirty, he just made him have a seat with a shove to the torso

I'll tell you what scares the hell out of me.....Tarasenko is setting up the Hawks defenders. He's cutting inside and dropping that pass to the oncoming D man. Maybe not next game but by about game 3 or game 4 when he goes to do that somebody is going to cheat and that guy is going to be sitting dead red in the slot with a clear path to Crawford. Very important the Hawks fs back check against that kid.
- SteveRain

I agree. It seems like Tarasenko has been setting things up for a few weeks now imho. Sometimes what he has been doing is the right play (like the feed to Schwartz that Toews then blocked), sometimes it is over-passing imho.

Kinda how Rosy took out Upshall with the puck no where around. Fabbri hit Rosy clean and is the size of Marty St Louis.
- Gerk

No question there, good hard hit on Rosy. Point of contact not the head. He must be solid to run a bigger guy like that.

Thats my point--- you must play the game-- thats the type of play that players notice-

Agreed Fabbri is a solid player-- and IMO he will get better under a different coach-- Hitch obviously wants Blues to take the body and take guys out-- even if it takes his players out of the play-- Fabbri doesn't need to do any of that--
- jb3333

Hitch is old school even compared to our own old school bench boss in "The Stache". A Blues' fan suggested that Hitch will likely retire after this season regardless of the result. I'm surprised he had his job after bowing out to a Wild club that the Hawks swept. As far as Parayko and Fabbri, they are future impact players on a nightly basis, hopefully they continue to make rookie mistakes. Fabbri lost his man in d-zone coverage on a glorious Toews look and the delay of game to start OT...man I thought the Hawks would end it on that.

Logic is on point Rain Man....he could be setting us up.
Someone needs to lay him out a time or two to shake him out of that pattern.

Team D last night was very encouraging.
- philco28

The times he has been hit (concussion hit aside), he has actually been more dangerous and better after the hit. Think the reaction Panarin had after he got hit in the game against the Blues late in the season. Somebody got him in the open ice and he took it up a notch afterwards.

I'll tell you what scares the hell out of me.....Tarasenko is setting up the Hawks defenders. He's cutting inside and dropping that pass to the oncoming D man. Maybe not next game but by about game 3 or game 4 when he goes to do that somebody is going to cheat and that guy is going to be sitting dead red in the slot with a clear path to Crawford. Very important the Hawks fs back check against that kid.
- SteveRain

also that is a subtle pick play...the hawks also use it.

cut across into the slot...drop it back and continue forward into the dman or forward...

The hit on Rosi was clean IMO but the Kane trip at full speed at the goal line...very dangerous and subtle dirty play. Fabbri is a solid player already.
- EnzoD

Agreed on both. Fabbri's penalty surprised me. I chalked it up as a rookie in a situation he's never been in trying to do anything to stop the Art Ross Trophy winner from scoring in a 0-0 game. Hopefully it's used a learning example.

I get a kick out of all the TT bashing. He didn't have a great game, but didn't really hurt the team either. Mashinter, Shaw, Desi all had a worse game from my eyes.

TT just isn't going to turn 4th liners into good players, but at least he can get the puck through the middle of the ice and get some zone entries. (which is often the problem with this team)

Look, you aren't gonna win too many games when you put 35 shots on a goalie and come up empty. The Blues aren't going to miss the net 20 times a game every game. The story of this game is that you need to get something from the top 6 at even strength or the PP. The Blues have a good PK, but the Hawks got zone time and had looks and just wasted too many.

The fabled 4th line was sub-par and the 3rd line needed some more effective wingers. If you expect TT or any other C the Hawks have in the bottom forwards to take advantage of the Blues 3rd D pairing, when you have Mashinter and Fleischmann on their wings, then you are going to be disappointed 100% of the time. The Hawks don't have and haven't had (all year) a C (or W that can play C) that will make that happen. Not Rasmussen, Shaw, Kruger, Desi, Danault, or whomever we've had this year will make that line more effective against a deep defense. Not without some better wingers.

If you are gonna play Mash, bury him on the 4th line and get some wingers that can at least help on the 3rd line.

I would consider changing up the top 6. The Blues are gonna put top Defenders out against Toews and Kane whatever line they are one, so maybe slide a one or two good wingers down the lineup.

Panik did okay as Hossa lite on Line 1. The top line was pretty good, but you need to spread it around. Or maybe even slide 72 down so that he is away from Kane. You keep them together for the PP, but 5v5 they had nothing going last night.

Why not roll with

Ladd - Toews - Hossa
Weise/Shaw - AA - Kane
Panarin - TT/Moose - Panik
Desi - Kruger/Mosse - Fleischmann

You could even consider swapping Hossa and Panik and then watch the Blues try to match up.

You are guaranteed that you are getting some of Toews, Panarin, Hossa or Kane against weaker D and you'll get more from TT or Whoever you put at 3rd C. The Blues aren't gonna let Kane have the 3rd pair. They probably have to respect Toews and whatever combination of decent wingers he has, so then you get the 3rd line an opportunity with some offensive talent on the wings. Kane got it done on line two last year with Richards and garbage (Bickell/Versteeg) so there is no reason to think they can't afford to move Panarin down. In an ideal world, the Hawks have another capable LW, but they don't.

I would have thought that too, but AA was 8-12 in the o-zone last night.

Think TT lost a few key o-zone pp draws too.

And we DEFF can't be giving away chunks of pp zone time since our entries
were hard enough to execute.
- philco28

Yep believe it or not AA was 56% at the dot Toews was 44%.

Did you watch the Q interview after the game? As soon as he was done and started walking to his left a certain female reporter leaped out of her front and center seat like her hair was on fire to follow right behind him as he left. And in a circular standing media scrum she's always the first one to his side. She follows him around like a puppy dog. Never going to hear a hardball question from her.

Hawks don't want a Tim Sasson and at this point they won't tolerate one anymore. Some of the posters here give much better insight than anything you'll ever hear in a media scrum.
- 6628

Meyer??

No question there, good hard hit on Rosy. Point of contact not the head. He must be solid to run a bigger guy like that.
- 6628

Not yet but he is working on it. I'm just glad I don't have to seem him get rag-dolled as much anymore. It was terrible last preseason and still not good early in the year but has been getting better all year long.

Not yet but he is working on it. I'm just glad I don't have to seem him get rag-dolled as much anymore. It was terrible last preseason and still not good early in the year but has been getting better all year long.
- Jason Millen

Looked like TT in front of the net

The times he has been hit (concussion hit aside), he has actually been more dangerous and better after the hit. Think the reaction Panarin had after he got hit in the game against the Blues late in the season. Somebody got him in the open ice and he took it up a notch afterwards.
- Jason Millen

The odds of any CHI d-man hitting any forward solidly are slim to begin with, but I get your point. Most good competitors worth their salt, will elevate when meeting resistance, be it mental or physical.

But he's established a pattern and CHI needs to counter it.

I usually only read the very insightful posts here and rarely post, but after watching the inevitable happen last night with the line-up the great "Coach Q" put out there, here is my pent up rant. Stan Bowman has made some lousy trades, but he has also given Q plenty of forward depth and talent to win with. Yet what do we continue to see despite a regular season of mediocrity? An AHL'er playing 3LW, Bambi playing center, a good but offensively challenged 37 year old at 1LW, and 2-3 fast, young, gritty, talented players watching from the press box or from Rockford. This is the play-offs where 1 game will mean the difference between advancing or golfing. The Hawks put up a valiant effort last night, but were playing unnecessarily under-talented. Until Quenneville gets his head out of his arse, the Bears draft will be our next cause for hope. Here is the obvious combination of players ( in my opinion) that should be utilized based on talent, grit, speed, and, potential. There , I feel a little better.....Until I see Mashinter's and Teravainen's name in the line-up tomorrow.

LADD-TOEWS-KANE

PANARIN-ANISIMOV-PANIK

FLEISCHMANN-SHAW-HOSSA

DES-JARDINS-KRUGER-WEISE

(Grit, talent and speed throughout the line-up. Roll 4 )

THE END
- Gary0301

i could live with this....

Yep believe it or not AA was 56% at the dot Toews was 44%.
- walleyeb1

Good game last night, lousy way to lose. Not as bad as a flip shot that hit Leddy in OT, but still lousy. Anyways, they played a great road game, albeit they were slow as they didn't generate any speed only but a few times. Both teams played very tight. I said in the second period that it already looked like it was OT. Nobody wanted to mess up.

They gotta score on the 5 on 3 PP. Simple as that. Put some pressure on them and make them come from behind.

Shots need to come from the point and get traffic in front of the net and score a dirty, greasy playoff goal! Everything was on the outside and watching the puck and some of the new guys were definitely timid. There was nobody moving around to get open and nothing in the middle of the ice. Elliot played great but he saw 99% of those shots.

I'm confident they will make the adjustments, get their legs and prevail in Game 2.

Meyer??
- bogiedoc

Officially I have no comment. But really, who else could it be.

Not yet but he is working on it. I'm just glad I don't have to seem him get rag-dolled as much anymore. It was terrible last preseason and still not good early in the year but has been getting better all year long.
- Jason Millen

Kid is going to be a player.

The odds of any CHI d-man hitting any forward solidly are slim to begin with, but I get your point. Most good competitors worth their salt, will elevate when meeting resistance, be it mental or physical.

But he's established a pattern and CHI needs to counter it.
- philco28

You are right-- It is unusual to see a Hawks defenseman make a big hit-- and when they do it is noticeable-- seemed to me the Blues don't like to be hit by the Hawks-- so that counter action will likely elevate things-- game on!

Hitch is old school even compared to our own old school bench boss in "The Stache". A Blues' fan suggested that Hitch will likely retire after this season regardless of the result. I'm surprised he had his job after bowing out to a Wild club that the Hawks swept. As far as Parayko and Fabbri, they are future impact players on a nightly basis, hopefully they continue to make rookie mistakes. Fabbri lost his man in d-zone coverage on a glorious Toews look and the delay of game to start OT...man I thought the Hawks would end it on that.
- EnzoD

Agree--- and with Tarasenko Steen etc-- The Blues have a decent core moving forward-- as soon as they rid themselves of Hitch and the 'old school' disciples on that team-- they will elevate their game--

Good game last night, lousy way to lose. Not as bad as a flip shot that hit Leddy in OT, but still lousy. Anyways, they played a great road game, albeit they were slow as they didn't generate any speed only but a few times. Both teams played very tight. I said in the second period that it already looked like it was OT. Nobody wanted to mess up.

They gotta score on the 5 on 3 PP. Simple as that. Put some pressure on them and make them come from behind.

Shots need to come from the point and get traffic in front of the net and score a dirty, greasy playoff goal! Everything was on the outside and watching the puck and some of the new guys were definitely timid. There was nobody moving around to get open and nothing in the middle of the ice. Elliot played great but he saw 99% of those shots.

I'm confident they will make the adjustments, get their legs and prevail in Game 2.
- stan-ley-cups

I brought this up at the time - notice how Toews got chased out of the face-off to start the 5-3? Subtle way to "even" up the call.

Am I the only one who thought Chicago outplayed STL pretty handily last night and it would have been way worse if not for a number of dumb penalties taken by the Hawks?

The hit and shot differential pretty much highlight Chicago controlled the game.

I think that the hawks went 70 minutes of pretty solid defensive hockey without giving STL much especially without Keith was a good opener. They looked pretty decent the entire game over 200ft

Granted a lot of shots (well none of them) dented the net, Elliot wont stand on his head every game and they will get more traffic to the net because there were rebounds galore. Tarasenko was SHUT DOWN last night

As much as people complain about TT, he was a split second away from the game winner if Monster Mash didnt give him a grenade pass on that give and go. Gotta bury your chances though.

Also, I dont think Elliot is banking on going 4 for 4 on breakaways on Toews every game and thats some Hitch doesnt want to gamble with either.

First 30 minutes the Kane line was INVISIBLE. They sure came alive and were creating chances the last 40 min though. Still gotta bury one. Panarin looked like it took him 2 periods to get used to North American playoff hockey but he settled in by the end of the game
- hawkeytalkman

No, I think the Hawks dominated most of the game.