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No, the title of this blog is not a nod to a "band" from a really bad period in popular music about 25 years ago.
It's more a commentary on the irony of 20,000 plus Anaheim fans chanting "Freddy, Freddy" over and over again, only to have their brilliant goalie, Fredrik Andersen, beaten for a heartbreaking goal in triple overtime—by another "Freddy," wearing a different colored sweater.
And that would be Marcus (known to some as "Freddy") Kruger.
I know, there's some dubious connective tissue to the title of this blog, and the subject matter at hand. But that's what you get on a few hours sleep and half a lukewarm Monster Lo-Carb.
What a glorious hockey game. Certainly much more so if your team was on the winning end.
The story of this game begins and ends with the goalies. Neither was great to start. Andersen gave up two early goals to a much more mobile, creative Chicago power play, the first to Andrew Shaw, who would be come an even larger player in this drama as the night (and morning) went on.
Corey Crawford swam and flopped and battled until really seeming to find his groove as it got later in regulation. Andersen and Crawford both made gigantic saves in the OT periods, probably the best of which was a brilliant pad save an aggressive Crawford made, mano a mano, at the top of his crease on a point blank 15 foot shot from Corey Perry.
For all the "love" the NBC broadcast team kept heaping on the Ducks' fourth line all night, it was Chicago's fourth line, which has been outstanding for much of the series, that came up and won the game, from Shaw's first goal, to his disallowed head butt goal in OT, to Kruger's game-winner—not to mention being a fairly effective shutdown line on the top Ducks line in both games.
And it was Kruger and Shaw's linemate, Andrew Desjardins, who won a puck down low, and kicked it out to Brent Seabrook, who started the play on Kruger's goal.
So many great stories within the larger (and longer) story of game 2.
To no one's surprise, Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya (who was absolutely outstanding last night) all logged more minutes than the Ducks' most utilized defenseman, Francois Beauchemin. All that said, in spite of a gaffe or two a piece, Kimmo Timonen and Kyle Cumiskey provided nearly 20 minutes each—and neither were egregiously bad. They are what they are—time chewers and stopgaps. And last night, they were good enough. Because the Duck defensemen also logged some heavy minutes, especially the top three of Beauchemin, Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm, and they also chased the puck moreso than the Hawk defensemen did.
The Hawks as a team absorbed 71 Duck hits, and that fact, coupled with the heavy minutes will take a toll on an historically highly resilient top 4. But the Ducks also took some hits. And that, added to their minutes and the emotional price of losing a game like last night's will have a toll on them.
The officiating was at times embarrassingly bad. NBC analyst Mike Milbury virtually exploded after the first period over the refs failure to appropriately call Clayton Stoner's dangerous check from behind on Kruger and subsequent shot to the face of Andrew Shaw, who did nothing more to that point than approach Stoner—his hands weren't even up.
It's fine if you're going to whistle a Hawk defenseman for a blatant cross check on an Anaheim defender in the Hawk crease. But then you can't ignore Stoner, Perry and many other Ducks doing the same for going on 9 periods.
As Milbury pointed out, typically the refs base their "calls" on the "situation" or the building they're in, which is bush league nonsense—that essentially makes their personal "discretion" more important than the game itself. And anyone who has read this blog for the last 5 years knows that I have stated this, in exactly the same manner, over and over since then.
It's an absolute joke. It's one thing to miss a call when there's a lot of traffic and/or the game's at full speed. It's another to choose to ignore something that happens right in front of your face and millions of television viewers because you "don't want to give one team too big of an advantage"—call the game as the rulebook states or go find another line of work.
Pathetic.
It's not about who won or lost. But then again, it can be. And that's the point.
As for the series, this was just Game 2, but it was a huge game. And could be a major turning point.
Anyone saying otherwise is ignoring reality.
Had the Ducks won, they not only would have defended home ice, they'd have to win just 2 of the next 5 games, 2 of which would be played in their building. Plus they would have immense psychological momentum, knowing they'd beaten Chicago in the first two games, when many expected otherwise, and beaten the Hawks up a bit.
For the Hawks, they go home with a sense of accomplishment, not just now having home ice advantage, but also knowing the adjustments they made in game 2 basically worked. It was far from easy. But now also, the Ducks begin to see the playoff downside of the Great Ryan Kesler, whose public "overconfidence" after Game 1 has somewhat blown up in their faces. He has always talked a better game than he's played. And his typical antics when frustrated are that much closer to emerging in this series.
It was none other than Ryan Getzlaf who was caught napping on the game-winning goal, leaving the much less heralded (sarcasm font on) Kruger wide open in front of Andersen. Apparently, he didn't think Kruger was a threat to score. So goes it.
The Blackhawks played last night like the Champions they've been in recent years. The Ducks played their hearts out as well. You can't take anything from them on that.
What a game.
I'll have a Game 3 preview tomorrow.
JJ