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Hawks win and Kubalik is pretty awesome at hockey |
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The Blackhawks won a game… and what a game!
After allowing 4 x 3rd-period goals vs. the St. Louis last game, the Blackhawks thought they would give their best Blues impression with 5 goals in the final frame on Thursday night.
CHI tops TB 5-2 after it looked like the Lightning would walk away with this one following a dominating 2nd period that had them up 1-0.
The Hawks showed a lot of character and geeze, it even looked like they were having fun out there. The team was all smiles on the bench after Slater Koekkoek scored his 1st goal as a Hawk vs. his old team. He was even "booooo'd" by the fans afterward – who boos slater Koekkoek?
The bench was also quite loose after they watched rookie sensation Dominik Kubalik score a hat trick. He now has 29 goals(!) on the year.
Listen, I love the way Makar and Quinn Hughes play the game and they are going to be dominant in this league for years, but Kubalik has to be in the Calder conversation – especially if he ends up with 35-40 goals.
To be honest, I am terrified of that next contract for #8. Depending on the term, he's got to be climbing up to the $4M-5M dollar range – no?
Selfishly as a fan, it would be best if Kubalik's name wasn't in the Calder conversation amongst the league because that's just more ammo for his agent during negotiations.
Regardless, I'm happy he's a Hawk. Let's not mess this one up by trading him, STAN!
Next up, is Jeremy Colliton reading my blogs? I'm honoured you're taking my advice Coach JC.
In my last blog, I mentioned:
* Nylander to the top 6
* Strome should be back in the middle
* Carpenter back to the bottom 6
Well, from my Macbook Air to Colliton's ears. All of those things happened last night.
Nylander wasn't extremely effective but he had a couple of real elite moments on Kane's line. If the guy can just turn the corner – as I mentioned the last blog – it would make life as the Blackhawks GM a lot easier this summer.
Strome looked so much better in the middle. Leave him there.
Carpenter belongs on the 4th line right now IMO, however, I didn't care for the way the Carpenter-Kampf-Highmore line played. I doubt it'll happen, but I would like to see Kampf have a seat next game for Zach Smith.
The Hawks get to enjoy the sunshine a little longer in Florida as they take on Coach Q, Erik Haula and the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
Will we see Malcolm Subban?
I think we should but the way Corey Crawford is playing – damn! This is some of the best hockey I've seen Corey play in the last few years.
He's almost making me think the Hawks will be ok if they re-sign Crow and find him a 1B.
Then, I snap out of it and remember the potential disaster that could be considering Crawford's injury history.
Hey, it might be their best offseason game plan. Especially, if Corey takes a 1-2 year deal in the $3M-4M range. If he wants to come close to winning again he should take as low as possible so Stan can put together a competent NHL lineup for 2020-21.
That's next year and we'll worry about that on another day.
Enjoy the Panthers game everyone.
See ya out there!
TC
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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