Hawks Self-Destruct at the UC
The very hard Kronwall hit on Martin Havlat (which did not appear to be a dirty hit, despite what some Hawks fans and Brian Campbell would like to believe) in game three of the Western Conference Finals match-up between the Blackhawks and the Red Wings would come to bear in game four. Jonathan Toews, who would end up scoring the only goal for the Hawks in game four, said before the game that the Hawks weren’t out for revenge on Niklas Kronwall for his “dirty” hit on Havlat. No, seemed the Hawks were looking to self-destruct instead, probably as a result of being psyched out by the Kronwall hit, though only the Hawks know for sure.
What was evident in game four is that the Hawks were extremely undisciplined committing repeated needless penalties. For instance, Kris Versteeg committed a conspicuous cross-checking penalty (resulting in a Red Wings goal) in the second period, served his two minutes, and was back on the ice for mere seconds before being called for roughing. Then, for Steegy’s big finale, he was thrown out of the game in the third period for a game misconduct. Similarly, how many times did Ben Eager need to be called for a game misconduct before he realized he should shut his mouth and maintain his composure?
Don’t get me wrong, the officiating in this game was off. They didn’t call a lot of hooking and tripping, only to turn around and make calls for roughing that were unjustified. But the Hawks certainly didn’t help by being so conspicuous about some of the penalties they did commit. As I said in a prior post, when the Red Wings stepped up their D, which they obviously did today, the Hawks would be in for an ordeal, and an “ordeal” is just how I would describe today’s game.
And the final nail in the Hawks’ coffin in game four was the goal tending. Subbing for the injured Nikolai Khabibulin was Cristobal Huet who could have (and should have) been pulled after the third Red Wings goal but was pulled after the fourth instead. Corey Crawford did ok only allowing one goal, so why put Cristobal Huet back in for the third period? (And where was Antti Niemi?)
Surely, this has to have been the worst game we’ve seen all year with the Hawks lacking their usual poise leading to the 6-1 loss to the Red Wings.