Blackhawks v. Penguins: No Sid the Kid, but Plenty of Plucked Feathers
There were many goon moments in tonight’s 2-1 Hawks win over the Penguins. The Penguins trash-talked and were guilty of cheap shots and picking fights. In fact, and I never thought I’d say this, there were too many scuffles. The Penguins were obviously using their gooniness as part of their strategy, and too many times the Hawks did not keep their composure, not that you could blame them. Still, for all the Penguins’ jawin’ and scrappin’ the Hawks still took them.
There was a little bit of a to-do in the 1st period with Penguins’ Matt Cook and Hawks’ Duncan Keith. Matt Cook delivered a tough hit on one end and then at the other end Duncan Keith elbowed Cook in the face. Keith got a 2-minute interference call, though it could’ve been a 5-minute major or even an ejection. (Cook would later pay Dunc back with some knuckles to Dunc’s jaw which laid him out on his knees.) Seconds later, Marian Hossa scored a stunning goal off of some agile passing from Patrick Kane and Brian Campbell. (Yes, Brian Campbell!)
Then the Pens’ Evgeni Malkin went at Colin Fraser in the dwindling minutes of the 2nd. Geno had Fraser on his back on the ice and still the ref didn’t intervene. I’m all for a good scrap, but I think you can call off the dogs when you’ve got a guy on his back!
Evgeni Malkin struck again in the last minute and a half of the 3rd period with a pass to Jordan Staal who put it past Antti Niemi for a goal after the Pens had pulled Marc-André Fleury from the net. Still, the Hawks would battle back in the overtime period with Kris Versteeg hammering the puck past Fleury for the win.
Truthfully I was a little surprised that Hawks’ secondary goalie Antti Niemi was put in net against Pens’ Marc-André Fleury. I thought maybe it would’ve been wiser to put Niemi in last night’s game against the Predators and put Cristobal Huet in net against the defending champion Penguins tonight. But Niemi proved me and other doubters wrong. He held the Penguins scoreless through two, almost three, periods.
All-in-all, an amazing game. The kind you DVR and watch over and over if only to watch the Penguins eat it.
December 5th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
But, but, but, we didn’t have Crosby!
Waahhh!
They hit Malkin!
Waaahhhh!
They cheated!
Waaaahhhhh!
I’m telling Bettman!
WWWAAAAAHHHHH!!!
And go easy on that Goon word, would ya?!
December 5th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Were the Penguins always this goony? I don’t remember them being this bad in the playoffs and the Stanley Cup finals.
And how else should I describe them? They’re goony. GOON, GOON, GOON!
Hey, were you just on WGN’s Post-Game Live? Because if that was you, you were hilarious!
December 5th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Nuts. Wish I could have watched it. They kept the crowd updated on the Hawks-Pens score at the Icehogs game tonight, and the place erupted when they announced that the Hawks had won on a Kris Versteeg goal :)
The entire second half of last year and all of preseason this year, I was preaching and preaching that Niemi was going to be the guy behind Huet, not Corey Crawford. I got to watch both guys all year last year in Rockford, and Niemi is by far the better netminder.
Glad to hear it was a good game, can’t wait to see the highlights tonight with MY GUY!…Josh Mora.
December 5th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I was one of the people who said that Corey Crawford should’ve been the back-up goal-tender after seeing him in the playoffs last year. Clearly I was wrong. There was a point in tonight’s game where Niemi reached up and plucked the puck out of the air so fast even Geno didn’t know where it went….ha, ha….oh it was a thing of beauty!
Yeah, where did Josh Mora go???
December 5th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I don’t do post game.
There is far too much going on in the hockey world to be dealing with what I just watched 5 minutes ago.
That’s what you’re here for. :P
December 6th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Wait, what? What did you just watch 5 minutes ago? Ya lost me.
Yes, please tell me what I’m here for before I have an existential crisis. :p
December 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Crawford hasn’t even played in Rockford for almost a month. He is on the outs, and may be reassigned to the Toledo Walleyes of the ECHL before too long. Icehogs management is calling it a “lingering injury”, but I call it a long fall from grace.
On the up side, there is a goalie playing LIGHTS OUT this season for Rockford: Joe Fallon. He has been absolutely amazing. I don’t have his season stats in front of me, and I’m too lazy to look them up this morning, but he has been stellar. His win/loss record isn’t so great, but it is misleading. He has kept the ‘Hogs in just about every game this season, even on those weird nights when the Rockford offense can’t get through the neutral zone but once or twice per period. I know we are only a quarter of the way through the season, but I have seen enough to say that 2 or 3 years from now Fallon and Niemi will be challenging each other for the starting job in Chicago, and Crawford will be out of the picture (even though Dale Tallon has said “Corey Crawford is the future of Blackhawks goaltending”). Put me on record now, so you can look back and say Cakes said it first! ;-)
Anyway, this isn’t an Icehogs blog, it’s about the Hawks, so getting back on track…
I got to see the highlights last night on CSN from the Hawks/Pens, and you were right on about all the gooniness! Lots of hits and cheap shots from both sides last night, I wish I could have watched the whole thing! The Hawks are now 5-1 against division leaders this year. That’s a beautiful thing. I’m so proud of Niemi. He almost posted his third shutout of the season! I’m proud of all my boys I watched grow up in Rockford: Brouwer, Bolland, Versteeg, Fraser, Hjalmarsson, Niemi…Barker is the exception.
Josh Mora is on the outs at CSN. They opted not to renew him this fall, so as of February 1st, he will be gone. I am Facebook friends with him, and have had a few conversations with him over the last couple months. Basically, Mora became very popular over the last year doing Blackhawks Pregame, Postgame, and Intermission Live with Steve Conroyd, and he is hands-down one of the better anchors on CSN. He is extremely smart, especially when it comes to hockey…he knows the game, its history, its rules, its business/money side, and its inner-workings. He also communicates clearly, stays loose, has fun, and connects VERY well with his fan base. All of this means one thing: he deserves to get paid, and well. And during the economic crunch, CSN isn’t willing to pay. They are brining in cheaper, more amateur talent and promoting the anchors that don’t deserve it, i.e., Chris “Dry Throat” Boden. Unfortunately, Mora has been relegated to late-night gigs on CSN to finish out his contract.
In talking to Josh, he isn’t too worried about it, he knows and his fans know that he will land on his feet somewhere, and although he wishes to remain in Chicago, he knows his job is a business, just like hockey.
The big shocker to me is that ratings for Pre-, Post-, and Intermission Live have actually gone UP with Chris Boden at the healm. But I attribute that to the growing Blackhawks fandom, not to Bodens “talent”.
December 6th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Never be afraid to discuss the Icehogs (or the Icehams as I call them) here! If I had more time and money and Rockford were easier to get to than it is, I would do more “scouting” myself. I love to hear about all the up-and-comers so please feel free to talk about that at any time. And you bet I’ll say you saw them first. ;) You obviously saw Hjalmarsson’s stardom before most other people so take a bow!
Yeah, the Hawks did their fair share of hard hitting, jawin’ and scrappin’ last night too, but it was in response to the Pens. They started it. So to them I say :p
Thanks for telling me about Josh Mora. No question Chris Boden cannot hold a candle to Mora. I thought Mora had been demoted for his comments about the Martin Havlat debacle. If I recall correctly he also speculated that Dale Tallon had taken the fall for the late filing of paperwork on Kris Versteeg’s and others’ contracts; that the late filings were basically an excuse to fire Tallon. I also recall very clearly him saying in regards to the the Martin Havlat situation that the Hawks “paid a price in blood and soul.” They wouldn’t even let the Hawks fans talk about Mora’s comments or Mora’s “firing” on the Hawks discussion board, so I thought it was about the Havlat thing. But I tell ya, I ain’t one of the fans that watches the post-game live on CSN. Not anymore. It’s terrible. And Steve Konroyd is not my favorite either. Nothing against Boden, but he doesn’t know hockey, and he certainly doesn’t have the passion for it that Mora does/did. It’s a shame. I wish Josh Mora the very best. He was part of the magic of last season, no question, and he’ll be missed.
December 6th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Agreed on all points. And it could have had something to do also with any/all of Mora’s comments about Havlat and/or Tallon, but he never mentioned that. He was pretty definite about it being a payroll issue at CSN. Any really good reporter or anchor will always tell it like it is, and Mora always did.