Yet, O’Halloran, undeterred by his comeuppance, switched the focus of his ire to Patrick Sharp in the 3rd period.  Goony Stars’ forward Steve Ott had delivered a cheap shot high-stick to Sharpy late in the 2nd period, and Sharpy, having had enough of Ott’s gooniness, retaliated in the third with a cross-check to Ott, for which Sharpy was penalized.  That, of course, was the correct call, but past the midway point of the 3rd period, O’Halloran slapped Sharp with a bogus tripping call, and when Sharp protested, O’Halloran threw him out of the game!  Now, if you were to ask anyone — whether the Hawks organization, Hawks fans, or even hockey pundits outside of Chicago — who the most subdued and easygoing players on the Hawks were, you would probably hear Patrick Sharp first followed by Jonathan Toews.  So it is even that much more suspect that O’Halloran targeted them both for bogus calls, even throwing the most easy-going of the two, Patrick Sharp, out of the game!  Of all of the players least likely to mouth off to a ref, Sharp is not only the least likely suspect on the Hawks, but one of the least likely in the league to mouth off to a ref.  Isn’t it well past time for the NHL to censure Dan O’Halloran for his repeated biased calls against the Hawks over several seasons???  The NFL’s referees’ calls are reviewed every week, so I have to believe the NHL’s refs’s calls are reviewed also.  How could any audit of Dan O’Halloran’s refereeing miss his bias against the Hawks?  And what do the Hawks organization, the players, and the fans have to do to get the NHL’s attention about what a problem O’Halloran’s subjective calling is?  If you can’t fire the guy, then at the very least don’t let him call Hawks games anymore!

On a happier note, it’s so great to have Dave Bolland back!  Bolly and his line were awe-inspiring tonight.  Bolly has, for many seasons, kind of flown under the radar, but comparing last night’s game with tonight’s game, you can so clearly see the value-add of Bolly’s line against a team with good D.  The combination of Bolland, with Michael Frolik, and Bryan Bickell was fundamental to the win, no doubt.  It has also been great to see Bryan Bickell get back on the body again, and out of his quasi slump.  And Frolik has always been a steady and physical player, so the combination of these three on a line…well…you can take it to the bank.

Also key to tonight’s win, as he was in last night’s effort, was Nick Leddy.  So far, Leddy has been the Hawks’ shutdown player, which is an amazing thing to be able to say about a 20-year old kid.  Just imagine what Leddy will be capable of once he matures.

And while we’re on the topic of maturity, it’s amazing how little Adam Burish has matured since being traded from the Blackhawks to the Stars two seasons ago.  Everyone knows Bur is an instigator, but in tonight’s game he was like the little red-headed stepchild desperate to get the attention of his former teammates.  I couldn’t tell if Burish was trying to get any attention, even negative attention, or if he was just trying to show the Hawks that it was a mistake to get rid of him two seasons ago.  I cannot ever recall Burish working so hard to get on an opposing team’s radar.  He picked a fight with Jamal Mayers in the 3rd after Mayers accidentally knocked off Bur’s helmet (which was simply not strapped on tightly enough, which I made a point of mentioning to my friend before the game even started), and he picked a fight with his former teammate Dave Bolland of all people.  You wouldn’t have thought Bolly and Bur had ever been teammates to look at them.  And watching former Hawk Jake Dowell go at it with current Hawk Jamal Mayers was a little bittersweet too, but it was especially hard to watch Burish get sent to the locker room for a game misconduct after instigating in the last few seconds of the game.  You know I started wondering about Burish’s character after he publicly dissed his former teammate Martin Havlat several seasons ago after Havlat got traded to the Wild, but seeing Bur’s antics tonight was just sort of…well…pathetic.  If Bur proved anything tonight, it’s that the Hawks were right to get rid of him.

And speaking of exits, the Hawks sent Brandon Pirri back down to Rockford and brought Marcus Kruger up.  I see Brandon Pirri as the next Jack Skille or Bryan Bickell, so I think Pirri is certainly worth the investment in time and is deserving of a chance.  Hopefully the Hawks will bring Pirri up to the bigs more often so he can work on his game.  If his pre-season contribution is any indication, Pirri will make for a fine sniper one day.

The Hawks could use a good sniper on their power play unit, though the Hawks were obviously improved over last night on the power play.  Andrew Brunette was able to score on the power play, but for the only power play goal of the night, which was better than the goose egg the Hawks had on the power play the night before.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the power play unit didn’t score on a 5-on-3 late in the second, and we all know Joel Quenneville’s theory about that.  I mean, how many times has Q said that if you don’t score on a 5-on-3 you’re probably not going to win the game?  Well, the Hawks won but clearly the power play unit still needs some work, though the penalty kill unit killed off all but one penalty.

Also needing improvement was Patrick Kane as center.  Kane won two face-offs, but lost four, leaving him with a face-off win percentage of only 33%.  Kane also had one giveaway, three shots on goal, and three misses which points to his difficulty in taking it to the net and following through once there.  Hopefully, over time, he can improve these numbers.

Still, tonight’s game was really exciting.  It gives me hope, and it shows that the Hawks are able to pinpoint their mistakes, learn from them, and improve.  If the team is able to stay healthy, the Hawks could have a good shot this season.

Related:

Oh Snap! Dan O’Halloran Gets Plugged on the Boards by Big Buff!

How Ya Like the Hawks Now Danny Boy???

Dallas was all over the Hawks with active sticks and they constantly cut off passing lanes, leaving the Hawks with only the option of crashing hard on the net, but none of the Hawks, save Nick Leddy and perhaps Patrick Sharp, were able to get anywhere near the net.  You have to hand it to the Stars; they had killer D, and the Hawks weren’t up to the challenge with their sloppy passing and giveaways.

And while Eddie Olczyk, Pat Foley, and others repeatedly talked up net minder Corey Crawford, trying to downplay the potentiality for a sophomore slump, Corey did appear to be showing early signs of the dreaded sophomore slump in last night’s game.  It’s like a no-hitter.  While it’s in progress if you talk about the possibility of a no-hitter, you will inevitably jinx the pitcher.  Yeah, well, if you repeatedly talk about the possibility of a goaltender’s sophomore slump before the season has even started, you’ll jinx him too.  And while we’re talking goal tending, how in the world could the Hawks have given the back-up goal tending job to Ray Emery and sent Alexander Salak back down to Rockford?  Baffling.  Simply baffling.

Oh yeah, and what happened to the Hawks’ special teams last night?  The power play unit couldn’t score at all, though the Stars gave them ample opportunities, and the PK couldn’t kill a fly let alone a penalty.  <Shakes head>

Well, there certainly have been some mighty big changes with the Blackhawks in the last two seasons, and the strain appears to have left the team not quite ready for prime time.  Jonathan Toews said something to the effect of that he hadn’t been this excited for a season to start in a while.  Unfortunately, when they make the players say things like that it usually means the opposite.  Hopefully the season-opening loss to the Stars was just a fluke, but I’m afraid it may not have been.

In last night’s Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, once again Canucks Alex Burrows provoked Bruins Milan Lucic.  Burrows feigned tripping over Lucic’s stick during a neutral zone face-off and Lucic about burst a blood vessel trying to point out Burrows’ embellishment to the zebras.  Yet inexplicably, Lucic was called for “tripping” instead of just Burrows being called for unsportsmanlike conduct (i.e. “diving”). 

But, if Burrows was caught diving, then why was Lucic guilty of tripping when his stick was simply on the ice and Burrows feigned tripping over it?  If you review the video, you can clearly see that while Lucic’s stick is on the ice, Burrows animatedly trips himself over Lucic’s stick.  As noted by NBC commentators Doc Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, both Lucic and Burrows had been warned not to try any funny stuff; that the refs had a no-tolerance policy particularly for Burrows’ shenanigans and that Burrows would not be given the benefit of the doubt.  Yet Burrows was guilty of diving a couple of times last night, possibly several times last night.  Still, Lucic was called for “tripping”?  But he didn’t do anything!  Does Lucic have a history of embellishments like Burrows does?  No, so why not give Lucic the benefit of the doubt???

Although, in all fairness, Lucic did give Burrows the finger, actually several, in Game 3.  Because Burrows had bitten Bruins Patrice Bergeron in Game 1 and it went ignored by the NHL, Lucic thought he’d offer up his fingers to Burrows in Game 3 as if to say “Wanna munch on my fingers too Burrows?” See video below:

Still, if you put Alex Burrows’ name in a search engine, you’ll find a history of embellishments, unsportsmanlike conduct, trash-talking and a whole host of other unbecoming behavior (like when Burrows pulled Duncan Keith’s hair in 2009).  Can you say the same about Lucic?

The Hawks were also having a dilly of a pickle of a time getting any traction on the ice.  I’ve noticed this a lot in the last several games.  The ice seems to be either too soft and therefore a wet, sloppy mess, or not soft enough, causing frequent wipeouts.  Don’t know what that’s about, but the Hawks were clearly having trouble.

The Hawks’ penalty-kill unit was also having a tough go.  They let down their guard, a rarity, which led to the Ducks’ Teemu Selanne scoring a goal late in the 1st period, and a goal at about the midway point in the game.

Also at the midway point, Dustin Byfuglien had an incidental collision with James Wisniewski wherein Byfuglien accidentally tripped and took out the Duck’s goal tender, Jean-Sebastien Giguere.  Unfortunately, Byfuglien was hit with an interference on a goal keeper penalty.   And though Giguere took a big swing at Byfuglien, not a Duck was cited for a penalty. Worse, on the resulting power play, the Ducks’ Nick Boynton scored another goal, putting another dent in the Hawks’ penalty-kill percentage.

Byfuglien would get a little revenge of sorts when, after serving his time in the sin bin, he came out and put some snow in Giguere’s face.  As a result, former Hawk James Wisniewski went at Big Buff in a slight scrap. And yeah, it’s always a little sad when former teammates go at each other, but it’s understandable on Wiz’s part since Buff has become something of a goal-tender agitator.  Perhaps Buff should focus instead on his skating and stick-handling since he has appeared in the last few games to be bumbling badly.

In addition to Byfuglien’s bad performance, the whole team just fell down, which resulted in a win for the Ducks in a 3 to 0 shutout.  There was bad passing, too many turnovers, lackadaisical skating, a penalty-kill unit that hardly showed up, a horrible whiff in the 3rd period by Brian Campbell on a nearly wide-open net, needless penalties, and I don’t know that the Hawks ever got a single rebound.  Not to mention that the Hawks got totally outskated.  What?  Did the Hawks have too much turkey yesterday?  Were they in a tryptophan coma?  Well, whatever it was, hopefully they shake it off by tomorrow’s game against the Kings.

On a more whimsical note, Comcast finally interviewed Niklas Hjalmarsson. During the first intermission, Eddie Olczyk asked how Hjalmarsson was able to block so many shots. (Hjalmy leads the Hawks in blocked shots.)  Hjalmy said,

“I guess I like the pain.  The puck just seems to hit me…It’s kind of my role to do those things instead of scoring goals… I just try to do those small things really good.”

Mission accomplished Nik.

And how many times have we seen someone who doesn’t even have the puck get checked and interference isn’t even called?  At least the puck was in the vicinity of Backes, though true enough, he hadn’t touched it.  It’s just that Cam Barker didn’t time his hit well, that’s all.

…And things did not improve from there with the Hawks losing 2-0.