In tonight’s game 5, it looked like Dustin Byfuglien agreed when during a check of Flyers’ d-man Kimmo Timonen at about the 10 or 11 minute mark of the 3rd period, he took out Dan O’Halloran as well.  Two goons with one stone.  It was a thing of beauty!  O’Halloran seemed to know that hit was meant for him too by the look on his face.  Karma can be tricky Danny boy, so you just better watch out.  The hockey gods don’t seem to like your intentional missed calls on the Flyers.

Finally, just to add insult to injury, Hawks’ Dustin Byfuglien scored the last goal of the 7-4 victory over the Flyers with an empty-netter in the last minute-and-a-half of the game with Dan O’Halloran having to rule it a good goal.  So sweet.  Go Hawks!  Get that cup!

P.S. Hats off to Q for taking Big Buff and Kaner off the first line and moving Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky up with Toews.  It totally threw off the Flyers.  They couldn’t put the bullseye on any one player and with Buff checking up and down like a mad man, it was discombobulating to the Flyers.  Hopefully Niklas Hjalmarsson can figure his game out by game 6 though, because we need him blocking shots.  Don’t know what’s up with him, but he has that deer-in-headlights look about him.

Also of note was a Vancouver newspaper that made sport [See page 1, yes page 1 (!), of the preceding link] of Patrick Kane’s incident with a Buffalo, New York, cab driver last summer.  I don’t mind anyone picking on Patrick Kane for that incident.  I certainly have, because from what I know of Kane as a person, I don’t like him, and I especially don’t like him as a hockey player.  But, what is conspicuous about the Vancouver paper poking fun at Kane is that they chose playoff time to do it, which is just sort of lame.  That was so last summer Vancouver.  You should’ve commented on it then.  Doing it during the Hawks/Canucks series just comes off as sour grapes and poor sportsmanship.  Once again, real classy Vancouver!

And last, but certainly not least, is the goon hockey undertaken by the Canucks in this series.  I guess that shouldn’t surprise us.  But what is chuckle worthy is the whining of Roberto Luongo about how the Blackhawks are supposedly engaging in goon hockey!  Wayne Gretzky last year held the trophy for the whiningest individual in hockey, but even Luongo could give “The Great One” a run for his money in this series!

Last season I used to chide Dustin Byfuglien for face washing and otherwise harassing Roberto Luongo during Hawks/Canucks games.  My criticism came mostly from the fact that the Hawks would have to penalty kill an avoidable goal tender interference call; that and I don’t like goon hockey because it’s like cheating.  Winning a hockey game because of gooniness isn’t winning the game based on expertise, but rather because of what a team can get away with.  So if the Canucks are going to engage in goon hockey (which they regularly do) then I think it only fair that the Hawks answer with a little bit of gooniness themselves.  And in this series, keeping pressure on the net and on Luongo, has certainly been one of the greatest keys to the Hawks’ success.  So why should Luongo expect a classier version of play than his own team engages in?  And why should he expect an opposing team to change his diapers?  Just because your save percentage has gone below .900 doesn’t mean you get to be a crybaby.  So to Roberto Luongo I say: WAH!  Tell it to your mama.

As for the overall play in this series so far, I’m surprised there haven’t been more scuffles.  What, no dirty hits or cheap shots from Kevin Bieksa?  What, no hair pulling from Alex Burrows?  What, no reason for Ben Eager and Dustin Byfuglien to beat the stuffing out of you two?  Bummer.  Well, there’s always next season!

And hats off to Dustin Byfuglien and Jonathan Toews for their hat tricks in this series!  As the adage goes, victory is the best revenge.  And how!  Yes, who wouldn’t prefer a couple of hat tricks (or even a Gordie Howe hat trick) to just a donnybrook?  It also shows you what Jonathan Toews is capable of when he doesn’t have to babysit Patrick Kane at every turn.  As Red Wings coach Mike Babcock told The Hockey News, “to me the guy you build the franchise around is the Toews kid…He’s a will machine. He just keeps coming and keeps coming…”  And that’s why he has more points in the Stanley Cup Playoffs than any other. (Yes, even more than leading NHL scorer Henrik Sedin!…Nelson Muntz finger point and “Ha! Ha!”)

And finally, there is a little bit of vindication for Huet haters (or Huet dislikers) like myself.   Some have been afraid of the backlash and so haven’t been vocal about the Hawks needing a new net minder, but the sentiment was still there.  I’m just sorry the Hawks wasted so much of this season trying to beat a dead horse.  Lots of fans knew that given a chance, Antti Niemi would rise to the challenge and be a great net minder.  I’m just grateful the Hawks organization figured that out in time for the playoffs.  Sorry baby Huey.  I think your tenure in Chicago may be over.

So, da be, da be, da be, that’s all folks… at least for now.  But remember Canuckleheads…stay classy!

P.S.  Oh yeah, and stop calling Byfuglien “Buffy.”

Too mean?  Yeah, well, maybe after about three years of Patrick Kane, I’m a little tired of him (with or without Cabbiegate).  Tonight’s The Point After segment really took the cake though.  It was suggested that people often think that Kane has been given all his success on a silver platter.   No, it’s more like Kane has been set up for success by his teammates.  We need only look at the Olympics to see the truth of that statement.  Apparently nobody told Kane’s Team USA teammates that they had to set him up sweetly for goals, which is why he had such a serious drop-off in play.

I think if I had to do some serious soul searching about Kane, I’d find that that’s why he rubs me the wrong way: his teammates are the ones that make him look good.  And there it is.  I deeply, deeply resent that the shine is off Jonathan Toews’ apple a little bit because he’s spent the last two seasons having to babysit Kane; Kane who can’t take the puck to the net to save his life and who turns the puck over at the slightest bit of harassment.  Perhaps Toews is too modest and too much a team player to mind.  But I mind, and I know others at the games mind.  I have heard them, season after season, exposing the emperor who has no clothes.

And undoubtedly because others and myself say these things, the Hawks’ PR machine will be at it again in the near future trying to justify the money spent on their feigned golden boy.  But we don’t say these things to be mean.  We, or at least I, say them because 1) I think Patrick Kane’s place and his salary should go to someone more deserving, and 2) he steals the spotlight from his more deserving teammates (Jonathan Toews being only one of them).

So please, Hawks PR machine.  Just stop.  We — that is, anyone past puberty — know the truth!

And I’m really loving Ben Eager and Colin Fraser as co-enforcers in the absence of Adam Burish.  Bur could do no better in terms of quality of scraps.  Once Eager and Fraser learned the fine art of discernment — you know, figuring out when to drop the gloves and when not to — these two became indispensable.  Bang on boys! (Literally.)

With the Hawks getting their rough-housing out of the way a few times in the first period of tonight’s game against the Blues, it was no surprise that they waited past the first half of the first period to score.  The long-suffering Troy Brouwer scored one past Blues’ net-minder Ty Conklin with relative ease off an assist by Jonathan Toews.  And, with a little over two minutes left in the first, Brian Campbell also scored on a slap shot thanks to a screen from Kris Versteeg.

And with a little over three minutes left in the 2nd, Jonathan Toews came around back of the goal in what looked like it would be a wrap-around and then deftly passed to Marian Hossa who shot quickly for the third goal.

The rest of the 2nd and a little over two minutes left in the 3rd period it was hum-drum hockey until Dustin Byfuglien followed through with a clean check of Blues’ Barret Jackman.  Then Blues’ Brad Winchester and Big Buff had a bit of a go, but nothing major.  In the last 20 seconds of the game, Blues’ Cam Janssen encroached on Cristobal Huet and Huet pushed back until Brent Sopel swooped in to protect Huet.  Ben Eager then scrapped with B.J. Crombeen, even though Crombeen refused to drop his glove.  Regardless, the Hawks would take the Blues 3-0 in a shut-out for Cristobal Huet.

P.S.  And good news on the Patrick Kane front.  Despite that nasty trip into the boards during that last game between the Hawks and the Lightning wherein Kane hit his eye, Kaner is back.  Is he ok?  Of course.  He hit his head, and he doesn’t use that often enough for that to have been cause for concern.  Yet, for some unknown reason he was the star of the game tonight even though Cristobal Huet had the shut-out.  Well, I guess that’s just good P.R. and of course you need those kids to get their parents in the those seats!

Walker showed his net presence tonight by repeatedly blocking shots for Lightning net-minder Antero Niittymaki.  Ironically, Matt Walker’s brand of defense was kind of like catching lightning in a bottle last year for the Blackhawks, and yet the Hawks inexplicably let him go. Maybe they just didn’t know what they had in Walker (or maybe they weren’t willing to pay Walker what he was worth despite recognizing what they had in him.)  Still, I don’t think anyone will dispute that part of the success of the Hawks’ defense during the playoffs last year was the Matt Walker/Niklas Hjalmarsson defensive combination.  In fact, I’m not so sure that Niklas Hjalmarsson didn’t learn some of his signature moves from Matt Walker since they both have the same brand of ‘D’ in common.

Undoubtedly, Matt Walker was his own one-man ‘D’ in tonight’s game.  Still, Niittymaki let his guard down in the 1st period at about the midway point, coming too far out of the net, which allowed Patrick Kane to score an easy goal on a wide-open net. (Later, Patrick Kane would get laid out on the boards with a nasty hit to his forehead by Lightning Matt Smaby. Kane would not return to the game.)  The second Hawk goal, which came at about the midway point in the 2nd period, came off a wicked pass by Marian Hossa, who set Ben Eager up for the goal.

And speaking of Ben Eager, it was hard to see Matt Walker go at it with his former teammates, Ben Eager in particular, in the 2nd period. Ben Eager would again go at it a few minutes later, this time with Zenon Konopka, which resulted in a 5-minute fighting penalty for each.  I guess the Hawks had to expect some rowdiness from the Lightning, one of the most penalized teams in the NHL.  Jonathan Toews I guess also couldn’t have been too surprised by Matt Smaby’s dirty, late hit on him, which laid him out with a shot to his head late in the 2nd period.  What was surprising however is that Toews got a roughing call for taking a swing at a Lightning player, any Lightning player, in retribution.  Yet for some reason Smaby was not called at all for his nasty hit on Toews.  Hopefully the NHL remedies that no-call in the days to come.

Despite the Lightning rough-housing, Marian Hossa also had a brilliant goal off a sweet Patrick Sharp pass in the 2nd period.  Upon the slick wrister from Sharpie, which he shot high, Hossa pulled the puck out of the air, put it to the ice, and shot it for the goal all within seconds.  Niittymaki didn’t even know what hit him.

And in the 3rd period, it was more of the same mad rush to the net on the part of the Hawks when Dustin Byfuglien brought the puck up the boards and  passed to Jonathan Toews who battled it in for the goal.  Pat Foley was right: a goal is the best revenge.

Lightning Todd Fedoruk apparently tried to take out his frustration on the Hawks’ goal-tender Antti Niemi as Fedoruk bull-dozed Niemi unnecessarily in the last two minutes of the game, which resulted in a late broohaha in front of the net.  Then Hawk Kris Versteeg shot it millimeters past the goal line on Niitymaki but there was no pause to even review the “non-goal.” I  guess the War Room figured since the Hawks were up by four, they didn’t need to bother with the review.

And let’s not forget to give Antti Niemi his due tonight for the shut-out of the Lightning 4-0.  Granted, Niemi only had to deflect 18 shots on goal the whole game (whereas the Hawks had 29 shots on goal the whole night), but still, let’s give credit where it’s due.  I’d like to see more of Niemi.  He’s coming along quite nicely.

Overall, great game Hawks.  An easy win, but still, it’s always fun to watch those slick Hawk moves.

Within two minutes of the initial puck drop, Kris Versteeg charged the net with the puck and was tripped. (That would be one of many penalties that should have been called on the Sabres that wasn’t.)  Then Jonathan Toews attempted to follow through for the goal with one of his signature “Superman” moves, but was denied by Lalime.  Lalime would shine again, when, about seven minutes into the 1st period, it was a 4-on-3 in the Hawks’ favor and still the Hawks power-play unit could not get the puck past him.  While Lalime was exceedingly good at blocking shots, he allowed many rebounds, so the Hawks should have scored on that 4-on-3 at least.  Clearly the power-play unit still needs some work, though the penalty-kill unit is still in rare form.

Seems the Hawks may have a slight problem in general with follow-through, however.  While the Hawks outshot the Sabres 17-11 (in the 1st period, that is), they still did not score.  Perhaps the Hawks should’ve watched the Sabres for tips on follow-through as Buffalo turned it around in the 2nd period, outshooting the Hawks 17 to 7 and scoring the sole two goals in two periods.

Early on in the 3rd period, the Hawks seemed to turn it around again when Patrick Sharp scored a little over a minute into the period thanks to Dustin Byfuglien forcing a turnover.  Meanwhile, the Sabres appeared to be a different team entirely only getting one shot on goal for the first half of the 3rd period.  And even though the Hawks outshot the Sabres 16-5 in the 3rd, Lalime and the Sabres turned it on again in the last 5 minutes to hold on for the win, 2-1 over the Hawks.  Overall, the problem for the Hawks in this game was follow-through; they just didn’t have it.

There were also many avoidable penalties on the Hawks in this game, including one in the 2nd period where Patrick Sharp flagrantly held Sabres’ defenseman Steve Montador around his middle and threw him to the ice.  Add to that another avoidable penalty with that too-many-men-on-the-ice call, also in the 2nd, and the Hawks were too often working in a deficit.  And worst of all, Duncan Keith got called for hooking in the last two minutes of the game. (And yes, despite what Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk said, Duncan Keith did hook, and before he hooked, he high-sticked but was not called for it.)  In a game where you’re having trouble getting shots on net as it is, is it really a good idea to be a man down? (even though your penalty-kill unit is one of the best in the league?)  Relax Hawks.  Don’t do it.  When you want to commit needless penalties.

But then, maybe the Hawks’ problem was that they were too relaxed in this game.  In fact, some might say the Hawks were downright lax.

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.

Tazer deftly maneuvered the puck through heavy traffic, around opponents, and faked out Preds’ goal-tender Dan Ellis who went low, as Tazer went to shoot upstairs.  Ellis tripped Toews but could not deter his shot up high as Toews went down. (And Stan and Rocky could sit there with a grin on their faces and say that’s why they now pay Tazer the big bucks.  Although, let’s face it, Toews from the beginning was always worth the big bucks.  He’s just now getting paid what he’s worth.)

Unfortunately in both goals scored by the Preds in the 1st and 2nd periods, the shots on Huet were screened by a Hawk. (Cam Barker for the first, and Niklas Hjalmarsson for the second.) I understand that defensemen need to back up their net-minders, but perhaps they should also learn to get out of the way. Things deteriorated in the 3rd period when the Preds scored two additional goals within seconds of each other.  The Preds took the Hawks, 4-1.

Honorable mentions in this game go to Niklas Hjalmarsson for a skillful block of an attempted wrap-around goal from the Preds (and some “hammer”-worthy hits); an easily shaken off hit on Troy Brouwer that was so hard it shook several panes of the glass (and probably Brouwer’s teeth); and a ghastly shot of the puck blocked by Brent Sopel’s knee, though he continued to play through the pain while limp-skating.

On a happy note, I love the power-play unit combination of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Marian Hossa.  I think once these guys gel together, it will improve the PP-unit’s percentages.

Following are comments by Keith, Toews, and Kane, as well as highlights from the Q&A session:

Duncan Keith:

“I was drafted by this team when I was 18 years old.  [Playing my whole career here is] what I envisioned when I was first drafted…”

Patrick Kane:

“Once I came to Chicago and played here I couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else.”

Q&A:

Q: Do you think you’ll feel more pressure with your new contracts?

Toews: “It’s part of the game…for us it doesn’t change anything.”

Q: Dunc, when it came up that the deal was going to be 13 years were you shocked?

Keith: “I can’t say how happy I am to sign for a long-term deal like that.  It says a lot about what the team thinks of me as a player.  13 years is a long time.  I believe in this team…I believe that we’ll win a championship one day.”

Q: Can you talk about how hard it was for the organization to pull this off with the cap?

Kane: “As players we don’t think about that much…but for the organization to get this done at this time…it says a lot about Rocky and Stan and the organization.”

Q: Does this raise the pressure to win the Stanley Cup soon?

Toews: “There’s always going to be some ups and downs…at the end of the day you gotta believe you got every guy in your locker room needed to win…Our first goal is to get to the playoffs and then we go from there…”

Q: Do you have an appreciation for how good you have it right now?

Toews: “There’s no way we can express our thanks…I still feel like a young kid, living the dream and playing in the NHL.  To be blessed to live in this city I can’t think of any better place to be drafted to at 18 years old…As far as the fans go, and this city, and the atmosphere we get to play in every day, it’s incredible…”

Q: Do you follow the other teams and do you know that you’re the most successful team in the city?

Toews: “[Chicago] is a great sports city…I’m like everybody else and I just enjoy watching these teams play.”

Keith: “I was here in the first couple of years after the lockout…it’s amazing to see the turnaround…and to see where we’re headed in the future.”

The Hawks were a little shaky in the 1st period.  John “Mad Dog” Madden flirted with the puck about 5 minutes in clearing it just to the edge of the goal line, but it was a no goal. (And were you all counting how many face-offs Madden didn’t win?)  Niklas Hjalmarsson, too, almost snuck one between Kings’ goal tender Jonathan Quick’s legs, but Quick contorted his body like Gumby and swept the puck back out.

Unfortunately the Hawks did not shake off their shakiness in the 2nd period, allowing Kings’ Wayne Simmonds an open lane to score with relative ease.  And still, the Hawks did not find their sea legs (or I guess their ice legs). The only point of interest came with less than a minute left in the 2nd when Wayne Simmonds batted Niklas Hjalmarsson’s stick out of his hand wherein it went flying up into the air and yet it was Hjalmarsson who was called for roughing and fingered for the ensuing mêlée.  How exactly do you miss a stick flying through the air like that?  Did it launch itself???

Despite Wayne Simmonds unceremonious breaking in of newbie Niklas Hjalmarsson, which should have lit a fire under the Hawks, they still had trouble getting chances in the 3rd.  The Kings’ ‘D’ just shut the Hawks down.  Then about 7 minutes into the 3rd, Jonathan Toews patiently waited on net which paid off when Patrick Kane set him up; Toews short-shot the puck for a goal to tie the score 1-1.  Still, the Hawks didn’t have it in extra innings.  Though both teams remained scoreless in the overtime period, the Hawks were 0 for 2 in the shootout while both the Kings’ shots made it in; the Kings took the game 2-1.  Jonathan Toews was mumbling something that was sure to be derisive about himself to himself after his missed shootout shot, and Patrick Kane could only shake his head after he missed his.  Tazer, don’t beat yourself up.  You were the only one on your team to score.  Kaner…well…your contract is all but a done deal.  As you were.

And though Huet made some spectacular saves, including one without his stick, he had trouble this game covering the width of the net.  He must resist the temptation to be drawn off to one or the other side leaving too much of the net open.  But he’s been turning in such an outstanding performance lately, that it’s hard to have a bad word to say.

In addition to Huet’s consistently excellent performance, it is good to see that Coach Quenneville hasn’t settled on the power-play unit line-up.  He keeps changing guys in and out trying to better the power-play scoring.  So far, the right chemistry has eluded Q, but hopefully he keeps trying.

So, chalk the last couple of games up to fatigue, I guess.  The Hawks are apparently road-weary and wanting to get back home.  Hopefully they’ll be refreshed by Tuesday’s home game against the Blue Jackets. Get home quick boys.

P.S. I won’t waste too much more space complaining about Dustin Byfuglien, but I will say that I’m really tired of seeing Buff instigating with the opposition’s goal-tender.  In a tight game, or a game when you’re down several points, like the last two have been, the last thing you need is a goal-tender interference call and/or a roughing/fighting call because one of your players got in a goalie’s face.  Again, focus on your game Buff and stop jawing with and encroaching on the opposing net-minder…At what point does the Hawks organization take a serious look at players like Byfuglien and Brian Campbell and decide that they may be a waste of cap space?