Patrick Sharp celebrates his game-winning goal Friday with Brent Seabrook.
It doesn't get much better for Blackhawks fans than Friday night's 4-3 overtime victory in Game 3 against the Red Wings. Let's face it: Detroit is a much better team -- the Hawks built a 3-0 lead with the help of a ton of penalties, and it took the Wings (playing without injured star Pavel Datsyuk) about five minutes late in the second period to tie the score. But Patrick Sharp delivered in OT, and now, even if the Hawks don't win again the rest of the series, they have a signature victory that they can build on for the future.
So much news to cover in the last couple of days (but as my luck would have it, my blogging opportunities remain limited through the Memorial Day weekend). Would love to know what you think about not only the Hawks, but these other eyebrow-raising events of the last 48 hours:
*The White Sox swung and missed in their efforts to steal Jake Peavy right out from under the noses of the Cubs. Sox GM Ken Williams says the offer remains on the table, but most everyone feels Peavy is going to hold out for a chance to go to a National League contender.
*If the Cubs don't start doing better with the bats than they did against Peavy on Friday and in St. Louis the three days before, they won't fit Peavy's contender critieria. The Cubs' offensive ineptitude of late just proves how important Aramis Ramirez is to their lineup: There no longer can be any question that Ramirez is the Cubs' MVP. Lou Piniella is talking about shifting Alfonso Soriano back to second base, his position before the Nationals moved him into the outfield in 2006. That move would allow Lou to put the hot bat of Micah Hoffpauir in left field. True, it would hurt the Cubs defensively at two spots, but if St. Louis can get away with playing Chris Duncan in left and Skip Schumaker at second, why not give it a try?
*LeBron James keeps doing the seemingly impossible. With the Cavaliers only one second away from trailing the Magic 2-0 in their best-of-seven series -- down by two points at home and taking the ball out at halfcourt -- who else but King James to take the pass and toss up a desperation three-pointer from beyond the top of the key that hits nothing but net, giving Cleveland a stunning 96-95 victory.
Let's hear your thoughts, and Happy Memorial Day, everybody!
Great win for the Hawks. If they want to push the series to a 6th or 7th game though they're going to have to quit turning the puck over in their own end of the ice. All 3 of the Wings goals were a result of the Hawks failure to clear the zone. They didn't seem to have the same tenacity in the final 6 minutes of the second period as they did in the rest of the game and actually Detroit was lucky they weren't down more than 3 goals with the number of missed opportunities the Hawks had.
During time outs and intermissions of the Hawks game I kept track of what was going on in Cleveland and couldn't believe the Cavs had blown another large lead. When the Hawks game ended I flipped over to TNT and there was about 8 minutes left in the game. When Turgolu put the Magic up 85-83 with 1.0 left I almost turned the TV off but figured what the heck I want to hear what LeBron has to say after losing two at home. THEN came THE SHOT! My jaw dropped, eyes popped and I heard myself saying ... HOLY S***!!!
As for the Cubs...if it weren't for bad luck they wouldn't have any at all. "Z" goes on the DL, Rameriz goes on the DL now Harden. If they somehow do aquire Peavey it wouldn't shock me if the head of a broken bat sailed out to the mound breaking his foot. Lou might want to invite Phil jackson to burn some incense and spread a little Zen philosophy around the locker room. Orhave a voodoo priestess shake some MOJO over the team's bats. Hey it couldn't hurt could it? LMAO
About the Kronwall hit on Havlat:
I actually thought it was a clean hit when it happened! Violent yes, but clean as I first saw it! Now, I think it was the right call even if one could argue that it might be a bit "ticky tack."
Please manually replay the actual hit at about the 1:50 mark on "you tube" several times. IF you are being impartial, you should note that Kronwall did, in fact, leave his feet just prior to making contact with Havlat. It wasn't the worst I've ever seen, but it follows the charging rule. Secondly, not only did Havlat never--a key point--touch the puck, but he didn't even have clear "possession" as the puck took a rather unexpected trip and that's why he felt that he needed to look down to find the puck. The latter could be described as interference according to the rule.
Even if you disagree with one of those occurrences, it only takes one for a penalty to be called. The other consideration is intent. Kronwall does indeed have the reputation of toeing the line of the rules and going after the oppositions' top players. I can't be certain of his intent here, but sometimes our reputations precede us and we have the "pay the fiddler" so to speak. That's perhaps where the "game misconduct" came into play from an NHL perspective.
That brings me to make another couple of statements, Detroit is great. They really are. However, they can be really annoying in how often they will make those kinds of hits, station themselves in front of the net like oak trees, etc. and then when you try to do something about it, they just skate away. It might be legal, but if you're not a Red Wing fan, it looks the bully who keeps pushing people around in school and as soon as someone wants to take on the bully, he runs off as the principal arrives. I personally don't respect it. Now, after the Kronwall hit, which I think went over the line given his reputation, I'm really starting to hate the Detroit Red Wings. I would seriously love nothing better than for ANY team--hopefully the Hawks--to give them a lesson they'll never forget.
Go Blackhawks!
Gig I was going to refrain from any comment on that incident but since you brought it up, yes he did leave his feet prior to the hit and not only that but he put his forearm up into Havlats chin at impact also another violation. It also irritated me when the analysts during ther intermission insisted it was a legal hit even after replaying it several times. And it did appear as though the Hawks had some ticky tack calls go against them later to make things even but that's just my opnion. In any case I'll have to say that I hate all Detroit teams.
Go Hawks clip the Wings!
Hey Stu...
I wanted to give you some constructive crit. on the blog of late.
I would say that you are coming dangerously close to posting TOO MANY stories.
Thats the biggest problem with most Blogs, is they feel the need to blog on every single thing, and then no real dialogues can ever form, because not everyone is reading every blog.
I have to say that you are posting way too many Hawks stories...not that they arent a great story, but one thing Roman was good at, was having like one blog post per Sport, that he would let ride for a while..where all conversations about that team would take place. I used to think he was being lazy, and maybe he was, but it was effective. He would get regular Posts that had 50-60-70 comments. For big stories he would get 100+.
I thought the goal of this blog was to cover the REALLY special sports items, not just the daily win/loss count.
Anyways...if I wanted to see 50 new blog posts every day, I would read "Sports Pro(se)".
Again, I know you are not Roman, and you have your own style and its your blog and you can do whatever you want, but I hate having to dig through the archives to see a recent post that is a hot conversation, because there are 10 new posts about the White Sox being in the basement or the latest name to emerge from Black Hawk obscurity!
Just my two cents!
Your a good writer though...so I dont mean to take anything away from that!
Stu responds: Hey Culzie, thanks for the feedback, you make some good points. We have been heavy on the Hawks, but only because of the playoff run. There has been a lot to talk about involving all Chicago sports these last few weeks, let's hope that keeps up!
Culzie,
I was with you somewhat until you came up with the Blackhawks' comment. We both know that you're not a hockey fan. We both know that you're a huge Bulls fan as well as Bears fan. That's totally fine! However, methinks you might not make the statement if those teams were similarly treated.
I try. I really do try to understand the popularity of basketball and football over hockey--and, to a certain extent, but much lesser so, baseball. I sometimes find it personally frustrating and unfortunate, but I rarely make mention of it in the posts while respecting you guys for your preferences. I'm also no stranger to making a decent share of posts on the Bulls even though the Bulls, basketball, and certainly the NBA, take a distant fourth place in my book amongst major American team sports.
I think you need to lighten up a bit on the Hawks. Their place in the sun will probably take an enormous backseat once their very successful playoffs--and season--are over. Their coverage will likely fall off a cliff in spite of their expectedly golden future! This would occur even though our only playing teams i.e. Sox and Cubs, might be struggling. People will also be avidly talking about the proposed re-signing of Ben Gordon, the NBA Draft, counting the days until the Bears Bourbonnais Camp, and so on, leaving the Hawks firmly entrenched in fourth place regardless of how much closer they are to getting the precious treasure--one not gotten in that sport since '61!
I consider you a highly-valued "member" of FCP. I might not respond otherwise. Take care and go Blackhawks (and Bears, Sox and BULLS--purposefully left out Cubs, but I've severely softened on them lately)!
GIG, on the surface, one would just automatically assume that....and maybe it took the Hockey/Sox fest to push me over the edge, but if you go back to even the Bulls Playoff run and all those Bulls/Celts posts, I couldnt keep up. You can go back and check for yourself, but I dont think I commented on half of the Bulls Blog Post Threads.
you are right, I normally wouldnt miss a Bulls thread or Bears thread.....so...in a way, you just proved my point, I just timed my comments poorly in that all we got right now is Playoff Hockey and Baseball *(Both of which we lost today). So, I will just resume this conversation in the next 2-3 Hawk threads tonight...(TO BE CONT)
I didn't hear what Coach Q said, but hearsay has it that he blamed the game on the refs. If that's true, he has to be kidding! That might be the worst performance by these young Hawks this entire season! There was nothing positive in their performance whatsoever! I don't mind getting beat by the Wings so much in this series, but I do mind losing that way. That was a horrible performance by virtually everyone.
By the way, I am worried about having Cristobal Huet as my #1 goalie next year. He was back at his old tricks by letting in horrid goals at the worst times. This is the one thing I'm worried about for next year in addition to some valuable lessons needed by these young guys throughout. I'm sure those lessons will be learned, but my goodness, what a dreadful performance. It wasn't even Detroit's best effort either! I mean if the Hawks show up, this is a game. They didn't. That's sad--forgivable because they're young--but sad.
Refs? No Coach. Your team only came out of the locker room to look dumb, ridiculous and silly goony. Even if they get beaten in Detroit on Wednesday, I hope to see a completely different, and honorable, performance.
Go Hawks!
Actually, I had told myself--and others--that anything they get after getting to the finals is gravy (although you don't want the players to feel that way, of course). Having said that, I never thought that:
1. We would be reminded of what life might be like after Khabby. Moreover, we're spending a nice chunk of salary cap $$$$ on Huet!
2. We would really begin to worry about the ever-narrowing salary cap gap, especially after seeing Brian Campbell, by far our most expensive player, be consistently both very good and often very bad--usually in the same game! Nice value! He's worth maybe half of what he's making. He may not even be our third best D-man! I understand that he's a guy who rushes the puck along with being good on the power play, very important ingredients towards winning, but that's pretty much all he does well! Moreover, he's often a downright a liability in all other areas! Think one-and-a-half steps forward and one step backward and you have Brian Campbell.
3. The "Hawk bandwagon" (actually an important commodity for this franchise as far as I'm concerned) would blow four tires because of the extreme awfulness and boringness of the play of our beloved, in addition to likely losing the series.
4. Coach Q would blame the officials even to the extent of calling them on "the worst call in the history of sports." Puh-LEASE! Does Detroit get the majority of ticky tack calls? Yes, and I personally don't think that's right in any sport, but it is what it is with the frontrunners, and we need to play through it.
5. This kind of game would happen at home while Detroit was without the best D-man in hockey, Niklas Lidstrom (enough said), Datsyuk (their best offensive player during the regular season), and several others.
6. They would be so obsessed with Kronwall's hit on Havlat, even as the national media (including Eddie O.) called it a clean hit, they would self-destruct as a result.
By the way, I'd like to take a poll. Do you think Pierre McGuire, rink-side hockey announcer, wears Detroit Red Wing pajamas to go with Red Wing bed sheets?
Win or lose, the most important game of the Chicago Blackhawks is Wednesday night. Their mission, aside from winning of course, is to play an HONORABLE hockey game--one that can send us off to our summers with positive feelings.
Sad for the Hawks. But hey if they just show up and play proud, they could win which would be huge for them. They need to beat the RedWings for next year. I just want to be sure they can do it.
I meant what I said about the Hawks - every word. They need to do whatever it takes to beat this team one more time. This is about next year and every other time they play them. The Hawks have to KNOW they are as good if not better than Detroit. I am getting mixed messages and evaluations from Hawks fans. This is eerily reminiscent of the Bulls/Pistons battles in the past.
Stu, Bubba's Mom, somebody really answer me this question: Are the Hawks equal in talent to this team like the Bulls were to the Pistons? Is this just in their heads? I know the light clicked on for the Bulls when SCOTTIE PIPPEN decided he was no longer affraid. That's when as the late Chuck Daley noted "they became unstoppable. It was always about #33 and not #23". Do the Hawks have a similar thing going on? Has Coach Q done all he can?
Keith,
The Hawks may be equal in "potential talent." When that potential happens consistently is anyone's guess. Hopefully, it begins tonight. Detroit's the veteran team that has been exquisitely put together and knows each other so well that they normally have tape-to-tape passes, are in the right place at the right time, and are moving on the attack as a team immediately upon a turnover (because of each player's anticipation which is also a product of experience). Talent alone may not have those experiential aspects so strongly.
Having said all this, I reiterate how important it is, win or lose, for the Hawks to play an honorable brand of hockey this evening. Moreover, a win could go far in shutting down some of these attitudes that have been developing against the Hawks in which they're already dismissing the Hawks, not only because they're down 3-1 to the champs, but also appear to be like "boys playing against men." I'd like that attitude to be erased and replaced with one of respect for the makeup of the team as is. I don't like how even the national media is already looking ahead to the rematch between the Wings and the Penguins as though it's a done deal. The Wings also really want to win tonight even more so because Pittsburgh swept their series and are waiting and scouting the Wings with vengeance on their minds.
The more I think about it, tonight's game is looming larger even if the series itself may be in peril.
Go Blackhawks!
Keith Keith Keith, "as good as or better than Detroit"? Youthful exuberance and grit does not a great team make. The Hawks "KNOW" who the better team is. They have been outplayed, outgunned, out-everything by a FAR superior team. To compare this to the bulls/pistons is laughable. Jordan was the beginning of the one man show that the NBA decided to implement to do away with those BadBoys from Detroit, and now you get to see the 'two best in basketball' go head to head (unless Orlando or Denver spoils it for the commish). That one man show concept has leaked into the NHL as well (see Cindy Crosby and Alex O). The Hawks need to get themselves a Cindy or Alex to get to the next level.
I'd be more apt to compare this to the old Detroit/Edmonton battles when the Wings were the up-and-comer and the Oilers were the juggernaut.
The Wings are, have been, and will be the best team in hockey for the foreseeable future, and will continue to win cups,,, that is until the league can figure out how to hamstring the team concept in favor of the one man show. Maybe you can coax 23 out of retirement...
Thanks Hawks for a good series, we'll see you again next year!
This is to John, the obvious and very impartial Red Wing fan:
The truth is somewhere between what you think and what Keith thinks. Pretty much, only experience separates these teams. You make it sound like noone even in the foreseeable future, not the Sharks, not the Boston Bruins, noone, has a remote chance against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Get down off your pedestal and stop drinking the Red Cherry Kool-Aid. It's comments like these that makes knocking you off your pedestal that much sweeter. In all likelihood, the MIGHTY Wings will beat the piddly, "we're not worthy to be in the same arena" Blackhawks (heck, we really should file to be in the AHL next year) and we'll all be rooting for "Cindy Crosby."
Getting knocked out of the Playoffs by the RedWings is the reason I lost interest in the Hawks back in the 90's...now its happening all over again....except, the difference is they dont make Sega Hockey 2009!
Gig, Thanks for bringing me back to reality, you're absolutley correct in that experience seperated these teams. In the end the team with the most goals won and thats about ALL that seperates us now.
I'm glad that your desire for the Hawks to play an honorable game came true tonight. The Hawks never gave up & skated hard to the last shot. Great season Hawks, Great playoff run, and again, We'll see you next year,,, same bat time, same bat channel.
PS. I'm mixing up a batch of the ol'KoolAid right now :).
Also, I apologize if I came off as what you all think all Wings fans are (smug a-holes). Just VERY passionate about hockey.
PPS. The pedestal is for the cup! ;)
Game on.
They and Huet played well. At least I can go to my summer with positive feelings about what they've accomplished as well as their future. Blackhawks, you've done Chicago proud. Congratulations!