Game 4 Recap Blog: The Blackhawks Are Dead
You didn’t believe that title did you? Come on guys. Who do you think you’re dealing with here? Look, I won’t lie to you guys, I’m scared. The Blackhawks have been in holes before, but this feels different. In the past they’ve always been able to lock in, find goals, bury rare chances, and they didn’t beat themselves. Obviously, that hasn’t been the case so far in this series. The series with St. Louis has been marred untimely penalties, downright stupid penalties, bad turnovers, poor puck management, and Brian Elliott making timely saves. As bad as things have been through four games, I just can’t bring myself to give up on this team. We’ve seen this story too many times. The Blues are a really good team. They’re doing all the little things it takes to win a series and they deserve to be up 3-1. It’s not a fluke. However, we haven’t seen the Blackhawks best game either. We haven’t seen Jonathan Toews dominate. We haven’t seen Patrick Kane take over. Maybe this team just isn’t as good as previous years, and maybe they are just mentally fatigued. I have a feeling that this series isn’t close to over though.
–We’ll start the recap with the best player in this series…Vladimir Tarasenko. The guy is a gangster. He’s been one of the best forwards in the NHL for a couple years now, but probably doesn’t get the national exposure because he plays in St. Louis. The Blackhawks haven’t had an answer for him. 5 points in 4 games, and his goals have been timely as well. Every time it seems like the Blackhawks have momentum, Tarasenko snipes one.
He’s a tank. Speed, strong on the puck, GREAT shot, and just a knack for the big moment. He’s the type of player the Blues have been missing for a long time. The Blues final PP goal showed how much he changes the game. The Blackhawks clearly decided to be more aggressive defending Tarasenko after getting burned for two goals, and that just led to some running around and more space for the other Blues on the ice…and another goal. The Blackhawks need to find a way to limit his time and space more. Maybe that means chasing matchups a little bit more. Maybe it means being better with the puck overall. Take care of it and Tarasenko won’t have as many chances.
–The Blackhawks defensemen were pretty miserable last night.
1) TVR…without a doubt his worst game of the series. On the first goal of the game, he has to be harder on the puck. Yes, Seabrook needs to win that race/battle, but TVR looked like he wasn’t ready for the possibility that Lehtera might come out with the puck and he didn’t have his stick in a good position to take away the puck or the passing lane.
Then, the turnover that ended up being the difference in the game
Great play by Steen, but again it’s a decision-making error by Hawks defensemen. Poor puck management. TVR had time and there were safer regroup options than throwing a sauce pass across the ice to Rozsival. Now, what I don’t understand is the dopes on twitter saying that 2-3 really BAD plays last night by TVR makes everything else I’ve said about him this year untrue. He’s still a really good defensemen. He’s been strong all series. He had a VERY bad night with the puck.
2) Roszival…yikes man. It’s an adventure when the pucks is on his stick. I can honestly say I can’t remember an NHL defenseman look more uncomfortable with the puck that Roszival does right now. As soon as he gets it he stops moving his feet. It’s like watching a guy in men’s league. If he gets to “2 Mississippi” in his head and the puck is still on his stick he should just ice it. Live to fight another day because every millisecond he holds on to the puck things get more and more dangerous.
3) Seabrook…we talked about this already. He can’t lose that battle to Lehtera going back on that first goal.
4) The coaching staff…I liked that they made the move to Gustafsson and thought he played pretty well. We always said that the Blackhawks were going to need to rely on Keith, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson if they were going to win this series or anything beyond that. They haven’t really done that these past two games. Keith played 24:36, Seabrook played 24:30, Hjalmarsson 18:07. I can’t remember the last time Hjalmarsson played under 20 minutes in a playoff game. Maybe it’s never happened. The Hawks need Keith around 27-28 minutes, Seabrook around 26, and Hjalmarsson around 26-27. Four or 5 less shifts per night from Roszival with the big 3 log less minutes and maybe that makes the difference. That’s actually the most troubling thing to me. Maybe the Hawks’ D really are just gassed. All of these games the past 6 years are finally catching up to them. I hope that’s not the case, but I can’t think of another reason why their minutes would be down across the board.
–Another good performance by Corey Crawford last night. He made a few HUGE saves to keep the Blackhawks close, but I bet he wishes he had the first Tarasenko PP goal back. Perimeter shot, didn’t get screened too badly. Other than that Crawford was great and the goals allowed were on the D more than him. He also gave the team a much needed spark in the 2nd when he jumped Robbie Fabbri after a collision.
Twitter eggs will say this doesn’t matter, and then the sarcastic crowd will deride people for saying Crawford set the tone…but he did. That sequence pumped life into the stadium and the Blackhawks came out of the scrum with a Powerplay and converted. It was a great moment. Something we’ve never seen from Crawford before…oh wait…
Usually it’s LA that brings out the Crawford fire, but last night he doled it out to Robbie Fabbri. I love it. I love Corey Crawford. I’ve never seen a goalie more desperate for a fight in a big moment than him. You can totally tell he grew up on Patrick Roy Avs-Red Wings fights. Probably watches youtubes of the fight before every game.
–Not a good time for Patrick Kane to go missing. After winning the Art Ross and having a career high in goals, he’s 0 for the series. Last night he was forcing it. Just a little bit off. Stickhandling into traffic when he should either chip it into a good area or take the puck back out and hesitant to shoot. Everything decision and move seems a half second late. He’s played with all different guys this series, but he needs to get himself into the game. As great as he is, he just needs to play simple. Don’t think, just play. Especially on the PP. He’s had the puck on in good areas and doesn’t think about shooting. He needs to make the Blues come out of their tight box the same way Tarasenko is attacking the Hawks. There’s no way Patrick Kane is going to get shutout for an entire series, but he’s the only one that can pull himself out of this slump.
–Brian Elliott has been dominant in this series. Specifically dominant against Patrick Kane. Kane has found himself in great scoring opportunities a few times in this series. Elliott has turned him away every time. He’s been athletic. His rebound control has been largely solid, and the times when he spits some pucks back out, his D have been there to clear it out for him. The Hawks need to throw more pucks and more bodies at him. Create chaos. That’s how they’ve scored all of their goals so far. There have been ZERO of the typical highlight reel type plays we always get from the Blackhawks. Similar to what I said about Patrick Kane…don’t hesitate. Put pucks and bodies on him, and if there’s time and space go high. There’s been room up top on occasion and historically that’s been Elliott’s weakness.
–In the season preview blog I said that the determining factor for the Blackhawks would be secondary scoring. How would they replace guys like Sharp, Saad, Versteeg, Richards, Vermette, etc. Secondary scoring hasn’t really been the issue. They’ve gotten some goals from Shaw and the defense. It’s been the big names. Kane, Toews, Hossa, Ladd, and Panarin have to start capitalizing on chances. I thought the Toews line did a better job of taking the puck hard to the net, but they have to finish these chances in and around the net.
–The one guy who has been going to the has been Andrew Shaw. Big Cat did a perfect job summarizing Andrew Shaw’s role and everything that he was involved with in Game 4. No excuse for the slur, but if they’re going to start suspending players for what is said on the ice then they better expand the rosters because there won’t be many players left. I wish Shaw hadn’t said what he said, but you also can’t define a person based on one bad moment either.
–Coach Q really jumbled the lines last night, but didn’t get the desired result. I love that he put Teravainen on a wing. He had his strongest game so far in the series, but overall I didn’t like the lines very much. I would go with the following
16-19-81
72-15-88
25-65-86
11-22-14
Your top 6…dance with who brought you. If the Blues shutout the top 6 for the entire series, then tip your cap to them. They deserve to win. I don’t think that will happen and I would largely go back the regular group in the top 6 while also double shifting 88 at times. The third line is where the change needs to happen. I want Teravainen flying the zone, getting the puck going forward in transition, and attacking the Blues with his speed and skill. Yes, Shaw is valuable as a forechecker and he does that more effectively as a wing, but whether he’s F1, F2, or F3, he’s still going to force turnovers and win battles along the wall. Weise…he’s in the lineup because the Hawks need more guys who are willing to get their noise dirty in front of the net. Fleischmann has been invisible. He’s fine defensively, but he certainly hasn’t done anything to earn a spot.
Yes, I’m worried, but I also think the Hawks have too much talent. too much experience, and too much pride to just roll over for the Blues. And if the Blackhawks can get a win in Game 5, it’s back to the United Center for Game 6. Nobody wins three games in the United Center. Then we are staring at a Game 7 and there’s no way on Earth I’d pick against the Blackhawks in a Game 7. So we ain’t dead yet, but things have to change in a hurry.