Kane’d In Chicago: Ducks 2, Blackhawks 3 (SO)

to me a lot of the players looked exhausted in the latter parts of the game, and that led to way too many shifts being spent in our zone. carlyle has got to trust his other lines more, to me it looked like the top 2 lines played way too much and it tired them out. good to see hiller bounce back, but the team in front of him still has to tighten up. with that said, this game just contributes to my hatred of kane, and i don’t usually cheer for an injury, but i pray for the day that assbag carcillo goes face first into the boards. actually, radical facial reconstruction by boards might be what that ugly mug needs

but I still think that even though he’s off to a slow start, this type of play will set him up with a greater all-around offensive game closer to mid-season and the end of the year. I think that down the stretch, we’ll see a Getzlaf reminiscent of the 08-09 playoffs, or even better. He seems to (and I hope I’m not jinxing it) have solved his regular season motivational problems, and become more comfortable wearing the “C”.

As well, I’m just re-watching some past games, and I have a few observations to make:

1. We really miss Jason Blake. For all of the flak he gets for his cap hit and everything, he is the glue to the Masterton line. Without his grit in the corners and his reckless two-way checking, he helps Teemu and Saku get into their respective offensive positions and subsequent grooves. McMillan was pretty poor when playing with the Finns, and Ryan needs to be with Getzy and Perrs for them to click on even-strength. So I think some Ducks fans (including me) underestimated the loss of him.

2. I have no clue why RC scratched DSP for this game. His play in the Coyotes game (that I’m watching now) is pretty skilled when paired with Mace/Cogs/Beleskey/Gordon. I think we could’ve used him tonight especially when facing OD and Montador. He looked particularly well on an energy line with M&M towards the end of the Coyotes game, and I was hoping that would carry over.

3. Maroon looked useless. He didn’t skate hard, and he was pretty invisible. I don’t think he should’ve been played over DSP (see post 2 for reason), and it was blatantly obvious this was his first game in the league.

4. Huge post/rant over.

Koivu’s defense on the two hawk goals was disappointing as well. He just got caught napping for a split second on each. Hopefully he rebounds with a better go next game.

I have been so busy this year, that after waiting all summer for hockey to start I don’t even have time to watch the games. But I did get a chance to see this game and had a few comments based off of what people are saying here.

-Hiller is fine. People seem to forget he did this last year. He, like the rest of the team, starts his seasons pretty slowly. If he continues to show flashes of brilliance, then I’m sure he’s back to his old self and will stabilize over the course of the season.
-Carlyle you currently have George Parros on your team. When punks like Carcillo are taking runs at guys like Selanne, that is exactly when your supposed to send Parros out to beat the living crap outta him. Please use the stache next time.
-Getzlaf looks good…..real good. Hopefully Ryan and Perry find their strides soon and that whole line starts clicking.
-On the flip side, Fowler and Beauchemin is literally one of the worst defensive pairings I’ve ever seen. I know you want Fowler to be a top 4 Dman, but Sbisa is a better pairing right now with Beauch and a better defenseman. Please don’t make me watch another game of those two guys coughing up pucks and leaving Hiller all alone. They did it against Chicago, Phoenix, and Dallas. Thats enough of a sample to know its not working.
-I worry about McMillan. He seemed lost on the 2nd line, and didn’t look any better on the 3rd. He looked at least comfortable playing with Parros and Maxim on the 4th and that might be where he is best suited to play. Its too bad cause I like him, but Carlyle really needs to reunite DSP, Cogliano, and Gordon (that line always looked dangerous) and reunite the 4th line of the above mentioned forwards. Stick Beleskey up there (or maybe Palmari?) with the fins until Blake returns. Because right now I’d rather have 1st, 3rd, and 4th lines being competent vs the cluster f**k going on right now. Don’t mess with what works, just play the 2nd line less so that when Blake returns they are all well rested.