Three Stars:
- Patrick Kane, 1 G 3 A
- Andrew Shaw, 1 G, 2 A
- Viktor Svedberg, 1 G, 19 TOI
Wow. So it’s hard for me to believe I doubted this game. I also wish, like Pat, that we would play Toronto more. They’re our anti-Colorado, they’re a slump buster. Seven goals by seven different players. Let’s get into it.
The defense has finally evened out. I don’t know if it’s because Q trusts Svedberg more than Gustafsson or if he just knows the weakness of Toronto’s offense, but he allowed the third pairing to step up big and limited Keith to only twenty minutes, a down night for the Blackhawks ironman. The two defensemen with the most TOI last night were Roszival and Seabrook. That’s likely never to happen again, but this is as much of a break for Keith as he’s likely going to get… unless Q does it again and we win this big. Then maybe we’ll get even ice time for each defenseman.
The seven players with goals last night were Kane, Shaw, Svedberg, Artemi Panarin, Tuevo Teravainen, Mashinter, and Seabrook. So in other words, the players who needed a score did.
Why is Mashinter so successful? He’s nowhere near as good in his own zone as Sekac is, but at the same time Sekac couldn’t score a goal if his life depended on it. Wish there was a way we could combine them into one player… oh whoops there already is, his name is Bryan Bickell and he’s the worst of both.
Shaw is stepping up in Hossa’s absence and desperately trying to prove he is the present and future first line left wing for the Blackhawks. A few more games like this, plus his consistent effort, and he’s locked it up in my books.
It’s getting hard trying to figure out where Kruger’s gonna slot back in on this team. That’s good news for the future, as it makes the choice between Kruger and Shaw that much easier, but come playoff time, even Mashinter has talent.
Man I like our young guys. Trevor Van Reimsdyk had the highest plus/minus last night, Svedberg scored, and Gustafsson is better than both. In two years we could have the best defense in the league again.
The seven goals weren’t even off of Jonathon Bernier. It came courtesy of James Reimer, aka Toronto’s goalie of the future. That’s a good boost for the offense and hopefully it continues.
Scott Darling made some tremendous saves. It was a good idea allowing Crawford some rest after the last few because Darling desperately wanted to contribute something and he did. Usually we don’t play with the most confidence in front of Darling but last night was different. Everything went well. He didn’t allow goals until the game was becoming ridiculous.
Power play finally showed up. Four out of seven is more than half, which will help our percentage. Let’s just hope we can continue to score on those units because it’ll be terribly helpful.
Looking forward to the deadline moves. It’ll be interesting to see who leaves our side, because the team as a whole is talented, maybe enough that we no longer feel the need for a certain young Finnish prospect.
Can we get a check up on Marko Dano? Must be tough for him to know Q likes Mashinter better than him (I’m never going to stop beating up on Mashinter, he’s the new, more improved Bollig)