The Evening After… Blackhawks vs. Jets 3/18

Posted By on March 20, 2016

Three Stars:

  1. Scott Darling
  2. Patrick Kane
  3. Artem Anisimov

Scott Darling finally did it. A year after his first shutout he got his second. A legitimate full year. As Pat said, if we have a game next March 18th, Scott’s playing. We played well in front of him as well. Slump busted. Feels good to have stars in a winning game. Also felt good to stay tuned to the final minute. Let’s get into it.

Things to take away from this game.

  1. Andrew Shaw is not a center. He should not be played as one, you are wasting his potential and are limiting his scoring ability. There’s a reason the only line that didn’t score is the fourth. Panik is a good wing, but not as good as Shaw. Rasmussen is a better center than Shaw as well.
  2. Flipping the lines has become great. I think we’ve found our playoff lines, because Artem and Hossa play well off each other and that line finally plays defense. On the flip side, Toews’s line finally plays offense with Kane. Artem and Hossa are the PK unit we’ve needed all season.
  3. See what happens when you allow Weise to play? He plays well. The third line was balling, and Flash needs to stay on the team as a second priority this offseason – first is Shaw, third is the Panarin extension
  4. When Kane scores without the second line, it’s clear he is the MVP, but when they score without him, it shows they deserve some credit. Not only has Kane not had to drag anyone around on the ice, but he has been aided by consistent play by Artem and Artemi
  5. Goose is too good a defenseman to be taken for granted. The development of our next generation of defensemen needs to be a priority, what with the awful offensive play of Hjalmarsson and the aging of Keith and Seabrook
  6. The only thing that stopped this from being a perfect game was too many dumb penalties – both Hjammer and Shaw were guilty of this. Roszivals was good defensive play that shouldn’t have been called. Shaw fighting is something that hasn’t happened in a while, and it did get the team inspired, so it’s somewhat excusable, except when Shaw is getting the fewest minutes on the team.
  7. Overall, Scott Darling was a hero this game. His fist pump at the end was the icing on a very delicious cake.