Like the ChickenHawk to the Red Wings' Foghorn Leghorn, the upstart Blackhawks got a lesson in humility this afternoon at Joe Louis Arena.
The negatives outweighed the positives. No moral victories. And if the Hawks plan to make this a series, they'd better learn quickly from this one.
First of all, Nikolai Khabibulin saw more shots than he should have. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook had bad games. Then again, lots of defensemen have bad games against Johan Franzen. Still, the Hawks' top D pairing can play better. And they must for the Hawks to compete with the Wings.
Second, while Khabibulin was amazing at times, he was weak at other times. Cleary's first goal and Franzen's were two that he could have stopped. He appeared screened on Samuelsson's tally and Cleary made a nice tip for his second goal.
Patrick Kane needs to move his feet more and stop waving at pucks. And the Hawk forwards as a whole need to settle down, stop trying to get everything in transition with lazy drop passes and be more patient moving the puck through the neutral zone. The Red Wings capitalized on way too many mistakes the Hawks made while trying to "run and gun." That is playing right into the Wings' hands.
Still, the Hawks worked hard at times and generated a lot of chances. Osgood was very good, with the exception of Burish's goal.
Positives for the Hawks? Dustin Byfuglien had a good, though not great game (Jonathan Ericsson will be a sore player tonight, probably for the rest of the series. If he is who the Red Wings are counting on to stop Byfuglien, they're not going to stop him for long).
The Hawks definitely delivered the bigger hits throughout the game, and while a bad team counts that as a moral victory, for the Hawks, it is an investment that could pay off later in the series.
But I will also say that the bumps and bruises hurt a lot less after a 5-2 victory.
Campbell and Hjalmarsson were solid for the Hawks. I thought Campbell was good most of the afternoon.
The fourth line was terrific, though I can't condone Adam Burish's antics at the end of the game. It seemed so deliberate that I did wonder if he was retaliating against Draper for something that happened earlier in the game. Still, he was risking a suspension and it was unnecessary.
Adam, if you want a measure of revenge, come back and win Game 2. Period.
I also liked the line Q put together for the third with Toews, Brouwer and Buff. That line seemed to give Detroit lots of problems down low and might be something to try again in Game 2.
But hats off to the Wings. They withstood a strong first ten minutes by the Hawks and slowly took control of the game, as they so often do. Their experience and patience were evident; the Hawks' inexperience was too.
That said, the Wings merely held serve, and I saw enough positives in the Hawks play to not count them out yet by any means.
How the Hawks react in Game 2 should be very telling.
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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