Tuesday night might have been the most fun I have had this season watching the Blackhawks play. After some poor performances and a bag skate at practice, it looked like the message was heard loud and clear as the team came out flying. A few high lights for me were the early 5 on 3 powerplay, which saw some great movement from the team and a lot of high-quality opportunities. What I really seemed to notice is that Seth Jones has been doing a much better job of using Bedard on the powerplay. Whether or not it was intentional, it was obvious at points throughout the season that he appeared to want to do it all himself instead of moving the puck. I hope he has realized that he has an amazing weapon on his side, and there is zero reason not to use it. Speaking of Jones, he has been on a tear as of late, scoring 10 points in his last ten games, including six goals. This is the player that we had hoped to get when Bowman swung for the fences and traded for him. If he can find more consistency like this for a full season, I think there is a debate to be had about his contract not looking so bad, but we are still away from that talk.
Jason Dickenson continued his breakout season, reaching the 20-goal mark for the first time in his career. He has been playing his heart out this season, and I am glad to see him having the success that he has had. I am also glad that KD was able to get him re-signed because it might have cost a little bit more now. Another player who looked absolutely fantastic was Landan Slaggert; this was the rookie's best game to date. He was able to pick up his first two NHL points and had great opportunities to get his first career goal, but at least hockey is a game of inches, and I'm sure he's been seeing his chances in his nightmares since Tuesday. What I really enjoyed was his post-game media scrum. He was able to have fun with missing the empty net and then hitting the post for what everyone thought was a goal. I know we can't compare these guys to the Cup Era players, but I really get a Patrick Sharp/Andrew Burish vibe from him. I think hes going to be a great lockerroom guy and going to be the one to keep the team relaxed and having fun off the ice.
The biggest takeaway from the game on Monday was how bad Chris Vosters really is. Watching this game with John Wiedeman doing play-by-play with Panger was amazing. Wiedeman is fantastic in his own right, and you can tell listening to Pang that he was enjoying this game much more. From the look at the response on social media, almost everyone felt the same way. Hopefully the people who make the decisions about the broadcast crew will take a look at what the fans are saying and make a change this summer.
Game Day
The Hawks are back on the road, and first up is a stop in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. The Senators are having a season to forget, and after having a lot of people pick them as a dark horse in the east for a wild card spot, they have fallen flat. They are currently 26th in the league and have gone 6-4 over their last ten. They do find themselves on a nice three-game winning streak, but it's too late. Much like Calgary, this is going to be an interesting team to watch this summer and see what moves they make because they do have a nice young core but just need that little extra to take the next step.
Projected Lines
As of writing, I do not see any updates on lines, but after Tuesday's performance, I expect them to be the same. Mrazek will get the start in this one, as he really made a case to play since he considers Ottawa his North American home town after playing his junior career there.
That’s going to be it for me; puck drop is set for 6 p.m. central time. As always, let's go Hawks!
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