How the NHL reviews that kicked-in goal and then allows it is beyond me. On top of that, it gave the Blackhawks life in that period and they went on to dominate the rest of the second, out-shooting the Blues 20-6 and out-scoring them 3-0.
That said, I know coach Davis Payne was conserving his timeout because he knew a TV timeout was coming, but the time to use it was after the Hawks' second goal and while they were flying around the Blues' defensive zone. The "Madhouse" was awfully quiet all night except for the last half of the second and a timeout could have gotten all those fans to go back to playing on their phones, quieted the building and calmed down the running-around Blues. Saving the timeout is dumb - use it when you need it, even if it seems too early.
Some other topics for your discussion:
- Chris Stewart is so badass that Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj and some of their friends recently wrote a song about him.
- T.J. Oshie is hated by Blackhawks fans, so that's a good sign. His tendency to lose his feet and fall all the time is annoying, though. I don't remember if this was so prevalent before he broke his ankle, but he is falling down all the damn time now. Coaching staff needs to put together some video for him so he can see how silly it looks and how many opportunities he's missing out on by losing his edges all the time.
- By the way, I'm over the missed practice situation. Oshie said the right things when he finally talked to the media and he's doing the right things on the ice too. Seems like the lesson was learned. Just don't expect me to stop making jokes about it.
- Keep gloating, Hawk fans, but that was Ty Conklin in net. Conklin is pretty obviously going to be moving this summer, but I'm sure that he'll get picked up by an NHL team somewhere. He's a serviceable backup, but he's best with a stifling defense in front of him, like when he was so good in Detroit. The Blues defense is very aggressive these days, which leads to lots of odd-man rushes the other way and clean looks from streaking wingers - like on the OT goal scored by VomitCaptain tonight.
- Speaking of the Blues defense, they didn't do a very good job of clearing the area in front of the net tonight. On the Leddy goal there were three Hawks around the crease. On the soccer goal scored by Maid Marian, there were crashing forwards everywhere and Conklin got all scrambly in net. Short of the one play where Nikita Nikitin nearly fed Kopecky some stick, there wasn't enough physical play down low, especially during that second period.
I can't believe we're down to one last game this season. Plenty of time for a post-mortem in the coming weeks, but I expect some exciting growth next year and a fun and wild crowd for the final game on Saturday night.
Check back in a bit - we have the video of the kicked-in goal.