It Shouldn't Have To Be This Hard: Hawks Win!

Playing the worst team in the league - check!

Score a goal in the first minute- check!

Take a 3-1 lead into the third period- check!

Did I mention they are playing the WORST team in the league...sounds like an easy win right?

Nothing has come easy this season for the Blackhawks and when they had a chance to expand the lead, instead they almost blew it and took the long way to the win. Fear not, the Hawks did win the game and did settle it with 37 seconds left in overtime, but not before blowing a two goal lead in the third period to allow the Coyotes to tie it at 3-3.

 

Quick notes:

• Horrible team: The Coyotes came into the game losing 7 in a row (8 now) and were outscored 43-10 during those games. Statistically they are the worst team in pretty much any category, yet they had beaten the Hawks already this season, which is sad because Arizona has only won 22 games all season. On paper, the Hawks have at least a half a dozen players that would be Arizona's best player.
  
• Goals: Jake McCabe scored 42 seconds into the first period, which is the fastest Hawks goal this season at the start of a game. Dominik Kubalik scored his 13th of the season and second in three games after being a healthy scratch for a few games. He's playing with a lot more urgency since returning. The third Hawks goal was from Alex Vlasic for his first career goal. It was eerily similar to Alec Regula's goal the other night, a long shot from the point, except Vlasic's went off of Nick Schmaltz's skate. The OT winner was from (who else!) Alex DeBrincat notching his 40th of the year. It was a sweet set up from Patrick Kane on a tap-in.
  

Kaner retrieving the souvenir puck for Vlasic's first goal.

• Rookie D: A positive from a future standpoint is the play of rookie defensemen, Alex Vlasic and Alec Regula. Both have shown confidence in the past few games and led several offensive rushes. Both are big and quite mobile, which is great news going forward.
• Father/son: Riley Stillman's dad is an assistant coach on the Coyotes. No doubt there will be some home cooking for Riley!

• Power-play?? It was one of those games where the Hawks could have expanded their lead, but were failed by their powerplay. In the third period when the Hawks were up 3-1, they had a power-play that should have made 4-1 (did I mention the Coyotes are the worse penalty killers in the league?), but instead the Yotes made it 3-2 right after. Tied 3-3, the Hawks had a man advantage with 3:45 left in the third and once again failed to capitalize. How often do you get that opportunity in a tie game that late in the game? Chicago finished the game 0/5 on the power-play! Terrible!
• Silver Stick: On a happier note, Arizona's Andrew Ladd played in his 1,000th game of his career! The two-time Stanley Cup champion has had a wonderful career and I know him well from his time as the first ever captain of the Winnipeg Jets (2.0) and of course, the cup win in Chicago in 2010. It's been a tough couple years for Laddy, so it's good to see him reach that milestone and it's cool it was against the Hawks. Not sure if they presented Ladd with the silver stick, the Hawks broadcast omitted any pre-game ceremony, if there was one.
  
• New arena, you say?: So, I hear the Coyotes are moving to a new arena next season at the Arizona State University with a capacity of 5,000 fans and the Coyotes owner, Xavier Gutierrez says, "It's going to be packed!"...hahahaha, you sure about that? Currently, the team is lucky to have that many actual fans in the building and last night's numbers were inflated by the huge amount of Hawks fans in the building. There seemed to be a lot of red, Hawks jerseys and empty seats.

Up next: another late one in L.A. tonight. Win streak perhaps?