Wake Me Up When It's Over: Zzzzzzz....Looooose!

Despite out-shooting the San Jose Sharks 28-19, the Blackhawks mainly shot blanks, while the Sharks capitalized on their chances. It took both teams six minutes into the opening period to register the first shot and it was the Sharks that took the first, then scored on the rebound. It got worse from there as the Sharks scored two more before the Hawks scored late in the second period. The Sharks added another in the third on the PP, but for the most part the period was filled with pointless penalties and boring "action". Yes, there were periods of time in the second and third I felt drowsy and it wasn't from the half beer I was nursing. Another uneventful and uninspired effort from the Hawks that generated some harmless chances and when it was 3-1 early in the third, I was thinking, "if they can get the next goal, we have a hockey game (I love hockey cliches!)", but on cue the Sharks scored the fourth...oh well, one week left.

Highlights?

• To be honest, from a Hawks standpoint there wasn't much highlights. Let's see...Tyler Johnson scored his 3rd of the season and you know this team has trouble scoring goals when the "2nd" line has scored a majority of goals recently. The Strome/Cat/Kane line had the most opportunities and definitely were the biggest threat, but there are times you can feel that Kane just wants this season to end soon.

• Lankinen was so-so in the game with his rebound control still an issue. The first goal was a perfect example. He did make a couple highlight reel-type saves, as he has his last couple starts, but his defense didn't help with giveaways-a-plenty.

• If it wasn't obvious already, Henrik Borgstrom doesn't get much love from his coach, Derek King. Going from a frequent healthy-scratch to playing barely over 5 minutes (5:39), you have to wonder if he'll be back next season. Believe it or not he has more than twice as many penalty minutes (20) than points (7) this season and for a supposedly young skilled player that isn't physical, this won't help his playing time. I truly think he has some untapped potential, but his confidence level couldn't be very high right now.
  

Up next: The Blackhawks final week of the regular season begins on Monday back at home against the Philadelphia Flyers at 7:00 pm. A nice little three game winning streak to end the season would be a nice way to close out a horrible season. Unlikely, but not impossible...😏