Sunday Scraps (March 2nd, 2008)

Fun Conquers All

In the third period of this afternoon's game at United Center in Chicago, Blackhawk defenseman Duncan Keith found himself breaking alone into the Vancouver Canucks' zone, defended by veterans Matthias Ohlund and Kevin Bieksa. Keith tried a nifty between-the-legs spinny move in an effort to beat the defense. It was a cheerfully optimistic effort which utterly failed, and for good measure Bieksa clobbered Keith as punishment for his cheek, but the move was characteristic of the youthful exuberance, even naivety, with which the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the grim, anxious Vancouver Canucks this afternoon by the score of 4-1.

The Blackhawks have fallen to the very margins of the playoff race, but it's still been a very promising year for this very young team. With veterans Martin Havlat, Robert Lang, and Yanic Perrault out with injuries, the squad that took the ice today looked even younger than the Hawks typically have this season. One of the Rogers Sportsnet analysts calling the game for Vancouver joked that it was like the Canucks were playing the Rockford Icehogs (Chicago's AHL affiliate). Today the Hawks were able to channel all that youth into hockey energy, and they controlled almost all of the play. They threw the body, won the battles along the boards, fought with gusto, and swatted pucks out of the air and into Vancouver's net as if they don't understand that that's hard.

The Canucks, on the other hand, are still very much in the playoff picture, but have had some grim outings lately. Vancouver has lost its last two games in overtime after giving up third-period leads. At this time of year you absolutely have to beat the teams behind you in the standings, and I'm certain that the Canucks approached today's game as a must-win.

But they played like a team expecting things to go wrong, and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy...they were tight and never got into a groove, allowing themselves to be pushed around by Chicago from wire to wire. I had a mental image of them standing on a precipice, having just lost their balance, and windmilling their arms in terror in an effort not to fall.

The broadcast team alluded to the sheer quantity of one-goal games that Vancouver's reliance upon Roberto Luongo and a tiny dram of scoring obliges them to play, and one wonders if they aren't beginning to crack under the constant pressure.

The Canucks today were more talented and vastly more experienced than the Hawks, but the Hawks looked like they were having infinitely more fun and in the end that made all the difference.


Wings-Sabres Observations

The Red Wings visited Buffalo today, having gone 1-8-2 in their prior eleven games. East vs. West matchup involving a Western team other than San Jose, so of course I was pulling for the Sabres to do the Sharks and everyone else out west a favor. Alas, the Wings gave the Sabres a pretty good drubbing today, and came out with a 4-2 win.

Much like the other night against the Sharks, the Wings were victimized by a bizarre goal involving the officials allowing play to continue when (almost) everyone was anticipating a whistle. With about four minutes gone in the third period and Detroit leading 3-1, there was a hard hit along the boards, followed by some face-washing, followed by some more face-washing, followed by a few punches. It certainly looked like a melee was imminent, and a linesman had already stepped in to start prying players apart. However, at no time was the whistle blown, and after several seconds the puck, which had been generally disregarded in all the ruckus, squirted free. Jason Pominville scooped it up and bore down on a cruelly marooned Dominic Hasek, beating him glove side to pull the Sabres to within one. Tonight, however, the Wings weathered the bad break...that was Buffalo's last marker, and the Wings added an insurance goal later to provide the final margin.


Rick Jeanneret

One of the great things about watching Sabres games is that you get to hear the action called by Rick Jeanneret, one of the legends of the business. It's pretty much the equivalent of listening to Vin Scully call a Dodger game. He has that energetic tenor that is perfectly pitched for hockey play-by-play. There's a cool video here with some highlights from his great career.