GAME DAY: Blackhawks @ Sens, Thursday, Oct 30, 7:30 PM

Positives:
- got a point and held them to under 40 SOG (the new goal?)
- scored 4 goals
- PK was 5 for 5
- had more blocked shots than the Hawks; more hits and takeaways as well

Areas to work on:
- face offs
- still taking too many penalties (6 minors)
- 39 shots on goal, come on!
- Karlsson -- you miss Marc?

wprager wrote:Positives:
- got a point and held them to under 40 SOG (the new goal?)
- scored 4 goals
- PK was 5 for 5
- had more blocked shots than the Hawks; more hits and takeaways as well

Areas to work on:
- face offs
- still taking too many penalties (6 minors)
- 39 shots on goal, come on!
- Karlsson -- you miss Marc?

The shots in goal will always be there as that is their game plan. They always move out of the way to let he goalie see the shot and make the save

Yeah, Anderson should've had that 4th goal for the Hawks by Hossa..and then Darling should've stopped ZBad's tying goal late. Karlsson had a really horrible defensive game as well.

It's nice to see us run and gun with one of the big boys.

Thought it was a fairly solid effort up front, Zibanejad was getting his nose in there and it's good the coaches and team are telling him to skate, he needs to keep moving his feet, stops too often. Huge goal though and a decent game overall.

Anderson was fantastic... beat with a wrap around again but he stopped basically everything that came at him.

Karlsson... he wants to forget that one.

Cowen... struggled. Not sure how they can turn him into a top 4 D man on a regular basis at this point.

Kid line, unreal. Hopefully they have something there there.

Turris line was solid most of the night.

Neil... he's lost more than a step. Legwand and Smith were meh.

Ceci... another terrific hockey game. Really thought he would struggle in the NHL, guy has done nothing but thrive.

Cowen was fine as he was barely noticeable.

Thought he struggled to move the puck last night and in his own zone. Wasn't super happy with his game personally... but hey I don't like his game in general.

Interesting move by P-Mac, putting ZBad out there late when we needed a goal...and did it ever pay off. Zibanejad looked pretty relieved too.

And yeah, I forgot to mention the kid line...really impressive. The cool thing about that line is it provides us a legit threat as a 3rd line, without taking away any of the primary "top 6" forwards we have (Turris, Ryan, MacArthur, Chiasson)...if we can keep that kid line together, that'd be sweet.

If and that's a big IF. If they found a line that is capable of playing and dominating at times in the game against other teams top 3 lines then that is a huge find. That kid line was unstoppable for most of it but MacLean managed their ice time perfectly, he didn't let them get overwhelmed. If they stick with that line and they play like they did last night then Greening and Condra may as well be waived.

NEELY wrote:Thought he struggled to move the puck last night and in his own zone.  Wasn't  super happy with his game personally... but hey I don't like his game in general.

He was back to his "lean and reach" style of defending instead of taking a stride or two and engaging. Got away with at least one penalty that I noticed. I predicted that he would have one good game and then go back to being Cowen and I was (unfortunately) right, as usual.

Cowen is going to struggle until he figures out how to play at the NHL level and be successful. He still plays like he is in Jr for the most part and has problems asserting himself against guys who are just as big and tough. Going to be a long, long process for Cowen if they feel the need to stick it out with him.

except he wasn't "Cowen", he still played decently and he will be in the lineup for good IMO. On a night where the best D was the worst, playing against the Hawks, it can be forgotten.

One thing he did well was get under Sharp's skin. Sharp was invisible after that.

Ev wrote:except he wasn't "Cowen", he still played decently and he will be in the lineup for good IMO. On a night where the best D was the worst, playing against the Hawks, it can be forgotten.

One thing he did well was get under Sharp's skin. Sharp was invisible after that.

I'm not sure why you decided to start having a love affair with Cowen (started around a year ago from what I remember), but your unbelievable ability to look past the obvious faults is just getting silly.

I'd rather have BoroCop in the lineup...and I was a big Cowen fan (I own a Cowen jersey)...I still think he can turn things around, but he hasn't yet.

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:except he wasn't "Cowen", he still played decently and he will be in the lineup for good IMO. On a night where the best D was the worst, playing against the Hawks, it can be forgotten.

One thing he did well was get under Sharp's skin. Sharp was invisible after that.

I'm not sure why you decided to start having a love affair with Cowen (started around a year ago from what I remember), but your unbelievable ability to look past the obvious faults is just getting silly.

I'd rather have BoroCop in the lineup...and I was a big Cowen fan (I own a Cowen jersey)...I still think he can turn things around, but he hasn't yet.

Because I stick up for players who are wrongly scapegoated and I am a fan of Cowen.

I was at the game last night unlike most (or all) here so I'm commenting on what I saw. He really wasn't noticeable last night in a bad or good way. He didn't play a lot of minutes and he made a few errors but if you think anybody is going to be perfect, then you're out to lunch. Wiercioch was easily worse and it's looking like he will be on the sidelines for a while once we get bodies back.

Boro isn't a better player, he just stays on the bottom pairing and plays his role (sometimes poorly as seen last game).

Ev wrote:

Boro isn't a better player, he just stays on the bottom pairing and plays his role (sometimes poorly as seen last game).

You mean sticking up for a teammate, firing up the team, and spurring them to victory?

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:

Boro isn't a better player, he just stays on the bottom pairing and plays his role (sometimes poorly as seen last game).

You mean sticking up for a teammate, firing up the team, and spurring them to victory?

That didn't happen and we can stop the trolling now.

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:except he wasn't "Cowen", he still played decently and he will be in the lineup for good IMO. On a night where the best D was the worst, playing against the Hawks, it can be forgotten.

One thing he did well was get under Sharp's skin. Sharp was invisible after that.

I'm not sure why you decided to start having a love affair with Cowen (started around a year ago from what I remember), but your unbelievable ability to look past the obvious faults is just getting silly.

I'd rather have BoroCop in the lineup...and I was a big Cowen fan (I own a Cowen jersey)...I still think he can turn things around, but he hasn't yet.

Because I stick up for players who are wrongly scapegoated and I am a fan of Cowen.

I was at the game last night unlike most (or all) here so I'm commenting on what I saw. He really wasn't noticeable last night in a bad or good way. He didn't play a lot of minutes and he made a few errors but if you think anybody is going to be perfect, then you're out to lunch. Wiercioch was easily worse and it's looking like he will be on the sidelines for a while once we get bodies back.

Boro isn't a better player, he just stays on the bottom pairing and plays his role (sometimes poorly as seen last game).

Boroweicki at this point is the better player because he knows how to do his job that he is asked to do, pretty close to perfection. As for his penalty against Columbus after Boll took a clean run, so what? Other guys took notice, guys won't be pushed around, and it's a team mentality now in large part because of #74.

Cowen, well he has to figure out how to be Boroweicki.

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:

Boro isn't a better player, he just stays on the bottom pairing and plays his role (sometimes poorly as seen last game).

You mean sticking up for a teammate, firing up the team, and spurring them to victory?

That didn't happen and we can stop the trolling now.

Didn't it? Or did it? Or did it not? Hard to say.

NEELY wrote:

Ev wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:except he wasn't "Cowen", he still played decently and he will be in the lineup for good IMO. On a night where the best D was the worst, playing against the Hawks, it can be forgotten.

One thing he did well was get under Sharp's skin. Sharp was invisible after that.

I'm not sure why you decided to start having a love affair with Cowen (started around a year ago from what I remember), but your unbelievable ability to look past the obvious faults is just getting silly.

I'd rather have BoroCop in the lineup...and I was a big Cowen fan (I own a Cowen jersey)...I still think he can turn things around, but he hasn't yet.

Because I stick up for players who are wrongly scapegoated and I am a fan of Cowen.

I was at the game last night unlike most (or all) here so I'm commenting on what I saw. He really wasn't noticeable last night in a bad or good way. He didn't play a lot of minutes and he made a few errors but if you think anybody is going to be perfect, then you're out to lunch. Wiercioch was easily worse and it's looking like he will be on the sidelines for a while once we get bodies back.

Boro isn't a better player, he just stays on the bottom pairing and plays his role (sometimes poorly as seen last game).

Boroweicki at this point is the better player because he knows how to do his job that he is asked to do, pretty close to perfection.  As for his penalty against Columbus after Boll took a clean run, so what?  Other guys took notice, guys won't be pushed around, and it's a team mentality now in large part because of #74.

Cowen, well he has to figure out how to be Boroweicki.

So what? It directly led to a goal against and the coaching staff want players to stop taking penalties. If Cowen did that, I bet everyone would be ALL over him for that.

That was a stupid play and I'm all for hitting, playing nasty, and sticking up for your teammates. That's not sticking up for anybody, sorry.