Well, unfortunately the Blackhawks' stellar season has come to an end in Motown. The Hawks, particularly Christobal Huet, put up a valiant effort, but lost in overtime to division rivals Detroit. This was a hard fought, low scoring goalie duel. Huet saved 44 of 46 shots and was absolutely magnificent, especially for a goalie who'd seen very little action since the end of the regular season. The Man From France stepped up big time, vastly improving on the effort he gave during the final game in Chicago. I'll never forget the save he turned in in the third, stopping one blast, and then catching the rebound from on his belly by a well-timed flick of his foot. It was truly unreal. Unluckily for Huet and the Hawks, Chris Osgood was equally as effective for the Red Wings, stopping 30 of 31 shots, the only goal allowed an absolute beauty from Patrick Kane in the third. For the third time in the series, the Hawks and Wings went to overtime where Darren Helm was able to chip one in the corner of the net and win the game for Detroit.It was nice to see the Blackhawks end their run on a classy, well-executed game, as opposed to the pitiful showing they exhibited the previous game. Detroit showed why they're the best team in the league and it would have been nice to have taken more than one game in the series. It was a disappointing finish for the Blackhawks, but hopefully the start of good things to come. With all the youthful stars on this team, the Hawks should be poised to contend for many seasons to come. I know I've had my love of hockey reinvigorated by this team and I'm looking forward to watching Johnny Toews, Patrick Kane, Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and hopefully Marty Havlat, Nikolai Khabibulin and others for many seasons to come. Hats off to you guys, it was a great run, and I enjoyed the hell out of it! Let's get even further next year.
0 comments:
Post a Comment