Good morning! “What’d I Miss?” is a feature that will run after weekends for those people who used their weekend like, doin’ stuff instead of constantly watching hockey. Doin’ stuff is the worst. Stick-tap to Pro Hockey Talk, a major source for this.
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The Chicago Blackhawks are just the worst
On Wednesday Dan Carcillo scored in the final minute of regulation to squeak the Hawks past the Avalanche, which took them to 21-0-3 (which is good). They must have looked at their schedule after that game and thought it was going to walk on the weekend: Avalanche again Friday, Oilers Sunday. You get two points! And you get two points! Everybody gets two points!
Only it didn’t quite pan out. They got rolled 6-2 by Colorado on Friday for their first loss in regulation on the year, then gave up six again Sunday to the Oilers, who beat them by one.
Also, Deadspin ran this post about morons who think the Blackhawks now suck.
You get the gist.
Crosby went off
He had a goal and the game winner in the shootout on Saturday (which barely tells the story of how dominant he was), then tallied a tidy five assists on Sunday to officially start to pull away in the scoring race. He looks like Dat Dude this year.
Oh hai, Chris Kunitz. How’s your season going? Kunitz had three goals and two assist on Sunday: also good.
Oh, and here’s Crosby nonchalantly dumping in the shootout winner on Saturday. Ho hum.
Oilers gonna Oil
Edmonton lost 3-0 to Detroit on Thursday, but fortunately didn’t have to stew on it long, as they played the very next night in Nashville.
Rick Nash is on a tear
He’s tallied at least a point in each of his last 10 games, totalling seven goals and nine assists for 16 points. He’s now up over a point a game (23 in 20), a place he hasn’t been since 2008-2009.
Columbus: also on a tear
I know, I didn’t think I’d be including that headline either, but here we are. Earlier when I said that the Oilers were one point out of last, it wasn’t ahead of Columbus (it was Calgary, who has two games in hand on the Oil). The Blue Jackets have won five straight games:
They’re still below .500 (10-12-4) and four points out of eighth, but hey, small victories for now.
Oh, one more thing. Matt Calvert did this in the shootout to Jimmy Howard:
Martin Hanzal caught Jamie Benn with his head down
There will be some cries for supplemental discipline, and while I would’ve liked to see Martin Hanzal go lower on the hit, this area of the ice (cutting through the middle just inside the blue) is a long-established danger zone and you have to expect to get hit.
Ryan Suter got booed throughout his return to Nashville
I suppose the fans feel like he abandoned them? Here’s what he had to say about it:
“I was just trying to get through it, trying to block it out. It’s not fun being booed. It went the whole game, too. That kind of surprised me. They’ll probably have some sore throats tomorrow.”
“Yeah. I spent seven years here, I had a great time here. I had a lot of respect for the fans. I mean, I still do. It’s part of being a fan, I understand that, but it’s tough to take.”
The Wild escaped with a 2-1 shootout win.
Cue up the Yakety Sax
Francis Boullion made a neat offensive play yesterday, knocking down the puck, then spinning and firing to score a goal.
When the title of your job is literally defense-man, I have to feel like shooting it in your own net won’t look good on your performance review.
The Avs scored with 0.3 seconds left in OT
They beat San Jose. I was watching this thinking: “might wanna get that thing to the net fellas, kinda low on time” when this happened, so y’know, I’ll keep to myself and let the professionals work.
And finally…
It appears we have a new move everyone is going to start doing
Breakaway moves in hockey are like the Harlem Shake: someone does one, it’s recognized as cool, and suddenly everyone is doing it and by the laws of hipsterism is therefore deemed to be uncool. It happened with the through-the-legs shot and The Forsberg before it, and here we are now with the through-legs-hey-I’m-going-to-kick-this-up-to-my-sti…JUST-KIDDING-I-LEFT-IT.
I love this series of posts. You’re awesome, J.B.
Just to pile on the Crosby/Kunitz good weekend, the Pens first line has 98 points in 26 games.
I’m not very good at math, but that’s almost 4 points a game average, for half the season.
Kunitz joins the long history of Penguins players who have ridiculously good seasons mooching off superstars. Remember the year Rob Brown nearly scored 50 playing on Mario’s wing?
Don’t know what’s more impressive..
Crosby having 20 points in his last 20 periods, or him having 5 assists in only 15:00 TOI last night.
Good lord.
Mind you 4 of the 5 assists were “2nd assists” so for some that will diminish their value.
Ryan Johansen’s shootout goal right before Calvert’s was great too – that shootout made me wonder where Columbus had been hiding these guys.
The best part of that Russian shootout goal (last video) is when he skates by the opposing bench. :D
I’m not sure how anyone can argue anyone else but Crosby is the best player in the game right now. Malkin is likely a close second. How silly is it that one team has players #1 and #2?
On another note, has that shootout move been tried anywhere else really yet, or is this JB trying to start about trend?
EDIT: another trend*
Hossa actually did this during a game once in the Czech league.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lJ62uQ31DAI#t=38s
I’m too lazy to dig it up, but yeah, I believe it was used in the KHL’s all-star game this year with success (or some other European league).
anyone else notice 9 of the top 10 scorers are from the east
Are you suggesting that somebody can’t play defense over there?
all those teams that were rumored to be going after luongo… maybe should have done it lulz