Big Buff was solid on defense.
Coach Quenneville didn’t have much to work with on the blue line last night. Three of the Blackhawks six regular defensemen were out of commission. We know Brian Campbell will be out for the rest of the regular season, Kim Johnsson is day-to-day and no timetable has been set for Brent Seabrook’s return. So in order to fill out an already thin blue line, Dustin Byfuglien took the ice at his natural position on defense, and he looked rather comfortable. The defense was tight, limiting Antti Niemi’s workload to a miniscule seventeen shots and a 3-0 shutout (his fifth) of the Kings. Niemi didn’t have to stand on his head, but made the saves he needed to make.
Not only were the Blackhawks good in their own zone, they were on the attack all night tallying three goals on thirty-seven shots. My boy Troy Brouwer scored the first goal of the game in the second period and his twentieth of the year. He was reunited with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane on the first line. Tomas Kopecky padded the ‘Hawks lead by scoring two goals in the third period, and earned him self a pat on the back.
The officiating crew was the same two refs and same two linesmen from Wednesday’s game in Anaheim were they blew a couple big calls – James Wisniewski‘s hit on Seabrook that earned him an eight-game suspension and Corey Perry’s shove of Brent Sople that led to Saku Koivu’s game-winning tally. They made a few calls obviously in favor of the Blackhawks last night. The one that stands out the most was giving Raitis Ivanans two-minutes for roughing on top of the five-minute fighting major when Ben Eager clearly threw the first punch. Anyways, I’m not complaining.
Next up, the Blackhawks will travel to the desert to play the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday. By then we should hear more on Seabrook’s situation, and more on Johnsson’s day-to-day status.
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