Blackhawks fall to Sharks 6-5

Huet should have stayed in Washington. He certainly hasn't impressed yet as a Black Hawk.

Three consecutive Home losses to Boston, St. Louis, and San Jose have proven that the Hawks are not quite there yet.

The Hawks are presently being outplayed and thus the rash of penalties. Just look at the Blues game. They scored 3 goals in the first 10 minutes, and after the Hawks bounced back, then a penalty in overrtime cost the game. Tonight a late penalty in the third cost the game.

I hope the Hawks have learned from the past three games that they have to work for everything they get. Nobody is going to give you anything.

Wake up Havlat -This team needs more production from you!

The Sharks are masters at diving to the ice every time an opponent puts a stick anywhere near them, and tonite they got the calls. You'll have enough problems containing a good team, but if you give them repeated power plays and can't clear the puck once in awhile, it's over. That said, it was somewhat impressive the Hawks hung in there, and they may have pulled it out if Quennie had been sober & put Kabi in there.

My grade for Huet: It has to be a C. Actually, both guys played pretty average. Huet gave up too many rebounds. He faced a lot of screens on the PP which are always hard to deal with. It was a battle of offensive teams. Comcast put up that interesting stat on team goals per game average. Detroit 1st, Hawks 2nd and San Jose 3rd. These two teams are going to put the puck on net! The Blackhawks are proving that they can play with the best and being the 2nd youngest team in the league are pretty darn impressive to me. Big road trip! GO HAWKS!

That wasn't the kind of game where the goalie gets pulled. Huet has played better games in his career and for the Hawks this season, but he was not playing like a guy who need to be yanked. We don't need any of that Keenan "Captain Hook" stuff in my opinion. Q played it right by staying with him.

I just got home from the game and have a few comments to make. First the officials were horrible. They missed several calls and sorry to say but there were 2 penalitys called on the Hawks that were garbage. This is the 2nd game that the officials have missed calls that would have put the Hawks on the PP.

Sopel - What the heck was he thinking, he gave JR the puck so he could score. Sopel you were a scratch the last 2 games and you come back and play like that?? He should be ashamed of his play.

Huet played ok, he let in 2 goals that should have never made it in. Too many rebounds off of the shot. Huet, you are making $$, he needs to play better.

The Penality killing team was the worst that I have seen all year. They could not clear the puck out of their zone most of the times. There is no excuse at all. When it was 5 on 5 the Hawks played very good, but that did not cut it tonight. Now they are off to the Circus trip, and after only getting 2 points out of the possible 6 they are on the road for 6 games. They need to win at least 4 of those games.

And finally the Hawks are not being outplayed as Micah stated. The officials are missing alot of calls and calling the Hawks on penalities that normally would not be called. The NHL needs to address that and get it fixed.

Personally, I think the Hawks know nothing is going to be given to them. Where did that idea come from?

Chico - The crowd was really upset with the officiating both this and the last game. It is getting pathetic

Huet still leaves a lot of rebounds and seems to overreact on a lot of his save attempts, which leaves him out of position to stop the rebounds. That goal by Roenick simply should be stopped. Sopel had another turnover earlier that didn't result in a SJ goal, before he turned it over to Roenick. After that, Quenneville seemed to have benched him, which probably led to the passive PK in the third period, with one fewer penalty-killer available.

Tim: Being at the games gives you a much better feel for what is happening than watching on TV. I know one thing, the Hawks sure are in the sin bin too often. Special teams continue to be more important than ever! You will now be able to watch the next 6 games at home. Chico

"but that they actually bought tickets to witness an average team,"

Joe,

If you believe a team with 4 regulation losses in 16 games and one of the best goal differentials in hockey is average, that doesn't say too much about your hockey acumen.

If they are an average team, then why read the article? I think that Joe is mad cause he is not able to go see the Hawks.

Chico - They do need to stop taking the penalities. They were one of the best penality killing teams in the NHL, that will change as of tomorrow. One thing that is huge is that the Hawks have the best attendance in the NHL.

WrecksAlwaysSux wrote:

Huet still leaves a lot of rebounds and seems to overreact on a lot of his save attempts, which leaves him out of position to stop the rebounds. That goal by Roenick simply should be stopped. Sopel had another turnover earlier that didn't result in a SJ goal, before he turned it over to Roenick. After that, Quenneville seemed to have benched him, which probably led to the passive PK in the third period, with one fewer penalty-killer available.

Once Huet is on his knees he doesn't move and all you do is flip the puck over the garbage can...Sopel had a brain cramp that cost us a goal and he didn't see the ice in the 3rd period...

I'm not going to complain about the officiating because the Hawks have been getting plenty of PP time as well over the last few games. You can't take bad penalties in the offensive zone especially late in games.

The Hawks are not a top 4 team in the conference. Close doesn't count. If your good enough you find ways to win games like this one or the Bruin and Blues game...This circus trip will give us a better definition of where this team is headed. Hopefully we play .500 and get some points.

I was at the game last night. I hate to bring up officiating, but the Hawks got hosed on a number of calls. Two tripping penalties on the Hawks were dives...in fact, on one of them, there wasn't a Blackhawk near the Shark who fell. Then, late in the game when the Hawks had about twenty seconds on a PP, a Hawk player chasing down the puck was interefered with and pulled down by a Shark...I was certain this would get called...but no. It was pretty scary. And I didn't even mention when the linesman ruled an intentional offside that wasn't early in the game. This caused the draw to be in deep in the Hawks zone, where SJ scored their first goal.

Blackhawks look good. They are the first team to have outplayed the Sharks this year, outshooting them and outplaying them in the second period. Sharks however came out and played much better in the third. Officiating could have been better for both teams.
Chicago has a very good core of young players but it will take a couple of years of fine tuning and some better defence.
Should be a great rematch back here at the Shark Tank next week.

What about when they called Bolland for hooking when he was pushed to the ice and the SJ player took off, he was not hooked or even tripped, yet Bolland went to the box. I have no problems when the officials call a even game, but they were not. And that was 2 games in a row that the officials were bad.

Huet needs to do a better job. Tony is right he goes to his knees and can't get up quick enough. Also I question his reaction to the puck, there were 2 goals he should have stopped. The first goal, and the goal by JR should have been stopped.

Yes I did not see too much of Sopel after that brain fart he had. I can't wait for Wiz to get back. I hope coach Q works on the penality kill. They have a chance to get 4 wins on this road trip. Lets Go Hawks

San Jose scored on the PP late in the game, and what did the Hawks do with on their PP chance with a little over 3 minutes left and down a goal? Not much. Officiating in the NHL is and always has been puzzling and frustrating, it only stings when you lose though.
It's early in the year but I think this road trip will define whether the Hawks are going to be in the mix of also rans battling for the 7 and 8 positions in the conference or whether they're going to be in the mix of teams jockeying for 4, 5 and 6. I don't want to say which one I think it's looking like. They need to go 4 and 2 and I'm having a hard time finding 4 wins when I look at the schedule.

Kudos to the Hawks for hanging in there, but the Sharks didn't play very well and Boucher misplays led to two Chicago goals. Officiating in hockey is a big problem, but it goes both ways; go to a site and read comments from Sharks fans and they'll feel like they got screwed a few times, too. That's the way it goes, and as someone already noted, the Hawks had a late PP chance to tie the game and didn't get it done.

I'm glad hockey is "back" in Chicago...but I bleed teal for my Sharks, and I hope this is finally their year. I need a lift after getting to watch the Cubs go down in flames again at Dodger Stadium.

Tony wrote:

The Hawks are not a top 4 team in the conference. Close doesn't count. If your good enough you find ways to win games like this one or the Bruin and Blues game...This circus trip will give us a better definition of where this team is headed. Hopefully we play .500 and get some points.

You're right about the Hawks not yet being one of the elite teams in the NHL. San Jose is.

There was only one really disappointing game in the home stand, and that was St. Louis. You do have to beat the teams that are worse than you, and the Hawks are a better team than the Blues.

Huet is, imho, suffering from the normal big $ post-signing slump. It happens in every sport, and it's a good argument against long-term contracts.