Season-Ending Sudden-Death Losses Are the WORST

It never occurred to me that I’ve never been on the wrong side of a sudden-death game that was a true live or die situation for the season…until early Wednesday morning when Burrows fired a wrister just above the blocker of Corey Crawford.

It took all of my strength to not turn off the TV, but my desire to watch my city’s hockey team part-take in the coolest occurrence in sports, the end of a playoff series handshakes, won over.

So there I was watching a dirty team with a dirty coach celebrate with a bunch of cheering hosers in the stands. I had been punched in the gut, elbowed in the throat, kicked in the groin, and a Canadian took my lunch money. I was seething.

Minutes before jubilation was coursing through me after Toews scored a shorty from his stomach, and seconds before that I was ready to pack in the season while clinging desperately to hope…the hope that one of the stars of the Blackhawks would finally step-up and tickle the twine. That hope was completely VANquished when the Canucks went on a 2-minute power-play with just over three minutes to play in the Hawks’ season.

Then, somehow, Hossa got the puck and gained the blue-line and the game was tied. I was positive Chicago was destined to win it in OT, but alas, Campoli’s attempt to clear the puck was snatched out of the air and the game was over. It was the right play, it was just the wrong bounce. The roller-coaster came to a dead-stop just as the thrill of Blackhawks playoff hockey was just hitting its stride.

I couldn’t sleep for two hours after the post-game show.

Campoli played well in the series and since he came to Chicago from Ottawa. I hope the unfortunate turnover in his own zone isn’t all that he’s remembered for in 2011.

What I will remember is Crawford’s redonkeylous effort throughout the series. I can’t remember one soft goal. There weren’t many goals allowed that he could do anything about. He stood on his proverbial head in Game 7. You can’t ask for much more from a rookie. Stan Bowman has already said that the top offseason priority is to sign Crow to a long-term deal.

Fans are looking for someone to blame. Seabrook played like crap. So did Campbell, Keith, Kane, and hell, Johnson was a team-worst -2 on the ice. As good a job GM Stan Bowman did with the Steve Rosenbloom coined A-CAP-alypse and the roster turnover, he dropped the ball, or puck, by not signing a big, stay-at-home defensemen when he had the chance. He put too many quick, agile, scrambly defensemen on the roster.

I have no doubts that it’ll be addressed and the Blackhawks will be ready for another run at Lord Stanley’s Cup in 2012.


Listen to the Chicago Sports Fix radio show with Josh Catlow and me Rob Zielinski this and every Friday evening from 6 to 8pm only on chicagolandsportsradio.com

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dan_bernstein: RT @wyshynski: It's official: Vancouver has gone batshit. http://t.co/Su6Nf8c

Weather the Storm

Weather the storm, that's what the Blackhawks were supposed to do in the first period of Wednesday night's 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. Everybody and their cousin knew that that's what they needed to do since they knew the Canucks would come out pumped and flying. Got that? Unfortunately, to the boys in white Indian-head sweaters, that meant getting out-skated, out-hit, and out-scored. The 'Nucks made them look like the Mighty Ducks before Gordon Bombay took over and turned around the District 5 team.  There's no excuse for not coming out the same way the Canucks did, especially since they were essentially gift-wraped a playoff appearance from Dallas (or would it be Minnesota?). I was merely looking for effort for the first 20 minutes and that is not what was given. 13-7 shots and 20-9 hits, both advantages went to the Canucks.

I even made a note that Campbell needs to "get his head out of his [rear-end"]. (I can't remember anything specific, but his effort and decisions were bad enough for me to physically type it in so I just wanted to share that).

I'll let the Higgins goal go because anybody that can redirect a 90 MPH slapshot from Bieksa 12 feet out from the right circle deserves a fortunate bounce. That one was definately not on Crawford. While I'm at it, neither goal was on Crow. There wasn't much he could do on the Hansen breakaway either. He was the only one, the rookie in his first playoff appearance mind you, who weathered the proverbial storm. He did a nice job of absorbing the rubber he was being peppered with early on and for the remainder of the contest as he saved 31 of 33 shots.

Soupy almost made up for his poor first period play by potting one to cut the lead in half late in the first, but to the Hawks' dismay, Luongo made a pretty post-to-post toe-save. Campbell raised his stick in satisfaction only to find Luongo soaking up the puck after it caromed off the iron.

The second period didn't start out much better as the Hawks were on a power-play 49 seconds in after Hossa was slashed at the blue-line but didn't get many quality chances out of it.

However, it was a much better second period for the Hawks. They should've had to pay rent for all the time they spent in Vancouver's zone. The 15-13 shots-on-goal don't reflect that dominance, but if you watched the game, you know what I mean when I say that it passed the eye test. They also should've scored once or twice, but to no avail. Kaner threw one off of Luongo's back that almost banked in and Brower flicked one to a breaking Hossa just out of his reach. There just wasn't any puck-luck and it never found it's way to tickle the twine.

My only gripes for the second period were the unnecessary passes that turned into giveaways and the infinitely dumb play from Kaner who centered the puck from behind his own net. Luckily nobody was home for Vancouver. Other than that, that's the way Blackhawk hockey should be played.

The third period was fairly even, I would even lean towards Vancouver because they did what they set out to do and didn't allow the Hawks to score. Again, a good amount of time was spent in the Canuck zone, but they consistently kept the puck out on the perimeter and were able to clear it just enough to not give up any quality chances.

Bieksa was called for interference, but the Hawks maybe got one good chance and the power-play was effectively killed. Stalberg actually had a good chance in the third, but the puck again clanked off the post. It was so frustrating at that point that it seemed like the puck had a weak magnet in it to find the iron but only when it came off of the blade of a Blackhawk. Daniel Sedin of the "Sedin Sisters" hooked Toews, but they killed that penalty as well. It was then Brower who went to the bad-boy box for goalkeeper interference. I would've liked to have seen that much earlier in the game to knock Luongo out of his comfort-zone.

Tempers began to flare late in the game with Kaner getting rabbit-punched at center-ice and it was Keith who came to the rescue.

Unfortunately, Luongo slammed the door shut saving 32 of 32 shots for his 35th career shut-out.

Keeping in mind that for six or seven Blackhawks, it was their first playoff appearance, and the Canucks came out hitting and got the crowd into the game, and knowing that the team who wins the second game of a series wins 70% of the time, the Blackhawks will have to again weather the storm in order to steal a game before heading home to the UC for game three.

Tune in to the Chicago Sports Fix radio show with Josh Catlow and me Rob Zielinski every Friday from 6 to 8pm on chicagolandsportsradio.com Share your thoughts with us by calling 312.884.8205 or email us at chicagosportsfix@gmail.com

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White Sox: Overs and Unders

Baseball is here, baby! Finally, the game we all know and love will be played by the best ball-players the universe knows. We'll watch our favorite teams and players closely. The nice part is we don't have to just look at the morning paper's boxscores...there's MLB-TV with live look-ins to every game and MLB.com, Baseball Tonight, fangraphs.com, (not to mention Bob Ball Blog), etc, etc, etc. With that said, let's have a little fun while there's still hope for success and before the analysis involves pitch-recognition, release-points, bullpen-juggling, bunt-coverage, wheel-plays, and not to mention statistics and sabermetrics such as VORP, WAR, UZR, BABIP, and xFIP.

Let's just do some quick over/under predictions...

Adam "Big Donkey" Dunn will hit 40 HR. OVER. With his home ballpark, I'm thinking 44.

Dunn will have over 200 K's. UNDER. I'm going with the trend here. He's never had 200 K's in one season (even though he had 199 last year). I know he's hitting on the AL this season, but he should see better pitches with Konerko protecting him.

Captain Paul Konerko will hit 30 HR. OVER. It'll be hard to duplicate last years numbers, especially his 39 HR, but I still think he's capable of hitting 32 HR in 2011.

Carlos Quentin will hit 30 HR. OVER. Barring atrition, an important disclaimer for every team and player, especially for the injury-plagued career of TCQ, he's capable of 35 HR.

Carlos Quentin will visit the Disabled List twice. UNDER. He'll almost undoubtedly land on the DL once and maybe even twice, but I think he's got his head on straight with the new sports psychologist in the locker room this season to prevent him from any self-inflicting injuries and reaching the DL thrice.

Gordon Beckham will hit 20 HR. OVER. He only hit 9 in 2010, but his ground-ball percentage increased and his flyball-ball rate decreased. I'm thinking those numbers will reciprocate and he'll reach somewhere around 22 HR.

Juan Pierre will have 65 steals. UNDER. Barely. He has 70 steal potential as shown with his 68 last year, but the Sox have enough power to get it done offensively to not need to play as much NL style "small-ball" that Ozzie likes so much that he should just marry it. I've said it before and I'll say it again...stop saying "Ozzie-ball"! I LOVE Ozzie, but he is in no way a "small-ball" pioneer.

Mark Buehrle will throw 200 innings. OVER. He's been an inning-eating machine the past 10 years. It's a contract year that could very well be his last year on the hill. At the risk of putting on the kabash, 200 IP is a lock!

Tune in to the Chicago Sports Fix radio show with Josh Catlow and me Rob Zielinski this and every Friday from 6 to 8pm only on chicagolandsportsradio.com. Share your thoughts by calling us at 312.884.8205 or email chicagosportsfix@gmail.com

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