How we doing peeps, what a weekend huh? Between the Kane rumors, the lows of Washington, and the highs yesterday on Broadway. We’ll get into all of it, but as of right now, I’m thinking we’re back.

Let’s start with the lows because I don’t want to harp on it. Washington was a wash, straight up. I was fairly confident in the boys going into that game but learning it was Ovi’s first game back and they were on a 6 game losing streak I quickly realized it just wasn’t gonna be the day. Shit happens, the defense played like swiss cheese giving up a ton of breakaways and couldn’t clear out the trash around the crease to save their lives. Igor didn’t have it playing only two periods with Halak coming in for the third and giving up the 6th goal. A couple of flashes of offense made you think we may have had a game but the heart was never really there in the end and I wrote it off. Shit happens, on to Sunday.

Oh, Oshie also took out Lindgren with a hit I didn’t think was too crazy dirty but just one of those unfortunate outcome ones. This could be tough down the stretch. I’m not a doctor I just play one on TV, but I do think this could just be a separated shoulder and Lindgren is one tough SOB I think he’s able to bounce back in like 3-4 weeks, hopefully.

If we would’ve lost on Sunday then it would’ve been time to panic. Luckily, the boys showed up when it mattered and we played like a great team. First off let’s just get this out of the way, fuck the LA Kings. We may forgive and respect those who deserve like Quick, Doughty, and Kopitar, but we most certainly never forget. We never forget what they did to us and whenever we come back in contact we need to always be sure to beat the life out of them as much as we can. Safe to say yesterday we made good on the obligation.

The foot was on the gas pretty steadily here, Laf got the party started in the first but it ended up being the only goal of the period. Lots of chances, a lot of chippiness. And good, like said before fuck the Kings I’ll never forget what I went through in that series. The big story here is K’andre Miller spitting in the face of Drew Doughty. Now, I don’t know what happened in the trenches and we’re not going to accuse anyone of anything, but shit happens down there. We’ve all done some crazy stuff in a scrum on the ice so I get it. But Key needs to be smarter here. He needs to be aware that Lindgren is hurt so the D is in a tough spot and now with him getting that match penalty and more than likely at least a game suspension, the D is going to be stretched thinner than they already are.

Kudos to the D here for stepping up, the ice time stats were off the charts. Trouba had nearly a half hour on the ice, Fox played like 26 minutes and they did a very serviceable job for running short. We’ve run 4 D in beer league before and I can only imagine what it’s like on the NHL scale. We can’t sit here and say they weren’t bailed out by the man between the pipes though.

Angry Igor is good Igor and he heard all of you jumping on my take. I’ve said this to a friend, I wanted everyone to see my “Igor is a fraud” take through, but not like this. Everyone was jumping down the guy’s throat and I won’t sit here and say it wasn’t deserving, but I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. We know what he’s capable of and we saw it in full force yesterday. Igor stood on his head with 26 saves coming up big in spots we definitely needed him to. I was starting to think he might’ve been hurt, but I don’t know maybe he’s just tired. I can’t possibly believe that since he already doesn’t play as much as he should, but whatever we’re here to praise not reprimand.

My favorite story of Sunday though was none other than everyone’s favorite Swedish DJ (Swedish House Mafia can kick rocks). Mika took a nasty shot to the foot and immediately I turned to my partner in crime and shouted out it was broken. If you’ve ever played hockey you know that there is no worst part of the body to take a shot other than the skate boot. For whatever reason they don’t think to pad them up and you feel every ounce of inertia (I think? idk I got a D in Sports Physics in college) behind that shot. Things didn’t look great and he had to be helped off the ice without putting pressure on it immediately causing me to start laying out the new line situations with the pending Kane trade (more on that in a bit). But some how some way the king himself Jim Ramsey was able to pump him up full of something and tape the hell out of that skate getting him back out there. Z eventually put the final nail in the coffin on the power play and I don’t want to sit here and call him Willis Reed on ice, but like…

After one of those beatdowns Saturday afternoon that lead my better half to ask me “are you OK” we went into Sunday and picked up every last piece that needed to be. That skid was tough but after the streak that they went on they were bound to valley at some point. It’s a shame it happened against beatable teams like the Wings and Caps since every single point counts in the East, but I like where we’re sitting. We got another back-to-back that I think we should be walking out of with 4 and then we’re going into the bear’s cage

(have yet to see this movie but I love the idea so much)

The Bruins are the top. 8 regulation loses, 8. This game is really going to let us know where we are standing I think and I can only hope its in a post Patrick Kane world. Circle this game on your calendar, 1pm on ABC so we have to deal with their shitty broadcast, but this is gonna be some good ‘ol Original 6 hockey baby.

The last thing I want to talk about before I bounce, we gotta talk about Kane. I’ve mentioned it above and I won’t sit here and get into specifics since apparently everyone has scoops and knows more than this guy, but I will just say this, I want him. I want him bad. Patrick Kane is the greatest American-born hockey player that’s ever laced em up (just beating out Modano, that’s my guy shout-out #9) and I want nothing more for him to be on my team. I thought this would happen over the summer to get a whole seasons worth and it didn’t but I never lost faith. People called me crazy but I knew he saw what we could be and wanted a piece (of that bread wink wink). People are worried about his hip issues and like I said I’m not a doctor but whatever. He had 90+ points last year on a garbage hawks team imagine what he can do here. The last thing I’ll say that I pointed out to my Dad on Saturday while ABC wouldn’t shut up about the trade rumors, the last time we got a Blackhawk around the deadline (I’m not entirely sure it was at/around the deadline but for the sake of the saying lets believe revisionist history) we won the cup in ’94 with Steve Larmer and the man himself Stefan Matteu. So hopefully that’s a great omen, we’re getting him for peanuts it sounds like so that is also huge.

We shall see my friends, nothing is official until there’s ink to paper so let’s stay tuned. Until then, enjoy the week and always remember the sun will rise tomorrow.