Game 63: Hawks 5, Oilers 2 - Mel gives you the hand

The subject is in reference to the "talk to the hand" sign I gave to some woman who wanted to get to her seat while the play was still going on. I would have given her the finger as well, but was worried her bf/husband/douche behind her might have broken it.

Apologies for the last game recap. Honestly, I'm already two games behind and the game sucked shit so why waste my time? Sadly, I had a feeling the Hawks were going to come out flat like that right after the break. I hate it when I'm right!

Anyway, I decided over the weekend I was going to try to get a ticket for this game as Amy was going to the Furthur concert with my brother and I had nothing better to do. It's too bad Amy doesn't blog as her experience there was amusing to say the least. I managed to get a 300 level seat on Ticket Exchange for under $50 so away I went.

Got to the UC around 5:30 - I came straight from work as it's only about a 15 minute drive south. I had to wait in a separate line in order to get my tickets. There were so many people there as it was Jonathan Toews bobblehead night - which pleased me as he is my favorite active Hawk. So, there was a bit of a wait until 6 - people around me were shivering and jumping around because of the cold - which it really wasn't. I was only wearing a sweatshirt under my Toews jersey and was fine - grow some balls people, it's just March in Chicago!

I got my bobblehead and wandered around for a bit - I usually don't when I go to games as I'm with Amy and we usually go right to our seats to chat. I was considering getting an Eric Daze autograph as he was the alumni signing guest, but he had a huge line! C'mon now, he was more of a disappointment than anything, although I feel for the guy as he had shit luck with injuries. So I went to my seat and was chagrined to note I was in the last row which meant I had Standing Room Only folks draped over everything. I was the aisle seat too which was worse in a lot of ways as someone was always standing next to me in the aisle (I'm an ample personal space person), and I had to get up every time someone had to pee/go on a beer run/go downstairs to personally verbally harass Huet.  Plus, it appeared several folks in SRO were already several sheets to the wind, so I knew it was going to be a long night without Amy with me to mock them.

They did a nice intro of the Hawks' Olympians (including Edzo and the US video replay guy) in lieu of a ceremonial puck drop. Below are some pictures - borderline crap quality as I was literally in the rafters and only had my little Elph camera:

 

 

They gave everyone a nice ovation - even the Canadians. Kane got the loudest applause with spontaneous USA chants. The only booing was when they replayed the Crosby goal on the jumbotron. I joined - I dislike him immensely.

Onto the game - the first period was scoreless. The Hawks seemed content to attempt pretty passes (which consistently missed and/or were blocked) instead of shooting. No, I was not one of the "SHOOOOOOOOT" morons, but I had to bite my tongue a couple of times. Still, the Hawks managed to double up the Oilers in shots, 12-6.

The start of the second period was much of the same until Hossa put a quick wrister behind the Oil's rookie goalie Dubnyk. Predictably, the Oilers took the lead on two goals within a minute of one another at the 15 minute mark. Both were ugly - the first was reviewed as Huet argued that he had frozen the puck - it was pretty apparent he had not. The second whiffed by him as moments before, Hjalmarsson had his stick chopped in half without a call. At this point the natives (already seemingly pissed and unhappy - I think they were expecting a trade for Ryan Miller before the game, the idiots) were calling for Niemi to be put in. Um yeah, because he looked soooo good in Long Island. Subsequently, every time Huet touched the puck the remainder of the game, he was given the Bronx Cheer. I'm not a huge Huet fan (I think he's adequately average), but fuck you people. These are the goalies we have for better or for worse - if we're going to win the Cup, it's not going to be without Huet being a big part of it, so stop being total assholes. AnyWAY,  Bolland tied the game at 2 with two minutes left in the period from a beautiful feed from Hossa. Thank god, because I think folks were getting ready to run Huet off the ice with torches and pitchforks at the end of the period.

Thankfully, TOFTBO quieted the crowd's wrath with only his second goal of the season 20 seconds into the third. Hjalmarsson's slowly becoming one of my favorite players - he's hard working and how can you not love his IKEA commercial? Plus he said "pissed" twice during his post game interview on WGN Radio which made me LOL. Suddenly the Hawks played as if Coach Q set them on fire during the intermission. Byfuglien scored on the power play (I couldn't believe my eyes!) when he stood in front of the net for an easy tip in. I don't know if Buff has memory loss issues, but he seems to forget for long stretches that that is what he is actually good at - just ask Luongo and his Kleenix. Finally, our esteemed Captain made it 5-2 with 4 minutes remaining - fitting as it was his bobblehead night. That sent the fans home happy. I felt bad for Dubnyk as the Hawks threw 47(!!!) shots at him - he really did play a good game - any less and it could have been an easy 8 or 9 spot. How many shots did the Oilers muster - a mere 14. Yes, Huet's save percentage sucked this game, but he did what he needed to do for a win. If the Hawks can play like they did in third period consistently, the Western Conference better be wary come June.

If you noticed I tried to put a scoreboard screenshot of all of the goal scorers. Unfortunately I missed Toews as I'm sure I had to get up and let someone through the aisle when his was up. But no worries, because we have....

BOBBLEHEAD TOEWS!

Honestly can they ever make one of these things that look remotely lifelike? It looks like Taser is constipated. His skin tone is too dark too - compare him to the Ryne Sandberg one I got last year:

 

Oh well, they'll keep each other company on my TV stand.

I'll be doing this all again in less than 24 hours as I have tickets for tomorrow nights game versus the Canucks. This could be a potentially wild evening as a) it's the Canucks - I expect hair pulling, fisticuffs and perhaps weeping and b) it's my brother's birthday and I would not be surprised if we're all shitfaced somewhere after the game.

One last thing, I haven't had time to post my experience at the Rockford IceHogs game last Saturday. Seeing as I did a fanpost on Second City Hockey with pictures, I'm just going to link to it. I'm too damn lazy to type it all up again.