I'm not really sure what to say about this one. I got to watch the beginning of the first period, then listened to the second period on the radio in the car (I was at the UC watching Amare Stodumire make his Bulls audition?) and got home just in time to see the Blues score in the third. So I really am not sure what happened here. I don't have the grounds to blame Niemi for this one, but then again I don't really think there is one specific thing to blame. Captain had 2 assists, which I admit is more than he's done lately, but I see that as the beginning of his rebirth, if you will. I realize that even though I praise him as the Captain of this team and love the way he plays and carries himself in general, there has been something not quite right since his gold medal best forward performance in the Olympics. Tazer is not the kind of guy that is just going to be happy with his gold medal, so I know that's not it. He knows he's in charge of this team and whatever is wrong with these boys he's going to do his damndest to fix it.
It was good to see Sharpie and Hossa score our goals. I saw Sharpie's when it happened but saw Hossa's later on the replay. Swabs and I talked after the game and he brought up a good point that Sharpie always scores when he's out of position somehow. I was pretty surprised at coach Q's decision to shuffle the lines up a bit and put Kaner on the Bolland line and have Tazer Sharpie and Hossa on the first line, which in turn ended up being the most successful one. I think that a line with Kaner and Bolland has alot of potential, it just didn't end up clicking tonight. Maybe coach Q will shuffle the lines even more after the loss, all I know is, something needs to change. And i'm not sure what...
I did catch something interesting on VS. before the game. They showed the projected goalies that will start for the Western Conference teams in the playoffs, and most of them had no playoff experience at all. So the issue of Niemi not having playoff experience is kind of irrelevant if you think about how the other teams are going through the same thing. However, let's say, even though Jimmy Howard has no playoff experience that doesn't make the Wings less scary (as much as I really hate to say that...) because of their obvious offensive power. And the way the Hawks have been playing, it makes me weary to think that the Western Conference portion of this year's playoffs will have little to do with goaltending experience. I know we have a good offense, and I know we can play good defensively, it's just that something is not clicking right at the moment. If I only knew what that was, I could go in the locker room on Sunday and smack some sense into these boys. But instead I will just hope that they figure it out before playoff time...
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