Go figure this one out, Friday night in Chicago the Black Hawks played in front of their third sold out crowd of the season. This in a game that featured a team that was possibly worse than the Chi-Hawks heading into game time.
20,541 hockey observers took seats at the United Centre to watch their Hawks lay a whupping on the woeful Pittsburgh Penguins. Led by rookie goaltender Adam Munro in the nets, the Hawks picked up their second win in three games after losing ten straight as the struggling Penguins surrenderd 4 goals to once again end up on the short end of the scoresheet.
Andy Hilbert scored two goals for the Hawks, while Radim Vrbata and Martin Lapointe added singles for the cause. Colby Armstrong put the only marker on the board for the Pens in the 4-1 loss. Marc Andre Fleury once again was the sacrificial lamb in the Pens nets facing 35 shots on the way to the loss.
Pens coach Michel Therrien pulled out the word of the year so far for teams that can't seem to find the winning combination, Therrien claimed: "we're a fragile team. It seems when we face adversity our mental toughness has not been there."
The Pens have been a bit of a basket case for a couple of months now, the coaching change, the injuries and illnesses and the Sidney meltdowns all combining to render them possibly to be the least cohesive squad of the 30 teams in the NHL this year.
Chicago up until a couple of days ago might have given them a run for their money, but a surprisingly intense effort against the Canucks last week has seemed to help turn around the attitude for now in the Windy City.
One can't fathom what possessed the Chi Hawk faithful to fill the pews with a team like Pittsburgh coming to town, one can only assume that they figured it might be the closest thing to a guaranteed win night that they might get this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment