From: scholvin@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Scholvin)
Subject: Hawks News 11-23
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 17:48:09 GMT

The Hawks split the California segment of the circus road trip, losing to the
Kings Thursday night 4-1 but rebounding on Saturday to beat the Sharks 2-1. 
The Los Angeles game was marred by the usual Hawks problems: feeble power
plays, stupid penalties, and lack of offensive clues in general.  To give
credit where it's due, the Kings played outstanding hockey.  The game started
out well enough for the Hawks, scoring their first road power play goal in
several weeks on a nice shot by Goulet from Roenick and Chelios only 3:08 into
the game.  The Hawks took this 1-0 lead into the first intermission after a
pretty exciting period, featuring excellent goaltending by backups Waite and
Stauber.

The wheels came off in the second period for the Hawks, though.  LA dominated
the period, outshooting the Hawks 16-7, but Waite was magnificent in goal. 
Granato scored for LA at about the midpoint in the period, but Jimmy was
otherwise brilliant, turning away power play chances, 2 on 0 breaks, and every
other kind of nightmare a snoozing defense can present for a goalie.  Late in
the period, Chelios lost his mind after Kucera was run head first into the
boards by Blake.  Seeing that referee Rob Schick was going to make no call,
Chelios took the law into his own hands.  After the scrum was sorted out,
Chelios was given a double minor.  During the first two minute stretch, with
about 1 minute remaining in the period, Millen scored the cheapest goal I've
seen this year.  He was dumping the puck in around the side, and heading for a
change.  Waite left the net to go behind and play the puck, but it never got
there.  It hit one of the partitions funny and bounced straight into the net. 
Waite had no chance, and it was 2-1.  Tragic to see that kind of goal after
the period that Waite had in net.  That was the back-breaker.  Robitaille
scored on the second minor early in the third, and the Hawks were on their
heels the rest of the night.  Weak effort--it looked to me like they gave up. 
Very discouraging.

The news was better on Saturday night when the Hawks went to the Cow Palace to
hook up with the Sharks.  There was an overlong pregame ceremony honoring Doug
Wilson's 1000th NHL game, which, in my opinion, he should have played in a
Hawks uniform.  Letting Wilson go was the move that convinced me Keenan was no
more than an idiotic egomaniac willing to cut off his nose to spite his face,
but I digress. :)

Belfour was back in goal for the Hawks, but Artur Irbe of the Sharks turned in
one of the most amazing performances by a goalie I've ever seen.  He faced 46
shots, allowing only two goals.  A large number of these shots were remarkable
scoring chances.

The Hawks power play by this time has become a full fledged Hindenburg.  They
found themselves down 1-0 early after allowing a shorthanded goal to Berezan. 
They were confused, disoriented, and unorganized in their own end during the
power play.  When they managed to get into the Sharks end they were just
laughable, ganged up around the boards, chasing the puck into the corners like
peewees.

The Hawks tied it up on a goal by Noonan late in the period, assisted by
Matteau and Sutter.  This was a good hard-working kinda goal, with some good
hitting in the San Jose end to start the play.  The Hawks finished the first
period outshooting the Sharks 20-8.  The second period was about evenly
played, with no goals being scored.  Again, Irbe was magnificent, turning
aside 13 shots during the period.  Belfour made some great saves here, too.

Ruuttu notched his eight of the year (Gilbert, Graham) for the game winner on
a fantastic shot over Irbe's shoulder at 15:36.  He slapped it from the top of
the left circle off Gilbert's feed and got all of it, going high to the stick
side on Irbe.

NOTES:

The Hawks defense is playing great hockey right now (not counting the Detroit
game last week), but their offense is sputtering badly.  Can anyone explain to
me why they keep giving all the chances in the world to a thug like Marchment
while they continue to scratch a proven offensive talent like Rob Brown?...I'm
afraid to watch the Vancouver game tonight.  This is going to be a test of the
Hawks defense the likes of which they have not seen this year, and if they get
into a track meet with these guys, it'll be ugly...Igor Kravchuk was scratched
for the San Jose game, along with Dave Christian.  Both are healthy.  Perhaps
these guys are expected to get the puck in the net, especially to pick up some
of the offensive slack created by Larmer's slump...Someone commented here on
the net about this fact earlier, and it's true: the Bears' pratfall this year
is doing a lot for hockey in Chicago.  More and more people seem to be
interested in the Hawks, and the sport as a whole.  It used to be tough to
find a bar showing the home games.  Now, just about anyone with a satellite
will be showing it...Too bad you don't get the option of declining penalties
in the NHL like you do in the NFL.  If I were Sutter, I'd decline all of 'em. 
Their chances of scoring a goal are much better at even strength!

-- 
John Scholvin                           |  "Sometimes I wish I was Catholic
scholvin@casbah.acns.nwu.edu            |   I don't know why"
echo Y | del c:\windows\*.*             |       -Cracker
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey