From: scholvin@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Scholvin)
Subject: Hawks News 12-28
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 22:54:02 GMT

It's been nine years since the Hawks played two games back to back at home.
After this weekend, they're probably hoping it'll be another nine years. The
Hawks were swept by St. Louis and Detroit, 3-2 (OT) and 4-0 respectively. The
story in both games was the same as it's been in all the Hawks' recent losses:
they played hard, maybe harder than the other teams, but they ran into red-hot
goaltending and the opponents made the most of whatever chances they got.

I didn't see or listen to Saturday's game against the Blues, but judging from
the stats and the references to the game made by Foley & Tallon on Sunday, it
sounds like the Hawks played solidly. No scoring in the first, but Grimson and
Chase dropped the gloves at 0:26...I love these Norris rivalries! Also,
according to what I have here, Matteau and Norwood went toe to toe late in the
period. *That* I'd like to see.

The white-hot Steve Larmer scored his 21st 56 seconds into the second (Smith),
but Miller evened it up for the Blues at 3:11 on the power play. I'd like to
see recent Hawks penalty-killing stats; I'd bet they're slipping. Anyway,
Jocelyn Lemieux notched his 5th (Chelios, Larmer) at 7:17. Jocelyn has the
game winners in the last two Chicago-St. Louis contests, incidentally. The
third bout of the night featured Brent Sutter and Butcher. Hoo, boy.

The Blues tied it up again at 4:18 in the third on the Golden Brett's 19th. I
wish I would have bet someone that Steve Larmer would have more goals than
Brett Hull after thirty-something games...The Hawks outshot the Blues 18-7 in
the third.

No more scoring in the third, but bunches of penalties. This game must have
take a week to play. Baron scored his first of the year from the blue line
1:35 into overtime, and 18,472 very quiet Hawk fans left unsatisfied.

Satisfaction was not to be found Sunday night against the Wings. The Hawks
came out flying, but Cheveldae appeared to return to last season's form,
earning a well-deserved shutout. He did it basically on his own. IMO, the Wing
defense didn't play a great game, and Chevy made about seven remarkable saves
in the first 5 minutes of the game. The Wings made the most of the chances
they got. Carson (who was left unmolested 15 feet from the net) banged a one-
timer past Waite after a neat feed from Primeau, and Chaisson scored a few
minutes later on a two on zero (!) after Chelios took a chance at the Wings
blue line and missed. No one was back for some reason, and Carson had *all
day* to set up Chaisson. Another power-play goal surrendered, and the Hawks
were down a quick 2-0. I would bet that most Wings fans out there would agree
that if not for Cheveldae, this game would be no better than 2-2 for their
guys.

The Hawks came out sluggish in the second, and again the Wings capitalized.
Kennedy scored the back-breaker at 13:01, and Fedorov scored on a shorthanded
breakaway at 19:36. The guy has wheels. Chaisson got an assist on this goal
for having Marchment's dump-in bounce off his shin pad...a late Christmas
present from the scorer at the Stadium. 

No scoring in the third. For the game, the Hawks outshot the Wings 32-22, and
on the weekend the Hawks outshot the visitors 74-49. What more can you do?
Guess what let the Hawks down: the power play, 0 for the weekend. Minus 1,
actually. There were maybe two good power plays this weekend, the rest were a
trainwreck. You know your power play is in trouble when Stu Grimson lines up
on left wing with Jeremy Roenick and Steve Larmer (I am not making this up).

Brutal. On to Detroit Tuesday with first place on the line. I don't like the
way this is shaping up...

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