March 3, 2019: Running Out

Before we get started, a quick shoutout to my father in law. He turned the big 70 today, three days after my dad. Kind of crazy they were born a mere 3 days apart. Hope he enjoyed his day; I know we’ll see him soon.

Speaking of Saturday Fun Day, it was the opposite of that for the Blackhawks. That loss to the Kings, a team that’d hadn’t won in 10 games, with every remaining game being so critical for the Hawks, hurt. That could be the straw that broke our backs. Now needing to go 16-1 in our remaining 17 games to get to 95, it’s looking bleak; time is running out. It certainly looks like we’ll miss the playoffs for the second straight year.

I had forgot they played on Sunday night at San Jose. Maybe if the Hawks had won vs the Kings, I’d stil be believing. Maybe I’d remember they were playing again. Maybe I wouldn’t have finished watching Collateral before flipping the game on. When I turned to it, it was a 2-2 game. Maybe I shouldn’t have tuned in. We’d seen this movie before. When the Hawks play against good teams, we just don’t have enough. It’s 5-2 at this point after a Sharks empty netter. It’s now 16 wins in a row to end the season to get to 95; ain’t happening. It was fun while it lasted.

Patrick Kane has done all he could do. Read a stat today. Blackhawks are 27-19-7 when Kane scores at least one point; they are 0-9-2 when he doesn’t. He doesn’t have a point in this one, so the storyline will continue. Do I think he should be MVP? No. I think your team has to at least make the playoffs. He should be up there, but he shouldn’t win, sorry. Foley made a comment that he looked gassed lately; with all those minutes he’s been playing, that wouldn’t be surprising. Still, I’d rather have him out there. I think increasing his minutes has been a big reason for the push. The more he’s on the ice the better obviously, but I guess even 88 has his limit.

We won’t be done talking Hawks; I’ll still be tuning in. Heck, we’ll be there this Thursday; still looking forward to it even though the playoffs are a lost cause. You know, after the way the season tanked after the quick start, after Qs firing, this season looked like a dumpster fire. I would have never thought I’d be writing this much about them; I didn’t think they’d make it this interesting. I enjoyed it; I still am. Winning is a lot more fun than losing; I don’t care about the big picture, maybe I should. Yeah, attention will turn to that big picture. Who will be here next year, who won’t. Who will we draft? Who will we trade, who will we sign? Plenty of time to talk about that. There’s still that 16 game winning streak to go though…haha. Go Hawks!