Sunday’s Three Stars: Brouwer Nets Winner As Hawks Squeak by Jackets

Jim Neveau, PIB Co-conspirator

The Chicago Blackhawks are quickly gaining a reputation as being the best “bang for the buck” deal in the NHL.

For the fourth time in their previous five games, the Hawks found themselves in a shootout, and for the third time in a row, they were victorious, beating the Blue Jackets 5-4 to go into the Olympic break with a four game winning streak.

Patrick Sharp had a goal and an assist, and completed the Gordie Howe hat trick after he was attacked by Raffi Torres in the third period.

The calls of the officials were questionable at best all night, with Troy Brouwer receiving 19 minutes worth of penalties for standing up for teammate Patrick Kane after he suffered a knee to knee hit from Anton Stralman. The instigator penalties (one of wearing a visor and one for the actual instigating) were justified, but the extra 10 minute misconduct seemed a little over the top, considering that the Hawks’ best offensive player was laying in a heap on the ice.

In Sharp’s case, he was likely guilty of slashing Torres before the scrum took place, but Torres jumping Sharp certainly warranted more than a two minute minor for roughing. The fact that he didn’t even get a five minute fighting major was a true head-scratcher, and the league should certainly consider whether the officiating in this game was fair.

The one major factor that the Hawks can take away from this game was their performance in a hard fought contest was how well they performed with limited resources.

Marian Hossa, John Madden (who was placed on Injured Reserve), Brent Sopel, and Ben Eager all missed the contest with various ailments, and that was just the beginning of the absences for the squad. Kris Versteeg was benched for most of the game, only playing 4:54 because of Joel Quenneville’s dissatisfaction with his sloppy play.

Patrick Sharp

Then, as if that wasn’t good enough, there was the knee-to-knee hit on Kane that nearly knocked him out of the game. To top everything off, losing Brouwer for what seemed like an eternity didn’t help matters on the depth side of the equation either.

Even with all of the injuries, missing players, poor performances, and general lack of kindness between the two teams, the Blackhawks still won the game, and the momentum they are carrying going into the Olympic break should serve their six Olympians well.

And now, for your entertainment, here are tonight’s Three Stars:

Third Star: Patrick Sharp

Normally, the most dominant offensive player in a game gets more love from PIB, but Mr. Sharp will have to settle for Third Star tonight.

He had a second solid game in a row, scoring his 19^th goal of the season and adding an assist in the winning effort.

Sharp’s contributions in recent days have been more significant than they were in the month of January, where he really struggled to find his offensive footing in the place of center Dave Bolland. Since he has assumed winger duties again, he has looked a lot more comfortable, and may be finally beginning to turn the corner toward being a huge threat as a sniper for this team.

Second Star: Bryan Bickell

In yet another stint with the Blackhawks this season, Bickell has once again shown that he has the game to be a solid forward in the NHL.

He scored his second goal of the season in the victory over the Jackets, and he also had four hits in his 11:38 of ice time. He looked completely comfortable on his skates, and even won a face-off during the contest.

Bickell is one of a trio of youngsters who have come up from Rockford to make meaningful contributions to the Hawks this season. Along with Jake Dowell and Jack Skille, Bickell is just one more piece of evidence that the Hawks have one of the deepest reservoirs of skilled players in the game today.

Bryan Bickell

Solid game by Bickell, and he may continue to see ice time as John Madden recovers from injury.

First Star: Troy Brouwer

When Brouwer went up against Anton Stralman, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ announcing tandem was in a state of utter disgust. They wanted the officials to jump in and save Stralman, who is “not a fighter”. They also described the knee-to-knee hit Stralman laid on Patrick Kane as a “clean open ice hit”.

Obviously, there is going to be a bit of homerism when it comes to the announcing, but in this instance, there were a few things that the Jackets’ announcers were blissfully unaware of.

First of all, the hit was not clean. Not even close. Stralman clearly led out with his knee, and he definitely came within a few centimeters of doing some serious damage to the knee of Kane. It was a nasty hit, and the sight of his teammate lying on the ice after a hit like that must have set Brouwer off.

After being issued a multitude of penalties, Brouwer came back in enough time to score the game winning goal in the shootout. It was a surprising move to see Troy as the fourth shooter in the “competition”, but he made the most of it and won the game for his team.

All around, it was a solid effort from a player who has certainly made a big name for himself amongst the Chicago faithful.

The Blackhawks don’t take the ice again until March 2^nd when they play the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum.

Tags: Anton Stralman, Bryan Bickell, Jack Skille, Jake Dowell, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Raffi Torres, Troy Brouwer