Yesterday was our Semi Annual Blackhawks – Penguins game at the United Center (I say semi because for some reason the NHL thinks it makes more sense to play teams in your division 6 times a year than play a home-and-away with every team in the league).  The depleted Penguins forced Overtime with a Brent Sterling goal late in the 3rd period but weren’t able to put away the game while on the power play.  The Hawks won the game on a Patrick Kane shootout goal with all other shooters getting stopped.  For the game being the only matchup all year of the past two Stanley Cup champions there was little hype for the game and it didn’t really feel like a big event.  Nonetheless it was good to see the Pens go down to the wire even if they didn’t get the full two points.

The Shootout:

A lot of people aren’t a fan of the NHL’s use of the shootout to settle tie games, I’m not one of them.  I like the idea that a regular season hockey game has finite amount of time and the Shootout is always entertaining.  I’m just hoping since Patrick Kane won the game he celebrated at Stanley’s agin.