Niklas Hjalmarsson, Marian Hossa Pace Chicago Blackhawks to First Win

 The Blackhawks' first win of the 2010-2011 season will forever be shrouded in controversy. Regardless of the game misconduct penalty and possible suspension of Niklas Hjalmarsson, the 4 – 3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres will be celebrated in Chicago as the Hawks even up their record to 1-1-1.

The Hawks received great performances from their rookie defencemen, namely Nick Leddy netting his first career NHL goal. Corey Crawford also bounced back quickly after going down 2 – 0 in the first 3 minutes of the game. However, the MVP of the game, with the continuation of a stellar opening week, was Marian Hossa, netting two goals in a stellar offensive performance.

Everyone contributed to the first win of the season, and a big road win moving forward with 5 of their next 7 games being against division rivals. There has been widespread concern, if not some panic, about the way the Blackhawks have performed thus far, and while some questions remained, many were answered in HSBC Arena. The Hawks offense can still roll like it used to, from all lines, positions, and players; and special teams can step up when they need to on both sides of the puck.

Overall, this wasn't a great win, but a good win that the Hawks definitely needed to gain confidence and momentum early in this season defending their title run last year. Kaner bagged his first goal to cut the deficit in half to 2-1 in the first, with Leddy scoring his career first goal early in the second to tie it at 2. The rest of the game was, at least offensively for the Hawks, the Marian Hossa show. He skated extremely hard up and down the ice, played great fundamental hockey at both ends, and scored two goals, including the game winner, to bring the score to 4 – 2, where it stayed until Connolly redirected a feed through the crease to make the tally 4 – 3, where it would stay until the final horn sounded.

Now, onto “the” hit. This will spark much debate over the next few weeks and already has on Twitter and all over the Internet. What I saw from the replay was that Hjalmarsson hit Pominville from the side, not behind, there was no intent to injure, and the only illegal action was that the hit itself was too early. I have seen many people complaining that the hit was vicious, malicious, dirty, from behind, to the head, with intention to injure, on a player who was nowhere near the puck...the list goes on. I invite you, regardless of what side of the argument you are on, to watch the replay extensively as I have before you make your conclusions. Was it an illegal hit? Yes, no doubt about it. But was it dirty, or malicious, or with intent to injure? Not in the least.

The fact is, Hjalmarsson coasted most of the way in from the blue line when he lined up the hit, and while he timed it wrong, his intent was to break up the play and keep the puck in the offensive zone. The puck was coming to Pominville when Hjalmarsson hit him, and that is a penalty. However, that is a two minute minor or four minute double minor at most for interference, not a five minute major for boarding.

That being said, under Section 6 Rule 41.1 – Boarding of the NHL rulebook, the referees were within their rights to call boarding on Hjalmarsson and indeed by doing so were within their rights for calling a Game Misconduct as well due to the nature of the resulting injury. Though I disagree with the severity of the call, it is in the rulebook to call the play as such. However, what I expect will be a three game suspension will be unmerited by Hjalmarsson and will likely be used to avoid issues when the Sabres play the Blackhawks on their home ice in three games on Saturday.

What is disturbing is how a marginally clean hit brings out the worst in fans, calling for blood in a biblical, eye-for-an-eye sense. This is not the same as Wisniewski's hit on Seabrook last year as some are claiming. There was extreme malicious intent in that hit, with Wisniewski leaving his feet, leading with his fists to the head, and gaining speed in the run up to the hit. Again, please watch the replay and judge for yourself, but do so without bias and watching carefully what actually happened and not what it looked like at the time.

All of that being said, I wish Pominville the best and hope that the fact that he didn't go to the hospital is a sign that he was not too badly injured.

This was a big win for the Blackhawks tonight, and hopefully a sign of things to come as they move forward to their match up against the Nashville Predators at 7:30 on Wednesday night at the UC.