GLENDALE, Ariz. — Saturday’s 3-2 Blackhawks win in Arizona transcended its status as just another regular-season game.
On that, all agreed.
“With how loud the crowd was, chants going back and forth especially in overtime, it was exciting,” Brandon Saad said. “It felt like a playoff game almost.”
“People got their money’s worth tonight, no question,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Thought the overtime was fantastic. The shootout, the quality of our guys — I think Tazer beat the goalie three times — it’s unbelievable. Nice to have those guys. But I thought we played well enough. You felt even though we didn’t score in overtime, the Hockey Gods were going to take care of us.”
“That was probably the most exciting game this year, I would say,” Corey Crawford added, to no dissension.
The rare sellout crowd of 17,125, roughly evenly divided between Coyotes and snowbird Blackhawks fans, created a postseason-style atmosphere not unlike a college football bowl game (one of the relevant ones, that is). And they had plenty to cheer for.
Crawford and Antti Raanta stole the show — and the postgame headlines — with their combined 83 saves, and some of the saves they both made will be repeated on highlight reels and pregame hype videos for years to come.
But they couldn’t have made so many saves if there weren’t so many shots and chances, and both teams’ forward groups deserve full credit for that.
Many teams around the NHL have struggled sluggishly in their first games back from the long break. The Hawks certainly didn’t. From Brandon Saad to Alex DeBrincat to Kirby Dach to Dominik Kubalik, it seemed as though nearly half the team enjoyed excellent, standout individual performances.
And the Coyotes matched that. Taylor Hall looked like his old MVP self; Conor Garland, Arizona’s own Kubalik, was also brilliant.
“It felt really fast both ways,” Colliton said. “They skated really well. I thought we skated really well.”
The 3-on-3 overtime period, moreover, harked back to the early days of the new format, when end-to-end recklessness was the only strategy NHL stars knew. It was a perfect real-life argument for extending OT to 10 minutes, an idea that already has a lot of support among players — even though the following shootout was almost as high-quality, too.
The fact Saturday’s game concluded the three-game season series between the Hawks and Coyotes is a shame, considering the anticipation that would surely swirl around any rematch after that bonanza.
Yet it seems the red-hot Hawks, suddenly pounding on the door of a playoff spot, have developed a Midas touch when it comes to producing unforgettable hockey games.
They entered the break with a dominant win over the Jets, one that seemed to cement the realness of this season turnaround, and then a highly emotional day celebrating both Patrick Kane and Joel Quenneville.
They exited it with one of the most intense, well-played regular season games in years.
And those latter two contests somehow came against the Panthers and Coyotes, two of hockey’s most irrelevant franchises. Imagine what’ll happen this week against the rival Wild and historic Bruins.
The Hawks’ playoff odds are up to 45.8 percent (per MoneyPuck), but with still 30 games remaining, that exact number isn’t so critical. The important thing is that the Hawks are legitimately in the race, and that they are — far more plausibly than their mirage of contention last year, too.
As this season transforms from monotonous to fascinating, from subdued to fervent, practically overnight, February — and March, and April — is shaping into a thriller of a stretch run.
