The Blackhawks won their first preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings. We got to see more starters play last night. Wait… I mean the superstars as Johnathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, and Corey Crawford all played last night in the win. We also got to see Brandon Saad out there as well.

The reason I say is this just a taste for the regular season is for those superstars that played but, it was how well everyone played last night. The offense only scored 2 goals but, they were in the offense of zone a lot. They moved the puck around beautifully, there was only one Power Play that they had. They didn’t score but my did they come close. The Blackhawks set up and moved the puck with ease.

The Blackhawks scored from Brandon Hagel. Hagel scored of a mishandle from the Red Wings goalie Johnathan Bernier. Hagel went to his backhand and pulled to his forehand to score the goal. I also want to put in there that the Blackhawks puck handling around the net is amazing it looks like a much of Patrick Kanes out there, it’s really a great site to see.

The Blackhawks also scored from Duncan Keith who was assisted by Patrick Kane and Alexander Nylander. Going through the center ice Nylander passed it to Kane who stick handled himself over the blue line and was in between the dots then, a beautiful backhand pass to Keith who was on the Left Wing boards and loaded up for a hard slapshot that beat Bernier low blocker side. Keith scoring early in the preseason on the Red Wings possible starter is a good feeling for Hawks fans.

Now to move on to the Defense and Penalty Kill. If anyone blames Crawford for the goal on Detroit’s PP you aren’t watching the game or don’t understand the game. Crawford couldn’t make a play on the puck as the puck was deflected on a shot and found Hirose who was wide open and had a wide open net. I thought it was a pass at first but, after the replay it was blocked shot that no one could have done anything about.

With that being said the Blackhawks PK is looking better just had a terrible bounce. Also, didn’t help that the Blackhawks had back to back penalties. The PK looked great as they moved the puck out of the zone most of the time with ease and having an elite goalie helps out to as Crawford did leave his net a couple of time to help the PK. There is still room for improvement but, that take time. We shouldn’t have the worst PK this year maybe the middle of the pack.

With the Defense the Blackhawks are very aggressive and fly to the put and aren’t afraid to lay down the body. Fore checking looks great. Having Crawford and Lehner in net to help bail out the Defense when they do make mistakes.

In, Closing I’m happy to see the Blackhawks win. There is still some rust. But, the bright side is the team is coming together everyday and on the plus the starters and stars want to play in the preseason. The team is coming together. I hope it’s a year to remember.

The next game for the Blackhawks will play against the Stanley Cup runner up Boston Bruins at the United Center on Saturday at 7:30

Written by Kyle Svetich