Blackhawks-Senators: Chicago Loses Burish, Still Plays Physical

With their physicality subdued by the placing of Adam Burish on injured reserve, the Chicago Blackhawks rallied to play one of their more bone-crushing games of the season on Wednesday evening. The slashing play led to a hard fought 2-0 victory, and gave many fans hope that this is one small step for the Blackhawks going forward. This was not the Blackhawks style of play. Heck, it wasn't even the Ottawa Senators style of play. Yet, the game plan by Ottawa seemed to encourage chippier play to get Chicago out of rhythm. It worked only a handful of times, as Chicago controlled the overwhelming majority of play on both sides of the ice. The Blackhawks scored their only non-empty netter on a power play flutter goal by Patrick Kane. The rest was scraped up by Cristobal Huet's stellar play and the surprising footwork of Brent Sopel and Matt Walker, two defenseman that have struggled mightily at times this season. Both men came together to play one of their finer games of the year. One of the ... (link)