About Last Night: Hawks 4, Mayonnaise-slurping Primates 2, and Some Other Stuff

Late, late, late again.  When I was in BC these games would be done by mid-evening but, being back in Ontario now, most Hawks games don't end until 11pm, leaving me too weary to try to be clever.  Also, I'm enjoying the point form stuff or, more correctly, I'm enjoying not writing coherent paragraphs, so this is how it's gonna be.

- To acknowledge the result, The Hawks played well enough to win, for  most of the game, anyway.  The Blues had their moments but, as much as their sparkling record might suggest, they're not there yet and are several pieces away from being a real force that matters.  Despite the score being close and having experienced some flashbacks to last week's debacle, this one felt like The Hawks were in control.  Specific failures to execute aside, The Hawks' passing was better than in the last bunch of games and breakouts were mostly brisk and decisive. Mostly.
- Duncan Keith - - 27 minutes after missing 10 games.  So much for easing him back into things.
- Michal Rozsival...that was about what was expected for his first game this season.  I wasn't sure it would be possible but Rozsie did, in fact, appear to be even slower than he was last year.  His current default speed is probably "stopped" but he has that extra gear called "dead slow".  It wasn't out-the-ordinary awful or anything but it might have been nice for him to have been in front of Crawford trying to disrupt Steen on that first goal.rather than settling for a lousy excuse for a two-pad-slide behind his goalie.
- Toews just gets NUTS when D. Backes is around.  All credit to Backes for successfully causing Toews to lose his composure altogether, as The Hawks need Toews a lot more than The Blues need Backes.  Toews was of little consequence in this game and, as Captain, he needs to not let himself get into positions like that.
- How is Eddie Olcyk always the last person to realize what's happening. On Dano's non-goal the referee was on the phone to Toronto before Edzo said "heyyy..."  
- Given that Marko Dano was "elevated" to the top line and then played less than 6 minutes I expect he will be fine with being "demoted" to the third line where at least he gets 9-12 minutes ice time.  Not much of a reward, there.
- Okay, it's official: Brandon Mashinter is worse than Bollig.  I'm not sure this guy is good enough to play in The AHL, so get him the hell outta Chicago. I've never seen a worse skater at this level and, even if he did know what he should be doing out there (he doesn't) he hasn't got half the skill needed to complete even the most elementary tasks.  Just awful, and he saw more ice than Dano!
- I honestly did not notice Garbutt until the third period, yet he played 9 minutes.
- I didn't hate Teravainen skating with Kruger and Shaw but it still sorta feels like a wasted asset down there.  That kid needs to be in the top six, full stop.
- Once again, the "second" line was The Hawks' best, despite a couple of rough patches.  Panarin looked like he was rushing passes in the first period and Kane seemed a little wary at times.  

No one Hawks player really stood out for me in this game, but one of the coaches distinguished himself rather firmly.

Congrats to Coach Q for deploying the worst player in the NHL last night not once, but twice in the last five minutes of the contest.  Does he not think The Blues can erase a one-goal lead in short order, especially when you choose to essentially put yourself a man down?  Good God, man, they scored 4 unanswered goals to beat his team last week...
It's rare to see Quenneville change the lineup after a win but the only guys to skate this morning were last night's scratches, so maybe, just maybe we'll see Tikhonov or Desjardins draw back in, but I doubt it.

                                    Stop scowling, dummy, you did this to yourself.