Do You Want it Or Not?: Hawks 5, Sharks 2 and Wednesday's Big Boy

Right off, The Hawks played a good game on Wednesday.  Not great, but pretty good.  The Sharks weren't entirely terrible, but there were a few factors that kept them on the outside looking in.
- How did The Sharks reel off six road wins in a row when coach Peter deBoer is apparently unwilling to match lines even when at home and with last change?  I would have to dip into the archives to see what the nature of those six wins were but I'd hazard a guess that The Sharks were playing some fine hockey, 'cos their coach isn't doing them any favours.  Please note that when deBoer coached The Devils they were awful, and now they're not.  Hmmm...  What is with these Sharks coaches and their stubbornness?  It took Todd McLellan three years to realize that trotting out his top line against Toews always ended with his top trio getting pantsed.
- Martin Jones was not very good, dropping for everything and kinda just waving at the puck.
- The Sharks, as a group, appeared to be only intermittently interested in winning this game and, when they did get some momentum going, The Hawks were in lead-protection mode.  That's going to end in tears more often than not.
- Apart from having consistently spectacular facial hair, what is Mike Brown for?

                                                      Pistols at dawn, Flashman!
- In the last two games Ryan Garbutt has been alright.  Maybe not top line alright, but not a mess, entirely.  He did a few selfish things vs. Vancouver but that little flick pass to Toews last night was subtle and smart, qualities not heretofore part of Garbutt's oeuvre.
- Oh, Trevor Daley, could you consider actually hitting the net with a shot one of these days?
- Was Jonathan Toews in a funk because Duncan Keith was out of the lineup?  Could be a coincidence but, even though the team had a couple of shaky games since Keith's return from injury, Toews is getting ever closer to his usual form.  If there is any merit to this...I don't know why, exactly.  It would be something more subtle than I'm able to distinguish, at least right now.  I think the other defensemen are also doing a better job now that Keith is back and doing Keith things; now those other guys don't have to think that they should or can do the stuff Keith does.
Either that or ROZSIVAL.  Yeah, right.
- I kinda think that with Tanner Kero what we see now is pretty much what we're going to get, as in I don't see him progressing north of the third line on this club.  That said, what I see of Kero I don't mind at all.  Every team needs a couple of guys like Kero and he actually does it pretty well.  I guess having 4 or 5 guys doing that job (plus one that is trying but failing) is a little excessive, but that's not for now.  Kero's tip that just by chance hit Martin Jones was very good, very good indeed.  If he can keep that sort thing happening we may soon bid adieu to A. Shaw.

As mentioned above, this lad subjected us to several weeks of sub-par play, something that probably bugged him a lot more than it bugged Hawks fans.  Often, as Toews goes so go The Hawks, and that may well have been the effect of Toews and his linemates being outplayed most nights had it not been for the so-called second line carrying the mail so ably.  I don't know what was going on with Toews - it could just have been one of those deals where a few mistakes or bad bounces start to get on a player, and the stick is gripped a little tighter and it becomes really tough to do what normally comes naturally . And you know Toews was pissed off about it, what with him dropping the gloves twice in recent weeks, probably as much out of general frustration as anything. The good news is that Jonathan Toews isn't going to shrug and just let it happen (hi, Alex Semin!), and that's just one of the qualities that make him such a great player and leader.  May we resume our regular programming, now?

                                                            Welcome back, Cap'um.