Eleveneses: Hawks 5, Canadiens 2 and Sunday's Big Boy

So, The Hawks' remarkable win streak continues.  This game featured many of the factors that have contributed to their recent success:

• Consistent play, more or less, up and down the lineup, as well as line combos that Coach Q has resisted tampering with.
• The resurgence of the "top" line.  Toews has been a far more commanding presence of late, getting to the dirty spots and finding the puck more often than he had been.  The Hossa we've become accustomed to is back with as much determination as ever and Andrew Shaw has been playing like he's actually thinking about what he's supposed to be doing.  One feeds off the other, I expect, and that line ticking along as it is forces their opponents to consider two dangerous lines, now.
• All-Universe goaltending from Corey Crawford.  He had to make only a handful of tough saves last night but he's outright stolen a few of these last eleven wins.
• Timing: I think the schedule has helped a bit, as well, with The Hawks putting the boots to a couple of tired looking teams (Les Canadiens last night and The Penguins last week) and just happening to face the hapless Leafs on the second game of a back-to-back.

Last night:

- The Habs didn't make things very difficult.  The Mitchell line was the only Habs combo that appeared to be interested in backchecking and, as a result, we saw the backs of several Habs forwards drifting toward their net as the puck went in (hiya, Dale Weise).

- Erik Gustafsson, I believe, is going to be quite fine.  The expectation was that he would be able to drive the play up-ice, but who knew he would this competent so soon.  He appears to have outstanding vision and, just as important, the confidence to act decisively when he spots an opportunity.  It helps, too, that he's an excellent passer, as we've seen in his last few games with diabolical feeds to Hjalmarsson and Panik.  The other expectation was that he might be defensively suspect but, while he is smallish and sometimes struggles to contain forwards not willing to be denied, his successful pursuit of a rushing Pacioretty suggests that he has the desire to be more than just a puck mover.  So far, Gustafsson has done a much better job than Daley, Rundblad and TVR, all of whom were ahead of him on he depth chart a few months ago.

- That was three solid games in a row from Rozsival. Not perfect, but quite good enough.

- I kinda like that Paul Byron guy. He reminds me of Jocelyn Lemieux, but with better hands.

- A bit of an off game for the third line, I thought, with Desjardins being the most dynamic of those three guys which, and no offense to Des, should never be the case.

Yeah, his goal was a gimme, but he shoulda coulda been the scorer on Toews' goal. Hoss was a beast in this match, which is exactly the way we need him to be.

                                                       I got it, I got it...you got it.