Mad About the Boy: Hawks 3, Sabrays 1 and Friday's Big Boy

Back in October I made a wager with my friend Winslow, still the only Sabres fan I've ever met, that Buffalo would fail to make the playoffs.  I know, right?  Robin Lehner was injured about 10 seconds after we made the wager and I may have made some remarks about Chad Johnson, pretty much guaranteeing the lad would stand on his head tonight.  
- 45 shots is always a fine thing.  Shooting at 4.5%, not so much.  A blip, most likely, with The Sabres being staffed with perhaps two just-okay five-man units and, as mentioned, Chad Johnson having a fine game.
- Speaking of shots, the Anisimov - Kane - Panarin trio combined for over a third of the total shots for tonight, with Kane notching a whopping nine tries.  Even though these three failed to dent twine it wasn't for lack of trying.
- Was that not a sublime touch pass by Gustafsson to Hjalmarsson?  Wasn't it?  Was that also way too many esses in only two names?  Also, when was he last time Hjalmarsson scored on a wrister?  Ever?
- Anybody notice that Evander Kane played over 23 minutes, more than any other Sabre save Bogosian.  That's a lot of trust being placed in a fella with just 13 points.
- I'm far too lazy and clueless to look this up, but how many of Toews' goals this season have been empty-netters?

The more I see, the more I like.  Phillip Danault looks poised to surpass his directive to "be like Marcus Kruger" which could lead to some hard choices having to be made next summer.  Danualt is actually reminding me a bit of Dave Bolland back when he gave a shit.  Danault is the better skater and never stops moving, but Bolland had better positioning, although I expect Danault will figure that out before long.  With his first NHL goal and fifth point in ten games, here's ya Big Boy.

                                                   Can Marcus Kruger do that?