The King Isn't Dead But He Might Be in Trouble: Hawks 3, Kings 0

That was better.
The Hawks may have laid back a little more than I'd like after crushing The Kings in the first period, but I mostly liked what I saw.  Toews scored his first of the year and Large Arthur kept his streak alive.  Onwards:
Hossa was a beast.  Not always fully in control or appearing to have a plan, but he charged hard all evening.  His short pass to Anisimov was brilliant, unexpected and welcome.
The Defense did a good job for the most part, with Kempny looking as comfortable as I've seen him, so far.  Only Soupy's whatever-that-was into Keith's shinpads marred an otherwise excellent showing.
Schmaltz had some of his best shifts as a Hawk tonight. There might just be something there.  I liked the Motte-Kruger-Hartman trio in preseason but I liked Schmaltz in Hartman's stead even better.
The Forwards, in general, did a good job against the fearsome Kings defense, happily taking the middle when those brutes tried to pinch them to the boards.  I didn't catch who Motte scooted between in the second period but I assume they'll be looking at video tomorrow.
The Kings looked rather toothless tonight and, upon inspecting their roster, concluded that their forwards consist of three studs and nine fourth-liners.  As a team, though, they're so darn good defensively that they usually don't pay their lack of depth, so I don't know if this was an off night or if The Hawks have them figured out....all I know is that I didn't expect it to be this easy.

Two in a row for Crawford.  Toews and Hossa were very good tonight, but hopefully this marks Crow getting things fully on-track.