Somebody Please Tell 'em When The Games Starts: Hawks 5, Stars 3

Just watched this one this afternoon so, yeah, a bit late on the draw, so I plan to keep this brief.  Let's see how that goes.  Straight to The Bits:
First, I thought The Hawks played pretty well.  Not perfect, which you can bet I'll break down below, as all three Dallas goals can be pinned as least partly on bad or lazy play by The Hawks.  Take those away (you can't!) and The Hawks dominated in a thoroughly enjoyable, fast-paced affair.  Hey, maybe they won't sleepwalk until mid-March like they sometimes do.
Kane was named First Star by the Dallas Media, which isn't totally unexpected.  When the home team loses they often seem to just mail in their picks, frequently pinning a medal on the opposing goalie, maybe to suggest that "if it wasn't for THAT guy we woulda had 'em, yup". Sure couldn't say that in this game as, while Crow wasn't awful, a couple of the goals against were soft-ish, so they were left with pin-the-tail-on-the-first-star to make their choice. Anyway, Kane scored a delightful goal and, while he wasn't awful by any means, he wasn't great, either with a few bobbles and a brace of crappy pass attempts.
The Hawks actually got better as the game progressed, something that can only be said for a handful of games this season.  When this occurs it suggests to me that they're actually invested in the game and paying attention, which is great, but...
...two goals against in the opening moments of the second & third periods is unacceptable.  The first was a combo of Seabrook still warming up his motor, apparently, and one of the aforementioned soft goals to get past Crawford.  The second goal was down to lackadaisical coverage by Anisimov & Hjalmarsson.  Keep doing that stuff and you're going to get jumped, especially by a motivated team that probably feels they're better than their record suggests.
Gustav Forsling was bad.  Yeah, I saw his goal, but I also witnessed him being muscled off the puck numerous times and everyone saw his gaffe that set up Seguin's score.  I'm quite used to TVR getting all the rope he wants no matter what shenanigans he perpetrates, but Forsling not paying for such a dumb mistake is a new one.  If Kempny did what Goose got away with his night would have been done, son.

Speaking of 57 Varieties of Whatever, he wasn't a nightmare in this one, scored a goal and was +2. Since I've already started to flatter him I'll add this: his reversals are actually rather good.  Against all logic & expectation they're tight, quick and have gotten him out of trouble more times than I can count.  It's a little thing that he does well, although I would still prefer that he would do at least one BIG thing well, like skate, or think.
Jordin Tootoo: Possession Beast.  All kidding aside, this was probably his strongest game, all 5:40 of it, in which he at least tried to do something other than plod up and down the wing.  Sure, his passes were poor and his timing was bad, but he wasn't straight-up giving the puck away, either.

The Other Fourth Liners, Kero and Hartman were excellent, sporting 79% and 83% Corsi, respectively, even while lugging Tootoo along half the time.  It might be time to reactivate Hinostroza who, even on a bad night, will provide a ton more drive than Tootoo or Dez.  I was pretty hard on Kero those first couple of weeks after his call up but, in his role, he's been incredibly good as of late.  I stand corrected.

Anyway, I rambled on about Kane and the first star, so I'll sort of finish that thought.  It's a tough call as to who the strongest Hawk was in this match since no one was obviously THE difference-maker.  TVR scored a heads-up and very timely goal, and both Hossa and Anisimov  notched a pair of assists, but I liked Hartman, with a goal, consistent forward momentum and, best of all, that diving stick-check in the last couple of minutes.  Great stuff.