I'll kick this off by addressing the offside review that arguably shifted the momentum in The Hawks; favour; all those opposed can suck it up. The Hawks were on that side of one of these "inconclusive" reviews a few weeks ago, so balance has been restored. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar summed up the non-importance of the call:
"That give them a little life," Bednar said. "It's what we do after that that bothers me.
Quite right, sir, quite right.
It's late, so here are just a few Bits:
It wasn't that The Hawks were down and out for much of the game but they did appear to lack any willingness to see their plays through. There were a lot of poor passes, fumbled passes, guys just slightly out of position and lackadaisical defensive assignments. Scott Darling also let past two goals that, most nights, he stops.
Until the last ten minutes The Hawks' best line was Kruger - Hartman - Jurco even though, just like last night, they had zero finish. Jurco sure tried hard, and had his best game as a Hawk, but he simply cannot close.
Not to take anything away from John Hayden's two assists tonight but, sometimes, I think a German Shepherd could rack up 40 points in a season playing alongside Toews.
Once again, The Avalanche chose to pit their top two lines against The Hawks' top six with disastrous results, partly because the Avs' top six are really only four good players and a couple of Guys. On the other side of the tracks, though, The Hawks' fourth line had their heads kicked in for the entirety of the 15 seconds of ice time they received, for whatever that's worth.
Without the offside review coming out in their favour would The Hawks have mounted their comeback, anyway? Maybe, maybe not, but in the second game of a back-to-back against a team that no one gives a shit about, I'm not sure that it matters. It is good to know that they can and will occasionally go nuclear when it suits them.
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