Okay, not Cam Ward's fault. He kinda made a mess of that side of the net stuff-in and a couple of his puck exchanges were sketchy but, otherwise, he played a fine game. It's a pity that the rest of The Hawks only showed up for, what....fifteen minutes?
Not going to pick this one apart because this was a failure on practically the entire team's part, although some surely did fail more than others.
The Hawks' defence was simply awful. Slow, hesitant, out of position and too often just standing around. Check the tape on Cirelli's goal, with Gustafsson leaning on the back of the net and Jokiharju pushing Cam Ward off the post - what the hell was all that about? Meanwhile, NO Hawks forwards had picked up anyone, instead just standing by, waiting for what, I do not know. I saw Schmaltz' and Anisimov's backs more than once while a TB shot scooted past Ward.
Each of the TB goals, except maybe Hedman's, displayed a similar level of ain't-give-a-damn.
Breakouts were sloppy and subsequently exploited by The Lightning. That'll happen sometimes but, when it does, you have to try something different. The Hawks did not try something different, apparently content to keep sailing against the same rocks, again and again.
The Hawks even set a modern record by allowing a whopping 33 shots in the second period alone.
As ridiculous as all that is it's frustrating to note that The Hawks dominated the last half of the first period and the final few minutes of the game. Why just then? Isn't anyone putting these guys' feet to the fire, at least in some way that they'll respond to?
Anything good? Sure, Saad had his best shifts of the season thus far, although he seemed to lose interest in the latter stages (who can blame him?) and, having hit the post twice in one period, one fears that it'll be another one of those years for him. I thought Rutta was quite good, and Davidson was at least okay, far more than I can say for the rest of them.
Kane was trying and started some interesting plays but his linemates were nowhere to be seen much of the time. He fared better while double-shifting with Kruger & Fortin, fer goodness' sakes. Yet, his only reward was a team-low -3, not at all indicative of his effort.
Hole - Awful
No comments:
Post a Comment