Despite the result and despite signaling some legit issues, there are several positive takeaways from this match.
1) The Hawks are scoring
2) Henri Jokiharju looks to be the Real Deal
3) The Hawks battled back in each of their first three games. One could view that as less than good, but I'm choosing to believe that The Hawks have somewhat more resolve than they've displayed the last couple of seasons. They're battling hard, for now, anyway.
Let's get to The Bits
The first ten minutes of the game was perhaps the best game The Hawks have played in a year. Sure, it's a pity that they failed to maintain that relentless pressure but, even with the lulls and lapses, The Hawks' offensive game has been surprisingly good.
Cam Ward, on the other hand, was confounding. While he made a handful of excellent stops half of the goals he allowed looked quite saveable. John Tavares is undeniably great but even he shouldn't be scoring on the short side from that angle and 4.62 / 0.843 is not a stat line I'm at all comfortable with. It feels weird to type this and even to think this, but I'm looking forward to Bergie getting a start, soon.
Come at me, bro'.
Erik Gustafsson defied all logic & predictions by logging a third consecutive solid effort. No significant errors, unforseen poise in all aspects of his game and the best Hawks d-man where breakouts were concerned. Proceed, Gus.
Dominik Kahun took a step forward tonight with two helpies and a great chance in the second period. The only thing better than his pass to DeBrincat was the look on his face after the goal.
Henri Jokiharju appears to have shaken off all of the apprehension he was carrying during the preseason. He made only one serious error and notched three primary assists. The only thing keeping Hank off the PP unit is Q's loyalty/comfort where Keith & Seabrook are concerned, and that could change really fast.
Alex DeBrincat suffered through an uncharacteristically weak game. Yes, he scored, a tap-in that was far more about Kahun's sweet pass, but DBC was yippy off and on throughout the contest.
A topsy-turvy game for Brandon Manning. He had three good looks, one of which resulted in a goal, but was wildly inconsistent in his own end. Edzo likes that Manning brings a little snarl to the backline and that's fair enough, but tonight it took him all of 20 seconds to give the puck away with a mindless, no-look evacuation play. A little later he attempted another clearing play, straight up the middle (which is bad enough) that instead struck Saad in the head or upper body (which is definitely bad). He completed the trifecta on Matthews' second goal, caught standing alone at the edge of The Hawks' net, too slow and too far away to take away Matthews' chance, there.
Duncan Keith, too, had an up-and-down game, turning in some not-great shifts in which it took a few tries to clear his zone (or The Leafs scored) but, on the flip, he's actually getting shots through to the net! Last season that was as rare as Pope shit.
The Power Play took a step backwards tonight. While they've still yet to score any PP goals both units were moving the puck extremely well and getting good chances in the first two games. Tonight, though, looked a lot like the PP we've endured for the last two or three seasons: too static, too rigid in their positioning and taking predictable shots from predictable locations. Despite failing to cash in either the OTT or STL game, I loved the puck movement and that they were just kind of freestyling out there. It sure looked tougher to defend against than what they got up to tonight.
And so, we'll reconvene on Thursday (or more likely Friday 'cos I have a late game on Thurs), with a trip to Minny to reacquaint with the annoying Wild. Over & out.
Sixes and Sevens
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