I don't know what it's going to take for this team to score some goals.
Two half-throttle periods followed by a kind of frantic third just isn't going to get the job done.
In the first two frames The Hawks had ZERO primo chances. Not a one. No traffic in front of the net, really, until the third power play and they never looked like scoring at all.
Well, there's yer headline: yet another lacklustre attempt at hockey, far beneath what this lineup should be capable of.
Crawford was excellent, yet again, beaten only (in regulation) by a puck deflected off his own guy. In all but one or two games that Crow has lost there's been some "circumstance" that prevented a victory, be it a bad bounce or a terrible mistake in front of him. He deserves better than his teammates have been able provide.
The Hawks' D was okay, apart from a few conspicuous giveaways - Keith, Forsling and Seabrook all committed unforced errors - and Gustafsson's unfortunate tumble wasn't so great but were overall solid. Manning, though....if he has this much trouble simply getting the puck out of The Hawks' zone how does he manage to cross the street without being killed?
Forsling came to play, though. Yes, he's defensively anemic but boy did he push the play tonight. He was credited with only two shots on net but he was launching bombs on practically every shift in the last half of the game, and had a near-miss on a tip-in attempt in OT. I'll take that trade off.
Adjustments To The Forward Lines in the third period perked things up considerably. Schmaltz had been invisible on L1 and slotting Saad in there brought at least some urgency to that trio. Anisimov - DeBrincat - Schmaltz had a couple of good shifts in that frame, as well, and is probably worth further investigation. Schmaltz and DeBrincat have been MIA for almost the entirety of The Hawks' slide down the standings and I see kicking their asses back into gear as Priority #1 to getting back on track. Kampf, I fear, has been miscast at 2C. He does what he does pretty well, but keying offense isn't something he does well, at least not yet.
Next: Two more sleeps until The Hawks get pummelled by Minnesota. Can't wait.
Flat Eric - Flat Beat
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