Too Many Giveaways. First goal, Rutta's outlet pass was way too soft and easily picked off, while Davidson chased the wrong guy in front and Anisimov was lazy picking up his man. Third goal, Gustafsson does essentially nothing and loses the puck while Jokiharju chooses to cover a guy with two Hawks already on him, leaving DiGuiseppe wide open.
Gustafsson got away with another couple of terrible turnovers due to what I can only guess is impatience, in which he chose to take the first action that came to mind rather than take a look and take a better, smarter path, which he is fully capable of. Just mentally lazy.
Crap Coverage: Beside the botched decisions described above, the 'Canes' fourth goal was made possible by neither Fortin nor Kampf bothering to get after DeHaan. Baby Huey was a little deep, maybe, to respond, but Fortin was floating in the high slot, something he'd best stop doing if he wants to stay in the lineup. Breakaways are great and fun and all that, but first things first, son - this ain't beer league hockey.
Generally Weak Defence: While Seabrook did make a pair of clutch defensive plays he couldn't make a pass all night. Keith and Jokiharju started well but gave up their gaps an awful lot, collapsing into Crawford's crease far too much. I already spoke of Gus' giveaways but that wasn't all, 'cos far too many of his passes were much too soft, either being picked off or causing the intended recipient to have to break stride to corral the puck. Finally, Rutta and Davidson flailed pretty hard a lot of the time. I liked Davidson joining the rush and getting a couple of good looks for his trouble, but he and Rutes spent too much time chasing Hurricanes forwards around.
No Deception: Each of The Hawks' goals were scored by either driving or crashing the net, which is great I guess, but there were virtually no shots on net off a quick pass, no one-timers to speak of and no plays in which you could say that they took The 'Canes by surprise. On the flip of that, the Carolina forwards were coming back diligently and plugging up the middle of the ice, cutting off passing lanes.
But it wasn't ALL Bad....
Kane played a ridiculous 27+ minutes and looked quite comfortable with that. Hopefully double-shifting Kaner isn't the only item in Jeremy Colliton's playbook, and it was partly down to Kruger's injury, but it almost kinda sorta worked tonight.
Nick Schmaltz was tremendous. He had a shift midway through the first period in which he just kept ending up with the puck, digging, scrapping and making "small" plays to try to create a chance that just astounded me.
Crow was excellent, again, complicit on only one of the four goals against, really. He deserved better.
The Hawks didn't quit. Down four goals early on they DID battle back, which they don't always do. Sure, they fell short, but they competed and left with something to build on.
Trevor Van Riemsdyk played just as stupid a game as any he'd played when he was a Hawk. Is it wrong that this pleases me to no end?
And What Of Jeremy Colliton? Too soon to say. I cannot point to any deployment issues that pissed me off and it was players' decisions/failings that led to any CAR goals. It'll take more than two practices and one game for the new guy to even begin to figure out how to bring the best out of what he's got. Let's see what happens.
Next: an afternoon delight in Philly on Saturday, which sounds like something vile on urbandictionary.com. It might be, actually.
iwrestledabearonce - Gift Of Death
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