Keep Hanging On - Hawks 2, Predators 1

Not perfect but good enough.
More than anything, after the news that Corey Crawford has suffered another concussion and will be out indefinitely The Hawks turned in a gritty performance, front to back, signalling that they're not prepared to just pack it in and mail in a repeat of last season.

Cam Ward was faultless.  Only divine intervention would have prevented Fiala's shot from going in, so I'm very impressed with Wardo bearing down and taking control tonight.  I don't believe Ward has it in him to carry The Hawks too far but if the old warhorse was going to toss in a blinder of a game he could not have timed it more perfectly.
The Hawks' D was better than usual.  Not perfect, as Keith was again defaulting to just flinging the puck up the boards to no one or, worse, to a Predator and Forsling had a particularly nerve wracking shift in the third in which he gave the puck away twice.  Generally, though, the D were pretty good with Murphy and Dahlstrom being especially mindful of net front activity and clearing rebounds aside. Dahlstrom logged a team high 22 minutes and it was he and Murph that got the call for that last frantic shift, so all respeck to Coach Colliton for going with the horses that got you there tonight rather than the ones that have great resumés but haven't done much lately.
Lack Of Finish Was a Little Frustrating as Kahun, who skated and battled well all night, somehow biffed all of his scoring chances, as well as Hayden and Ansimov not getting good wood (or whatever) on the puck when they most needed to.  
In The End we get two points, a shot of confidence and some satisfaction from having defeated one of the top teams in The West, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Next: Thursday in Dallas, likely with Collin Delia making his season debut so as to save Ward for Friday in Denver. Colliton says Kruger has a concussion after his unfortunate collision with our old pal Ryan Hartman, so we can expect Strome to move back to center and Anisimov to draw in at 3C against The Stars.

The Supremes - You Keep Me Hanging On