The truth is, though, The Hawks needn't have been on the wrong side of this one. Shots were close, chances were closer, but The Hawks made too many bobbles to seal the deal.
Too Much Meh. Only a few Hawks had truly bad nights (Strome, Martinsen, DeBrincat, maybe) but even fewer had a great night (maybe only Toews and Crawford). There were just a lot of seemingly insignificant things that did or didn't happen that added up to an overall weak effort. Saad was flying all night, made a brilliant pass to Toews to put The Hawks up 2-1, but was awkward around the net. DeBrincat was stepping on the puck and lazy on the backcheck. Murphy wasn't terrible but had his weakest game of his short season. Strome couldn't hit water if he fell out of a fuckin' boat. Perlini took a lot of shots, all indiscriminate without a thought to where his linemates were. None of these shortcomings sunk The Hawks on their own but they added up to enough weak, failed or thoughtless plays that led to goals against or opportunities missed. The small plays matter, and The Hawks blew a lot of these details.
Signs Of Life: I thought we exited our zone and moved north as well we've done all year. They're persisting with that silly push-'em-back stuff but at least they were brisk on on-target tonight, actually hitting Kane with a pass when he was already at speed, allowing him a greater chance of barging into The Jets' zone.
Carl Dahlstrom might be alright.
Could We Try Someone Other Than Keith to start OT? I know Gustafsson has his defensive issues but, good lord, so does Keith these days. We're 4-and-5 in OT games and Duncs has been on the ice in only one of those wins but in 4 of the 5 losses. Change it up.
Next: Sunday at home vs. The Sharks. With a little fine-tuning we'll be alright.
Blood Orange - You're Not Good Enough
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