Only The Toews Line looked kinda half decent throughout the match and, even then, those three had a lot of pucks behind them, were arriving where the puck was rather than where it was going. As for the other, Kampf's line had one, maybe two good spins. Kruger's group had a pair of fine shifts including an utterly dominant one in which they somehow managed to not record a shot on goal. Apart from that one in which Kane clanked one off the post in the second Strome's trio was invisible until the third period, during which they had a few good looks, and this line was -2 on the night. Not even remotely enough.
Despite Combining For Six Giveaways I thought Murphy and Dahlstrom had a very good game, playing almost exclusively against The Islanders' lethal Bailey - Beauvillier - Barzal line. Even against these Killer Bees they notched the highest Corsi-for ratings among Hawks d-men, and by a large margin, too.
Forsling Was The Worst Hawk, by far, bobbling the puck, losing practically every battle and sending panicky "passes" to empty space. His lazy penalty late in the second set the stage for Barzal's second tally of the night. Hurry back, Hank Jokiharju....
Collin Delia, however, single-handedly stole a point for The Hawks tonight, making a whopping 48 saves, directing his rebounds somewhat better than he has been able up 'til now and done in on a couple of oddball goals - one that was bunted in out of the air and another after he'd had his stick knocked out of his grasp. My only nit-pick where Delia is concerned is that he was not handling the puck well behind the net with several iffy and/or unpredictable passes.
So, really, to leave Long Island with a consolation point is a fortunate result.
Next: Sunday vs. the Penguins who are riding a seven-game win streak. What a perfect opportunity to be the assholes who mess that up.
Robbie Dupree - Steal Away
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