* While Crawford did make many fine saves, many of which he shouldn't have had to make if the guys in front of him had their act together, two goals were squarely on him, and were both borne of momentary indecision. First, he half-challenged Schwartz, and then didn't really do anything at all, allowing the little fella to easily swoop around him. Second, on the Brodziak goal, he seemed unsure whether to square up to the shooter or to pay attention to Tarasenko coasting into the slot. While Brodziak's shot was terrific and he might not have stopped it anyway, Crow has got to commit to the shooter in this situation. If he was wavering because he didn't trust Forsling to take away the pass we've got a big problem.
* How many times in recent years have The Hawks played like garbage after anything more than two days off? Does it really take 50 minutes to skate off four days' rust?
* TOO MANY unforced turnovers! Every defenceman except Murphy (!) committed at least one and Seabrook looked determined to set a modern-day record for coughing up the puck under zero pressure. His pass to an empty corner while on a power play was....breathtaking (or maybe I couldn't breathe because of all the vomiting).
* Only Toews' line was putting in consistent shifts, at least until the final ten minutes when Kane suddenly became interested, but even their efforts were undone repeatedly by their D making bad passes, lazy passes in which they just shoved the puck to their nearest teammate regardless of what direction they were heading or if that player was being forechecked, or simply looking at the puck until a Blues player relieved them of it.
* On the subject of lines, I sincerely hope that Coach Q didn't scratch Kero because he loves the chemistry of the fourth line, because they were beyond awful tonight. It's also pretty crap that Kero was airdropped in 2C last weekend, it didn't work out, and then he gets scratched because the coach deployed him north of his talent level.
Still....
* Most of the final ten minutes were pretty good, assisted mightily by a power play, but they maintained power play-like pressure after that, causing The Blues to take more penalties.
THAT. DO THAT.
They have to use their speed to force the other teams' hand, to wear them down and to generate chances. Why does it so often seem like The Hawks figure this out only after a game is out of reach?
* Despite being held accountable for the turnover that led to the Tarasenko goal, Ansimov wasn't bad. Why was Seabrook passing to a guy in traffic, anyway?
* DeBrincat was tremendous with the puck and a disaster without it.
Coming Up: a stern talking-to, Edmonton tomorrow night and, we assume, Forsberg in net. Get it together guys and let's not be The Oilers' huckleberry.
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