The New Normal: Golden Knights 4, Hawks 2

Last night's nightmare marks yet another garbage effort, making it something like six consecutive games in which The Hawks were found lacking.  This was a golden opportunity to get back into something like a groove, too: a game after a few days rest against a team still finding its feet, with their third-string goalie making his first-ever NHL start.  It should have been easy.
Yet, lately, The Hawks have made most things look difficult.  Quality chances have been scarce by their standards, defensive errors have been legion and I don't know when the last time someone in the top-six has collected a rebound.
I don't know what, exactly, is going on here, but of course I have a few ideas.

* The Hawks couldn't make a pass for the first half of the game and didn't improve much in the late going, either.  I lost count of the number of passes in players' feet, on the wrong side of their body and way-too-soft cross-point passes that left the recipient, who should have had enough time for a good shot or another pass, under pressure from a VGK forechecker.  As in the last game, also, there were far too many path of least resistance passes, in which the puck was dispatched to the nearest teammate, regardless of whether they were ready, being checked themselves or heading in the right direction.
* Were Nick Schmaltz' first couple of games a mirage?  Is he still not quite right after being banged up almost three weeks ago?  Has he lost what little nerve he had at the beginning of the month?  Since returning he's only shown brief flashes or creativity and hasn't won a board battle, period.  Patrick Kane has appeared utterly disinterested a lot, lately, and I dunno if it's because his line hasn't been clicking or if his line isn't clicking because he's only been pushing himself 10% of the time.

Our best at work, being split by A Guy

* Team Defense: it's been poor.  Rutta and Forsling have been the most consistent pairing, recently, which is great for them but, holy shit, if that's the new reality on The Hawks' back end it's gonna be a long season.  Keith's performance has wobbled between "okay" and "brutal" and, as for Seabrook, when his killer move is to flop onto his belly and wave his stick about you really start to question why he's pulling 20+ minutes every game.
* The Toews Line has been posting shots and getting okay possession numbers, but the tangible results just haven't been there.  I wonder if they're leaning too hard on a crash-the-net kind of approach, as that's the line that stands out as being awfully bunched up in front of the opposing net, too close for a short pass or to get much in the way of rebounds.  It just feels like the rewards have not been in line with the effort.
* I've been critical of Coach Q going to the Line Blender™ too soon and too often, but this team is simply flailing and there's been surprisingly little done in terms of line adjustment.  At this point, would it hurt to try pushing DeBrincat up the order, as he's not self-actualizing with Sharp and Anisimov?  Since even the Toews line has failed to produce much, lately, maybe it's time to swap out Saad and Hartman, perhaps, just to see if a change there can spark something. The status quo isn't working, so whatcha' gonna do, Q?

And Foley was clearly drunk last night, wasn't he?