Better, But There's More to Be Done: Hawks 3, Phylers 0

Make no mistake, Corey Crawford won this one for The Hawks.  He was simply brilliant and, while the skaters were better than they have been, lately, had Crow not carried the mail against a somewhat depleted Flyers squad, the result could easily have flipped in Philly's favour.  Here are some quick Bits.
* The changes to the top six were interesting and certainly worthy of a longer look, but failed to accomplish anything concrete.  It's difficult to pinpoint what's not quite right with them, as the effort is there but the results have been hard to come by.  Kane appears to be doing the right things but isn't managing to get his passes through, which could be on him or it could be a case of his linemates not being in the correct position.  It's subtle, and probably really frustrating.  Similarly, Saad and Panik have both been driving hard to the net, creating chances and getting some shots, but have not been able to finish.  I mentioned The Hawks not capitalizing on second chances and that was true again tonight: there's either no one within reach of a rebound or they're not in an ideal position to do much with it.  I'm not sure what else to say about that, so hopefully Coach Q has some ideas.
I'd like to see DeBrincat with Toews & Panik again, and also Saad alongside Schmaltz and Kane.  Give those lines at least another game or two and see what develops.

* The slightly altered D pairings were okay.  Franson had some moments, just being a bit unable to keep up, but he rarely stuck his neck out and played within himself for the most part, so that was good.  His work on the offensive blue line, with hard, low shots on net and some fine keep-ins mitigated any speed-related shortcomings.  The rest were generally okay and I can't say I noticed Seabrook much which, given what he's done recently to attract attention, is a small victory in itself.  One thing is certain: on this night, The Hawks D were better than they've been with Forsling aboard.

* Anisimov has been better in recent games but not so much when on his regular line.  Had Sharp not been kicked in the gut tonight I would not have noticed him at all.  The same goes for Hartman - one could argue that he's being wasted on the fourth line, but what's he done lately to warrant being further up the ladder?  It seems that the bottom six are existing, right now, to fill a bit of time and to augment the special teams.
The annoying Wild are up on Saturday, followed by the enigmatic Canadiens on Sunday, so we're sure to see Anton Forsberg this weekend which, so far, has meant a loss.  Tonight may not have been a perfect effort outside of Crawford, but hopefully The Hawks can build on that, get a little confidence back and maybe find a little more chemistry with the new combinations.