Power Restored: Hawks 6, Rangers 3

Early in the first period my electricity briefly went off and I had to horse around to get the furnace restarted.  After reviewing the tapes it was apparent that it was a period worth missing, anyway.  However, as the house heated up, so did The Hawks.  I assume this was entirely coincidental.

* Artem Anisimov.  Yeah, he's slow as hell and isn't so good at those faceoffs but, boy, has he been working the front of the net like a champ the last several games.  As long as his big body is allowed to hang out there his strength and his hands will continue to ca$h in the goals.  Also, while he was below 50% on those faceoffs, he always seemed to win the ones that mattered.  That was as perfect a game as one can expect from Large Arthur.
* DeBrincat was good, finally got some significant power play time and continued to surprise me with his aggressive and often effective forechecking.  More, please, and in the top six, if you don't mind; he's being wasted on the third/fourth line.
* Patrick Kane was better, but he still seems not-quite-right.  His passing has not been up to his usual standards, his shooting mediocre and his judgement a bit suspect for about two weeks, now.  He just hasn't always appeared fully invested in what was going on.  Last night saw an improvement in all those areas, even with a couple of ain't-give-a-damn passes and a pair of simply dumb shots, but he can and will be better.

* Nick Schmaltz was, I thought, the second best Hawk in this game.  Thinking back to around this time last year, he had one move, the old Mats Naslund get-the-zone-curl-back-and-look-for-a-pass schtick.  This year, he hardly ever does that, instead usually choosing to barge deep into the offensive zone, trying to set up camp below the goal line and do his passing from there.  He's just so much more confident, isn't shying away from contact like he had been (which might be a mistake, but that's not for now) and has a much wider array of plays he's willing to try.  If it weren't for Anisimov carrying the mail right now I'd campaign for a DeBrincat-Schmaltz-Kane combo.  Yeah, it would be the smallest line in the NHL, but these three all play bigger than they are, and I wanna have a longer look at Schmaltz setting up DBC.
* Brandon Saad.  I hesitate to say he's been bad, but he hasn't been good either.  Having had only one really good game in the last 3½ weeks should be bugging him as much as it's bugging me.
* John Hayden came through with exactly the kind of goal one expects from him given his location in the lineup.  He was well-positioned and did a great job to lift Shatnerkirk's stick, outmuscle him, and get the shot away.  He could shape up into a pretty effective blunt instrument.

* Goose Forsling.  Despite a pretty shaky first period (from what little I saw and, in his defense, everyone in red was pretty poor in the first) he had his best game in ages, breaking up numerous plays with a good, active stick.  His positioning was decent, too.  Could be an anomaly, but one hopes he's being coached in these areas and is applying himself, finally.
* Cody Franson.  Not perfect, and that back-pass in the first would have gotten Murph or Kemps stapled to the bench for the duration, but he's so good along the other guys' blue line I think you've got to keep him in the lineup.  That low, hard shot has led to many primo rebounds.  How is it that he shoots half as often but records a shot-on as often as Keith and Seabrook?  He just does. 
On the topic of Franson v. Seabrook: that's how you execute a last-ditch bellyflop.  Franson kept his eyes on what was happening and used his stick and/or legs, ultimately, to break up the play, while Seabrook's plan appears to be to flop, hope for the best and take the rest of the night off.
* Jan Rutta just had his two worst games, back-to-back.
* Seabrook played a team-low 16:26 on the back end.  I won't get my hopes up that he's blown his cover and that "circumstances" kept him off the ice more than usual, but a girl can dream...
* Corey Crawford.  He did what he had to do and not much else, keeping The Hawks in it during that abysmal first period, but let a few softies in later on.  That's fair enough, as he's stolen more than his share of games in this young season, but I rather hope it's not something we need to worry about.
* Lance Bouma.  I'm unsure of what he does beyond tearing around, laying a few hits and crashing the net.  He has no shot, hands so hard that every pass bounces off of his stick and he's a bad penalty killer.  Sorry, just had to get that out.

The Penguins, then, on Saturday.  It won't be another 10-1 affair (unless The Hawks are really bad... ha ha) since we won't have poor Antti Niemi to slap around. Better be ready, boys.