Sometimes You Eat the B'ar, and Sometimes The B'ar Eats You: Lightning 3, Hawks 2

Could have had this one.  Did The Hawks deserve a win?  Maybe not entirely, but to lose the way they did leaves a bit of a sour taste.  Let's go:
* The Hawks played a near-perfect first period, going up 2-0 courtesy of P. Kane and killing off a raft of penalties, including a big 5½ minutes, a chunk of which was 5-on-3.  Perhaps The Lightning were a little flat in the first but, whatever the case, The Hawks lacked that same jump, particularly on the forecheck and when breaking out, the rest of the way.  
* Patrick Kane potted a pair, both nice goals, but he was also guilty of some exceptionally lazy, impatient decisions.  A careless turnover set up The Lightning's first goal and, here and there throughout the match, he just lacked polish.
* Cody Franson's game was even more a case of extremes, as he had a masterful first period highlighted by his confident, accurate quarterbacking on the power play but, like Kane, had his struggles in the second and third.  Franson was at the crime scene for the first Lightning goal, as well, having "raced" back after Kane's giveaway, only to stand in front of Crawford, accomplishing nothing.  Several times in the last half of the game The Lightning exploited Franson's lack of foot speed, sometimes just letting him spin himself in place.
* The Hawks' breakouts early in the game were terrific, as the D always seemed to catch a forward moving past them with some speed, hitting them with a short, safe pass.  Not so much in the late going though, as Tampa's speedier forwards harried The Hawks' D much of the time, frequently pinching off those head-man passes.

* Corey Crawford was fine given what was going on from time to time in front of him.  He looked a bit disordered at times, but his quickness and athleticism bailed him out.  The Kunitz goal looked pretty soft but, to be fair, Crow likely only saw that one at the last moment, what with the wall of blue sweater in front him and Keith outmanned in front of the net.
* Andrei Vasilevskiy, down in the Tampa nets, was ridiculously good, stoning Saad, Panik as well as Kane on a breakaway.  I'm afraid there's no real remedy for that.
* Jan Rutta made a few nice passes but was otherwise pretty poor.  His lazydogging back to the defensive zone and subsequent failure to cover anyone helped make possible the aforementioned Kunitz goal.
* Forsling had some moments both good and bad, but I still liked seeing him play with more urgency and lot less hesitancy than he had been.
* Connor Murphy, however, played as good a game as he's had all season, with good positioning and a great stick, all while playing a team-low (for d-men) 14 minutes.  I thought Anisimov was pretty good, too, this being the best game he's played in which he failed to score.
* Saad and Panik, once again, each had multiple looks but failed to capitalize.  The explosion is coming, and it cannot come soon enough.
* Sticking with Panik, I wonder if he's camping out too far to the side of the net, hoping for some cross-ice stuff and an easy tap-in, because he's rarely close enough to get after a rebound and often finds himself shooting at a poor angle.
* Finally....the penalty in OT.  It was a weak call, with Schmaltz doing little more than waving his stick in front of the Tampa player, the latter's follow through actually being what initiated contact.  There was no chopping motion.  One likes to think that these things even out over the course of a game and throughout a season, but that was a lousy time for the official to make such a crap call.

In some ways The Hawks actually acquitted themselves well tonight, taking the league's best team to OT and at least earning the consolation point.  If they had managed to maintain the intensity and the control that they exhibited in the first period, though, things could have been different.  Sure, Tampa upped their effort, but that's when The Hawks needed to see them and raise them....but they didn't.  Or couldn't.