Shambling: Devils 4, Hawks 1

This one falls somewhere between "frustrating" and "sickening", with a dash of "discouraging" tossed in for good measure.  I wish I could have found a photo of a Hawks player stepping on the puck or passing the puck directly to a NJD player, because that would have illustrated what went on tonight perfectly, and I could just stop typing.

* The Hawks played one good period, although the twist tonight was that it was the second period in which they dominated, as the usual pattern is to cobble together an offensive push in the third.  Whatever, the result was the same, although the fact that they regressed in the third was especially stupefying.
* No one made a clean pass outside of the second period, not when it mattered in the slightest, anyway.
* DeBrincat skating on the third line was an utter waste.  Meanwhile, Coach Q pressed on with Sharp, Bouma and Hayden alongside Toews & Saad with predictable non-results.
* Ridiculous turnovers abounded.  Sharp, Hartman, Oesterle (who couldn't even get the puck cross-ice to Keith), Panik and Forsling (twice!) all made horrible, unforced turnovers that resulted in a chance or a goal for The Devils.

Something has to change.  The Hawks penned The Devils in for the majority of the middle frame, crushed them in shots and Corsi (a whopping 63% for) but were done in by 40 minutes of zero urgency, dubious shot selection, very little net-front presence and egregious, unforced errors.  What's more is we have players who can and should be producing chances and goals a lot more than they have been yet, looking at what Saad, Panik, Sharp and Hartman have contributed, what we have is another line+ of guys.  No wonder Q is comfortable inserting Bouma or Hayden on the top line - you can hardly tell the difference.