Happy Birthday, Baby Huey: Hawks 2, Jets 1

For the past two or three years I've slated The Jets organization for doing....nothing.  Apart from jettisoning Evander Kane in exchange for what amounted to Guys they chose to stand pat and not tinker with their lineup a whole lot.  It seemed like lunacy at the time, sticking with the horses that failed to get you in the race, but here they are, leading The Central Division and flirting with first place in The Western Conference.  Blake Wheeler has matured into an all-round leader and must be a massive nuisance to try to defend against.  Patrik Laine is no Auston Matthews but remains a thoroughbred (check the shot he zinged past Jeff Glass) and if Mark Scheifele could manage to walk to his car without injuring himself his name would be 'pon the lips of all hockey reporters, all the time.  Even their Guys are decent, with Man Bun Perreault, Kyle Connor and Joel Armia putting up good numbers.  Add to all this an okay D-corps and Connor Hellebucyk emerging as a bona-fide NHL starter after a bunch of seasons in which The Jets' goaltending was "awful by committee" and you've got a team that improved ridiculously by virtue of simply being patient.  And maybe a little bit lucky, but you kinda need a bit of that, dontcha?  One could even argue that The Jets improved by subtracting non-helpful elements like the aforementioned E. Kane and Andrew Ladd, which at least created the opportunity for their young fellas to get some minutes in.  All respeck to GM Tim Cheveldayoff for not allowing the media and assholes like me to cause him to deviate from his Master Plan.  Stick that in yer pipe, Marc Bergevin.

So, since I'm a full day late on this recap and I just spent 15 minutes praising the team that lost the game, lemme get a few things down and you can get back to your families, alcohol, whatever.
* Jeff Glass had his best game so far.  None of those "accidental" saves, no moments sliding across the crease & out the other side and beaten only by a perfectly-placed laser beam.  Between Glasser and Forsberg we've enjoyed three quality starts in a row from the backup guys.  Can't ask for much more than that.

* David Kampf broke through with a two-point night, including his first NHL goal and the Third Star of the game....all on his 23rd birthday.
* Anthony Duclair was alright.  Picked up a helpie, had a few looks even if he seemed a bit yippy around The Jet's crease.  He may have been responsible for the almost-an-own-goal (although that may well have been Goose missing the attempted pass - could not tell from the replay) but no harm, no foul, and a decent enough debut.

It was a close-run game and one could argue that either team deserved to win, and I'll note that both of The Hawks' goals were a bit fortunate, Baby Huey's being a tip-in and Rutta scoring on an eephus that 99% of NHL goalies save 99.9% of the time.  However, they were good enough to be in it to win it and, they way things have been going, I'll take that.  I still feel like there are three or four forwards underachieving mightily and, if I happen to be right on that count and they get themselves sorted out, we'll be okay in the end.  Until that happens, though, wins like these are precious gifts.

One more game against the inconsequential but still-irritating Red Wings and then it'll be the mandatory five days off for The Hawks, during which time our closest rivals could well leapfrog or gap the idle Hawks.  Gotta get the two points tomorrow.

Sorry for all the late posts, lately.  Work and "stuff".  Gonna be quicker on the draw after the break.