Just Bad: Islanders 7, Hawks 3

Bad Defensive Coverage.  Rutta and Forsling were eaten alive and the rest weren't a lot better.  It was nice for Gustafsson to notch a couple of points in his first NHL game in over 20 months but he was garbage in his own end, too.  Waaaay too many odd-man rushes, virtually unopposed.
Bad Penalties.  Were any of those necessary?  Lazy play, using their arms and not their legs to keep up with their opponents, will always end in tears.
Bad Goaltending.  This game took the bloody biscuit in this category, underlining the fact that without Crawford The Hawks are sunk.  Okay, given the myriad other issues with this squad they might be done-for even with Crow, but it's clear that neither Forsberg nor Glass are legit NHL starters and maybe not even capable backups in the long run.  Both of these fellas made some fine saves tonight but they also coughed up three softies.  Not good enough.
Bad Transition.  Good lord, did The Hawks have any clean breakouts tonight?
Bad Offensive Execution: It's the same old song here - poor positioning and bad timing, as well as being too static when they set up in the offensive zone.  There were exceptions, of course, but for the most part The Hawks' offense was unimaginative, predictable and doomed to fail.

Was anything Not Bad?
Kane was terrific.  Sadly, Hartman and Schmaltz were rarely willing or able to keep up with him.  Things improved with Sharp inserted in Harts' place but even that was too little, too late.
Saad certainly worked hard, but his efforts were largely individual ones.  He drove The Isles' net harder than any other Hawk but couldn't make a pass to save his life and rarely got a shot away.
That's about it.

A missed opportunity, for sure, what with The Islanders struggling defensively. Luckily for the Brooklyn Boys they caught a team in even worse nick than themselves.

To make the playoffs The Hawks are going to have to win roughly two of every three games from here on in, and I'm not convinced they've got in them to fundamentally change the way they're playing to get that done.  I hear a lot of post-game droning about "getting past this loss and looking to the next game" but that mostly ends up with the same guys doing the same things and achieving the same result.  How about focusing on the game that they're currently playing?  Start there.  Sweet Jesus.