The Straws That Have Been Stirring The Hawks' Drinks all showed up tonight. Toews, Kane, DeBrincat, Crawford and Gustafsson....all excellent. I'm slightly worried that when one, two or all of these guys go off their boil we'll be lacking much secondary scoring, but let's maybe cross that bridge when we come to it.
Additionally, we got a great game from Nick Schmaltz, who had been a little wishy-washy in the last couple of affairs. His puck protection and the pass to Fortin for goal #2 was terrific.
Take Note: Erik Gustafsson led all Hawks in icetime, as it bloody should be the way he's been performing. I'm still pessimistically waiting for the huge regression but enjoying watching this kid play out of his mind in the meantime.
Anything Here That Was Not So Good?
Sure. Brandon Saad kinda failed to maintain his momentum after two very good games. He wasn't awful, by any means, just not as good. And where Brandon Manning is concerned, unless I indicate otherwise, let's just assume that he played another garbage game in which he failed simple plays in both zones. Without his shambling giveaway followed by no attempt to pick up a man, any man, Crow coulda had a no-no tonight.
Let's not forget that The Rangers are in the midst of a major rebuild. They have some good pieces in Zuccarello and Zibinejad, and that Nick Pionk might be an actual thing, but their roster is bulked up with old dudes and role players at the moment. Brendan Smith played nineteen minutes, fer goodness' sakes, and he's even worse than Manning. This was a should-win, a must-win, and The Hawks executed very well.
So it's off to Shit City for another tilt against the Purina-fed Blues, where their slack-jawed fans will blow the importance of the game all out of proportion. Still, it took overtime to subdue those jackasses in each of the two games already in the books, but Cam Ward was still finding his feet at that time. If The Hawks do what they've been doing the last two games we'll be in good shape.
Clutch - Sink Em Low
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