The Honeymoon Is Over: Panthers 6, Hawks 3

I hoped it wouldn't happen but I kinda thought it would - The Hawks lost the focus they'd had the last few games.  While they were okay in fits & starts The Panthers were sharper, more alert and better able to pounce on the opportunities that arose.  The Hawks seemed tired....not physically, really, but it often looked as if they were acting on the first impulse that occurred to them and not bothering to take a second look to see if a better avenue was available.
Cam Ward didn't have his best tonight, not especially mindful of his positioning and he made a mess of things on Hawryluk's first goal, letting himself get caught in-between.
Carl Dahlstrom wasn't super sharp either, blowing a tire (maybe with some help, hard to tell for sure) on that first FLA goal and apparently unaware that McCann was heading to the net to score the decisive, momentum-killing goal.
Toews' Line Was Out Of Sorts, skating hard enough, trying stuff, but their timing was all messed up, gacking passes, whiffing on shots...
The Only Plus Players For The Hawks were Murphy and Strome which is exactly how it looked to me in real time.  Granted, Strome's first assist was a right-place-right-time deal but he was there, right, and his pass to Murph was tremendous.  As for Murph, a couple of points and four hits makes for a good day at the office.
Is John Hayden Hurt or did he commit some terrible mischief to be scratched in favour of used-up Chris Kunitz and shoot-first-from-anywhere Brendan Perlini?  I've been generally in agreement with Coach Colliton's deployment but these two, buddied up with Nilsson making his NHL debut tonight, made for a rather weak fourth line, even by fourth line standards.

Oh well, we weren't going to win the next 40 games but it is disappointing to see The Hawks backslide so soon, and against some low-hanging fruit like FLA.  I guess they just started their holiday-days-off a day early.

Next: At home vs. Minnesota on Thursday, in an attempt to reclaim their recent mastery over Central Division foes.  Can't wait to see Seabrook sweating gravy.

The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over