Nevermind that The Hawks once again failed to log a complete game tonight.
Nevermind that a couple of their goals were pretty lucky.
And Nevermind that The Panthers have a ton of holes in their lineup and it's no wonder that they're dead last in The East.
It's more than just the two points, 'cos The Hawks finally, FINALLY showed some resolve, some will to win, and managed to execute. To it, then.
Things Looked Irritatingly Familiar Right Off The Trot. The Hawks had a hard-charging first shift only for FLA gather themselves and then utterly dominate the first period. I won't say that Manning's penalty was the sole cause of the momentum shift, as The Hawks had already begun to fold, but it was certainly inopportune. Worse, though, was the all-too-familiar defensive obliviousness that we've become sadly accustomed to, epitomized by three Hawks players chasing after one Panthers forward, leaving J. McCann to go mano-a-mano with Cam Ward. Just like that and we were down 2-0, like some cruel Groundhog Day sequel.
The Hawks Showed Some Signs of Life early in the second when, first, David Kampf executed a textbook power move through no less a man than Aaron Ekblad and then around James Reimer to bring The Hawks within one. Minutes later, in a role reversal, Kane redirected a Saad pass to tie the score. Then the wheels fell off again.
For The Second Night In A Row Kane missed a defensive assignment, failing to pick up Ekblad who one-timed a crisp pass past Ward. Minutes later, after a power play in which The Hawks held the puck for virtually the entire two minutes yet generated zero legit scoring chances, The Panthers pounced (because that's what panthers do) on a tired group of Hawks who had been unable to change and put the home side up 4-2. FLA managed to spend most of the remainder of the second period in the CHI zone and it was starting to look like the sun had gone down for The Hawks, yet again.
Then Two Things Happened. First, The Hawks finally got the bit in their teeth, outshooting the suddenly passive Panthers 9-0 in the first half of the period, which is nothing new, really, as we've seen these guys wait until it was too late to get their motors running. HOWEVER, fortune smiled upon The Hawks on this night. Sometimes you make your own luck through hard work, etc, and sometimes you just fall ass-backwards into it, and I think Fortin's shorty was a little bit of both and I am 100% okay with that. On the game-tying goal.....well, anytime you tie a game in the final second it kind of smacks of dumb-ass luck but, again, Saad's pass to DeBrincat was pretty special. We won't overstate that James Reimer was soft as hell on that goal....
Overtime. What I've become used to is The Hawks getting one or two good looks, changing all three skaters and getting scored on immediately. Tonight it took 4 or 5 shifts to settle matters, providing not only a much needed victory for The Hawks, but also some redemption for a couple of guys.
Erik Gustafsson has been bad, lately, his play going from sublime in October to terrible in November. Prior to this fall the expectation with Gus had been that he'd be an okay puck-lugger but, when it came to being defensively aware, he was nowhere to be seen. The last month we were treated to Gus being defensively ambivalent AND he couldn't make a breakout pass no way, no how. His OT goal tonight was nothing special, just a well-placed shot but, if we're lucky, it might be the confidence booster Gus desperately needs.
David Kampf had his first taste of NHL Overtime about two weeks ago vs. Carolina, and that didn't go super well. Tonight, though, he dominated at the dot, winning 70% of his faceoffs including the final draw of the night. That and his impressive goal to start the second period highlight Baby Huey's best NHL game thus far.
Other Good Stuff: Gustav Forsling has been given a lot of icetime and a lot of responsibility for a lad who kinda curled up & died last winter. Quite right though, on this night anyway, as he was the best Hawks D-man in this match. John Hayden finally got to play more than five shifts and, while nothing came of his efforts, he was creating opportunities.
Meanwhile, this is what I suspect goes through Brandon Manning's head when he's out on the ice, doing whatever the hell he thinks he's doing.
Next: The strangely erratic Golden Knights who seem to either win big or lose big. Here's hoping they've shot their bolt with their 6-0 drubbing of The Sharks tonight.
(Be sure to listen to the song. The horns really complement the emotional release....)
Boz Scaggs - Why You Make It So Hard?
#105: Don't Cost Your Team a Chance At a Win By Doing Thoughtless Things That You Know Better Than to Do
What an utterly disappointing attempt at hockey that was today. Despite making the worst giveaway in recent memory, gambling and failing on an all or nothing pinch against a much faster opponent and failing to make any passes today, it wasn't all on Keith.
The Hawks outshot Philly, slayed them on faceoffs and, apparently, crushed them in Corsi....yet they never looked like winning this game after the first period. Lots of shots, lots of zone time, but we can count the number of true quality chances they earned on one hand. Even then, the best looks they did get were each compromised in some way. Seabrook charges hard into the slot but is off balance just as he sets to shoot. Manning (!) is unable to snare a skipping puck as he too barges in on the rush. Toews loses the handle momentarily when in primo position. Schmaltz hits a post... and that's about it.
There Were No Second Chances. I don't believe a single rebound was collected & converted by The Hawks in this game. Nobody apart from the puck carrier was driving the net.
The Power Play is Complete Garbage. We saw some light at the end of a long, dark tunnel back in early-mid October, but what happened to the quick puck movement, the brisk one-timers and always having a guy there for tip-ins or rebounds. How has this all been forgotten? They even trotted Kunitz out on the PP, he of 0 G, 2A on the season, presumably to provide some presence in front of The Flyers' net....yet he was never there.
That's about all I have the stomach for. It's still the early days of the Colliton administration but he'd better get busy kickstarting this crew, 'cos they're free-falling right now, and Colliton's first two games were no different than Quenneville's last five. Last season's excuse was not having the goaltending to compete night-in, night-out. Well, the goalie is back, and playing pretty well, so what's that leave? Colliton had better prepare himself for some extreme remedial work with these guys 'cos, right now, the culture on this team is terrible.
QotSA: The Fun Machine Took a Shit & Died
When was the last time one of these Western Canadian swings went well? 2015? 2014? It's become ridiculous.
It's looking as if not even Corey Crawford is going to get this team where they need to be. Crow was excellent - maybe he'd like either of Monahan's goals back but it's hard to fault him on the others and, given the terrible coverage in front of him, 4 GA doesn't look that bad. Too often the D were backing in too far before even thinking about closing their gaps and the forwards weren't picking up their guys very often at all. Just a bad, bad effort in which the final score actually suggests that The Hawks were in this game. The Hawks were outshot nearly 3:1 fer goodness' sakes.
Only Three Hawks were north of 50% Corsi: Toews, Kruger and Fortin, and we have to take Fortin's stat, here, with a grain of salt 'cos he spent much of the game cruising the neutral zone looking for the stretch pass. Despite appalling possession stats I thought Schmaltz was good, trying stuff, at least, but Anisimov was downright awful and Kane kinda came & went, still not feeling his normal self, I suspect.
The Third Line accomplished nothing.
DeBrincat put us through a third consecutive game in which he was painful to watch. His pass to send Saad in to score was the first he'd made this week.
Seabrook was excellent. His Corsi line tells a different story but, with Keith "unavailable" he was out almost every second shift, always against The Flames top six.
And Then There's Maude. I know I said I'd just pass on slagging Manning but I can't let this crap pass without comment. He has no idea what he's doing. His positioning is dogshit and his decision making is terrible. I'd like to see what would happen if, given two opposing players to contend with, he chooses to check one of them, y'know, instead of pissing around between the two guys, accomplishing nothing. Edzo continues to talk about "the element" that Manning brings which is, presumably some snarl, but all we've seen in that vein is some slashing and the occasional cross-check to the back of a player who's just scored on us. He's had one meaningless fight in which he fought a middleweight to a draw and the only hits he's made have been on stationary players along the boards, so I don't wanna hear about "the time and space" he creates for his teammates. Yeah, Hard Pass on this idiot.
I Didn't Mind Martinsen and, if Q doesn't get any ideas about expanding Marty's role I'm quite fine with him doing what he does for the amount of time he's being allotted to do it. He hasn't hurt the team in his last couple of games and his puck retrieval has been impressive.
Anyway, this wretched road trip is mercifully done and, now The Hawks have a few days in which to focus on either continuing to do all that stuff that failed to work over the last six or so games OR they can start making some passes and not allowing their opponents' third forwards unlimited access to primo shooting zones. Y'know, good hockey...
Illyus & Barrientos - Just Bad Shit
Too many times in recent years have I typed one of these in which the message is this: The Hawks carried the play, yet still lose. Here's another one.
Costly Errors: After a head-turning start to the season Erik Gustafsson has been ordinary or worse in the last few games. Twice he messed up keep-ins, one of which ended up costing The Hawks a goal. We've seen what he can do....now he has to get back to doing that.
And then there's Manning, getting the puck the hell away from him as fast as possible as is his custom, this time right onto Draisaitl's stick. I guess the difference here is that Gus can do better but I'm not sure Manning has it in him. If Schmaltz was scratched for, essentially, one horrible pass, so should Manning, but we'll see, we'll see.
Cam Ward wasn't bad but he failed to make any phenomenal saves on a night when The Hawks could have used a few. Maybe he could have been sharper on Chaisson' s goal but, by then, it was already all over but the crying.
Kane was merely at half-speed, which is fair enough given that he was sick enough a day earlier to miss a game. Maybe he gave whatever he's had to DeBrincat, 'cos The Cat turned in another poor effort in which his passes were trash and his decision making dubious.
Anything Good Here? Well, take those four goals against out of it and maybe most of the third period while we're at it and The Hawks played a pretty sound road game. I wasn't pumped to see Martinsen in for Kampf but the big fella actually played pretty well, credited with five hits, which is probably a conservative estimate. Yeah, yeah, big deal, but on this night it actually created some opportunities as Martinsen had frightened Klefbom sufficiently that he straight up gave the puck away rather than be crushed again, and he made a nice chance out of basically nothing just through force of will. It's just a shame that the one hit he shouldn't have made (and really, he was just out of control) became an Oilers PP and, of course, a goal against. Davidson was actually decent - not perfect but far better than expected. Once again he found himself crossed up during a fast break but, otherwise, a surprisingly good two-way effort.
Big game tomorrow, The Hawks' last chance to salvage something from this so-far quite disappointing road trip. There are a handful of Hawks who, if they don't deliver something, anything, are going to be sliding down the order, some into the press box.
Clapton - Got To Get Better
Thought we had a good one going, for 35 minutes anyway. Even then I was confident that The Hawks would regroup after those few rough minutes at the end of the second period and resume having their way with The Canucks. Alas, The Canucks stormed the gates right off the trot in the third, while The Hawks failed to respond.
These west coasties always have me a day late so let's not muck about.
No Kane looked like No Problem for awhile. Kunitz was an odd choice to fill 88's boots but Saad was so good that it could have been anyone on the left wing. Saad was a beast all evening with a goal, a shot off the post and an optimistic kick-in that was called back. All his game seems to lack, when he's switched on like this, is precision - he could stand to be slightly more patient and choose his shot locations more carefully rather than just shotgunning the puck.
The Hawks Third Line was a nightmare. Schmaltz's errant pass led directly to VAN's first goal, annoyingly scored by a guy who, had he not stumbled onto that interception, would have been hollered at for lazy-dogging it back to The Canuck's zone. Fortin did little more than chug up and down the wing, rarely involved, probably just hoping for a long pass and a scoring chance. I didn't mind Johnson on the PP, actually. He'd got some poise and he appears to know what to do and where to do it, even if he lacks any finish (which is still left to be seen).
Brandon Manning: I'll partially violate my standing order to not discuss this lump unless he's anything except bad, but only because he was well beyond merely bad last night. As usual, his first pass was rotten all night and, on Virtanen's second goal, he was absolutely pantsed by Granlund. Why was he standing still at his own blue line with three Canucks entering The Hawks' zone? Tipping Roussel's shot past Crawford was just the icing on Manning's shit cake. He might have gotten away with fucking up the Granlund thing had Davidson not been paralyzed by indecision. Maybe if Davidson had committed to Virtanen he could have closed the gap and prevented the shot, or maybe the shooter was always gonna be out of reach. We'll never know.
Crawford had a so-so game, mighty in many ways but three of the four VAN goals were nothing special. That's partly on the guys in front of him, allowing so many mano-a-mano chances, but Crow did lose all of those duels.
DeBrincat wasn't super sharp, either, whiffing on passes and having the puck bounce off his stick a bit. He's going to have off nights like anybody else but his timing kinda sucked, what with Kane being ill and half of his teammates not showing up for the third period.
Dominik Kahun is in a precarious spot right now. That line has been great, generally, but his contributions have been infrequent. If that trio fails to get going in EDM and CAL I expect Kahun to find himself in the bottom six next week.
Trooper - 3 Dressed Up as A 9
Allllright, just quick some remarks tonight as I'm catching up on the end of the game as I'm typing this thing.
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
After the game Steve Konroyd stated "they seem to find ways to win". Sure, I guess, but they're also finding ways to lose or, in this case, almost lose. I mean, they chucked 50 shots at STL tonight and absolutely pantsed them in Corsi, yet it took until OT to seal the deal.
Nevermind that The Blues took almost half the game to find their gear because, once they got rolling, they largely outplayed The Hawks and, yet again, that determined effort was helped by The Hawks easing off the pressure. As in the last game, though, that wouldn't be such a sin if it weren't coupled with defensive gaffes and sloppiness. This team can and should be killing it, yet they're just getting by.
Alex DeBrincat is not the best Hawks forward, but he will be, someday.
Cam Ward was okay. Well, maybe a little better than okay but he did not help his cause with a poor pass to Manning, which I'll return to shortly.
Alexandre Fortin might be okay, as well. He's decently quick and has enough size & reach to protect the puck somewhat, but he's kinda stepping on the puck a lot and not getting it from his feet to his stick a lot of the time. It's early days though and, if he's meant to be part of the team, he'll figure it out.
Eric Gustafsson made his first nasty turnover of the season, which amazes me.
Kruger & Kampf were barely acknowledged yet led all players in possession stats, which is an utterly perfect night for a couple of 4th line guys.
John Hayden played the least of all Hawks tonight despite having no truly bad shifts. Meanwhile, Kunitz huffed and puffed, a half-step behind whoever he was vainly chasing....
Brandon Manning, it would appear, is just dumb as hell. Am I offside with this? Yes, Ward's exchange to him was poor, but why'd Manning lift his foot? Play the puck, man. Manning remains the sole Blackhawk d-man who routinely messes up his breakouts, often making a bad first pass or, even more often, simply sending the puck downrange as fast as he can with no discernable purpose nor plan.
Kane didn't have his best night, his timing looking a little off and he fumbled the puck a few times, but the patience he displayed leading to his goal was certainly admirable. 100% of the other Hawks would just have shot the puck ASAP 90% of the time.
The Power Play is backsliding already, with too much standing around and not enough net presence + shooting. The first couple of PPs weren't bad but beyond that, and I hesitate to repeat myself, it was all so predictable. I mean, I could anticipate all of The Hawks' actions on the PP and I'm an idiot, so even mayonnaise-slurping morons like The Blues could figure them out, too. But it's not far off, 'cos we've seen some wonderful PP efforts already this season, they've just got to bring that more often than they've been doing.
Queen - It's Late
