Steal Away: Islanders 3, Hawks 2 (OT)

Aw, man, that was awful to watch.  The Hawks just looked tired and going through the motions most of the time.  Couldn't win a draw, vainly chasing The Isles and out of sync with each other all night long.  So this is gonna be quick.
Only The Toews Line looked kinda half decent throughout the match and, even then, those three had a lot of pucks behind them, were arriving where the puck was rather than where it was going.  As for the other, Kampf's line had one, maybe two good spins.  Kruger's group had a pair of fine shifts including an utterly dominant one in which they somehow managed to not record a shot on goal.  Apart from that one in which Kane clanked one off the post in the second Strome's trio was invisible until the third period, during which they had a few good looks, and this line was -2 on the night.  Not even remotely enough.
Despite Combining For Six Giveaways I thought Murphy and Dahlstrom had a very good game, playing almost exclusively against The Islanders' lethal Bailey - Beauvillier - Barzal line.  Even against these Killer Bees they notched the highest Corsi-for ratings among Hawks d-men, and by a large margin, too. 
Forsling Was The Worst Hawk, by far, bobbling the puck, losing practically every battle and sending panicky "passes" to empty space.  His lazy penalty late in the second set the stage for Barzal's second tally of the night.  Hurry back, Hank Jokiharju....
Collin Delia, however, single-handedly stole a point for The Hawks tonight, making a whopping 48 saves, directing his rebounds somewhat better than he has been able up 'til now and done in on a couple of oddball goals - one that was bunted in out of the air and another after he'd had his stick knocked out of his grasp.  My only nit-pick where Delia is concerned is that he was not handling the puck well behind the net with several iffy and/or unpredictable passes.

So, really, to leave Long Island with a consolation point is a fortunate result.

Next: Sunday vs. the Penguins who are riding a seven-game win streak.  What a perfect opportunity to be the assholes who mess that up.

Robbie Dupree - Steal Away

No Sleep 'til Brooklyn: Hawks 2½, Islanders 1

Since I watched this one a day after the event I'll keep it brief.

Every Dog Has His Day or Would The Real Anton Forsberg Please Stand Up: As bad as Bergie was in the brief amount of time it took for him to make a big stinky mess on Thursday he was brilliant in this one.  He was in full command, tracking the puck exceptionally well (which has previously been noted as a strength of his) particularly in close when The Isles had multiple whacks at the thing.  While I suspect the real Bergie falls squarely between the disaster on Thursday and the gem last night, it was very good to see him bounce back so emphatically.  And, hey, he didn't let in a softie!
The Islanders Big Line Were Where, Exactly?  In the weeds, mainly, absolutely kicked in while matched up primarily against the Schmaltz - Hinnie - Charlie Bucket line.  It's difficult to say how much of that was due to the effort of that Hawks trio or merely a complete lack of give-a-shit by John Tavares but, even though NYI sport two dangerous lines, as JT goes so go The Isles.
Lookit Jurco, Shakin' Off Checks: Well, there's a first, second and third time for everything, but when Jurc's is able to get around or through a check whatever line he's on is instantly 50% more effective.
Best Of All...with one minor exception I cannot say that any Hawks player stood out as being bad which, I have to say, is all too rare and a pleasure to report.  Only Gustafsson was noticeably naughty; his defensive work was okay but his breakout attempts were poorly executed and his passing a bit yippy.
That's enough high fiving for now and, to be realistic, this win was against a team that is one loss away from being mathematically eliminated from a playoff berth.  Next up are The Sharks, who still need a few wins to seal their playoff berth, so let's keep it real, keep it steady and try to do this again.

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.

Shoot Out The Lights: Hawks 5, Islanders 4

It occurs to me that this game wasn't a whole lot different than the game against The Rangers a few days ago, the big difference being that the goaltending was better on Tuesday.  Once again, we saw end-to-end hockey for much of the game with plenty of scoring chances for both teams
A tentative start saw The Hawks down two goals before everyone had even found their seats, one in which Andrew Ladd just plain beat Scott Darling, the second when Casey Cizakas pounced on a rebound.  Midway through the first The Arthurs went to work, each scoring entirely typical goals on consecutive power plays, and Marian Hossa shoveled in a diiirrrrty pass from Ryan Hartman to go up 3-2.  The Islanders would score an annoying, twice-deflected goal before the period ended.  
After yet another tipped-in goal put The Islanders ahead once again, The Hawks spent much of the second period in an apparent fugue state, indifferently chugging up and down the ice, before another PPG by Small Arthur tied matters.  The Hawks held the balance of play in the third period but it took some demonic forechecking by Marcus Kruger to allow Dennis Rasmussen to find Richard Panik in the slot; he beat Thomas Greiss with a quick release shot to put The Hawks ahead for good.

Well, Michal Kempny has obviously not been invited into Joel Quenneville's Champagne Room.  A healthy scratch for three (four?) games, he found himself -3 after the first period and on the bench for nearly all of the remainder of the game.  This short-leash treatment has gotta be awesome for his confidence.  We've seen this before and it's never ended well for the player in this position.
Meanwhile, He Who Should Be In Rockford, Trevor van Riemsdyk....actually had a decent game, highlighted by a deceptive little jink to avoid a forecheck and, earlier, taking a hit to make a play, rather than the usual cringing and shooting the puck blindly.  He still has no business being on the PP.
Duncan Keith was not especially good, but one play stuck in my mind that made me consider what it is that Keith does, or fails to do, that leads to the majority of his shot attempts going nowhere; when he's in a shooting mode he stops moving.  Tonight, there was an instance where he crept in off the point and called for a pass, getting a shot on target from the high slot.  Nothing came of it, but it was an actual chance to score and not merely a "I'll chuck it and see what happens" gambit.  More of that, please.
Andrew Desjardins had about as good a game as one could hope for without him getting onto the score sheet.  He had a good forecheck going all night, created a scoring chance from basically nothing in the first period and ably filled in on the PK when Rasmussen took a penalty.
I guess it was just a matter of time before Scott Darling had an iffy start.  That's fine, that happens and there's no harm done.
Panarin appears to have scored 106% of his goals from within six feet of the dot in the left face off circle.  It's almost more surprisingly when he doesn't score on one of those one-timers he launches from there.  How long will he get away with this, I wonder?  Anyway, I'm glad it's working well and I don't want to take those goals for granted, but...

I gotta go with Ryan Hartman, despite having tallied a solitary assist in the game. His hit on Cizikas changed the momentum of the game entirely; he managed to not rise to Cizikas' retaliation and The Hawks scored on the ensuing power play.  At the beginning of this season who would have expected that?  All indications based on his brief audition last season suggested that Hartman was kind of a meathead, which is turning out to be a big misapprehension.  He followed that up with the aforementioned impressive pass to Hossa to set up the third goal and drew another penalty in the second period that led to Panarin's second PPG.  His critical contribution, though, was the hit, the penalty drawn and being smart enough to keep his cool and not negate the power play, as that's where the game began to tilt in The Hawks' favour.

No, I'm tellin' ya, Long Island isn't even an island...it's a glacial moraine.

Off-day Silliness and Fake Rumour Reporting

Yay!  More uninvited editorializing of sometimes  harebrained articles that probably didn't need to be written in the first place.  How sad is my life?

Is van Riemsdyk on the Trade Block?
Relax, not that van Riemsdyk - this is the good one they're talking about.
All the guy did was score a hat trick last evening, so of course The Leafs need to consider dealing him.
Ladies and gentlemen....the Toronto Sports Media.

Islanders "Trying Hard" to Acquire a Forward
Wait...what?  Why didn't they "try hard" to re-sign Frans Nielsen or Kyle Okposo?  What's that? They needed the cap space to sign....Andrew Ladd and Dennis Seidenberg?
Sorry, you don't deserve another forward.

Tortorella to Avoid Over-coaching
I fully agree with this plan.  The less influence Torts has on the players the better, it would appear.  I wonder how good the 'Jackets could be if Torts just stopped showing up at all?

The the Brightest NHL Minds Cannot Agree on what Constitutes an Illegal Hit
Combining the words "brightest", "NHL" and "minds" in the same sentence constitutes an unsolvable paradox.

One Man Gang: Hawks 4, Islanders 1 and Tuesday's Big Boy

Seriously?  Four points from a maximum four points, +4 and 76% at the dot...who else could tonight's Big Boy possibly be?

                                                  Admired by man and beast alike.

The Stuff
- Sharp played with Toews & Hossa for for the first time since October.  With all the line shuffling and goofy mid-game scrambles we've all endured, how was this reunion overlooked?  Those three guys just did what they wanted...
- I sincerely hope that Andrew Desjardins on the PK doesn't become a habit.
- Corey Crawford has been godlike the last two weeks.  Please don't peak too soon, sonny...
- Vermette makes 3x as much dosh as Richards and cost us a first-rounder, so play the lad, for goodness' sakes.  The power play will not implode if Vermette participates, I promise you.
- Oh, Andrew Shaw, who told you that you were voted "most likely to headbutt someone"?
- The Isles were not really themselves tonight, missing a few key guys such as Leddy and Halak.  Back up goalie Neuvirth delivered a back up goalie performance.  Take the two points and go East.

Toews

Coach Quenneville, the master of understatement and creator of the Enigma Code, asserts that Toews "isn't too bad".  That said, it's a quick turnaround to Saturday and a date with the finally-recovered-from-the-Milbury-effect Islanders.  Dare we speculate on Teuvo Teravainen making an appearance this weekend?