Hopeless? Lightning ?, Hawks ?

Full disclosure - I only watched the first 9½ minutes before finding something else to do.  I don't even know what the final score was.  Maybe tomorrow when I'm less angry.

In that less-than-ten-minutes The Hawks were already down 3-0, had a single shot on net and looked as bad or worse than they've ever been.
Zero defensive coverage.  Forwards failed to pick up a man, any man.  The D had shitty gaps and either committed too soon or not at all.
Breakouts were terrible, with too many Hawks happy enough to try to pass through skates and bodies rather than hang on to the single second longer to see if a lane would open up.
No Hawk won a puck battle in those 9½ minutes.  Not one.
And good god, The Hawks made Ryan McDonough look like a star. This is a guy who skates like he's got one foot in a bucket, yet he calmly halted every Hawks player who came his way, gathered the puck and moved it up ice with a crisp, on-target pass.  If HE can do it why can NO Hawks defenceman pull it off?

And if tomorrow, when I get around to finding out what happened in the last 50 minutes, I hear any Hawks player or coach utter the phrase "full sixty minutes" I'll plotz.  Stop talking about it and just do it.  Play ONE game from start to finish like you give a shit.  I'm tired of the bait & switch The Hawks keep pulling....playing so well for only part of a game, and I'm tired of typing the same stuff night after night.

Awful: Lightning 6, Hawks 3

TFW your goalie allows five goals and his save percentage improves....
Okay, not Cam Ward's fault.  He kinda made a mess of that side of the net stuff-in and a couple of his puck exchanges were sketchy but, otherwise, he played a fine game.  It's a pity that the rest of The Hawks only showed up for, what....fifteen minutes?

Not going to pick this one apart because this was a failure on practically the entire team's part, although some surely did fail more than others.
The Hawks' defence was simply awful.  Slow, hesitant, out of position and too often just standing around.  Check the tape on Cirelli's goal, with Gustafsson leaning on the back of the net and Jokiharju pushing Cam Ward off the post - what the hell was all that about?  Meanwhile, NO Hawks forwards had picked up anyone, instead just standing by, waiting for what, I do not know.  I saw Schmaltz' and Anisimov's backs more than once while a TB shot scooted past Ward.
Each of the TB goals, except maybe Hedman's, displayed a similar level of ain't-give-a-damn.
Breakouts were sloppy and subsequently exploited by The Lightning.  That'll happen sometimes but, when it does, you have to try something different.  The Hawks did not try something different, apparently content to keep sailing against the same rocks, again and again.
The Hawks even set a modern record by allowing a whopping 33 shots in the second period alone.
As ridiculous as all that is it's frustrating to note that The Hawks dominated the last half of the first period and the final few minutes of the game.  Why just then?  Isn't anyone putting these guys' feet to the fire, at least in some way that they'll respond to?

Anything good?  Sure, Saad had his best shifts of the season thus far, although he seemed to lose interest in the latter stages (who can blame him?) and, having hit the post twice in one period, one fears that it'll be another one of those years for him.  I thought Rutta was quite good, and Davidson was at least okay, far more than I can say for the rest of them.  
Kane was trying and started some interesting plays but his linemates were nowhere to be seen much of the time.  He fared better while double-shifting with Kruger & Fortin, fer goodness' sakes. Yet, his only reward was a team-low -3, not at all indicative of his effort.

Hole - Awful

Give It Away Give It Away Give It Away Now: Lightning 2, Hawks 0

Let me just mention the worst offenders to kick off the fun.
Toews.
Keith.
Oesterle - twice.
Gustafsson - and that one was spectacular.

Passes to no one, or even nowhere, most of the time with no particular pressure 'pon them. 
Only one of these egregious turnovers actually resulted in a goal against but all of the others, at best, slowed The Hawks attack, caused them to regroup and took away their momentum.

With the many changes in the lineup I guess I'd concede that at  least the coaches are trying stuff, but  the fact that guys like Kampf, Jurco, Gustafsson and even Hinostroza and Oesterle are A) in the lineup and B) granted the amount of icetime they've received tells you everything you need to know about how fragile and....ordinary The Hawks have become.  From time to time Gustav Forsling looked as if he would be a player who had made a giant step forward - now he's in Rockford.  Ditto for John Hayden.
The fact is that it doesn't really seem to matter who suits up.  We'll get some good games from some of these Guys just as we'll get stinkers from The Core, but the results end up the same.
Toews and Oesterle each played 23+ minutes tonight.  Were either of them any better than Hinostroza or Kempny?  I'd argue that they were not.
And I don't mean to take anything away any of The Guys when they do have a good outing.  Jurco and Hinostroza both had a good game, but the fact remains that even when Jurcs and Hinnie play out of their skin it's still never going to be enough.

The Hawks laid a beating on Tampa in the possession dept. tonight, but what does that matter when it generates almost no quality chances?  Jeff Glass lost the game yet made five or six saves that were tougher than any shots Vasilevskiy faced.  Two A+ chances and a goalpost - that's what The Hawks mustered up in 60 minutes.
Toews entire line had the puck in their feet all night.
Sharp was late to almost every attack and couldn't hit water if he fell out of a damn boat.
Oesterle's fall-back tactic whenever he was out of options or ideas was to pass to Keith, regardless of where Keith was, which direction he was facing or whether he had a forechecker bearing down on him.
Etc.

Yeah, The Hawks got screwed when the officials failed to catch the glove pass leading up to Kunitz' goal but, even discounting that, they still lose 1-0.  Outside of Kane and the occasional player who gets hot for a short while, they've got nothing.
And I fear that things will get worse before they get better if there is no significant change, and the change that needs to made most does not revolve around a player.

Sometimes You Eat the B'ar, and Sometimes The B'ar Eats You: Lightning 3, Hawks 2

Could have had this one.  Did The Hawks deserve a win?  Maybe not entirely, but to lose the way they did leaves a bit of a sour taste.  Let's go:
* The Hawks played a near-perfect first period, going up 2-0 courtesy of P. Kane and killing off a raft of penalties, including a big 5½ minutes, a chunk of which was 5-on-3.  Perhaps The Lightning were a little flat in the first but, whatever the case, The Hawks lacked that same jump, particularly on the forecheck and when breaking out, the rest of the way.  
* Patrick Kane potted a pair, both nice goals, but he was also guilty of some exceptionally lazy, impatient decisions.  A careless turnover set up The Lightning's first goal and, here and there throughout the match, he just lacked polish.
* Cody Franson's game was even more a case of extremes, as he had a masterful first period highlighted by his confident, accurate quarterbacking on the power play but, like Kane, had his struggles in the second and third.  Franson was at the crime scene for the first Lightning goal, as well, having "raced" back after Kane's giveaway, only to stand in front of Crawford, accomplishing nothing.  Several times in the last half of the game The Lightning exploited Franson's lack of foot speed, sometimes just letting him spin himself in place.
* The Hawks' breakouts early in the game were terrific, as the D always seemed to catch a forward moving past them with some speed, hitting them with a short, safe pass.  Not so much in the late going though, as Tampa's speedier forwards harried The Hawks' D much of the time, frequently pinching off those head-man passes.

* Corey Crawford was fine given what was going on from time to time in front of him.  He looked a bit disordered at times, but his quickness and athleticism bailed him out.  The Kunitz goal looked pretty soft but, to be fair, Crow likely only saw that one at the last moment, what with the wall of blue sweater in front him and Keith outmanned in front of the net.
* Andrei Vasilevskiy, down in the Tampa nets, was ridiculously good, stoning Saad, Panik as well as Kane on a breakaway.  I'm afraid there's no real remedy for that.
* Jan Rutta made a few nice passes but was otherwise pretty poor.  His lazydogging back to the defensive zone and subsequent failure to cover anyone helped make possible the aforementioned Kunitz goal.
* Forsling had some moments both good and bad, but I still liked seeing him play with more urgency and lot less hesitancy than he had been.
* Connor Murphy, however, played as good a game as he's had all season, with good positioning and a great stick, all while playing a team-low (for d-men) 14 minutes.  I thought Anisimov was pretty good, too, this being the best game he's played in which he failed to score.
* Saad and Panik, once again, each had multiple looks but failed to capitalize.  The explosion is coming, and it cannot come soon enough.
* Sticking with Panik, I wonder if he's camping out too far to the side of the net, hoping for some cross-ice stuff and an easy tap-in, because he's rarely close enough to get after a rebound and often finds himself shooting at a poor angle.
* Finally....the penalty in OT.  It was a weak call, with Schmaltz doing little more than waving his stick in front of the Tampa player, the latter's follow through actually being what initiated contact.  There was no chopping motion.  One likes to think that these things even out over the course of a game and throughout a season, but that was a lousy time for the official to make such a crap call.

In some ways The Hawks actually acquitted themselves well tonight, taking the league's best team to OT and at least earning the consolation point.  If they had managed to maintain the intensity and the control that they exhibited in the first period, though, things could have been different.  Sure, Tampa upped their effort, but that's when The Hawks needed to see them and raise them....but they didn't.  Or couldn't.

If You Can Win It In One Period You Can Lose It, Too: Lightning 5, Hawks 4

After mounting massive comebacks in several games, recently, reserving most of their effort for the third period, The Hawks got a taste of their own medicine as Tampa Bay struck for three goals in the second period.  Even though The Hawks had their teeth kicked in possession-wise, without that ain't-give-a-damn second frame they probably cruise to an easy win.  I don't have a lot to say about this, so here we go.
Duncan Keith had a wonderful game, I thought, at least until the last minute or two of the third period, and it's a shame that he was on the ice for the game winner.
Speaking of the game winner, that was a cocktail of circumstances that just left a bad taste in The Hawks' collective mouths.  The breakout was good, with Kane fighting through the forecheck to hit Keith up-ice.  When Panarin accepted Keith's pass at the Tampa blue line he was a little close to Hedman, but it certainly wasn't a situation that he wouldn't normally stickhandle his way out of. Alas, Hedman executed a perfect poke check and the puck was heading downrange before anyone could react.  Of course, it would happen that it was van Riemsdyk that had just hopped over the boards, and we all know he couldn't catch a cold in a hospital ward room.
And what was TVR even doing on the ice in overtime, anyway?  The NBCSN colour man, I have no idea who it was, took a moment to make up a bunch of stuff on the spot about TVR, and how he's learned and improved so much this season.  Listen, NBC, spare us the "if it sounds good, say it" stuff. TVR hasn't learned a damn thing and, more importantly, neither have The Hawks' coaches where 57-Varieties-of-Bad is concerned.  His 30-odd seconds of stumbling around during the sequence in which Darling was forced to make several acrobatic saves should be enough evidence to have TVR dispatched...somewhere else, but yet...
The only Hawks line to crack 50% Corsi was the Hayden-Des-Tootoo trio, playing about half their shifts against the Tampa top-six, and really only undone on one poor shift that led to Drouin's first goal.

Speaking of first goals, Tomas Jurco finally potted one.  That's great, but given the time & space he had there, he'd better have scored.  He seems to want to play a Hossa-style game, often trying to simply force the puck past opposing defenders, but he hasn't the strength nor the guile to pull it off. Unfortunately, that goal will almost certainly earn him a start in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
This Seabrook + Oduya thing ain't working, 'cos one or the other always seems to be getting beaten to the outside.  It sure hasn't helped that Seabrook has been yippy with clearing attempts, either, often surrendering the puck with little or no effort to look for a play.

Ah well, onwards & upwards...

Blessings from Jonathan Drouin

Whether he's an underachieving malcontent or a bona fide star-in-waiting is still yet to be seen. Whatever the case, we can thank Jonathan Drouin and his agent for two things.

1. After refusing to report to AHL Syracuse, and now under indefinite suspension, it's pretty clear that The Hawks should take a pass on the guy.  Who needs the drama, along with having to give up The Sun, The Moon and The Stars for a player who might someday be as good as, I don't know...Alexandre Daigle?  As an aside, I've been to Syracuse and I can't say I blame him.
2. This dispute between The Lightning and Drouin's camp have distracted the gang of fatsos at TSN from spending literally hours debating who Steven Stamko's wingers will be when (not if) he dresses for The Maple Leafs next season.

Oh, just shut your big fat mouths and, while you're at it, stop touching yourselves under the desk.

So, thank you, Jonathan Drouin, I really do appreciate what you're doing.

Third Down and Goal: Hawks 2, Lightning 1 and Saturday's Big Boy

Tonight's was another game typical of this series, with tight checking, big momentum swings and some of the most entertaining hockey you're likely to see.  Mistakes have been costly in this series and, while there have been precious few glaring errors committed, those that have occurred have often been game-changers.  It can be easy to be frustrated when these gaffes result in a loss, but these are ostensibly the best two hockey teams in the world; opportunities are not easy to come by and, when they do, the best teams will create these chances and cash in on them, too.
Ben Bishop screwed up tonight.  The Hawks' first goal was all on him, but I believe that events like this, at this level, are usually more than the yips or stupidity.  A quality opponent like The Hawks can force an error like Bishop's, with their speed and their depth of skill, even on a play that, if it were executed properly just as it would be 98% of the time, would amount to nothing more than the puck leaving the zone and heading the other way.  When you hear those footsteps behind you, though...
Other stuff:
- This was the closest The Hawks have come to rolling four lines since...I don't know when.  The icetime for the third and fourth lines increased in the third period and maybe those slightly fresher legs did make a difference.
- Antoine Vermette is still being criminally under-utilized.  As much as I'd love to see him back next year I wonder what's in it for him.
- Brendan Morrow plays for Tampa?  Really?
- The NHL media can drone on all they like about The Lightning being beaten up, but they're the team rolling six defencemen and I think I'd take a healthy Bryan Bickell over Kucharov...maybe.

Well, this is weird but, at the same time, satisfying.  There's the old chestnut about even a broken clock being right twice a day and, since Patrick Kane was injured some months ago, Kris Versteeg has looked, well, bad a lot of the time.  This may be only the second game since the sudden dispersal of the 88-91-23 line in which Versteeg had any positive impact.  Take it, build on it, get excited and stay focused for Game Six.

                             Can ya keep it together for two more days, Steeger?

Two Words: Hawks 2, Lightning 1 and Wednesday's Big Boy

ALL KNEEL.

That is all.

Gettin' After It: Hawks 2, Lightning 1 and Wednesday's Big Boy

Didn't see much of this one but here's what little I gleaned.
- We saw shockingly low shot totals considering all of the offensive weapons on each side.  It didn't really seem like either team was being especially cagey, either.
- Duncan Keith's keep-away on Stamkos keeps him top-of-mind when discussing Conn Smythe candidates, doesn't it?
- The Lightning forwards may have had more jump than their Hawks counterparts but Chicago's defense were up to the task.  On the flip, The Lightning defense were so conservative as to be generating nearly nothing from the back end.  That may not be ideal but it's probably their best bet as they're far too slow, as a group, to afford much adventure; you have to think that any ill-timed pinches will have one or more Hawks forwards behind them in a big hurry.
- Hilariously, the Hawks' line that played the least scored both goals.  It happens.

Was there any doubt?  Each of Teuvo Teravainen's playoff goals have been on fairly innocent looking shots.  I can't wait to see this kid when he has the confidence to pick his spots.

                                                             Terrorvainen.