If my glasses were truly rose-colored, I would tell you that winning nine of 10 from here on out will do the Hawks just fine.  But I don't wear glasses.  It's important, however, to try and separate the bitter feelings from any loss to The Sister-Chasers from what actually went on in last night's game. 

For the first period, the Hawks carried the play, especially on the power play.  Conklin stood on his head, and probably even his dick, during this period.  Unfortunately, when playing Scum, you have to take your chances, because they will take theirs.  Their talent level is too high to miss.  One dumb penalty later by Buff, and that's exactly where we found ourselves. 

A word on Cleary's hit on Kane:  It didn't look all that clean, but I think we have to realize that Kane's five-foot-nothing and Cleary's decently sized, so his elbows might always look up on Kane.  Secondly, retaliation was probably warranted, but not while we're still a man up and creating boatloads of chances.  Someone later should have had a word, and let's hope that discussion takes place tomorrow. 

From there, it got pretty ugly.  Scum upped their game, and took the second pretty decisively.  No way around it.  Conklin made some more big saves, including on VerStud which turned the game.  You could see the Hawks frustration after that.  Patience went out the window.

What's really annoying is how the Hawks got outmuscled.  Scum are a lot of things, but big and tough ain't one of 'em.  I can handle Conklin having a great game.  I can even handle the wealth of Scum talent shining through, after all, that's what they do.  But we can't get outhit by them.  Sorry, just can't happen.

Corsi and shift charts.

On to the main event....