First off, I’ll say that I only actually saw the third period due to family obligations earlier in the day, and based on commitments for the other two in the evening, I’m sadly the best qualified to write the wrap. I think I saw enough to render judgment on yet another sub par effort, however.
- On the first Oiler goal, Corey Crawford needed to go post to post faster, but Kurtis Foster should not have been allowed to step into that puck unabated. Both Duncan Keith, and whoever the forward was on that side of the ice need to at least get their stick in traffic, if not their body.
- Literally seconds later, absolutely everyone on the ice was guilty of standing still and watching the puck as Ales Hemsky weaved through the defense, which allowed Sam Gagner to slide in back door to take a pass from Dustin Penner. Marian Hossa, in particular, was completely pantsed at the blue line by Hemsky.
- While it may have been a different story in the first 40 minutes, from what I saw, while it was advantageous to have him in the linuep, Hoss was not all that noticeable. He ended with nearly 22 minutes on the ice with just 2 shots on goal, and a -1.
- The Hawks best chance in the third came when Jonathan Toews picked up a rebound to the right of Nikolai Khabibulin on his backhand, and was stoned big time by Nik. Kane had a secondary chance, but was slightly hooked from behind by Colin Fraser, and didn’t get the shot off clean.
- Once again, the Hawks were guilty of standing still in the neutral zone during regroups, which forced the defensemen to attempt 50+ foot passes. Seems that the bag skate and morning skate temper tantrum from Q didn’t fully get the message through.
- Oh hey, yet another -1 performance from Patrick Sharp.
- A John Scott fight with actual punches thrown? Nice to see him making himself as useful as possible, when he wasn’t breaking sticks.
- The teams were nearly dead even in shots, with the Hawks edging 27 to 26, and the Corsi is a pretty decent reflection of that.
- After the whip was gone to just days ago, and now that nearly everyone is back in the lineup, there are fewer and fewer excuses available for this team. It appears it’s going to take the jaws of life and a 55 gallon drum of astro glide to extract their collective heads out of their asses, as the season is nearly a quarter over. The dreaded Circus Trip is looming on the schedule, and if they don’t do so by then, it could sink the season. I’m sure we’ll have more coming tomorrow after Hack’s links, but the continued disinterest from this team is more than a little concerning.