Take a look at some of those Corsi Ratings, they're just downright silly. Anyway, it's my job to try and accurately sum up what we saw last night in written form. It's a big challenge, and I'll probably fail miserably. But it's been a good run.
How bad were the Hawks in the first 12 minutes? I can't think of a section of the team I want to single out more than the other to tell them they were overturned short buses. Everyone was groin-punch awful. The d-men couldn't complete a pass or clear the zone if you threatened to burn the hair off their scrotum. The forwards looked at coming back into the defensive zone like it was a gay bar. Huet was getting windburn from the pucks firing past him. This wasn't even a shit show. This was that shit demon from that awful movie Dogma. That's how bad it was.
A word on Huet here. I'm probably going to be the last one off the Huet bandwagon -- just as I was the last one off the Milton Bradley bandwagon (I thought he'd hit, I really did. And I love OBP guys. Oh well). And he was left completely out to dry by the Hawks last night. Barker had a horrific turnover (again!) leaving Boyd a one-timer from all of 8 feet out. The second goal was a bad deflection that Huet didn't pick up in time. The 3rd was Keith looking ---well, like the three of us did at the end of the night -- and being completely flummoxed by a Jokinen flipper to only Jarome Iginla. That said, Huet has got to bail someone out at some point. Our d-men are playing a high-risk, high-reward game, and they're going to break down on occasion. Huet probably needs to stone Iginla there for all of us to feel comfortable.
Go back and look at some of the comments after Niemi's shutout of Florida. God they're funny now, aren't they?
And then....fuck I don't know. What was that? Calgary is just the latest team to learn that if you sit back and let the Hawks find their feet and come at you, you're going to pay. And a lot. When they do get going and are given space, there's no one who can stick with them. NO ONE. Once Madden got on the board (I'm starting to fall in love with John Madden, I'm sure I'm not the only one) I got the feeling in the building that most people thought it wasn't over yet.
Certainly wasn't. The 2nd period is when we finally saw the Bolland-Kane axis start to click. Look at the buildup to Kane's and Weapon's goal, it's just beautiful. Hopefully, this is the start of a path of destruction. If not, Kane's going to do it himself anyway. Has he ever looked this good?
Wait, Buff has hands?
You know what happened the rest of the way, the 3rd got way tighter, especially after Shooter's nifty deflection of Keith's wrister, and though the Hawks carried most of it, there weren't nearly as many chances in the 2nd. They then ended it on the first one in OT.
Few thoughts:
-As I said, I love John Madden. Like, infinity.
-I'm about ready to describe Niklas Hjalmarsson as "a thing". He's been that good.
-As much fun as it was last night, I find myself more upset about some of the things I saw than happy. Yes, great comeback and they showed lots of testicular fortitude in doing it. The thing is, we already knew the Hawks can pump you full of lead (and other things) when given the chance. What I want to see is a full 60-minute effort, and the Hawks really shouldn't be rewarded for only showing up when they deign to. I hope they know they got away with something last night (and on Saturday too), and won't next time. I'd hate to see justification for their ways.
As for Huet, piss-poor start. But that's what it is right now, a start. Oct. Tober. Remember that. And you'd better get behind him anyway, because there is no other solution. There's no goalie to go get, and we don't have the space if there was.
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