Baby steps.. Baby Steps.. We’re in the elevator.
AHHHHHHHH!
OK.. so you rarely see a team go in a slump like the Hawks have done lately and then jump out of it immediately and beat a solid team on the road. Especially when it’s the second of back-to-back games against a team that’s been playing some damn good hockey.
We have to wait a while to actually start sailing…
So lets look at the positives – Biscuit really stood out in this game. Without him right now things would look much much worse for the men of four feathers. Seabrook was at the top of the team with almost 26 minutes on the ice and along with Keith, he was one of only two Hawks to finish the game with a + rating. He recorded only 3 hits but he was physicall all over the Jackets and got in a couple good punches on players while racking up 6 penalty minutes (no fighting majors).
Overall, I actually thought the Hawks looked pretty good in this game. Kane and Toews both had a solid game with 2 points each. Pahlsson made a good impact in his first game for the Hawks with almost 15 minutes on ice and he made a couple good moves on the kill. The Jackets were held without a point on the power play so that’s a good sign, yeah?
And hey, the Hawks are now ahead of Vancouver by one point with the same number of games played. Tonight wasn’t a total loss, there were definitely some things that looked to be going in the right direction.
Lets get to the bad. Most noteably, Huet. Put me firmly in the camp that thinks Huet is getting a bit of a bum rap. For the most part he’s been a solid goalie. Tonight though, he was downright terrible. You could make the case that every goal was his fault. He made some good saves sure but he let in some shots that shouldn’t have been close.
L’français homme (yeah.. someone will have to check to see if that’s actually how you say The French Man in french) let in somewhere around 19 soft goals tonight. The worst being the last two to Nash and Vermette to tie and win the game. On the Nash goal Huet looked distracted by a Columbus player in his crease and forgot to keep actually playing. Nash put a blind luck shot on net and it goes in. Puke.
I honestly have no idea how Vermette’s game winner got in. Campbell was on the end of his shift and was beat to the net. The nice stick-work by Vermette to slash Campbell’s stick a split second before the puck arrived was actually a pretty slick play. How Huet didn’t stop the weak shot that resulted is anyone’s guess.. and I’m sure many of you have your guesses all ready for the comments and for once I say go for it. Huet provided as much defense tonight as the maginot line and the blame for the loss falls squarely on his shoulders, complain about him all you want tonight.
Check out the Shift Charts and CORSI. Lets get our minds off hockey again though and put all of our hopes and dreams in a different group of kids – join the SCH Madness Pool
Player of the Game? Certainly not Huet. I’m giving it to Biscut:
