It’s strange, but I had a good feeling about this one all day. Though Phoenix had just pillaged their way through the entire Western half of the continent, it just felt like the Hawks were embarrassed enough about Thursday that they knew what they had to do here. And then they did. Even going into the 3rd 1-1, a situation the Hawks have been next to awful in, I just felt like they’d find a way. The 1st was exemplary, the 2nd had its yips, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that they could limit what the Coyotes could do. So it was. And so it is that in the span of a month I’ve gone from pronouncing this team dead to having unconditional faith in them when they’ve got their share of injuries. I’ve never claimed to be a soothsayer, just an example of how schizophrenic this team has been and what it’s done to their fans. And the ride isn’t even close to over. Provides plenty of material though, don’t it?
Thoughts Of A Functional Drunk On The Couch:
-Hmm, let’s see. Keith goes back with Seabrook and Hammer babysits Leddy for most of the night, and the Hawks give up a measly 23 shots. These things are connected, methinks.
–Marian Hossa and Viktor Stalberg were everywhere. Rattlehead even got promoted to the top line for the 3rd period, where I think he made something happen on all but one shift. His newly developed straight-line game, which was only saw glimpses of early in the year, creates a lot of space for Daydream Nation. And he’s a bigger body than Sharp so can provide a net presence (not that I’m advocating this be a permanent change, whenever Sharp might be healthy). I’m not there yet, but I’m pretty close to begging for the Hawks to bring Vik back. He can’t possibly have earned a raise and it’s awfully hard to give up on that size and that speed when it’s playing this way. Especially when you as an organization stress speed over everything else.
-I still don’t know what to make of this Frolik at center thing, but i think I see the downsides more now. While the Panthers fans were quick to call him soft, I think it’s more of a case of him just being small and getting knocked around pretty easily. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t try to get to those areas anyway. But he seems to fire a lot of shots from bad angles, when holding the puck a second longer might open up something else. Still the positives outweigh the negatives still.
-As for the other new guy, clearly he’s been watching what Sharp does on the power play and just thought he’d follow suit. Camps is also pretty composed in his own zone, which I like a lot. I still wonder what he’ll do when faced with say the big forrwards of LA or Vancouver in a playoff series (yes, I think there will be playoff series, call me all the names you want I deserve it), but he moves his feet and moves the puck. That’s fine.
-Well, Crow was pretty rested, with barely a period in a week. And hardly overworked during the first couple of periods. That equals to a Crow ready to make the big saves when you need them. The last one on Whitney was plain dirty. Still, I’d give him Wednesday off which would give him another week of rest. You should be able to beat the Cats with Turco. I stress “should”.
-Oh look, Rostislav Klesla took out another Hawk’s knee. Funny.
-I need an addendum to my post from Friday. As you’ve probably found out by now, there is no roster restriction after the deadline, so the various injury lists I called for Hendry and Bolland to be on are not a valid point. However, with an unlimited roster being caught one short is probably even more unforgivable than it was. I was also informed that the Hawks sent Cullimore down instead of Boynton because he’s on a two-way. However, I doubt many Hawks fans are going to accept having to have Boynton and now Scott skate (barely) over a couple 100K. And everyone has to stop telling me that Scott has been “fine”, because if he were fine he’d break ten minutes and kill penalties, which the Hawks should be getting from whoever is skating in the #6 hole.
-So a win means Don’tToewsMe shuts the fuck up for a few days, right? Please tell me it means that.