Happy (belated) Halloween, all. The Hawks were full of treats and scares last night. Stalberg wore his clutch costume for the second game in a row and Keith left the game with a dreaded UBI.
The power play continues to be a creepshow. The power play dropped a donut in seven chances last night, which makes the Hawks 0-for-18 with the man advantage the past four games. The Hawks rank 29th in the league with an 8.9 percent conversion rate. The good news is that they are getting chances; the bad news is that they are still entirely too fond of the backdoor play that every goalie in the league now stops by muscle memory.
The lights-out PK keeps games close; unfortunately, a tepid power play does the same thing. Not converting when the opposing team is down a man—sometimes two—keeps average to below average teams in the game long after a team with the Hawks offensive skill should’ve buried them.
There’s a general air of optimism about the power play on the internets. Perhaps the Hawks are due. Maybe all the PP shots that have clanged the posts and soared just wide are eroding some cosmic levee of bad fortune, soon to flood the net. It’s All Saints’ Day today, so it might do just as well to light a candle…or 41, one for each power play opportunity wasted and wasting in purgatory.
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Reflections on the game from the blogosphere: (Fifth Feather), (Blackhawk Up), (The Third Man In), (Hockeenight), (Boxing with CTA)
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Duncs listed as day to day (ESPN.com)
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Hawks to take dads on the road (Kuc)
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Down Goes Brown transcript of Bettman’s Halloween Party
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Apparently, no takers for Avery
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Vancouver police rounding up SC rioters (The Province)