Sorry for the delay in the wrap, i had forgotten that Matt went off to witness history, while I watched it without pants. I think you see the difference of who we are as people, now.
One facet of the Hawks play this season that rarely gets mentioned is their tendency to not play a full 60 minutes. They got away with it for so long, some didn’t notice. But rare have they put a full game together, and that includes some of the December Streak. Lately, they haven’t been.
Last night was no different. The Hawks didn’t bother to show up until halfway through, and paid the price. Niklas Backstrom is not a goalie you can fall three behind. This wasn’t a case of the Hawks being suffocated after trailing. They pretty much mauled the Wild for the last half- hour of the game. But they couldn’t get past Backstrom, who turned away 40 shots. The Hawks didn’t do a good enough job of crashing the net, as there were plenty of rebounds there for the taking. Secondly, luck wasn’t with us, as some rebounds that did fall in front of Hawks’ sticks quickly hopped over them.
The Hawks are also being victimized by getting NOTHING from two of their lines. We can no longer call them the top two lines, as Havlat-Bolland-Ladd is clearly our best one at the moment. Memo to Kane and Sharp: Teams have caught on to the cross-ice backdoor one-timer. They must’ve attempted it three or four times last night on the PP. all of them broken up. Time for something new, and then go back to that. They also had better figure out what it takes to score at even strength. The Hawks have been a one-line team for too long now. A trade is the obvious call, but the logistics of which are just dizzying right now. Once again, I’m ringing the bell that says, “Kontiola”.
Most of all, the Hawks need a break. They’ll get one soon, but only after putting one more great effort together. Like the boys at The Fifth Feather said today, a peformance such as the last half of last night, the Blues will be dismissed quickly. Do so.