I would love to sit here and talk about the last 30 minutes, and how that’s the performance we wanted to see and it was only the Carey Price renting out space on Mt. Olympus that kept the Hawks from a second point. It would probably make me feel better to blame the refs for a questionable call in OT. I couldn’t tell if Toews tripped him or he slipped, what I do know is that they waited for Subban to not get up and Seabrook to look like he had a scoring chance before blowing for it, and that’s a little soft. I want to sit here and say if they can repeat that tomorrow night, things will be ok, and again this weekend.
But that’s not the point, is it?
The point is that the Hawks themselves are the ones who left them here. It is their fault that they can be defied by a flawless goalie performance that could cost them a point that could turn out to be fatal. It is their fault that we are praying that Colorado or Edmonton or an uncaring Vancouver or an already-given up Minnesota can do us a favor. No one else did it. And you can look everyone and apportion blame to them. Daydream Nation for taking their fair share of games in the first half off. Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson taking the two steps back Paula Abdul prescribed all year. The list goes on and on. Q? Yeah, not blameless either. We’ve been over Bowman.
And that’s where they are. After what was a thrilling game that didn’t go the Hawks way, they have to beat a Blues team that never makes things easy just to give themselves a chance to have to take three of four points against Scum. Yeah, I know, 3-1 on the year against them. Who fancies it still? And tomorrow’s certainly no gimme.
And if the Hawks can’t pull it off and become nothing short of an embarrassment? It’ll be richly deserved. They earned it for sure.
On To The Game:
-The first 30 were not impressive. Even when they did manage to get a puck in deep apparently the scouting report glossed over the little nugget that Price can play the puck, or the Hawks didn’t read it. A forecheck was only employed by Harvey the Rabbit.
-The last 30 were the exact opposite. Build on this, and you’ll probably get there.
-Crawford seems to be getting better as we go along here, but tomorrow is going to be quite the test, as one night after this after travel and the emotional letdown after playing in your hometown for the first time that would only be natural, he’s going to be wearing Stewart, Backes, Oshie, and a host of other jagoffs decorated with The Note. Hope you all have a good supply of booze for that one.
–Marcus Kruger played only 7 minutes, but remember this was the plan all along. They told me so.
-Was that Bryan Bickell occasionally playing to his size? Couldn’t be.
-Toews and Hossa were pretty much bottled up by Hal Gill and PK Subban. Subban’s a thing, but not a defensive stalwart. This really shouldn’t happen, despite the two minors Subban took, half of which are canceled out by the killer one Toews took.
–Patrick Kane = Mastodon tonight
-I thought Leddy was actually pretty good tonight, not as hesitant as he’s been. And he cracked 10 minutes, which is nice, which means the other guys weren’t at ridiculous minutes, just silly minutes.
-So with Brouwer done for the year, and I can’t see how he won’t be, the Hawks have three options: Dress John Scott and play with 11 forwards for 57 minutes every night. 2. Call up a safe option such as Ben Smith or Rob Klinkhammer, and have 11 forwards skate for 57 minutes every night. 3. The nuclear, totally desperate, way more likely to backfire than work but is the only thing resembling what Brouwer could do and call up Kyle Beach and all his problems. It’ll be option 1, but you’d like to see some stones, wouldn’t you?
All right kids, you got us in this mess, do you have the coffee table sized balls to get us out of it?