I’m going glass half full this morning. And I’m sure some will say that’s being negative or pessimistic.
Bottom line, the Hawks took 2 road points last night against a very good team—and the only team ahead of them in the Western Conference— the Minnesota Wild. One huge difference between this year’s Hawks club and last years is just that: points going in the bank.
If you haven’t seen the shootout winning tally by Patrick Kane, here it is:
Brutal, elegant, simple, deadly.
I hate the shootout. I have always likened it to deciding an NBA tie with a game of H-O-R-S-E. But it is what it is in the era of having a would-be Catskills Comedian as the league’s commissioner. On to the real hockey game, which was pretty good.
Perfection is something to strive for in figure skating; it’s a pipe dream in hockey.
That said, last night’s game in many ways typified the Hawks this season: some terrific offensive zone play, embarrassing defensive breakdowns (though less than usual), a shortened bench in the third period, big goals by some combination of the fearsome Foursome (Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa) and an overtime or shootout win (the Hawks have the most OT/SO games in the league thus far this season—11).
Which leads to a couple of qualified negatives. In picking up OT winning points, the Hawks are also giving opponents, often key Western opponents, valuable single points here and there. You might ask, “why quibble, JJ?”
Because one or two points in the grand scheme of things will mean a lot on April 6.
The other issue is the shortening of the bench and the number of OT and shootout contests. I’m going to give Joel Quenneville and the players the benefit of the doubt here. The Hawks long summer of rest has really paid off in terms of health and conditioning. Right now at least, the amount of ice time being logged by the top 11-12 players on the roster is helping win games and doesn’t seem to have a negative effect. The Hawks have also had a lot of off days recently.
But the reason for shortening the bench at times still remains: the depth is not great. The third pairing, featuring the lamentable ex-Wild John Scott is still a nightmare. I will give Scott and Steve Montador a semi-pass on the goal that should have been an icing call— later apparently admitted by the linesman, Ryan Galloway. Still, someone needed to cover the off side, from where to goal was eventually scored. And there were a few other adventures with Scott on the ice last night.
Ray Emery, I thought, was outstanding. After seeing only 2 shots in the first period, Razor was peppered with 29 over the last two periods. I can’t really fault him on any Minnesota goal. And he made a number of pretty nice saves with outstanding rebound control. He was also strong in the shootout, to the small extent he needed to be. For now, it would seem, the club should continue to ride Emery until he needs a rest.
Pretty nice game for Michal Frolik as well, with a rebound goal around the crease, and winning a lot of puck battles throughout the night after being demoted to the fourth line.
Duncan Keith was also very strong last night, including a brilliant, clean defensive play to defuse a Matt Cullen breakaway.
Fearsome Foursome Update:
(not sure how much longer I’ll be putting this up, but for now, it’s fun to follow)
Next up, the Ducks at the UC Friday night. Trademongers will no doubt want to scout out the Ducks who are likely to be in fire sale mode before too terribly long.
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