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For once, John Scott was both on the ice and not the culprit in a Hawk loss.
That dubious honor goes to none other than Unlucky 13, Dan Carcillo.
Carcillo threw a reckless, dirty check on Oiler defenseman Tom Gilbert leading to a five minute boarding call, which in turn led to two Edmonton goals. The Hawks tried to get back into it after that, but it simply wasn't their night—and it was a good night for the Oilers. Banged up on the back end, they played the Hawks' potent forwards about as well as anyone has, and goalie Devan "Dube, this aggression cannot go unchecked" Dubnyk was quite good.
Back to Carcillo. He's not a terrible hockey player—in fact he's underrated—when he plays under control. It's the "under control" part that's the problem, both in reality and in perception. NHL referees clearly have it in for him (he's earned it). And that means at least indirectly, they have it in for the Hawks when the Bomb is one the ice, much less going off.
One brief note on the referees. Defying the laws of physics, they now apparently miss more calls than they did when there was one ref on the ice, as opposed to two. I won't go into the mssed high stick on Niklas Hjalmarsson that basically led to the second Oiler goal. Missed calls happen. Unfortunately, that one, it could be argued, in addition to the dumb Carcillo penalty that gave Edmonton the power play in the first place, cost the Hawks a point or two.
What did strike me as odd (ridiculous, frankly) was CSN Chicago fill-in color analyst Steve Konroyd blaming Hjalmarsson for the goal. Wow.
But it was not Corey Crawford's night either, giving up a couple of soft goals. Patrick Sharp absolutely blew a defensive assignment, leaving Andy Sutton wide open in the slot for the Oilers' third goal.
Two of the Hawks' more effective forwards were Andrew Brunette and rookie Jimmy Hayes, again underscoring the need perhaps for adding some more muscle upfront in tighter checked games. When you consider that Carcillo now has to be deemed at least "unreliable," the need becomes more acute.
Bear in mind, although Hayes was OK and scored his first NHL goal, he is a rookie. He could end up being part of the longer term solution. But he is not it now.
Like the Bomb Stan Bowman brought home this summer, the clock is now ticking. With $5.5 million in cap space, the Hawk GM can conceivably add veteran help—assuming he can make an offer that will pry it away form other teams.
As pointed out here and elsewhere, the price will be "high" in terms of fan perception. A "top" prospect might need to be dealt in order to acquire a rental and/or a not terribly exciting NHL veteran— a third line forward or a 4-5 defenseman. The market is simply and totally tilted toward sellers— and there's nothing to indicate that's going to change a lot leading up to the trade deadline. There are going to remain 16-20 teams in contention for playoff berths. In either conference, an eighth seed could advance to the Conference Finals this year.
Another option Bowman has is to take a decent player with a bad contract (like an RJ Umberger) off someone's hands. But again, that puts the Hawks one step back down the slope toward cap hell.
For Bowman, it might be as simple as biting the bullet, making a deal with some of his "prized" (and due to Hawk Propaganda, likely overvalued) prospects, and reminding the fans of the depth the Hawks have in their prospect pool.
For fans, it means recognizing that with a team as good, but also somewhat inconsistent, as this one is, the future needs to be now.
Thanks for reading, back tomorrow with a . . . Flyers preview.
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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