Well, the Hawks scored some goals this weekend. The offence was an area they were focusing on, as they had been "snakebit" according to Q in recent games. The unfortunate part of that is that they forgot about the other part of the game, the defence.
A 4-3 squeaker of a win in OT vs. the Canes on Saturday was a good story. A win is a win and overall it was a positive sign.
Then, the game happened last night. It was a great start and the Hawks had a 4-1 lead at one point in the 1st period. They couldn't finish as strong as they start and the Devils cut the lead to 4-2.
After that, it was all Devils with 5 unanswered goals and put the Hawks out of their misery with a 7-5 win.
Give the Devils credit on how they battled back. They have a young and extremely fast team. I thought they would slow down after their quick start to the season, however, I'm not thinking they'll fade anytime soon.
The Hawks currently sit out of the playoffs with an 8-8-2 record. That's good for 10th in the Western Conference.
That's where they are in the standings but there are so many questions still for this Hawks team.
Coach Q elected to go with 7 defencemen and 11 forwards. I was confused on this move and with the guys, he decided to sit. Tommy Wingels for sure has been a sparkplug and very versatile playing all forward positions this year but took a view from the press box.
Quenneville appeared to be sending Hartman a message after he benched him late in the game on Saturday night. So, he sat too.
Overall team speed and chemistry was an issue again but the biggest issue for me is the team defence. The d-men would be an easy target to pick on, but just like the Hawks have a history of attacking offensively in waves, they would do the same with forwards backchecking in layers led by Hossa and Toews in years past.
Hossa is obviously not around and his presence with that tenacious backcheck is missed more than his offensive strength.
Too many times the Hawks forwards were caught deep and didn't get back to pick up the right man. This needs to be addressed and now they know they can score again, Q should be zoning in on this as an area of improvement first and foremost.
So, there were a lot of negatives in the 7-5 loss last night but were some positive aspects of last night's game.
Schmaltz has finally found another gear. He had a couple gaffs defensively but he needs to keep that up. There was a noticeable chemistry with Debrincat as well.
There was a lot more net-front presence, so yay(!) to that.
Kane scored, so let's see if that gets him going. He was RAMPED up after that, so you could tell he needed that one.
Rutta was getting shots through; he should have 2 goals and an assist to his name after that one. I wasn't particularly fond of his defensive play.
Gooood… 2 PP goals which are a great sign to lift that special team out of the basement, (sure, Baaaaad was 2 PP goals given up).
There were timely chip and chases as well. I made mention on the message board that the Hawks needs to adjust the way they play with their current roster. I'm sorry, Ryan Hartman and Richard Panik, you don't have the skill to beat the defenders every time, so dump the damn puck in if you don't have a play.
They need to work in more speed to this team and that has to start with more coherent passes from the backend. If the forwards aren't being put in a position to get to those stretch passes than Q and Co. have to recognize that and tweak their breakout.
Where do the Hawks go from here? That is a great question. Coach Q is testing Bowman on his roster that he's constructed at this point by going full blender mode with the 11 F / 7 D lineup last night.
If Bowman was thinking about making a change to help this team gain a little more consistency, the Hawks actually scoring some goals might have bought him a little more time. My guess is he is banking on shoring up the defensive play and hope for the scoring to continue... for now.
The Hawks have the New York Rangers (who were recently scouting Rockford) on Wednesday and you can be sure that Coach Q will have the team watching a lot of video. He will also be exploring more lineup adjustments.
JL - @JustinLoweHB
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ICYMI:
* Rockford IceHogs got back to their winning ways with a 5-2 win over the Milwaukee Admirals. Vinnie Hinostroza scored a couple more goals on Saturday, which brings him to 9th in the AHL in scoring with 15 points. Their next game is Wednesday vs. the Iowa Wild.
* Henri Jokiharju is now tied for 3rd in defencemen scoring in the WHL. He has an impressive 23 points in 18 games and is a +24.
* Dylan Sikura is tied for 12th in all over NCAA Hockey scoring. His 1.75 points/game is among the leaders in the nation though as he's only played 8 games.