What's that poking me in the back of the head?
So, we're three minutes into Monday's game in Buffalo, and the Hawks are down 2-0. The season is still very young, but you have to feel this is a the lowest point in the last year for this team. Do they wrap it up and allow Corey Crawford to be pulled from his season debut, or do they pull the tail out from between their legs and show some heart. Lucky for all of us, they chose the second, and the Hawks are all evened up at 1-1-1.
The Good
This is going to be much easier than the other night. First of all, Chuck Norris is now wearing his Marian Hossa-nator jammies, underoos, and is going to be Hossa for Halloween. He is far and away the best Blackhawk, at this point of the season. The guy is a STUD! He does what he does, when he wants. Corey Crawford overcame a HUGE deficit, and what could be described as bad luck and butterflies, to settle in and get the first Hawks win of the season. If I hear or read ANYONE even suggest Crawford needs to be the starter, I'm hunting them down and forcing them drink a pitcher of chocolate laxatives. Its just a stupid thought, and you need to be punished for even entertaining it. The forth line was mixed and matched half the time with the third, as Skille/Stalberg got the promotion they deserved and Brouwer/Pisani got the DEMOTION they deserved. Unfortunately, there was nowhere to move poor Jake Dowell. The Hawks actually scored a powerplay goal, as Kaner took a nice feed from Duncan Keith and did what NHL snipers do, beat Miller with a well placed shot. The Hawks did not yield a powerplay goal, including a kill on Hammer's 5 minute major. Lastly, Nick Leddy actually played like a grown ass man, instead of a 19 year old kid. He has work to do, but he's progressing. He scored his first NHL goal off a Buffalo skate, but it's a goal nonetheless. Here's to you, kid...
The Bad
Pretty obvious, as the start was just utterly awful. Poor Corey Crawford had a combination of bad luck and poor support. The casual idiot would have blamed Crawford for both of those goals, but after a closer look, Eddie Olczyk pointed out that the first goal went off Keith's glove. Shitty luck at its worst. For 90% of the game, the Hawks dominated. No use harping on the generally bad, because there really wasn't much after the first three minutes.
The Ugly
I'm officially thoroughly baffled with this Dave Bolland at the point on the powerplay fascination, bullshit. This has yielded nothing but mishandled pucks and facepalm after facepalm. Luckily last night, Sharpie was playing the point on the first unit, but sure enough, the second unit gets trotted out, and there is Bolland at the point. I'm pretty sure that when he was told to step out there, he looked at Quenneville and said, "ME? REALLY?". I'm BEGGING "Q" to cut this embarrassment of an experiment out. ANYONE but Bolland, PLEASE!
Lastly, the play that could have been a positive moment for Hawks fans, but ended in a player being carted out, and will probably follow with a suspension. The Hjalmarsson hit on Pominville. I truly applaud his effort, and it's not like Pominville didn't see him coming, but it's a borderline play. You're not going to get the benefit of the doubt on a borderline play, when the opposing player gets carried out strapped to a stretcher. I don't fault Hammer for trying to make something happen. It's unfortunate for both ends. Hammer's luck, thus far, can best be described as SHITTY. I sincerely hope Pominville is alright.
