"Gentlemen, THIS is how it's done, take note, Kaner"
Last night's game was far from a dominating game, but the Hawks played a very good team, and held them to one goal. The new lines looked a little off, but in all fairness, Hossa left somewhere in the middle of the second and the lines were jumbled up for the remainder of the night. We'll take what we can get, here.
The Good
Definitely more good than bad, here. Sharpie's goal was the exclamation point on the night. He blew around Scuderi, who was directly responsible for two of the three goals, with a little shake-n-bake and powered hard to the net. Bernier hardly stood a chance once Shooter turned the corner, because "that's what he do!". At least someone is continuing to stay hot, because Bolland sucked all the momentum out of Hossa, so much so that Hossa has apparently contracted leprosy. Thanks Bolly, you're a peach. The Jake Dowell goal surprised everyone on the ice, in the stands, in the booth, and watching on TV. Of course he needed help from an opposing stick, but goals don't have to be pretty, they just need to go in the net. Congrats to Jake the Snake on his first goal of the year, you're now tied with Dave Bolland in goals AND assists, despite probably playing half the time.
The Stalberg goal was a great play on his end and a horrible play by Bernier and Scuderi. Stalberg drove right past Scuderi and hard to the net looking for a juicy 24 oz. rebound where Bernier was glad to serve one up. Nice to see Pick-to-Click Vik get another goal as a result of hard work, I'm starting to look like I know a thing or two, again. He's getting the hang of things, so watch out. To bad the reward for his hard work was a nice seat on the bench watching Moustachio play musical chairs with the lines, sans Stalberg, for most of the third. Explain to me, again, what scoring a great "hustle" goal and skating like your hair is on fire gets you? Right, the bench, got it.
The Powerplay in the second period was dominant, even though they didn't score. The Kings tried everything they could to get the puck out and the Hawks just kept throwing it back in. They really deserved to score, just to show the dominance, but it was not to be.
It was nice to see John Scott NOT on the ice for the first time this season. Jordan Hendry took his place and did nothing to hurt his case for more time on the third D pairing. Maybe Moustachio chased him away with a torch, but I'm perfectly fine not seeing John Scott again until maybe the Calgary or Vancouver games on November 19th. Until then, there is no team that we need to throw a John Scott at for his "physical play". And by physical play, I'm talking about being generally slow, ugly, and limited in any sort of Hockey skill. Let the Jordan Hendry campaign kick into high gear.
Marty Turco's play was nothing short of spectacular. One fluke goal, aside, Turco was great. He faced 34 shots and had to be frustrating the Kings with his acrobatic stops. In this day and age of butterfly goalies that use as little movement as possible to keep the puck out of the net, an acrobatic goalie that does things like stacking the pads is stressful. But you have to realize that is Marty's style and always has been. He's not conventional, but that's part of what makes him good. You can't predict what he'll do, so its hard to scout his tendencies.
Lastly, Fernando Pisani CAN contribute offensively, would you look at that?
The Bad
Just a reminder Dave Bolland...the season started 3 weeks ago. Just sayin, Yo. The Justin Williams goal was a complete debacle, as he somehow blazed past all-world speedracer Duncan Keith, and got to a funky dump in, which he one timed with surgical accuracy over Turco's shoulder. All Marty really had to do was stand there and absorb the shot, but somehow he went into the butterfly and got sniped. Williams did what he had to do perfectly and I give him credit for that, but it looked ugly as sin.
The other bad part was the King's pressure in the latter end of the second. I'm going to blame that on the fact that Hossa was out and the lines were a mess, but the Hawks couldn't throw the puck out of their own zone. Luckily, Turco was solid and no harm was done, but it was a tense few minutes of pressure, and is concerning.
The Ugly
The lines really never got a chance to gel, and the pressure was spotty, so lets give it a few games. Really the ugly would be the Hossa situation. No one is really clear at what point Hossa went to the dressing room, but he never returned. Moustachio said he'd be re-evaluated with an upper body injury, which is about as specific as telling someone that Las Vegas is West. Let's hope it's nothing too serious.
I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with HJAL-marsson and Cullimore as the second defensive pairing. If you would have told me, in the preseason, that Jassen Cullimore was going to replace Brian Campbell while he's hurt, I would have told you that you were high on the crack pipe. I guess they say when you're given lemons, make lemonade, but this is some scary sour lemonade. Rumor has it that Campbell is skating and on schedule to be back soon, thank GOD.
