Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

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When the names that matter get on the scoresheet for the Hawks, it’s a time-tested recipe for success. Not pictured…Italian chef kissing fingers.

On the second of a back-to-back against an opponent looking to get the bad taste of a last second loss out of their mouths, the Hawks faced a Predators team that was as desperate as a team in early March could be. The Predators did what they normally do. Scratch, claw and annoy the piss out of their opponent until they achieve their desired result.

Tonight was no different as the Predators rallied from a 2-0 and 3-1 deficit to tie the game in the third period. And just like they did on Thursday against Montreal, the Predators allowed a tie-breaking goal in the final minute of regulation.

You saw the game. Here are the other things you may not have noticed.

–Jordin Tootoo probably won’t play a better game in the Indian head ever again. Tootoo created offensive chances in almost every shift he had tonight and scored his first point, a goal. On Tootoo’s goal, it was his pass that set up the opportunity for his goal.

As the puck rang around the boards, Tootoo drew two defenders to him. To their credit, they didn’t think Tootoo could do anything other than eat the puck along the wall and hope for a teammate to come in and support him. Instead, Tootoo whipped around to his forehand and made a blind cross-ice pass to Duncan Keith.

Keith drew the defender towards him and chipped the puck to a wide open Brent Seabrook. This led to Tootoo’s goal as both defenders that were going after Tootoo then dove to block Seabrook’s shot.

None of that happens without Tootoo’s pass and it was quite exceptional.

–One thing to keep in mind if this is the first round matchup, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith probably won’t be matched up against Swedish bowling ball Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg. That draw will go to Oduya and Hjalmarsson, at least at first. So while it is less than ideal that Keith and Seabrook were on the ice for all three goals against, the playoffs will see a different matchup.

Also, it’s worth noting that this was the second of a back-to-back and Seabrook is probably at the stage of his career where they can be a little tougher than they were earlier in his career.

–Michal Kempny played 12 minutes but it felt like more. Kempny’s play has started to come around to the point where I’m not holding my breath on the next unlucky mistake that will find him stapled to the bench.

In the second period, he made a very subtle play that opened up a skating lane that didn’t exist. He corralled the puck in his own end and turned to skate up the ice. The lane he wanted to go down initially was closed, though, so he circled back with a very nifty move and this opened up a new lane. Within two or three strides, Kempny was streaking down the left wing and fed Marian Hossa which led to a quality scoring chance.

Something out of nothing.

–It’s always important when the Hawks add new wrinkles to their power play as this allows for the Panarin one-timer to be available more frequently. Tonight, a rotation found Kane on the left wing with the puck. To his credit, Kane took the opportunity to fire the puck towards the net and found the back of it. In the future, this will hopefully force teams to not just worry about defending the one-timer.

–Nashville’s third goal was a heckuva shot by Arvidsson. We’ve seen enough of Corey Crawford to know that it didn’t sit well with him. Crawford, as he is wont to do, locked it down after that and made several key saves as the Predators continued their assault at his net. Crawford was there every time and it allowed Toews and Campbell to connect for their heroics.

–I’m still not sure the Predators could’ve defended Campbell’s goal any better. Toews just has that way of finding passing lanes at the end of a game where it looks like there aren’t any. Maybe one of the Predators could’ve been quicker to pressure Toews instead of both backing off. Regardless, I’m not sure it would’ve made much of a difference.

–The Hawks sit in first place again by one point with three games at hand over Minnesota. That will probably not stand by their next game. They also will have a few days off to get Schmaltz, Oduya and Hjalmarsson healthy. The next time they take the ice, they’re going to slightly different. Until then.

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

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The fun continues.

Although for the first 40 minutes of play, few would constitute what they witnessed as fun. With the Islanders coming off a game last night and newly anointed Doug Weight still commanding respect from the locker room, the Islanders were more than happy to stack three guys across the blue line. The Hawks, missing two of their top 6 in Anisimov and Nick Schmaltz, struggled with generating any pressure off the rush because of this as well as getting shots through the pile of bodies Brooklyn was stacking in front of Thomas Greiss.

The result was a 1-0 deficit for the Hawks heading into the third.

In other times, we’ve seen the Hawks sort of sleepwalk through games like these. This, however, is a time where the Hawks are quite engaged. And as the Islanders held on for dear life, the Hawks threw everything they could at Greiss in the third. Greiss was up to the challenge every time with stellar saves on Marian Hossa, Ryan Hartman and Artemi Panarin among others. It wasn’t until a timeout and a set face-off play from drawn up by Kevin Dineen that the Hawks finally solved him.

One point was drawn and a thrilling, but scoreless overtime later, it came down to a skills competition.

Other things…

–The Islanders run one crazy penalty-kill system. All four of their killers are constantly moving forward and they send one kamikaze forward to disrupt any passes at the top of the blue line.  You may recall in the first meeting between these two teams, the Hawks were able to pick apart the aggressive Islander penalty killers leading to multiple easy tap-ins. Tonight, the Islanders were just as aggressive and hectic. The difference was the Hawks weren’t able to exploit their eagerness.

Prior to Brock Nelson’s short-handed tally, the Islanders appeared to have several chances to jump up and create an odd man rush while penalty killing. Instead they chose to ice the puck. But when Brian Campbell made an ill-advised pinch and the Islanders penalty about to expire, they certainly didn’t hesitate to pounce. With one pass, the Islanders were off and running on a 2-on-1.

–Someday when Kevin Dineen is a head coach again, we will reminisce about games like this. Assistant coaches are basically guys and it’s hard to determine what kind of impact they have but this is one game where having an assistant like Dineen is invaluable. As the Hawks huddled during their timeout, you could see Dineen with the whiteboard drawing up a play.

When Jonathan Toews won the ensuing face-off cleanly, we all got to see what the play they were discussing was.

Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith spread out the Islanders defense with long cross-ice passes with Keith as the trigger-man. Panarin snuck into his typical one-timer position but a little higher than normal as he was well above the face-off circle.

If I had to guess, Keith probably had three options. He could make the pass to Panarin, he could take a shot or he could use Kane as an outlet in the corner; all depending on how the Islanders defended him. Or maybe the idea was always to give the puck to Panarin.

Either way, the Islanders left Panarin way too much room and he made them pay.

Kevin Dineen could’ve drawn up a play that would’ve made Vince Lombardi burst out of his coffin and kiss him on the mouth; it still comes down to the players executing. However, there are very intricate subtleties in what Dineen does that make a big difference. In this case, it was having Panarin slide up a little higher than normal. We’ve seen countless examples of these sorts of things in his almost three years here.

He should be a head coach again soon.

–As Matt mentioned in the preview, John Tavares might be the most under appreciated player in the league. That was more than evident tonight as Tavares was a one-man wrecking crew. The puck seems to be glued to his stick when he has control. He very easily could’ve ended the game in overtime when slid through two Hawks and then fired off a shot from 25 feet out. Corey Crawford was there.

–Josh Ho-Sang wearing his helmet like Niklas Hjalmarsson circa 2008 should be far more offensive to people than whatever number he chooses to wear.

–Another two points and the Predators wait in Nashville tomorrow. They lost a heartbreaker in Montreal on Thursday in PK Subban’s return. It won’t be easy but it will be fun. Until then.

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

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With the Penguins coming off a tough loss in Dallas last night, it should not have been a surprise that the Hawks were going to see their very best. Even if they were dressing Kjell and Ulf Samuelsson on defense because of injuries tonight. You can see why the Penguins are the class of the league and cause matchup headaches for coaches everywhere.

Three lines that can all go 0-60 in under five seconds and a fourth line that isn’t too far behind. Did I mention that all three lines each feature the best (or second best, in PHIL’s case) scorer Canada, Russia and the US have to offer? Yes, this is the dream Final for the NHL of the past decade which almost assuredly means we will never experience it.

And it’s really a shame because this was about as much fun as one can have watching a NHL regular season game in March. Both teams traded high quality chances and both teams traded pinning the opposition in their end for long periods of time.

In the end, the game really came down to two moments. The first one was when Richard Panik postered Evgeni Malkin at the end of the second period by running the puck through his legs and kicking it to himself. This opened a wide gaping slot for Panik as Malkin could clearly not be bothered and allowed him time to pick a corner on Marc-Andre Fleury. Panik certainly didn’t miss.

The second was Scott Darling’s point blank save on the ageless Matt Cullen near the beginning of the third period. How the puck didn’t go in will stump scientists for the next 34 years. With the Hawks running around in their end, the Penguins cycled the puck from behind the net to a wide open Matt Cullen standing five feet away from an open cage. The puck found him and he blistered a one-timer to the net. Scott Darling somehow snagged it with his glove. The Hawks were able to keep their one goal lead and then add on to it later in the period.

Other stuff and things…

–Nick Schmaltz probably didn’t have the fanboy crush of Teuvo but he might be just as offensively gifted as Finnish baby Jesus. After Anisimov missed the majority of the game with an injury, Schmaltz moved to second line center and didn’t miss a beat. He set up the Hawks first goal with a nifty back check/lift of the stick, swiping the puck from Jake Guentzel and feeding a wide open Patrick Kane on the left wing wall.

Kane receiving the puck in that spot of the ice is akin to Lebron James barreling down the lane with one defender in his way. The ball is going in the hoop and there’s really nothing anyone can do about it.

On the Hawks third goal, Schmaltz turned Ian Cole inside out with a toe drag that opened a passing lane for Kane to re-enact his game-winning goal from the 2013 Western Conference Final.

The biggest difference with Schmaltz now versus the beginning of the season is there is a lot less indecisiveness to his game. Schmaltz knows where he’s going with the puck before he makes a play; he’s seeing moves in advance as opposed to reacting after he’s already in position. There are still moments where he gets caught overthinking but they are far fewer than before his trip to Rockford.

–It’s finally nice to be on the other side of a Fels motherfuck. Barring an unforeseen collapse, Richard Panik should eclipse 20 goals. And even if he doesn’t reach that milestone, this has been a wildly successful year for a guy who couldn’t hold a regular NHL roster spot on Tampa and Toronto for the first four years of his career.

The play he made to score his goal is only made by someone who’s oozing with confidence. I highly doubt Panik would have had the stones to try that move at this point last year.

–Speaking of…Tomas Jurco tried a similar gutsy play in the third when he was barreling down the right wing. He tried flipping the puck to himself and fire the puck to the net in one motion. Unfortunately, he got tangled up and couldn’t get a shot off. That was about the only time Jurco was noticeable.

–How the Hawks (the home team) got caught with Michal Rozsival on the ice at the same time as Sidney Crosby on back-to-back shifts will have to be explained to me sometime.

–That’s about that. The Hawks climbed slightly closer to the Wild as they now trail by 3 points with two more games played. The Islanders come in on Friday. Hopefully they’ll get one of Hjalmarsson, Oduya or Anisimov back though I don’t know if they necessarily need them with the way things are going. Until then.