I know we get Simpsons heavy on this blog, but sometimes the analogies are just so apt. Tonight’s game felt like Homer Simpson’s boxing tactics. The Hawks allowed the Wings to repeatedly, and futilely, punch them about the face until they tired themselves out. Except the Hawks never really got to the point where they simply pushed them over. At least until after they’d surrendered a point to a division rival that they didn’t have to.
Once again, this was post-lockout hockey at its most glorious. If by glorious I mean tired, sloppy, and just kind of all over the place. And it is strange indeed for the Hawks to spend a large swath of a contest trying to serve it on a plate to Detroit, and watching Detroit merely stare at the silverware trying to figure out which one was the salad fork.
To let the Wings in these days when they’re such a mess, you have to continually give them power plays and be sloppy in your own end. Check. And yet they couldn’t take advantage, mostly because the entry on their power play looked like a bank robbery planned by ADHD-riddled children. But hey, you take your advantages where you can find them I guess.
So it’s six in a row to start the year, before embarking on a pretty nasty looking six game road trip (looking even nastier with each San Jose win).
(more…)
