Of course after they’re already out of it and have sold off what they can, the Hawks have now kept pace with three top flight offenses since the deadline, and bested two of them in Florida, which hasn’t happened consecutively since god knows when. And it certainly wasn’t ideal, but hey, a win is a win.
- Tonight was as active with his feet as Boqvist has looked since arriving permanently, and it directly created the Hawks first goal all the way back in their own end. When facing multiple forecheckers, Boqvist bought himself a little time by dancing around them enough that they would chase him, and then slid the puck over to an uncovered Keith who initiated a clean zone exit. He then got up into the play quick enough to be at the point when needed and do what he does best, which is thread the needle with a pass or shot, in this case a pass to Toews who deposited it.
- While the metrics tonight for Toews are ass ugly, he was there for the Hawks when it was needed, both in putting home the Boqvist pass, winning a board battle to get the puck to Murphy for the point shot for the redirected goal, and for doing what he does in the shootout. Toews spent most of his time against Noel Acciari, whom one would like to think he should dong whip, but was only on the ice for 2 attempts for versus 11 against when opposing Acciari. It’s been reiterated a zillion times that he can’t do it all anymore, but sometimes it’s just enough.
- It was another dadaist evening for Koekkoek and Maatta individually, as the former simply fanned on a puck coming to him at the blue line and let Mike Hoffman blow by him, and Maata allowed the late equalizer to happen by being flat footed, bent over, and reaching as Mike Matheson took it upon himself to exploit that fact.
- It’s anyone’s guess as to what the fuck Jeremy Bevington’s thought process is or what team he thinks he’s got, but trying to sit on a lead with this roster, no matter how good your goalie is, is going to invite trouble.
- Tonight’s Kelvin Gemstone Gripes: 1) Alex DeBrincat in front on the power play is stupid. It’s kind of possible to see that a few might bank off of him and in and it gets him kickstarted, but it takes away his best skill, which is his shot accuracy and finding soft spots in the defense, and it’s doubly stupid because 2) Adam Boqvist isn’t on the same (read: top) power play unit, and lord knows Duncan Keith isn’t getting those shots through. There is less than zero excuse for Boqvist to not run the top unit from here on out, results be damned, now that Gustafsson is gone. Worst coach in the leauge.
- In a related story, 38 saves from Corey Crawford on 40 shots.
- Did Aaron Ekblad even play?
- Next up is the Ducks on Tuesday night back at home, and oh what a fun time that always is. Happy Leap Day ’til then.
