I’m kind of anxious to get onto the break so I’m just going to hammer this out in the aftermath instead of waiting a bit to reflect as usual. I’m sure you all understand. Let’s get right to it.
-I don’t think the Hawks weren’t interested tonight. The effort was there, which I feared it might not be. What they weren’t was interested in the right ways. What you can’t do against the Coyotes when they’re on their game is fancy-pants your way through the neutral zone and you certainly can’t put your dump-ins where Mike Smith can get it. It’s hard to do, and it takes a fuckton of patience, but you have to chip pucks into the corners or go cross-corner with your dump-ins. The Hawks didn’t do much of either. If you don’t, Smith is going to smother your forecheck by himself.
Secondly, the Coyotes while blocking off the middle of the ice were also determined to outnumber the Hawks in every board battle in their zone. Two guys vs. one, or three guys vs. two. And the Hawks were reluctant to even match them in manpower. They Hawks aren’t blessed with guys who can outwork a numerical disadvantage along the wall. They have Hossa and… well, Hossa. They needed to be a more aggressive in matching the numbers on the wall tonight.
