We don’t need to wait around to analyze this one. In a way, this was a good thing. I, and possibly others, possibly the Hawks themselves, had let Wednesday’s win fill our head with dreams and we had to have them all. As my compatriot McClure quickly pointed out, there is no such thing as an important win before April. The Hawks found that out with authority tonight in Texas. Everything that was good in New York was bad tonight.
While the record without Patrick Kane could still be considered gaudy, you’re still talking about a team that’s managed 22 goals in those 10 games. That’s simply not good enough. It’s been shutout three times. It seems when the top line doesn’t binge, they’re not going to score more than two (Sharks meltdowns not withstanding). And each line has its issues, and we’ll get to that in a moment.
