Boy, there’s a lot to get to here, so let’s just jump into the bullets, shall we?
-Let’s get to the most pressing issue. Why the fuck can’t the United Center spell, “Lightning?” It has a fucking T you dummards!
Ok, now that’s out of the way…
-Where to start? We’ve spent some time bemoaning the Hawks habit of sitting on leads, or doing their best to blow them, or straight up blowing them. It didn’t feel like that tonight, and I recognize how stupid that sentence sounds now. But the Hawks weren’t under siege until a Rozsival penalty, where both Toews and Saad went to block a shot and didn’t. Then it’s just a one goal game and all it takes is a puck squirting out of a board battle and one shot.
The Hawks did manage 13 3rd period shots. They pressed, they forechecked. Where they got themselves in trouble was straight up declining two 3rd period power plays that could have ended it. Instead of stepping on the throat, the Hawks played with their food. That was a problem last year and has been this year, where the Hawks just use a 3rd period PP with a lead to run the clock instead of cutting the jugular. They should stop that.
