Game Recap: Hawks @ Blues 4/10

Well, here we are again.

There is a positive to get out of this game, so I guess I should open with that. Landon Slaggert scored his first NHL goal in the third period. In 12 games at 5v5, he's had 10 shots on goal, 17 shot attempts, and 9 scoring chances. His fancy stats don't do him justice, so I'll leave those alone, but the eye test rings true in that Slaggert hasn't been bad.

Want to know who has been bad? This team.

Tonight sucked. Am I surprised? No. I'm not. But when you sit through a whole game that consists of loose defense and puck-watching that makes you dizzy, it gets old. I mean, that first period had the Blues with a ridiculous 80.98 goals share percentage. It wasn't only the fact that the first 4 shots were goals (3 of which got Petr Mrazek pulled, you can do the math from there), the team looked garbage all over the ice. Shots on goal (SOG) for the first period, by the way, were 9 to 1.

Even though the Hawks evened things out in the next two periods (they finished with 20 SOG's to the Blues' 26), it was more of a result of the Blues playing keep away from the Hawks.

I know. There are probably more games like this before the season ends. Either way, the below picture sums up how the Hawks play. Richardson has a simple system, and then the players can't execute.

Thoughts

• I'm not revisiting the first 3 goals against. But, just before the 3rd goal, look at how bad the Hawks DZ structure is.

• The 4th one... the whole thing was initiated by a bad turnover and some poor defensive coverage. Also, Jarred Tinordi is once again guilty of a poor timed hit that hurt the defense before this goal.
• The Hawks were bad on transitions all night. That should go without saying.
• Breakouts were atrocious as well. That first touch was a helter-skelter pass that often went straight to a forechecker.
• Alex Vlasic was the Hawks' best player tonight. He had a 56.67 Corsi at 5v5, a team high.
• Phillip Kurashev's goal was probably the most exciting part of the game (other than Slaggert's goal).

• Slaggert had a great short-handed chance that hit the post.
• Slaggert's good skating ability was showcased tonight. And with that, we end on a positive note.