Ugh.
There it was late last night in my regular Hawks Twitter chat: a photoshop meme of a traffic cone, draped in a Brent Seabrook jersey, situated next to a St. Louis Blues goal celebration (nicely done, as always, Gov).
No sooner do I post a blog urging caution and ridiculing the notion that Seabrook should be in a platoon with Cody Franson, and he goes out and has a wretchedly awful first period, that sort of set the tone for the entire team in an eventual 5-2 loss to the Blues at Scottrade.
After the Hawks turned things around and came back to pull out an overtime win versus Nashville in their previous outing, coupled with how well they performed in their first two games of the season, I was holding out hope for this team. And maybe there’s a flicker still, but man, if you don’t have concerns this morning, put the cup of sugary red liquid down.
On Seabrook, I firmly believe he will have better games. I hope he doesn’t have any as bad or worse.
And the truth is, there were many culprits last night, including the coaching staff.
First, it is pretty much inexcusable that you aren’t more ready to play after having a long rest period and getting your injured second line center back. For like the third consecutive game, against divisional playoff teams, the Hawks came out flat and listless.
The only guys I saw really appearing to give maximum effort and pushback, for the first 40 minutes, were the usual suspects: the Toews line, Ryan Hartman, Tommy Wingels. Patrick Kane was Patrick Kane, and he appeared to be trying to take over the game at times.
The Blues put a hard forecheck on the Hawks all night, for which Chicago was not prepared. The coaching staff must be held accountable.
We can debate ad infinitum whether the turnover that led to Vladimir Tarasenko’s goal was the fault of Seabrook, who arguably made the right play with a short, quick, but slightly risky pass to Artem Anisimov to start a breakout, or Anisimov, who forgot to bring the puck with him up the ice.
But the coaching staff is responsible for the ongoing struggle of the team to engineer quick, tight zone exits. Tarasenko, a high hockey IQ player, knew what the Hawks were going to do and jumped on it.
Alex DeBrincat had his positives last night, including a late goal. But he also had another patented Alex DeBrincat Hat Trick™: a goal, an egregious power play turnover at the opponent’s blue line leading to an odd man rush the other way, and getting flattened in the corner because he had his head down.
Neither savior nor culprit. Just another Bozo on the Hawks team bus.
Gustav Forsling. Same deal.
The Now Great Jan Rutta. Still, to my eye anyway, struggling to get pucks out of his end, just like everyone else.
Corey Crawford did not seem fully ready to play last night. He had moments where he carried the Hawks, as usual, through a barrage of opponent shots and pressure. But he also had a couple of moments, on the first and third (especially) St. Louis goals, where he did not make the right play.
Connor Murphy had a pretty solid game last night; the fourth line wasn’t bad overall. But you need a lot more to win against the Blues in their building—or even just to be competitive.
Sure, the Hawks are 4-2-1 this morning and sitting pretty as far as points and standings. But there are troubling trends with this team—last night was not just one game, but a continuation of bad play that's gone on for much of the last five games—that must be addressed by the coaching staff or the front office—if the promise of the first two games is ever going to be anything more than a really cruel tease.
And fate can be cruel as well: the lightning fast Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid await the Hawks at the UC tonight. This, the second of a back to back for Chicago, is an important game for the psychology of this team.
By 10:30 Central tonight, the St. Louis debacle needs to feel like an aberration—this team needs to regain some confidence and start executing with clarity, purpose and aggression from the opening horn—not just with the goalie pulled in the last 5 minutes of regulation.
I’ll have another, hopefully more optimistic, recap tomorrow AM.
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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