Hawks power outage continues, lose to Buffalo 2-1

The blackhawks have scored only 4 goals in regulation in their past 4 games, amazingly managing to win two of them in 4 on 4 OT by 2-1 scores, however, they were unable to convert on any of their 3 pp chances vs. Buffalo & could only manage to beat backup goalie Patrick Lalime once to drop to 3-3-1 in their past 7 games. Since routing SJ 7-2, a game that featured Marian Hossa's debut as a blackhawk, the hawks have scored only 8 goals in regulation during that stretch, with Hossa scoring only once since his 2 goal debut vs. the sharks.

It may be premature to sound the alarm, but the coincidental timing of the scoring drought with Hossa's arrival in the lineup has to be disconcerting, since he was supposed to make the offensive-minded hawks even more potent. Instead, the hawks have struggled to score, even on the pp, where they have gone 4 for 24 during the past 7 games - a 16.7% clip - which has dropped them to 9th ranked in the league.

Considering the high-salaried fire power on the team, that is simply not good enough. A potent powerplay not only helps during a man advantage, but it causes the opposition to be more wary of taking penalties, thus potentially opening up more room for the fast skating, free-wheeling hawks at even strength 5 on 5 or 4 on 4. One has to wonder whether the 20 minutes of ice time now going to Hossa every night that used to be allotted to other players is causing the rest of the team to not be as sharp or focused in games.

Tonight, the hawks came out with good jump to start the game - drawing a couple of early Buffalo penalties and peppering their former teammate Lalime with a lot of rubber. They managed to get 8 shots on their second powerplay alone, including a couple of point blank chances by Toews and a couple of one-timers by Seabrook that tested Lalime, but he was solid and equal to the task.

After Buffalo was able to weather the early storm, thanks mainly to Lalime's efforts, they seemed to regroup for the last half of the first, getting a powerplay of their own, when Byfuglien was called for high-sticking. During one sequence, the hawks gained possession in their own zone three separate times, but failed to clear. Keith & Madden, normally solid when it comes to defensive zone play, particularly during a pk, both failed to clear when they had a chance. Even when Huet could have frozen the puck to allow the hawks to regroup & change, he failed to do so, giving Buffalo yet another opportunity on the same long shift. Fortunately for the hawks they were eventually able to kill off the penalty & clear the zone with no damage incurred, however, it appeared that the Sabres gained some confidence after being under siege for much of the period.

That added Buffalo confidence carried over to start the second, as the Sabres took it to the hawks, outshooting them 17-7 and outscoring them 2-0, including a powerplay goal early in the period. The hawks' penalty was directly attributable to again having possession in their own zone but failing to clear the zone. Cam Barker had the puck deep in the hawk left corner with time & space, as no Buffalo forechecker was near. Instead of moving the puck up himself, he sent it up the boards to Sharp who was covered by a pinching Montador. The Buffalo dman gained position with Sharp putting an arm on him, drawing the holding call. Sharp complained that Montador had embellished the play by falling down onto the ice, trying to make it appear that Sharp had tackled him, but the refs weren't buying.

On the ensuing powerplay, the Sabres eventually set up Connolly for a one-time point shot which Huet saved, but gave a rebound, with only Vanek in front for the Sabres & Sopel & Hjalmarsson for the hawks. Despite being outnumbered, Vanek nevertheless got to the loose puck first, Sopel & Hjalmarsson both failing to take either Vanek or the puck from in front and Vanek, once he gained possession, made no mistake, beating Huet, who was a bit slow to recover after going down on the initial save.

The hawks had their chances to tie it in the 2nd, with Hossa turning the afterburners on to beat Myers to a loose puck at center and skated in alone shorthanded, but Lalime stopped him. Brouwer also had a great scoring chance when he was set up with a point blank chance in the slot but missed the net. Late in the second, the sabres added to their lead when Keith had possession in the left corner of the hawks zone & fired it around the boards up the right side, however, Hossa was already out at center, thus leaving the right boards open and the puck was turned over to incoming Kennedy. Kennedy promptly found McArthur moving into the slot, having beaten his man Kopecky back, and despite not getting good wood on the bouncing puck, still managed to bank it off the post & in behind a sprawled Huet to make it 2-0.

The hawks came out quickly in the third and scored on their first shift, with Hjalmarsson making the play happen by pinching in and throwing a solid hit on Pominville to prevent him from clearing Rivet's outlet pass. The loose puck went to Kane in the left corner, who quickly spotted Sharp cruising unchecked into the slot. Lalime managed to get a piece of Sharp's shot, but not enough and the hawks were in business with Sharp's 100th goal as a hawk. They continued to control most of the play, as Buffalo seemed to lay back to try to protect the lead, allowing Kane at one point to gain the zone with the Sabre dmen backing in. Kane managed to get off a good wrister that was headed for the top right hand corner that Lalime snagged with his glove. The hawks managed to get another pp opportunity shortly afterwards when Derrick Roy was sent off for hooking, however, they failed to capitalize.

An inopportune high stick by Byfuglien midway thru the final period stalled the hawks attacking mode and a questionable penalty to Keith for hooking (where it appeared the Buffalo player actually grabbed the hawk dman's stick from him) essentially sealed the hawks fate.

Despite outshooting Buffalo 16-5 in the third, the hawks couldn't beat Lalime more than once, as Lalime stopped 39 of 40 hawk shots on the night, while Huet faced 33 Buffalo shots, making several good saves, including chances created off hawk turnovers, to keep the hawks in it.

Patrick Kane looked his usual dangerous self throughout, though also seemed to press a bit, perhaps trying to do too much by himself in his hometown. To his credit, he faced media questions about his summer incident before the game and said the right things. He has shown more maturity on the ice so far this season as well. Nevertheless, he wasn't given the same welcome by the fans that he got his first game in Buffalo, as a smattering of boos could be heard throughout the game whenever he (& former sabre Bryan Campbell, who refused to re-sign with Buffalo a few years ago) controlled the puck.

The hawks next 5 games are all at home, starting Sunday vs. Tampa Bay, followed by St. Louis, Boston, Detroit & San Jose then playing in Detroit the next night before the Christmas break. It would certainly be a good time for the hawks to break out of their scoring drought to take some pressure off their goaltending, and gain some confidence as they look ahead to a busy January schedule with 11 road games of the 15 in the month.