Poor Special Teams Cost Hawks vs. Vancouver

The Blackhawks blew another extended 5 on 3 opportunity for the 3rd time so far this young season & just as the case in the previous two games, it ended up costing them a W.

To add insult to injury, the hawks penalty kill gave up the tying goal twice, with Byfuglien being in the box both times, the second time serving the second half of a double minor.

Antii Niemi was solid in goal for the most part for the Hawks, tho he might want to have the winning goal back, just like Campbell & Kane would want the play that led to it, back.  Niemi seemed to be a bit slow to react to Campbell & Kane's turnover & was beaten by an accurate shot from a wide angle that otherwise looked saveable.

Perhaps of  greater concern than squandering another home game, is the injury status of Toews & Seabrook, who both left the game in the 3rd period.  On Toews' injury, by the time he had received Brouwer's suicide pass & turned to head up ice, it was already too late - he looked up only to see Mitchell readying to lower the boom, before he had a chance to brace himself - a clean hit that apparently did more damage to his midsection than his head, according to his comments overheard by Ray Ferraro at the Chicago bench, after Toews visibly struggled to find his way back to it.  Seabrook left the game during an earlier pk after he went down behind the hawks net, tho the nature of the injury wasn't readily apparent as he slowly headed off the ice.

The loss, Niemi's first this season, is a tough one to take considering that the hawks had control and could have salted the game away if they had been able to bear down on the pp; instead, they again gave life to their opponents by failing to do so & paid the price for the 3rd time in 9 games.   As for Niemi, he is bigger than Huet & accordingly takes up more space in the net & his positioning & fundamentals appear more solid - he doesn't go down as much (both in terms of frequency & location; crouching more than dropping to his knees like Huet seems to do all too frequently.  His rebound control & puck handling appear adequate, tho his glove & unorthodox catching style pointed out by Ray Ferraro bears watching, as does his reaction time on turnovers.

Hawks assistant coach John Torchetti will have to figure out how to get the pp going & the pk needs to be better as well - starting with taking fewer penalties, particularly undisciplined ones in the offensive zone which accounted for 60% of the total, a percentage that also marked the hawks pk success rate on the evening.

Fortunately for the hawks, they face Nashville & Minnesota in their next three games, with the first two at home - all of them very winnable & in some respects must wins if they wish to separate themselves from the pack & set themselves up well for the tougher parts of the schedule coming up.  Of course that assumes a healthy Toews & Seabrook - if either one ends up missing an extended period that could spell trouble, especially on defense where the hawks depth is thin to say the least.  A weakened defence (& offence) isn't exactly going to help their heavily scrutinized goaltending either.

I expect Niemi to get the start again vs.offensively challenged Nashville on Saturday as show of confidence & support by Q in his young netminder, with Huet likely getting the nod vs. more defensive Minnesota & the two splitting the Nashville/Montreal back to back next week.

That 6-5 comeback vs. Calgary just over a week ago seems like a distant memory right about now...