Speaking too soon...

is a problem i have.
Last night's game against the Bruins is a testament to that. I should have known the second I mentioned a successful power-play that it would pretty much insure a lazy/confused effort by the Indianhead tonight.
We looked strange on the PP the entire night, and shit, we had a ton of them. Kane said in postgame that he thought it was because Boston wasn't pressuring on their kills and was waiting for the Hawks to try and cut the box apart. Well, the only way that is going to happen in that situation is to get shots from the the tops of the circles and hope for rebounds or use the extra attacker as a screener. Theoretically, while the defense would be reassembling from a blocked shot or rebound there would be openings at the far posts and possibility to come back to the points for a blast. That's how a power-play works, right? Shouldn't a low-pressure PK make that scenario easier to set up and execute? It sure seemed that their ability to stop the passes from D to D across the zone was the reason we couldn't set anything up, but wouldn't that suggest more pressure? I'm confused.

Anyhow, the game should be looked upon as a victory. This is especially true for Nik, as he has been simply incredible in his starts this year. I'm not sure if he's trying to prove something, but it is working. He looked stellar on both of the breakaways he saw and he work on the PK was lights out. Do you realize we spent nearly a third of the game on the kill? Although it looked good and Boston only converted one of their chances our luck is going to run out. Stupid penalties lead to goals and all of these hooking penalties (let's not get into the too many men infractions we keep getting) are not only bad penalties, but they are coming at times where the bitch slap any momentum we may have. Penalties like Buff's roughing call are acceptable and encouraging and we need our players to determine the difference between them. With a young team I expect a certain amount of greenjeans bullshit, but we brought Q in for a reason and he needs to teach these kids positional tricks to keep them from constantly being in situations where a stick in the ribs is the only way to gain ground. Come to think of it, our vets could use a few drills too.

The bright side of the game besides Nik's play was (go ahead and yell "man crush!") Martin Havlat. Marty is playing with an intensity and focus that I have never seen him display before. I definitely thought he would be our third shooter in OT. He is in the corners and winning battles, he is seeing the ice, and his shots have been well timed and efficient. Sure, he's still trying some silly shit at the blue line and his entries into the offensive zone have been shaky at times, but people, think about how much he adds to this team and look at how much better we are than last year.

Q went with Bolland as the third shooter because in practice he was usually the "last man standing" in drills.
Well, as is evidenced by our last few visits to the shootout, Hawks goalies really aren't that hard to score off of.

I'd be interested to hear what you guys think the line-up should be and what you think about choosing to shoot first. Go ahead and leave it in the comments section.

Got a big week ahead of us and I hope we can pull one of the next two off in regulation time.