Heres my take.
Really unhealthy player dynamic, scapegoating, pointing fingers, blaming, being negative towards each other and cutting others down existed under Eakins (we know it did) But Nelson is instilling different words and actions here. Wouldn't surprise me that Nelson has already called out some stuff that was occurring here.
Under Eakins I would wonder because Eakins was fine with douchebaggery. Maybe even Hall was adversely impacted by that. We know yak was.
Hall has been very frustrated with Yak in the past on occasion. That is fair. But it wasn't helping anybody. I would bet that Hall recognizes that by now with Nelson in charge. If for some reason he doesn't we got a problem.
Heres another take. Hall is just now realizing these past few games how wrong he was about Eakins and everything and has a hard time smiling because he now knows that with a proper coach from the outset that this club could compete. A year ago I'll tell you that Gagner used to sit on the bench with the same expression Which was very inconsistent with the usually smiling Gagner. He was a canary too. Eakins actually managed to make Gagner quit. Was surprised by that actually. Connected is that Yak made it pretty clear last year the org was a clownshow and did the most any player ever could to bring it to light without getting fired. In his head Hall would know he defended an idiot and that Yak did not and that Yak was right all along. Think about it.
For what it's worth (probably worth nothing according to most here), I saw what I saw (I think). Hall is one of my favorite players. I wouldn't have mentioned it to throw Hall under the bus.....at all.
It was something I just picked up after it was 4-2 and Hallsy was on the bench.
To me it looked like he was glaring through, of all people, Nuge or Eberle.
Maybe Nelson gave him **** for staying on the ice for too long..I don't know. That's why I'de really like another look at what I thought I saw.