With regards to your #1 concern, the Hawks are on a 3-game winning streak in which they beat the Habs, Sens and Ducks. Before that they lost to the Preds and Flames, before that they beat the Wings, before that they lost to the Canucks.
You can see my point, they are only beating the basement dwellers. The Canucks and Preds are mediocre and they still lose to them.
Talent and skill wise, the Hawks cannot hold a candle to us, they are AHL caliber comparable to us.
that loss to Rittich (I mean the Flames) is a vivid example of the one wildcard though ( is everyone as tired as me of the same storyline? Visiting goalie plays incredible game, thrives playing in the NHL media capital, has multitude of family and friends on the stands! It’s HNIC after all). In this case that means Robin Lehner is tonights wildcard!
Sandin is the prototype! Dubas please, please get us one defenceman, quick. We cannot survive much more Ceci-Marincin. How about a Sami Vatanen? Smooth skating older version of the Sandin model/ it’s about the transition game, feeding our voracious waves of offensive skill, quickly, seamlessly (we don’t need the slower, plodding Brenden Dillon-but Id be the first to enjoy him destroying Marchand). New Jersey is in sell mode, we have the offensive depth.