Extracting profound meaning from the Blackhawks’ 3-2 victory over the Kings on Sunday was like wringing water out of a washcloth left for hours in a midsummer sun. There just wasn’t much there, no crackling aesthetics or milestones. It was a nice, solid win, nothing more.
But solid is good. Solid works. Solid, at minimum, isn’t confounding or haphazard or inconsistent. Solid is a fine alternative to mid-December nail-biting over where it all went wrong.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being solid,” defenseman Duncan Keith said. “What’s the difference between being solid or being good?”
The answer is irrelevant for now, with the Hawks (18-14-3) creeping back over the .500 mark at the United Center (10-9-0) by carrying the good vibes and dependability from a whacking of the Red Wings on Friday into the workmanlike dismissal of the Kings.
The Hawks hustled to get action in front of the net on their first two scores. They demonstrated mettle by answering a tying goal from the Kings with their own tally 25 seconds later. And they held fast for the final 18 minutes and change with a tenuous one-goal advantage.
“Everyone knows what we have to do as a team, what the next guy is supposed to do,” said captain Jonathan Toews, who had a goal and an assist. “If we stick to that and we’re all on the same page, it’s 10 times easier. We just have to keep going down that same path.”
In a first period characterized by assertiveness – the Hawks recorded 23 hits – Toews made it 1-0 with a blast through a Troy Brouwer screen.
Then reassertiveness became key. The Kings’ Kyle Clifford knotted the game at 1-1 a minute and a half into the second period, and the Hawks responded with Keith howitzering in a shot for his third goal and a lead recaptured in a blink.
Fernando Pisani’s score on a 3-on-2 had to hold up quite a while after the Kings’ Wayne Simmonds scored in the first two minutes of the final period. While the night might not have matched Stanley Cup parade-worthy levels of excellence, it was better than going in the other direction.
“We’ll take it,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We did what we had to do here, but we don’t want to get too excited. I don’t think we’re in a position to feel good about ourselves yet.”
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