The New York Islanders came into their game tonight with the Chicago Blackhawks riding a 8-2-1 streak in their last 11 games. Tonight didn't go quite so well for our visitors from Nassau County.

Good as they've been this as of late, the Isles showed none of that fight this evening.  The Hawks took control from the start with a power play goal 5 minutes in the game, the scored 4 times in the second period to bury the Islanders for good.  The third period played out as we'd all hoped, Joel Quenneville got to reward his 3rd and 4th liners with extra shifts, and New York played like they wanted to get the hell out of the UC as soon as possible.

I don't want to give out too many kudos tonight.  While the Hawks played pretty well, it was obvious they were head and shoulders above the Islanders.  I'd like to see more of this against some of the Western Conference teams Chicago is battling for the playoffs before throwing any more bouquets (TM Dan McNeil) their way.

THE GOOD

The Second Period - Good to see some killer instinct from this team.  The Islanders managed to finish the 1st period down only one goal, despite being badly outclassed.  But in the second period, Chicago took the bull by the balls with Hossa, Kane, Bolland and Hjalmarsson all finding the back of the net.

Corey Crawford - Don't let the score fool you, the Hawks gave up way too many odd man rushes to the Isles.  Crawford didn't just sit back and watch, he earned this shutout by making some terrific saves.

The Tribute Video for the '61 Hawks - great stuff but then, I'm a sucker for Ray Charles.

A Gord Dineen Joke - ANY Gord Dineen joke.

THE BAD

The afore mentioned odd man rushes were at times infuriating, as several of them resulted in bone-headed decisions either by defensemen in the neutral zone or Hawks forwards just inside the New York blue line.

The Patrick Kane, "circle up near the top of the blue line in the offensive zone" move - Kaner should patent this thing, if only because it's starting to catch on with the other Hawks' forwards.  Both Hossa and Toews tried this out tonight, at it was nearly disasterous a few times.  The main problem is that as the forward circles back towards the blue line, the defenseman inevitably drops down low in the offensive zone, so any sort of turnover is going to result in a breakaway.

THE UGLY

Michael Grabner - Luckily Grabner is the guy who seemed to be on the receiving end of all those juicy turnovers.  The poor guy led several breaks, both solo and odd man rushes and managed to botch just about all of them.  Even Jack Skille was laughing at Grabner's inability to generate shots from these chances.

DID YOU KNOW? - Hockeenight insider Dave Morris is reporting that Pierre McGuirre is in the running for the soon-to-be-vacant Senators GM job.  Why should you care?  You shouldn't.

Up Next - The Hawks take on the Avalanche (AGAIN?!?  Haven't they played like 14 times this year already?) on Wednesday, but first, a sure to be awesome Puckcast with FEAR THE PUCKFEAR THE PUCK on Monday.