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Well Pilgrim, Not Until You Eat The Peanuts Outta My…: FFUD’s Player Reviews – Alex DeBrincat or Perhaps The Most Special of All the Special Boys

By Adam Hess 1666 0

I will never forget the probably irrational joy I felt when Alex DeBrincat and his 100+ point production from the OHL fell to the the Blackhawks at No. 39 in 2016. I was practically screaming at my television for Stan to not join his colleagues in their stupidity in passing up a top-10 talent and arguably the most natural scorer in that draft that wasn’t named Auston Matthews or Patrick Laine just because you could fit in him your pocket. Luckily Stan pulled the trigger, and after just one extra season of development in the O, Top Cat made the jump to the NHL and lit the damn world on fire.

Alex DeBrincat

82 Games, 28 Goals, 24 Assists, 52 Points, +6, 6 PIM

53.76 CF%, 1.85 CF%rel, 48.36 xGF%, -1.62 xGF%rel, 57.19 Zone Start Ratio

And it almost wasn’t that way. Every rumor and news tidbit seemed to indicate that Joel Quenneville wanted our precious boy to start the year in the AHL, but with each passing preseason game in which he looked like one of the best six forwards on the roster (and that number might be generous) it became more evident that not having him on the NHL roster would be a huge mistake.

So when his plan of not having him on the team didn’t work out, Q decided to go an alternate route and just put him in the most assinine roles conceivable. Move a natural left wing to the right? Check. Give him fourth line minutes with Tommy Fuckin’ Wingels and Lance Fuckin’ Bouma? Check. Combine the two? FUCKIN’ CHECK!

Now, it wasn’t always bad for Top Cat in linemate department. In reality, the two centers he spent the most 5v5 time with on the roster were Toews and Schmaltz, and that’s how it should be. The problem is, that sort of thing doesn’t immediately come to mind because again, that’s how it should be, and no one notices when things are going as expected. But they do notice spending 167 minutes opposite Ryan Hartman, or 142 minutes flanking just Artem Anisimov. That’s just 50 less minutes than he spent with Schmaltz.

But this isn’t meant to be a bitch-at-Q-about-usage post, because I already did that with Gustav Forsling. Let’s talk about the good that came from DeBrincat’s season.

He made the squad as a 19 year old, and ended up leading the team in goals with 28, beating out Garbage Dick by one. He tied with Schmaltz and Toews for second on the team in points at 52. Was 8th on the team in CF% and 6th among forwards. And in those times that he did play with subpar linemates, he still managed to play well and at times carry those players. He also is feisty as shit, and doesn’t let his size scare him away from getting scrappy when necessary, which isn’t exactly a big deal but it’s certainly not a bad thing.

There’s not much more to say about Top Cat that hasn’t already been said earlier this year. We’ve heaped praise upon the boy, and for good reason. It’s pretty obvious that Top Cat, along with Schmaltz and a few others, is the future of this team up front, and with that being the case I feel confident in saying this team’s forward group is in good hands moving forward. Top Cap has 35-goal potential if he can just get put and left on a line, and I think it’d make a lot of sense for him to play with Toews and Saad consistently next year.

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Well Pilgrim, Not Until You Eat The Peanuts Outta My… -FFUD’s Player Reviews: Gustav Forsling and Carl Dahlstrom, the red-headed step children

By Adam Hess 2039 0

Our next stop on the hindsight circuit brings us to Chicago’s two young Swedish defensemen, Gustav Forsling and Carl Dahlstrom. Let’s do these bad boys one at a time.

Gustav Forsling

41 Games, 3 Goals, 10 Assists, 13 Points, -2, 8 PIM

48.9 CF%, -6.8 CF% rel, 44.54 xGF%, -8.9 xGF% rel, 51.67 Zone Start Ratio

With what appeared to be a mostly patchwork blue line group heading into the 2017-18 Blackhawks season, it seemed to make sense that Gustav Forsling would get a really fair shake at proving his worth in the NHL. Some might make the case that he did get that shake, but those some would be wrong. Yes, Forsling spent a good amount of time at the NHL level last year – playing in half the games definitely strikes one as a fair shake. But the big number that sticks out there is the 51.67 Zone Start Ratio. For a player of Forsling’s skillset, that is entirely too low, even as a defenseman. Barely having more than half of his shifts start in the offensive zone screams misuse.

Add in the fact that he was saddled for much of the season with Jan Rutta, which we covered yesterday, and you have another example of the miscasting. The root of that misuse is that Joel Quenneville seems unable to see Forsling as anything other than what he isn’t, which is to say that Q sees his lack of pure defensive d-zone instincts, physicality, and overall boring defensive play and has thus far tried to coax him into developing that side of his game rather than really accentuating what he does well. Which is really strange, because it seems to me that what Forsling does well is almost exactly what the Hawks blue line really needs.

Forsling has the most beautiful skating stride on the team, sees the ice with enviable vision and anticipation, can drop a puck on his teammates tape nearly as good as anyone else on the team, and he can combine all of that moving full speed up the ice with the puck on his tape. We’ve been clamoring for Keith to have a mobile partner who might be able to cover up for his freewheeling and loss of mobility, and it seems like Forsling might be the right fit. Even if his defensive instincts are not exactly high level, he can get himself back in coverage well enough to break up or delay any rush enough to let the other four guys get back. No, it’s not the ideal scenario because it’s not Erik Karlsson or Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but he’s got the shell basics outline of the game those two play with still plenty of potential to be tapped into.

In a perfect world, Joel Quenneville realizes that he already has defensemen with skill sets more geared toward what he’s tried to get Forsling to do these past two years, and finally starts letting my special boy (yes, I am still giving him that title) off the leash a bit to play a style that fits him best. That might be with Keith, maybe with Murphy, it could even be with Seabrook if the Hawks and Seabs can get on the same page with a role like Sam outlined the other day. That’s the best and maybe only way you’re really gonna see what you have in the Fors.

But this isn’t a perfect world, so Quenneville will do the same shit for the third year and hope it works this time – something something definition of insanity – before Forsling gets sent back to A in January again. Hooray.

Carl Dahlstrom

11 Games, 0 goals, 3 assists, 3 points, -2, 0 PIM

52.29 CF%, -5.29 CF% rel, 46.7 xGF%, -6.55 xGF% rel, 46 Zone Start Ratio

There isn’t too much you can glean from just 11 NHL games for a young defenseman, especially one who was in just his second year in North America. Dahlstrom has his good and bad moments, which is really shitty analysis, but again, it was just eleven games. What more do you want from me?

Digging into the pairings a bit, Dahlstrom spent more time with our ginger darling Connor Murphy than other blue-liner while he was in Chicago, with those two racking up 50:31 of ice time together at 5v5, or about three-to-five games worth of being a pairing. Dahlstrom only played about 120 5v5 minutes total away from Murphy. They posted a 52.53 CF% together, which was better than either of their marks away from each other, though Murphy had significantly more time without Dahlstrom than vice versa, and I don’t read anything into it for #5. But what it does show for Dahlstrom is that he has the goods to play at an acceptable level in the NHL if paired with a good partner.

Overall, I don’t really know what kind of future Dahlstrom has in Chicago. You have the obvious three of Keith, Nacho, and Murphy that will be hear for the long run, plus Rutta and Oesterle who if here will probably get minutes from this coach. Then you have Forsling, Jokiharju, and Ian Mitchell that the organization appear to be very high on. On top of all that, consider that you’re probably adding at least one or two high-level guys – one NHL d-man via trade or free agency, and ideally a top d-man prospect with the lottery pick – and you have a whole hell of a lot of guys in front of Dahlstrom. But besides that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

In all seriousness, the bottom pairing and depth d-man spots should be wide open for competition in camp next year, and Dahlstrom will likely be given the same shot as anyone to earn one of those spots. It’ll be up to him to do so.

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Well Pilgrim, Not Until You Eat The Peanuts Outta My… -FFUD’s Player Reviews: Jan Rutta, better known as Who?

By Adam Hess 1570 0

Mats Halin has now been the Blackhawks’ director of European scouting for five years, and in that time he has been able to pull a few decent players out of that continent and into the Hawks system. Identifying Artemi Panarin and surely playing a role in getting him to sign here was no doubt his shining moment definitely bought him a lot of leeway. Jan Rutta’s first NHL season should have eaten up a bit of a that leeway. Rutta wasn’t outright terrible, but he was bad, and deserved more ire for just how bad he was. Lets dig in a bit.

Jan Rutta

57 Games, 6 goals, 14 assists, 20 points, -1, 24 PIM

50.08 CF%, -2.4 CF% rel, 47.92 xGF%, -2.24 xGF% rel, 51.1 Zone Start Ratio

On the face of it, those numbers are not awful, but on the worst Hawks team of the last decade, Rutta stuck out to me as the worst defenseman that saw regular minutes on this squad. He had the second-worst CF% among the team’s blue liners, with the only one behind him being Gustav Forsling – and we aren’t gonna get started on that yet, but it’s coming tomorrow. He was third-worst in xGF%, just above Keith and Forsling. The points look okay, but aren’t overly impressive, and the underlying stats are obviously bad enough to show that this is a player who is arguably not even good enough to crack the NHL roster.

Looking at his pairings, he spent more time with the aforementioned Forsling than anyone, and the two of them were pretty much abysmal together, with a 48.22 CF%. The blame for that probably lies more on the coach who saddled them together consistently than either of the players, because their individual play styles are not compatible. Rutta is not mobile, not a good puck mover, and isn’t a great reader of the play on either side of the ice, while Forsling is nearly the opposite though only reads the play well on offense. Rutta isn’t awful in his own zone, but he is not nearly good enough to make up for Forslings shortcomings in that area. He also is not fast enough to clean up the messes that might’ve been left when Forsling started to freewheel on offense, and that became evident quickly. This was a hair-brained pairing from the start, but that still doesn’t completely absolve Rutta from being terrible.

He also spent a decent amount of time (120+ minutes total) with Jordan Oesterle, and oh look they were terrible together too. That was mostly because both of them are terrible individually, and putting two terrible defensemen together to form a terrible pairing results in a 42.03 CF%. I’d like to never think about them together.

Now, to his credit, Rutta did at times prove to be a decent partner for Duncan Keith, with those two providing a fine-but-not-spectacular 52 CF% in 140+ minutes together. Sam and others here have talked plenty about Keith needing to recalibrate his play style and approach to the game, and there is a case to be made that Rutta’s style of play makes him a match for Keith because his lack of mobility results in some quasi-stability. However, Duncan Keith is still good enough to man a top pairing, and Rutta is the last defenseman you want to play on a top pairing. Also, that stability from Rutta might help a little bit, but as Sam said the other day, you prefer a mobile partner for Keith at this point to cover for him. So while the results weren’t awful, this isn’t an idea even worthy of pinning to the board in case you need to return to it. Toss in the trash, Joel.

Outlook: Overall, Rutta’s season was not good, and he is arguably not worthy of any NHL minutes next year. Luckily, he probably lines up as the odd man out when you consider you’re ideally gonna have Keith, Seabrook, Forsling, Gustafsson, Oesterle, someone who isn’t here now, and maybe even Jokiharju lined up as defensemen who are better than him and will be competing for minutes. There is the major red flag though, that being the contract extension he was handed near the end of the season, that might earn him some undue preferential treatment. That was an extremely confusing move from StanBo, and the cap hit is particularly worrisome. But, it’s not an albatross, and might even be a toss-in contract for when Stan dials up John Chayka and brings OEL to Chicago. Thanks.

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Night Songs- Round 1 Day 7: It’s much funnier when it happens to someone else

By Adam Hess 1791 0

Last night was an exercise in the duality of these NHL playoffs. I can’t really remember the last time I felt like the NHL playoffs were somewhat resembling the NBA’s tournament, but this year kinda feels like that – there are a few series which have a clearly dominant team for whom winning seems inevitable, and then a few series that definitely could go either way. In this case, we watched Winnipeg continue their dominance of Minnesota, which has felt inevitable since puck drop of Game 1. We had Washington and Lumbus, which has been very even – because both teams suck, not because they’re both good – and went to OT for the third time in three games. Vegas and LA was kinda even but the Knights ended up completing a sweep because the NHL is a urinal.

Capitals 3 – Jackets 2 (20T) (CBJ leads 2-1)

Barry Trotz finally stopped out thinking himself and put Braden Holtby in net. I know Holtby didn’t have a stellar season, but ultimately I still think it was foolish to not start him in this series to begin with. And yeah, I don’t know how much of a difference it would’ve ultimately made given both of the first two games went to OT as well, but overall Holtby is a better netminder than Grubauer and I’m willing to bet he stops that Panarin winner from Game 1. This game was just as evenly played as the other two have been, and I think CBJ might really end up eliminating this Capitals outfit. And hey, Caps fans, at least losing to the Jackets would save you from losing to the Penguins again.

Jets 2 – Wild 0 (WIN leads 3-1)

We all would’ve been better off if the Wild had just accepted reality and let Winnipeg run over them in Game 3 as well, just accepting the defeat of a sweep. Instead they got mauled again last night – the Jets controlled nearly 60% of the shot attempts in all three periods! – and are in for another belt-over-a-raw-ass beating again in two days. I wish I could feel bad for them, but I most definitely do not. Chicago is the state of hockey, bitches.

Golden Knights 1 – Kings 0 (Knights sweep series 4-0)

The NHL is a urinal. A team made of paper mache and scrap heaps just swept the Los Angeles Kings out of the playoffs. Look, I know the Kings were hardly a force to be reckoned with this year, but neither should Vegas have been. I think there’s probably something to the idea that the underdog status and borderline disrespectful expectations for them, even as champs of the Pacific Division, is motivating them, but an expansion team with a bunch of guys who have had to add “who?” to their name in their career sweeping a team with one one of the league’s best 1C/1D combos is just outrageous. There is no way this kind of shit happens in any of the other leagues that isn’t a single entity. But, this league is a urinal.

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Game #82 – Our Long National Nightmare is Over – Hawks 1, Jets 4

By Adam Hess 2409 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

It’s over. It’s finally over. The Blackhawks season has come to an end, with a significantly less exciting outcome than it started with. Let us all store vow to never speak of this season again (until this coming week when you will read several eulogy-esque posts on this site). Gonna take a slightly different approach with this wrap, because at this point there is nothing more to take from the game itself. So if you don’t mind, I’m gonna give you a quick rundown of how the game went, and then touch base on a few of my takeaways and favorite moments from the season:

– First things first, I want to tip my cap to the way these two teams paid tribute to horrible tragedy of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team. From the vigil in the picture above, to the wearing of the word “Broncos” on every player’s jersey, and the donations made by the teams and league, they did a wonderful job of paying respect to the tragedy and offering their support. Good on them.

– The first period was pretty boring. Both teams had a few chances but couldn’t capitalize, but Jets controlled most of the play and didn’t seem particularly inspired to do anything drastic on offense. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, didn’t seem to have much interest in doing anything at all. Dustin Byfuglien opened the scoring with a power play bomb in the first, Winnipeg scored again in the second period when Kyle Connor beat Jeff GL Ass on a breakaway, and that was basically game over. The Jets added two more in that frame, and Seabrook saved face for the Hawks a bit by notching a goal about midway through the middle frame, but that was all. Nothing of major note happened after.

– Let’s address the elephant in the room – the biggest takeaway from this season is that Corey Crawford is really freakin’ good, and beyond a shadow of any doubt, the most important player on this Blackhawks team. We all knew this team’s biggest issue was that they didn’t have adequate goaltending before it became a talking point, and all of the Blackhawks himming and hawing about it NOT being the goaltending only proved that point further. They were pointing a big arrow to the secret treasure with that said “DEFINITELY DON’T LOOK HERE.” There’s no reason to think he won’t be able to come back at 100% next year, but we as fans just have to hope that he does, because if he doesn’t, next year might even be worse than this one.

– The next most obvious takeaway from this year is that the Hawks need help on the blueline. This is a conversation that’s been had countless times already. No obvious hope is coming in this regard, unless a miracle happens and the Hawks win the Dahlin sweepstakes. Hope and pray for that one as well.

– My favorite moment of this season was Alex DeBrincat’s first hat trick, with his second and third Hat Tricks coming at number 2 and 3. I was thrilled when the Hawks landed him at number 39 a few years ago, and I can’t wait to see more of him moving forward. He is the future of this time, along with Schamltz, up front.

– Thank you to all you guys who read this website and these wraps. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we truly appreciate all of you and all of your support. We quite literally can’t do this without you guys to listen, read, share, etc. Here’s hoping we can produce some good content for you this summer, and that there will be some big additions to talk about (lookin’ at you, Rasmus Dahlin and John Tavares).

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Game #82 – Hawks vs Jets Spotlight: Goodnight, sweet prince

By Adam Hess 2229 0

The quick and obvious preface to what’s about to come is that nothing is announced, guaranteed, or set in stone yet. However, given the events at the end of last night’s loss to the Blues, the comments in the media, and the fact that he maybe should’ve done it last year, it appears as though Patrick Sharp is going to be retiring after tonight’s game. And I am genuinely, terribly sad about it.

I don’t know if Patrick Sharp will have his number hung in the rafters, but that’s more because of the era in which he was a Blackhawk – I’m just not sure this team is gonna hang up six numbers, and it seems like a given that 2, 7, 19, and 88 are gonna go up, and 50 probably should too. Had he played in any other era of this team’s history, he’d be an easy no-doubter to hang that number high.

Fifteenth in team history for points. Twelfth in team history in goals. One of the best two-way players this team had seen in a long time when he arrived, and a shot as devastating as his looks. A leader on three Cup winning teams, chased out of town because he got old and still carried an expensive cap hit. Another unfortunate casualty of the NHL salary cap and Canada’s once free-falling currency. Imagine were he’d rank all time on this franchise if he hadn’t been forced out.

Sure, there were some personality issues. His refusal to continue playing center created the 2C gap that this team suffered from for a while, but it didn’t really bite them that bad, seeing as they still won two Cups without one. He might’ve ruined Duncan Keith’s marriage. He was known to be cocky toward fans.

But his play was incredible for so long, he slaved away in a bottom six role in 2015 to give that team the depth they had. The impact of his presence on that line with Vermette and Teuvo cannot be understated. He is an all-time great Blackhawk, a true team legend, and his was the first Blackhawks jersey I ever bought with my own money, when I was 14 years old. If this is the end, allow me to say it: Thank you for everything Sharpy. Good luck in retirement. And please stay away from my wife.

Game #82 Preview

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Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

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Lineups & How Teams Were Built

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Game #79 – You pat my back when I choke – Hawks 0, Avs 5

By Adam Hess 1988 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

When the site staff originally discussed which game wraps we would be able to write in these final weeks of the season, I had signed up for yesterday and Rose had tonight. She asked me to swap because she had something to do this evening, and I obliged because I am the world’s best co-worker (please don’t ask my co-workers if this is true, just take my word for it). I want to trade back. Yes I know I can’t. Whatever. BULLETS:

– Maybe I am just not interested enough given the season is more-or-less over, or maybe I just keep getting the library quality games to wrap, but I was very bored by this game. The Hawks really didn’t even play all that poorly – they dominated the first period, in fact, and ended the night with a slight edge in shot attempts – but it was just a snoozer of a game. There were some exciting chances both ways early in the first, but I wasn’t that impressed with the play of either team, save for whenever Nathan MacKinnon was on the ice for the Avs.

– Until the third period, this was a scoreless game at evens that the Hawks were only losing because of their putrid penalty kill. I wrote about this last year when I was still at Second City Hockey, but the Hawks biggest problem on the PK remains that they are entirely too passive, and pretty much let the opponent dictate the play and do whatever they want. I think it’s fair to blame some of it on the fact that they don’t have the most reliable netminders, and in tonight’s case a rookie, but they get in such a tight box and don’t even flirt with pressuring puck carriers anywhere on the boundaries of the zone. The end result is Mikko Rantanen having plenty of time to tee one up for Tyson Barrie in the second, or MacKinnon having the time to do so for Rantanen in the third. It’s just embarrassing, really, and I don’t quite understand what thee Hawks’ plan is with that strategy on the PK, if there even is one.

– Blake Hillman made his NHL debut tonight. That is definitely something that he did tonight, I can assure you. That is all I have to say about Blaine Hillard on his NHL debut night. I guess him not being noticeably awful is a good sign for now. I hope Blaze Hilltop has a good NHL career and can fix the Blackhawks blue line. Who were we talking about again?

– I’ve made it known I am “team tank,” but at this point that’s about done cuz the Hawks can’t really get much lower down the standings without some miraculous efforts from those below them. I say that so you can know how truly difficult it is to watch them lose 5-0 on a Friday night and not root for it to just get continuously worse. This is the darkest timeline.

– HEY! We only have to do this three more times. And you and I only have to do it once more, and not for a whole week – I will see you next after the season finale. Try to enjoy your week, and have a Happy Easter if you’re celebrating!

 

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Game #75 – I’ll probably die anonymous – Hawks 2, Canucks 5

By Adam Hess 2060 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

This one was a real shit show, and that all started this afternoon before the game even started. I have some questions. Let’s get right to the bullets:

– So let’s get to the one that I think is the most glaring: what the heck was this lineup? Please don’t get me wrong, I know that with Toews out with an “upper body injury” aka getting his offseason started a bit early, there aren’t a lot of really good options available. But why aren’t you just top-loading then and putting Top Cat and Kane on the wings of Schmaltz? With Toews and Duclair out, you really only have 4 players worthy of top-six minutes – these three and Saad. You’re out of the playoffs already, and the league is trending toward the top-heavy lineups already. There’s no value in “depth” or “balance” in your lines at this point. Even though it’s just the Canucks, let your two young guns – who are the future of your forward group, by the way – take on the top competition with your best player and see what they can do.

– My next question: Why are we still trying this Oesterle thing? His contract is fine, of course, but that’s only because he had done jack and shit before getting here. He’s been actively bad all year. I guess I sorta see the goal in pairing him with Murphy, who has been good, and hoping it evens out, but I’m just not sure what Oesterle is giving you that Dahlstrom’t or Forsling didn’t, and those two are obviously going to be more integral to the future success of this team than Jordan Fuckin’ Oesterle. Nothing to play for, so why not just claim Keith is hurt, use an “emergency” recall for Forlsing, and use him in that role instead and see what happens? Yes I know Keith probably wouldn’t play along. Put some legos in front of his locker or something.

– Thirdly: what’s your best guess on career NHL games played for JF Berube after this season? Because teams often get desperate for backups, I’ll go optimistic and say he probably gets another two or so years to see if he can be that. Which will be hilarious for whatever team that is (it’ll be this one) because he is very clearly NOT that. I’m setting the over under for him at 55.5. What do you got?

– I’m out of questions, but I have some more thoughts. Sam put on Twitter tonight that sitting Toews is the best outcome for the pro-tank people, like myself. That’s pretty obvious. The only way it could get more tank-y would be to sit Keith as I said before, or maybe Kane, but I doubt either wants to play along, and I certainly am not about to give Kane any longer of an offseason than he deserves (don’t forget, we’re three years since his last act of menace, so we’re on pace for another one). But I’m not sure how much actual value is in that. Even if you get to 4th-to-last place, you’re only improving your draft odds by about 1.5%. Maybe giving Keith the rest is worth it, if he wants it, but I think even with him in the lineup this team is bad enough to slip, and teams like Detroit, Monteal, and Ottawa will probably fuck up by going on a run to close the year out. So basically what I’m after here is, leave Toews out, see if Keith wants to sit, and start praying to whichever diety you follow that the ping pong balls go our way.

– To close out on a high note, I want to wish my sincere congratulations and well wishes to Eddie Olczyk on him kicking cancer’s ass. Having a few family members who have done it, as well as a friend and co-worker here in Rose, it makes me happy as hell to hear every time someone tells cancer to get fucked. I am very happy for Edzo and hope for only good health for him in the future. And on a selfish level, the less Steve Konroyd we have to deal with, the better. Fuck Cancer.

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Game #73 – Even when we have nice things we don’t deserve them – Hawks 4, Blues 4; Blues win Thumb War

By Adam Hess 1820 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

It’s getting kind of hard to figure out what to talk about with these games. Maybe it’s because the team has nothing but pride to play for (and even that is questionable) and there is nothing on the line as a fan, but hot damn if these games haven’t all become major snooze-fests. Even with Alex DeBrincat recording a Hat Trick tonight, I was extremely bored by this game. What does that tell you? Let’s just get through this:

– If you’re the silver-lining kind, it’s not hard to find that for this season’s Blackhawks. Alex DeBrincat is a bona fide star, folks. He recorded his third hat trick of the season tonight and was nothing short of extremely dominant in doing so. He posted a 52.35 shot share on the evening and blasted Jay Gallon to Naperville with his third goal. His development, along with that of Schmaltz, has been one of the biggest bright spots for this team this year, and give good reason to be optimistic about the forward group going into the future. Getting the blue line right would go very far for this team.

– Vinnie Smalls continues to impress. On the Hawks third goal, he completely pantsed Colton Parayko twice in the corner before feeding David Kampf in front of the net who put it in with less than 2 seconds left in the middle frame. Go find the clip cuz it was very good.

– As the trend of bad luck for Toews continues, I begin to feel more and more helpless for him. He had a few really good looks tonight that he just could not cash in on, including one in OT which saw him beat Allen just to hit the cross bar. He really hasn’t had a bad season, the puck luck just hasn’t been there, and it’s frustrating. Hopefully next season he experiences a rebound like Anze Kopitar is having this year.

– As the theme has been all year, goaltending failed the Hawks this evening. I wouldn’t say any of the four regulation goals for St. Louis were directly Berube’s fault, but the OT winner was just embarrassing. The shot was in his damn bread basket and he let it squeeze through him and go in. Just pitiful really.

– I don’t really know what else to say about this one. If you missed it, count your blessings. We only have to do this nine more times.

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Game #70 – I would’ve preferred the extra hour of sleep – Hawks 3, Bruins 1

By Adam Hess 1977 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

There is something deeply offensive about the NHL expecting us to watch a hockey game before noon on a damn Sunday. Granted, I’m in Indianapolis so the game started after noon for me, but you get my point. Even the NFL doesn’t ask us to do that except for when they put games in London, and they put uninteresting teams over there on purpose. Then for this game to be the total freakin’ snoozer that it was, I may need to get in touch with an attorney and ask these teams for compensation for my time. To the bullets:

– Brad Marchand sat this one out with what was called an upper body injury. Some people on twitter chalked that part up to the Bruins maybe sitting him after he hit Anthony Duclair with a damn Sling Blade yesterday to avoid any kind of retaliation from the Hawks. Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Brad Marchand is a little chicken shit, but I am here to defend him. I have it on good authority he actually suffered a serious injury to his pea brain this morning after having Daylight Saving Time explained to him.

– For the second straight game I have been responsible for wrapping, the Blackhawks scored two power play goals, and both times came after I tweeted something deriding the PP. Is the Fels Motherfuck contagious?

– Anton Forsberg looked good in this one again, and he’s certainly starting to look more comfortable between the pipes as the year goes on. I’m not yet convinced he’s the ideal backup goaltender for this team next year, but given his contract it wouldn’t be a bad move to keep him around if you can’t find something better.

– Erik Gustafsson has been pretty good since he got his new contract extension, which we around here credit to the Fels Motherfuck. But he got a shitton of power play time today, and while he looked fine in it, I struggled to figure out what he’s shown to earn that time that Gustav Forsling did not when he was here. I’m gonna remain a Forsling apologist until he gets his fair shake at the NHL level, and that has yet to happen. I don’t think the Hawks can call him up anymore without it being an “emergency” call-up, so its not happening this year. But you’re gonna end up next year having a young offensive defenseman with little NHL experience still trying to find his offensive game at the NHL. Good asset management there.

– Jonathan Toews is starting to have better luck, with three points tonight, all of them assists. There’s not much more to gain on this season, but if Toews can end the year strong, that will be a good thing.

– Please don’t make me watch boring ass hockey games before 1pm anymore, NHL. Thanks.