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Game #65 – Iron from ice – Hawks 5, Kings 3

By Adam Hess 2104 0

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Natural Stat Trick

In the interest of full disclosure, I missed like 50 minutes of this game. I forgot it was a day game and I had work. However, I really saw all I needed to see, based on early reports from the game not much happened. But those last 12-ish minutes that I did see were very good. Let’s dig in, breaking down the four goals I witnessed after turning it on at 3-1:

– I cannot tell you how much joy I got out of turning on the television to see Drew Doughty being led to the penalty box only to throw a fucking temper tantrum because his little shitstained diaper hadn’t been properly changed. He slammed his helmet and whined at the referee, earning a second penalty and giving the Hawks 4 minutes of penalty time. They didn’t do much with the first half of it, but were able to keep at it and eventually Wide Dick slammed home a one timer off a rebound to make it 3-2.

– The next goal was a direct result, in my opinion, of Nick Schamltz being really fucking good at hockey. He got a long, cross ice pass floated to him near chest height, which he expertly knocked down with control. Then, being alone in the zone, he slowed up and evaluated the ice with his SuperMan vision (no I am not being hyperbolic) while letting his teammates get up ice, before making a good pass for Dahlstrom to hit a one timer toward the net. That resulted in a really terrible clear attempt by something called Derek Forbort, which fell right to Vinnie Hinnie and he squeaked it through Jonathan Quick’s five hole. Yeah it took a little help, but none of it is possible if Schmaltz doesn’t knock down that tough pass, then have the presence of mind to wait for his teammates and giving Dahlstrom a nice pass to hit toward the net. 3-3.

– I don’t know what got into the power play tonight, but I kid you not they scored two power play goals in one period in this game. I am not entirely sure if it was on purpose, but Kane and Toews found themselves flipped in the formation, with Toews on the right board in one-timer position while Kane was weak side. Kane got the puck at the half board and fucked around with it as he wont to do on the power play, and must admit I loudly groaned while watching him fiddle with it with seemingly no plan. But then, miraculously, he actually waited a passing lane open, and fed Toews with a nice little cross ice pass. Toews settled it for a beat before firing past Quick low blocker side. 4-3.

– The fifth goal was an empty netter that was hilarious because #1 Kane absolutely did not have to put it home. He was all alone on a “breakaway” with just 3 seconds left, but he put it in the net anyway with 2.9 seconds remaining which is just great. But the Kings then wet their diapers even more, as they are known for, with Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, and Jonathan Quick (who wasn’t even on the ice!) slamming their sticks in such embarrassing fashion you could actually hear audible gasps from the Staples Center crowd on the television. 5-3.

– Just to circle back, the Hawks whole comeback was the result of known fuckstick and giant pissbaby Drew Doughty shitting his diaper in the penalty box because he wasn’t happy he was sent to timeout. That is extremely my shit. I am still in favor of the quasi-tank, but beating the Kings like this, and having it be a result of Doughty being a baby, is so satisfying.

– Another takeaway from this game – that didn’t look like a team that has quit on it’s coach. After a truly shitty second period when they gave up 3 goals, they could’ve taken their ball and gone home. They battled. Don’t count Q out of that job just yet.

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Game #65 – Hawks vs. Kings Spotlight: Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Toews, and bounce back years

By Adam Hess 1731 0

While a lot of people within the community known as “Hockey Twitter” last year were stumbling over themselves to point out what a bad year Jonathan Toews was having last season, which wasn’t entirely accurate but no one ever accused hockey fans of being smart, they were missing out on a truly poor production year from Anze Kopitar.

Kopitar and Toews both had historically bad years (for themselves) on the score sheets in 2016-17, but with both of them you didn’t have to look far to discover the most likely root cause – luck. Both Kopitar and Toews shot career low percentages last year, with Kopitar scoring 12 goals on 8% shooting, down from a now-career mark of 12.4, while Toews scored 21 goals on 10.6% shooting, down from a now-career mark of 14% (but we’ll touch on that in a second).

The underlying numbers for both guys were still pretty good last season, though. Kopitar accounted for 54.55% of attempts when he was on the ice, while Toews was able to control a not great but still fine 52.4% of attempts. You can see in the image below that they both were still elite in terms of possession, with the only blip for either one being Toews’ struggles with zone exits last year.

This year is a completely  different story for Kopitar, who has enjoyed a nice “bounce back year” as he has 27 goals and 70 points already in just 65 games, on a pace to best his career high of 81 points. He’s already surpassed his number of assists from last year, which we know isn’t directly tied to but still correlated with his play, bit the uptick in goals comes from a predictable place – his luck got better. He’s shooting a career best 17% this season. Kopitar’s shot shares have actually been worse than he showed last year, as he currently boasts a 51.67 CF%.

On the other hand, this season has just been a double-down on last year for our own Fearless Leader. While his underlying numbers are still phenomenal – a 57.65 shot share is just about world-beating status – his production has only gotten worse, as he has just 16 goals and 40 points. And if you’re an intuitive individual who can pick a theme, you probably already know that shooting percentage is playing a part. Toews is shooting a new career low 8% this season. If he was shooting his career average of 14%, he’d have about 26 goals right now, and we’d be looking at 50 points, which would be far more encouraging.

But that 14% career shooting mark for Toews is now skewed by the two poor-shooting years he’s had this season and last. Before 2016-17, Toews was shooting 15.1% for his career – so it isn’t a huge difference, but it’s there. And if you project that shooting percentage onto Toews’ current season, he’d have 28 goals – oh hey, more than Kopitar.

And here’s another handy visual just to show you how Toews’ underlying numbers are either better than or at least right there with Kopitar’s this season.

The point of all this is to say that luck is a fickle bitch in hockey. McClure has said it a few times, but if teams like Vegas are gonna be able to skate by on 69% shooting this year, the bell has to toll for someone, and that someone has been the Hawks. But if you’re a Jonathan Toews doomsayer – and you don’t want to be – Anze Kopitar is a perfect example of how everything can still even out for the Blackhawks’ captain.

 

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Game #64 – Hawks vs. Sharks Douchebag Du Jour: Unfortunately Familiar

By Adam Hess 1748 0

There is no pleasure in writing about an NHL winger named Kane who has had sexual assault allegations brought against him in the past. I certainly don’t envy the position Sharks fans are in here one bit – when the Hawks stood by Garbage Dick you saw it coming because you knew they wouldn’t abandon their star child and face of their franchise. He was already here and given his status you knew he wasn’t going anywhere. In some sense, you could understand it, no matter how much it made your skin crawl.

But I imagine there is somehow a more gross feeling when your team actually goes out and acquires an individual like this. It’s one thing to stand by a player you already have when he reveals himself as a fuckstick, but it’s entirely another to invite one a fuckstick into town knowing full well he is a fuckstick. And as we around here have experienced, trying to analyze and cover a player like Kane (take your pick which one I am referencing) is a delicate balancing act, and sucks a good bit of the fun out of doing this.

Part of that balancing act is just being able to break down the actual hockey of a player like this. Both Kane’s are good players, and hockey-wise this is a good move for a the Sharks to get Evander for their playoff push. But trying to engage in that side of it objectively when you feel negatively about them personally is really hard. Fear The Fin editor Sie Morley bravely and excellently articulates what her vision is for doing so, and I think her plan the right one. It’s pretty much the approach I’ve taken personally, and this blog has taken as a whole.

So welcome, Shark fans, to the club of fans whose teams have deciding selling their souls for hockey results is a defensible move. It’s fucking miserable here.

 

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Game #60 – I’m behind on what’s really important – Hawks 1, Kings 3

By Adam Hess 2170 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

Trying to sum this game up is going to be kinda hard. It’d be way easier if the Hawks played real well and just missed on some chances, or even if they played like absolute trash. Instead, they just looked like they didn’t wanna be there, like how you feel when you’re sitting at work wondering if your job is even that important. And who’s to say? To the bullets:

– I can confidently say one thing that I couldn’t stop noticing in this game is how fuckin’ bad Jordan Oesterle is, which is really a theme at this point and not exclusive to just this game. The first Kings goal was maybe a little questionable because of some maybe-goalie-interference, but Oesterle did nothing to help Forsberg out by standing right in his line of sight and screening the absolutely life out of him. Then later, in the second period I watched Oesterle stand still as a damn statue in the middle of his own zone before getting absolutely toasted in a foot race the other way, which resulted in a 2-on-1 for the Kings. They didn’t convert, but it was just embarrassing to watch, and I kinda wish they had just because it would’ve made that whole play more of a focal point on Oesterle’s part. No matter how much he fucks up he seems to be bulletproof in Q’s eyes right now, while Connor Murphy can’t get more than a third pair assignment and Michal Kempny just got shipped out for a lottery ticket cuz he couldn’t get a fair shake either. Fuck this.

– Q went after the Toews-Kopitar matchup for most of the night, and it saw some success. Toews posted a nice 57.69% CF at 5v5 tonight, which was about a point and a half above team rate. That team number got inflated by some score effects after LA went up 3-0, so I think in reality Toews won that battle very convincingly. I don’t really know what that’s worth, but it just felt like something sorta noteworthy, I guess.

– The worst part about this game was that the Kings worst players pretty much proved to be the difference makers. They got goals from Torey Mitchell, Andy Adreoff, and Dion Phaneuf. Those goals were the fourth, third, and fifth tallies for the scorers this year, respectively. That’s just frustrating to me. I am firmly on the “tank” team at this point, if you wanna call it that, but getting beat by another team’s scrubs is very disheartening. Then again, this team almost lost to Glendale by a touchdown, so nothing is beyond them I guess.

– I don’t really wanna write much more about this one, to be honest. The Blackhawks clearly did not care about this one – why should I?

– The Hawks are back it at home against Ottawa on Wednesday. Hope and pray that one is a chance for Stan to scout EK65 before managing a miracle trade for him to solve all of our problems (I CAN BE OPTIMISTIC, OKAY). Meanwhile LA heads to Winnipeg for a game tomorrow night. Wish them luck on their travels, as they have to take the bus because Winnipeg doesn’t have an airport.

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Game #57 – What happens here stays here, except this has happened everywhere – Hawks 2, Knights 5

By Adam Hess 2797 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

The Blackhawks visited Sin City tonight, and what they did in the third period was certainly sinful. That sentence sucked let’s just get to the bullets:

– Overall I actually didn’t think this was that bad of a hockey game on the Hawks part, especially given the lineup Q went with. I will give him immense credit for finally laying his pride down and scratching Jordan Oesterle, but he went two moves too far in scratching Duclair and Hinostroza to re-introduce Sharp and Hartman to the lineup. I understand that something had to be done after yesterday’s shellacking at the hands of an ECHL team, but Duclair and Hinostroza have both been damn near excellent since they’ve been in the lineup. It would have made immensely more sense to swap out Bouma and Wingels, but instead Wingels somehow found himself on the top line and Bouma still got to hold DeBrincat back. My only possible excuse for this lineup construction is that Q is either trying to get fired or really wants to coach Rasmus Dahlin next year.

– To stay on the last bullet for one more beat, part of me wonders if keeping Bouma and Wingels in the lineup, and putting them with good players, isn’t part of a directive from above as they continue to dangle those two in trade talks. You’re not gonna get much for either, but then again Brandon Bollig got you a third round pick a few years ago. Nothing wrong with trying to pump those tires a bit more before you try to sell them. Then again, it could just be Q doing what Q does. Neither would surprise me.

– We know that the defense and goaltending have been major issues, but tonight was another indication of how bad the offense has been as well. CSN had a graphic last night showing how the Blackhawks have scored the least goals in the NHL since January 10, and tonight was another really tough showing for them. They never really got any really good chances, and certainly not as many as they gave up to the Knights. But with another 2-goal game, they’ve managed to score more than a pair of goals just three games since Jan. 10 and just seven times since The New Year. So there’s more too it than just the bad defense and goaltending. However…

– The bad defense and goaltending really proved to be their undoing in this game, and especially the third period. The Hawks took a 2-1 lead into the third, and while it didn’t feel like the most secure lead in the world, it was still a lead. They gave up a PP goal to bring the game level, which I’m willing to forgive them for because the Knights moved the puck really well to open a shooting lane and Glass had two bodies screening him. But then Erik Gustafsson left the whole slot wide open for Reilly Smith to walk in and fire, and the GWG was had. And then to really finish things off, after a turnover in the neutral zone, Glass let a shot by him that he definitely should not have, and any glimmer of a comeback was dashed away. And what’s sad is that, as Sam has pointed out on Twitter over the past few nights, people got so used to complaining about Crawford every time he didn’t completely steal a game for them, that they didn’t even know what really bad goaltending looked like. And this is it, in all its glory.

– John touched on this yesterday, but it bears repeating after his performance again tonight – Alex DeBrincat’s ability to elevate the bad players around him is truly special. He was with Hartman and Bouma for a good portion of the night and ended up with Sharp at times as well. And yet he was able to create some pretty good offense and still found the back of the net after he and Sharp showed a little persistence. It wasn’t the best game overall for Top Cat – his Corsi wasn’t good and he was also the culprit on the turnover before Vegas’ fourth goal – but he’s showing that he’s a special player and he is going to be really good for this team moving forward.

– We’re one step closer to Rasmus Dahlin, folks. Always find the silver lining.

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I ain’t here for dinner, I want my tank!

By Adam Hess 2385 0

The Blackhawks are now 51 games into their season and they’re currently in 19th place in the NHL standings. They’re five points back of Colorado – let that one sink in for a second – for the second wild card spot, and the Avs still have a game in hand. And last night they played the Canucks, who are currently the second worse team in the West, and they looked pretty terrible. The fact that it came just one game they were stride for stride with the Predators basically shows that any hope you may get for this team moving forward is ever-fleeting.

The Blackhawks right now are basically in the same boat as the Indianapolis Colts are in the NFL – their best player is hurt and no one really knows what the situation is, because the team won’t say anything; with said star player, they’re probably a playoff team, but without him, they’re a bottom feeder. The Colts have a top-3 pick in the NFL draft in April, and the Blackhawks are looking like they’re going to have a good shot at one. And maybe they should start doing whatever they can to maximize that potential.

The Crawford situation has become a lose-lose for the Blackhawks. Crow’s health is obviously the most important thing, and you don’t want to rush him back and risk anything going wrong in the future because he is going to be the key to this team contending in the years to come. And we’re seeing how well things are going without him – you have two dudes who never spent significant time in the NHL trying each game to not play as bad as they did last game. So you don’t want to rush Crow back, but without him you’re up shit’s creek without a paddle.

Then you also have the question of whether Crawford coming back this year at all is really even worth it, even if you don’t rush it. We’ve already seen reports that he might miss the whole season, so it may not be a stretch to say that the Hawks bringing him back at all could be a form of rushing him back. And even if he does come back and squeeze you into a playoff spot, is it really going to be worth playing those extra games just to more than likely get bounced by Nashville or God forbid WINNIPEG? Even if your draft lottery odds are the longest shot, that’s better chance at the apparently generational talent of Rasmus Dahlin than zero.

And really, Dahlin is probably the kind of player that can get the Blackhawks back to where they want to be. The podcast crew discussed this week how the future at forward is looking fine, but there is absolutely no help coming on the back end. A lot of reports seem to indicate Dahlin is the best blue line prospect to be in the draft in a long fuckin’ time. He won’t fix all of their issues, but he’d be an instant jolt to a blue line that needs one badly, and if everything works out, he’s your next Duncan Keith. So it’d make a lot of sense for Stan to look at doing whatever he can to increase his odds of landing that kind of player.

Yeah, tank is a dirty word, but that strategy probably makes the most sense for the Blackhawks for the remainder of this season.

The problem is that, even if that was a route Stan wanted to go, he pretty much has no way of doing so. He has no tradeable assets that he’d be willing (or allowed) to part with. The only player that it could make sense to move and that might bring anything resembling value in return is Anisimov, but he has a full NMC. I guess the only good news on this part of it is that the roster they have at present has been bad enough to get them where they are already, so there’s no reason they can’t just keep spiraling.

But then there is the issue of the coach, who wouldn’t agree to participate in a tank if you held a gun to his head. For better or worse, winning is what Q does, and all he wants to do. He doesn’t even have the kind of Mike Babcock patience to let one year go to shit in hopes of the next several being significantly better. It’s not within his nature to do that. So in order to pull off a tank job, Stan would have to fire Q, and you know McD isn’t about to let that happen.

So you just have to hope now that the Hawks show enough patience and sense with Crawford as to not bring him back unnecessarily. And maybe in doing that, they generate their own form of an internal tank. And then we put our all of our hopes and dreams on the outcome of several ping pong balls. It’s the good ol’ hockey game.

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Game #50 – If it bleeds, we can kill it – Hawks 2, Preds 1

By Adam Hess 2881 0

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

Hockey Stats

With the exception of the early part of the second period, the Blackhawks not only skated with the Predators quite evenly tonight, but there were stretches of this game where they looked to have a lot more control than Nashville. This is the exact performance you needed against this Predators team coming out of the break. To the bullets:

– The early goings of this one were great for the Hawks, as they were able to control the puck and therefore the play a most of the first period. A good forechecking play from the Kampf line forced a turnover in deep that resulted in the titular character burying a quick and slick wrist shot past Jussi Saros, who had just turned the puck over. Taking a look at the Natural Stat Trick game flow the Hawks were +8 on shot attempts at 5v5 until Nashville started to take over a bit late in the frame. It was the exact start the Hawks needed in that building and getting that early goal was huge.

– The second period followed a similar flow but in the opposite direction. Nashville took control early, even notching a goal with a nice forechecking effort after a turnover by Anton Forsberg. The good news for Forsberg was that was pretty much the only bad play he made all night, and we’ll get to that. The Hawks were able to even things out and took the lead back later in the frame after Kane took a big hit to make a nice play, resulting in a rush with Schmaltz and My Cousin Vinnie. Schmaltz fed Hino with a nice pass, that Hino did not waste, one timing it through the Preds’ defenseman’s leg and then past Saros. That was the winner. The shot shares were even through the first two period, and Nashville dominated the third, but that was mostly score effects.

– More on Forsberg, because of course after I spend a whole bullet last Thursday talking about how he just isn’t reliable enough to keep this team afloat down the stretch and maybe they should look for a trade and yada yada yada, he turns in this gem of a game. 42 saves on 43 shots from a Nashville team that is no joke, only making the one aforementioned bad play, and doing everything else right. He was reading his angles well, tracking the puck well, and made a few big saves as Nashville turned up the attack in the third. He got some help from the post on one play, but nobody ever said you couldn’t be lucky AND good at the same time. I don’t know if I believe he can keep it up, but maybe writing for Sam’s site has resulted in me inheriting the powers of the Fels Motherfuck.

– Feather pointed this out on Twitter in the first intermisison, but Joel made some smart coaching adjustments in the first period to force Laviolette’s hand and minimize the last change advantage by double shifting his third and fourth lines. Lavi was keeping the Johanson line out against Toews, but Joel just left the Kampf line out there – and they were playing well, so it made sense – and forced Lavi to choose to either sit his top line or force himself into a mismatch.

– The biggest thing for the Hawks in this one was that they were so much more aggressive with their feet, which sounds kinda stupid but is just the reality. They skated hard the whole 60 minutes, which hasn’t been a theme this year for them. I’ve said for a while that the Q Hawks have a tendency to play to the level of their opponent, so they may have just elevated themselves against this Nashville squad, but it worked. They just need to figure out how to do this against every team every night if they’re going to go on the necessary run to make the playoffs.

– Popular opinion will tell you that the Predators are far and away a better team than the Hawks, and on paper it probably does look that way. And the sweep in last year’s playoffs certainly helps Nashville’s case. But these teams have split the season series now, with every game being decided by one goal. If Crawford is able to return before the playoffs, and if the Hawks make it – and both of those are rather large “if’s” – while this isn’t a matchup I’d necessarily ask for, it’s not one I’m afraid of either.

Line of the night: “Seabrook looks to clear, it’s taken away… this time – fails to clear again.” Foley’s starting to get it folks.

Everything Else

Only you can prevent coach firings

By Adam Hess 2379 0

On Tuesday, Sam dug into the two possible intentions the Blackhawks had when building the roster heading into this season, and how the way Stan constructed the team doesn’t seem to mesh with the way Q has manged it. His conclusion was that it looks like Stan is playing the rebuild/retool on the fly under the obvious core of the team, but Q isn’t quite singing the same tune. Go read it for yourself if you haven’t already.

Reading Sam’s piece, I certainly don’t disagree with any of it, and to an extent I would say I agree with his conclusion that if Stan and Q can’t be on the same page, one needs to go. And I also agree that it shouldn’t be Stan, even after I expressed the hilarity I find in the idea that he’s Chicago’s best non-Theo GM in the city. Even if I don’t think Stan has the best track record over the past three years, and that he did put his team in this place, I definitely think he has a vision for how to get his team back to the level the team and fans expect to be at. So I am not in disagreement with Sam’s overall point or conclusion.

But after Wednesday night’s loss to Toronto, I left NCBSN on for a while longer, and on their nightly NHL show Uncle Bob McKenzie said something I thought was pretty interesting. When asked if missing the playoffs should result in Q’s firing after back-to-back first round exits, Uncle Bob basically said that Hawks fans have gotten a bit spoiled by the success of the team in the first half of the 2010’s, and as a result a stretch like this sends us running like chickens with our heads cut off and screaming for a firing that might not be necessary.

He followed that up by raising a smart question: what if Chicago has a great GM, and a great coach, and just needed a year to get more NHL time on the clocks of the younger and more inexperienced players that make up a majority of this roster?

As Sam pointed out, that does seem to be the most logical explanation for how Stan went about roster construction, at least for the most part. The blue line was/is made up largely of players who were in their first or second year in the NHL, and Connor Murphy having a lot of potential that hadn’t quite manifested yet. Really, Keith and Seabrook were the only players that offered any semblance of certainty as to what you’d get on the blue line, and Seabrook’s certainty was not the good kind. The forwards were a bit different story, but guys like Top Cat, Schmaltz, and Hartman were still needing more experience under their belts, and the recently added Anthony Duclair is in essentially the same boat as Murphy.

And yes, the perception is that Q has not quite played along with the image that Stan had. But part of me feels like the constant blue line scratch carousel is meant to serve as a developmental tool. Not the actual scratching, which helps no one, but rotating players in and out of the lineup and trying them in situations that aren’t natural fits to their skills to see where their limits lie are definitely ways to continue a player’s development for better or worse. Maybe Q knows exactly what he kind of playmaker he has in Forsling, for example, but wanted to see if he could elevate the defensive side. Q does have a tendency to see players for what they aren’t, but that’s not a bad thing by rule.

Sam asked in his piece that if this year was really about going for it, how could Q have done a number of things he’s done this year? No matter how frustrating he can be at times, Q is certainly not an idiot. He knows what a winning lineup looks like up and down.

I don’t want to give the mustachioed bench boss too much credit, but maybe he is playing along with Stan’s plan as best he can. The results have not been there, and yet Q hasn’t tried going to the old trusty 19-88 well for long stretches at all this year as he tends to do when things are bleak.

I theorized on Twitter the other day that maybe Joel has gone into John Fox mode – doing stupid shit for the sake of stupid shit, just to see what he can get away with. Fox pretty much knew he was getting fired by the Bears at the end of the year, so he pretty  obviously stopped trying to make smart moves, or defend his idiotic ones. That’s not to say Q is assuming he’ll be canned, but maybe he wants to be to avoid a retooling. He is a winning coach, not a developing coach, for better or worse.

But because he is a winning coach, and not an idiot, it’s likely he is aware of Stan’s vision and goals for getting this team back to winning. I’d certainly hope they at least communicate that much. He has to see there is good talent on this team that he can win with, with a GM who isn’t afraid to add more if and when he can. There is more to be mined out of this roster and this system, and it may be as early as next year that the Blackhawks are back to contending in the mediocre-team-rich NHL. And if/when this team is in contention status again in the coming years, Q is still a coach you want behind the bench guiding winner.

So yeah, if Joel isn’t playing the same game as Stan, and has decided his idea of how to run the team is better or more important than Stan’s. If that’s the case, kick him down the road. But I am not entirely convinced that’s the case, and a firing this summer may be a bit premature.

Everything Else

Game #49 – They took the train going anywhere because your city is trash – Blackhawks 5, Red Wings 1

By Adam Hess 2371 0

After three weeks of the Hawks essentially either getting their dicks kicked in or playing well enough to win but finding a way to lose, tonight was a welcome outburst of good hockey. Especially after Detroit was one of the teams that did the dick-kicking-in just last Sunday. This is what the Wings get for putting their shitty team in a shitty town and naming their arena after shitty pizza. TO DA BULLETS MY FRENT

– Give me more DeBrincat-Toews-Duclair. Give me all of it. The three of them went 56.25-62.16-58.82 on CF, respectively, and each found the score sheet (finally, in Captain Woke’s case). DeBrincat recorded a Cat Trick (yeah I said it, fuck off) and an assist, Duclair found the net after an absolutely orgasmic passing play from Keith and Top Cat to go with 2 assists, and Toews notched a helper on a nice rush that led to Top Cat’s second goal. As John said yesterday, as long as Toews can figure out he doesn’t have as much time as he wants to think he does to make plays, this line has chemistry, and the speed and skill of the two wingers will hopefully help Toews find more production.

– More on the Duclair goal. Please go watch it here. Granted, it is off a faceoff, which helps a little bit in catching the Wings on their heels. But can you imagine if the Hawks moved the puck with that sort of urgency on a power play instead of everybody standing around with their dick in the hands every time. If I’m Q, I’m sitting the whole team down in front of the video screen when they get back from break and just saying “DO THIS ON THE POWER PLAY.” Maybe they could score a damn PPG against a team not from Canada.

– The third line of Wingels, Anisimov, and Heart Man was one of the few low spots for the Hawks in this game. And they were a very low spot. All three of them got absolutely skull fucked on shot shares, with Heart Man and Anisimov both posting 33.33 rates and Wingels below that at 32%. Those were -22.83 and -24.94 compared to the team rate for the game, which is just pathetic. Even adjusting for score and venue, Natural Stat Trick has all three around 40%. To echo John from last night’s wrap again, this is further evidence that the Hawks aren’t gonna be able to roll a 3+1. And if maybe for some reason this third line was intended as the 1 and rather than part of the 3, that might actually make this look a lot worse.

– Guess which defenseman led all Hawks blue liners with a 60% CF. Connor Murphy, bitches. It’s becoming evident that Sam’s assertion that Murph is this team’s best defenseman this year is correct, and Q’s diaper filling over Hjammer is just sad. Murphy also tallied the primary assist on Top Cat’s first goal, which got the night started. Fuck you and your press box, Joel.

– Ant Man Forsberg was fine in the net tonight, but he still too scrambly-panicky for me to truly comfortable with him, even as a main backup. I am not sure what options there are out there, but I almost wonder if Stan shouldn’t investigate adding one of the league’s better backups via trade. There’s still enough here for the team to maybe sneak into the playoffs if they get reliable goaltending, and I am not sure you’re getting that from Glass/Forsberg. But it’s also about more than this year. Again, I am not sure Forsberg is really a good backup, and those can prove to be important throughout a regular season. Points won or lost when your backup is in can impact playoff seeding. So a good backup who might have some controlability moving forward, and maybe some potential to take the starter’s mantle in the coming years (Crow is only getting older and that brain can only get more mushy) could be a wise investment.

– For being “HOCKEY TOWN,” Shitty Pizza Arena sure had a lot of very obviously empty seats tonight. Shit, you can see a lot in that photo above. Not that Chicago is one to talk cuz ticket prices are dropping like bricks around here and seats are opening up in the UC like mad, too. But with opening a brand new arena, and this being the only Chicago-Detroit matchup in the Motor City this year, I was a little surprised to see how empty the arena was. Just another fly dropping to the NHL attendance plague. Ho Hum.

– Look, it’s only Detroit. They’re not great. But this kind of effort is one we hadn’t really seen from the Hawks since the ass whooping they gave Ottawa, who is also bad. And this is also the same Detroit team that kicked the Hawks dick in 11 days ago. If it is indicative of what’s to come for this team (and that is a BIG if), there is reason to think this team can find the playoffs. Maybe.

Everything Else

Game #46 – Skulled Island – Hawks 3, Islanders 7

By Adam Hess 2534 0

My brain is torn between not wanting to write this recap and just wanting to write whatever the hell comes to mind (and there could be quite a lot). I am gonna try to find some kind of balance to it. Wish me luck.

– Others around these parts have been much more bullish about Connor Murphy than I am, but even I see how ridiculously stupid it is of Q to scratch him for no reason other than his apparent sore ass over the Hjammer trade. Sam covered plenty well how stupid that is on Q’s part to even be mad that Hjammer is gone, so I won’t hash over it anymore than that, but taking it out on Murphy when the results of playing the rest of this band of misfits is no longer just stupid. It’s negligent. Q is actively contributing to the team’s downfall for no discernible reason other than his own ego. It needs to stop, one way or another.

– While we’re on the topic, Jan Rutta is a fucking disgrace. He managed to be, not just on the ice, but right in front of the damn net for 6 of the Isles’ 7 goals tonight. He just looks lost. He has no idea where to be in his own zone. No idea what to do with the puck when he gets it. There’s no way you can convince anyone who knows even the slightest about the game that he’s a better player and better fit for this team than Murphy. Well, no one except Q.

– Ryan Hartman had a game to forget tonight. HE just did not play well in any sense of the term, and then when he tried to SWING DA MOMENTUM MY FRENT with a fight, he got his ass roundly kicked. He hasn’t been awful this year, and is still probably a key player for this team moving forward, but his play needs to improve.

– The goalie situation is out of hand. Forsberg is bad. Glass is bad. And everyone knows bad goalies lead to bad teams, especially when the team in front of the goalie just isn’t that good. We’re completely screwed if Crawford really is out for the whole year, and the worst part is that part of me hopes he is because Q deserves no salvation for his asinine lineup management, and his almost criminal handling of Crow’s apparent concussion.

– It’s extremely not good to get murdered by the Red Wings and Islanders to bookend your off week. We are in situation critical. And what’s coming this week is only gonna make it worse, because we paid with visits from Tampa and Toronto.