Everything Else

Game #45 – I ain’t no early riser: Red Wings 4, Blackhawks 0

By Adam Hess 2238 0

The Blackhawks and Red Wings played a hockey game at 11:30am on a gosh darn Sunday morning. On the same weekend as an NFL Playoff Game. That decision by the NHL alone was stupid, but it was not the stupidest part of this game. Just let me get through this:

– The Red Wings got started early with a goal less than five minutes in. This goal was comical on the Blackhawks part because Anthony Anthony-see-you (or something like that) took the puck wide below the goal line and then somehow put it through three Blackhawks to a waiting Dylan Larkin. He had a wide open net, and even if he didn’t Jeff Glass was in goal, so he scored. The three Hawks that allowed the pass through them were Keith, Oesterle, and Schmaltz. So.

– The second goal came from Mike Green, who slammed a one-timer home after a not-very-intimidating rush by the Wings was answered by a completely uninspired and careless back check by the Blackhawks. There were 3 Hawks going back with the play to try and stop 4 Wings, and right after Green scored the other two Hawks came into the picture – they were Brandon Saad and Vinostroza. First banner moment for this line of the day, more to come!

– The second period was basically nothing worth noting, though one moment that did stick out was an actually good save that Jeff Glass made! Except it was only a necessary save because he completely overcommitted as Ant-man came up the wing wide below the net (funny, he kept doing that and kept getting away with it), then basically froze up and looked around like “well shit, I’m fucked” before realizing the puck was still behind the net and he reacted like a lame duck, flopping across the crease and and barely stopping the puck. So good job cleaning up your own mess, Jeff! Please go away now.

-Goal number three. Oh, goal number three. A two on two rush toward the home team’s net, as both teams change, in the third period probably *should* bode well for the home team, because their bench is closer to the net. However, as Ray Ferraro emphasized for us, Anthony Mantha left his bench and skated 100 feet to take a pass and score a goal before a Blackhawks forward even got into the camera shot. That forward was Jonthan Toews. Hooray.

– I don’t even care about what happened on the fourth goal. It was a mess and the game was already over when it happened. The game was probably already over when Larkin scored.

– PLEASE LET THIS BE THE END OF JEFF GLASS. He isn’t a good story, no matter what every single fucking broadcast team on the Hawks games say. Pretty much every good moment he’s had has just been him cleaning up a mess of his own making, through bad rebound control or a bad read or both. 30 year old NHL rookies do not suddenly become actually good NHL goalies. Just end this pain before it consumes us all. And Corey Crawford please come back soon.

Everything Else

Asked for a piece of mine, you charged me for it

By Adam Hess 2968 0

One of the more ironic things about Chicago sports is how often the teams in this town get referred to as “storied franchises” despite most of them not really having great stories. Run down the list and not a single of the major sports teams in the city have won more than six championships in their given sport, and only the Blackhawks and Bulls have shown any level of world dominance style success in anyone’s recent memory (the Cubs may get there, but please don’t try to convince me they’re already there).

I am normally an overly optimistic sports fan when it comes to my teams, so it’s been kind of a weird juxtaposition for me to hold the belief that my favorite teams are “destination teams” for players while also realizing they don’t quite have the history to back up that belief. Add the fact that the various ownership and management groups of the Chicago franchises don’t have the best track records – especially among fans – and maybe Chicago sports franchises have a reputation they haven’t quite earned.

Which is why I was intrigued by this poll posted on Twitter by Cheer The Anthem last week:

It’s a very clouded question, because outside of Theo/Jed, Chicago’s  sports teams really have very questionable front offices. GarPax chased an elite player in Jimmy Butler out of town rather than ever making a real effort at building a championship team around him, so I’m not in the least bit surprised that they were low on the list. Even as a White Sox fan I was surprised Rick Hahn finished so high, because the question was referencing the last three years, and not just one. Hahn couldn’t build a winner around Chris Sale, Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, Jose Quintana, and other young, controllable players, so one year of very good trades only makes up for so much of that.

Honestly, I voted for Ryan Pace, not because I think he’s done an incredible job with the Bears in the last three years, but because he’s the only GM on the list who has his team essentially where he expected to have them three years ago, and the Bears seem to be headed in the right direction. Again, I’m an optimist.

But honestly, I think the fact that Stan Bowman won the vote there is kind of laughable. Now, I know the list isn’t exactly stuffed full of incredible GMs, but Bowman has been damn near pitiful over the past three years. Second City Hockey has made posts tracking the major moves Bowman has made over the past three years, so I went back and reviewed those lists (see them here – 2015, 2016, 2017), and basically rated them as either Good, Whatever, or Bad using entirely my own opinion. This was actually pretty easy, and I think most people would probably agree with my evaluations.

For brevity I won’t post my rating for every single transaction, but here’s how it shook out – 2015 had seven good moves, seven whatever moves, and eight bad moves, so I’d chalk that up as a “whatever” year that leans a bit toward bad. The good moves included signing Artemi Panarin, the Brandon Saad trade, and re-signing Anisimov. The bad moves included the Brent Seabrook extension, Patrick Sharp trade, and the David Rundblad extension. Seriously, the Seabrook extension was so bad, even when it was signed. The nearly $1-million raise for an aging player, plus the max term, and the full NMC, all when StanBo wasn’t even negotiating against anybody. Just embarrassing, and it clearly hasn’t aged well.

The moves made in 2017 were mostly “whatever” moves, and I didn’t actually rate anything as bad. The two moves that I consider especially good were the Scott Darling trade and Panarin/Saad swap. The Darling trade was pretty much masterful work, because to get a third round pick for a guy that otherwise would’ve walked for free is a really good move. The other big move of the year, the Hjalmarsson/Murphy swap, I graded as Whatever, which is probably bad, but Murphy has been fine this year and there is time for that move to pan out. And Stan started 2018 off right with a pretty good deal on Wednesday night, swapping Richard Panik for Anthony Duclair, making his team younger and faster while also saving cap space.

In the middle of all of that was 2016, which rated out with four good moves, four bad moves, and eleven whatever moves. But don’t let those numbers fool you, 2016 was awful for Bowman, and really could end up proving as the year that ultimately un-did all that he had built up here in Chicago. The best move he made was trading Andrew Shaw for two draft picks, one of which became our Special Boy Top Cat. The next best move was trading Jeremy Morin for Richard Panik. Panik hasn’t been awful, but that move is hardly anything to write home about. I also rated re-signing Q as good, so if you wanna take that out since it isn’t directly roster related, there’s only three good moves. But the bad moves were very, very bad.

Starting with the Andrew Ladd trade, which basically undid most of the goodness of the original Brandon Saad trade. Marko Dano hasn’t quite delivered on some of the promised potential, but I think his game was well suited for the Hawks’ style, and there’s a chance that had he been afforded more playing time with the Hawks in Chicago, he’d be a serviceable-or-maybe-good forward for them now, and probably at least better than the likes of Tommy Wingels or Lance Bouma. Plus the Hawks also gave up a first round pick in the deal. From the moment it was completed, it was a trade that was going to need a Cup to justify it. But Ladd brought them basically nothing worth mentioning down the stretch of the season and the Hawks were bounced by St. Louis in the first round. Little did we know this might have been the first domino that started the downfall of the Hawks “dynasty.”

Then there was the Philip Danault trade, which basically made the eventual overpriced Marcus Kruger contract extension not just necessary, but really Stan’s only option if the team was gonna have any semblance of a checking line in 2016-17. Trading Danault – who was already a very promising defensive forward with the potential to be Kruger 2.0 but with a bit more offensive upside – and other assets for Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise proved to be another big mistake. Weise and “Flash” were supposed to provide enviable forward depth for the Hawks as they prepared to go on a run to repeat as Cup champs. Instead they, like Ladd, didn’t provide much worth mentioning and were gone in the summer. Danault has gone on to be good bottom six forward for the Habs, with 22 points in 42 games this year and a CF of 54.56%. Ho hum.

But the real killer came in the summer with the trade that might end up defining Stan Bowman’s time as Blackhawks GM even more than his rebuilding of the team for the two Cup wins, at least in the minds of most of the hooligans who write words on this website. We always knew trading Bryan Bickell was going to be hard, and definitely was going to require some sweetening. It shouldn’t have required sweetening in the form of Teuvo Teravainen. Teuvo isn’t exactly a generational talent, but he’s been very good for Carolina over the past year and a half. He posted an encouraging 42 points in 81 games last year, and has been on a tear this year with 33 points (11G, 22A) in 41 games. He’s also posted a 55.69 CF% this season. That kind of production and possession dominance would be huge for the Blackhawks this year, but instead we have to watch the NHL Twitter account continually tweet videos of the original Very Special Boy do good things for the fuckin Hurricanes. AND I JUST GOT A TEUVO JERSEY LIKE A 10 MONTHS BEFORE THAT. I will not forgive Stan for this.

Now, every GM is prone to bad moves, and probably even prone to a series of them from time to time. Peter Chiarelli has chased bona fide stars away from his teams more times than we can count, and Jim Benning has only made like one good deal so far during his tenure in Vancover. But what Stan Bowman did in 2016, in essentially two trades, was plant a fucking iceberg in the path of the Titanic ship he had built. Again, imagine what this team would look like with Teuvo and Danault in tow instead of Wingels and/or Bouma. That kind of legitimate forward depth would help make up for a lot of the shortcomings on the Hawks embattled blue line, and probably have them closer to being a contender than a last place team.

And look, I don’t mean to say that Stan is a bad GM in general, because he isn’t. He did manage to retool his 2010 Cup winner into a team that was basically the best in the NHL over a 3-year stretch from 2013-2015, so maybe he can still do that here. And at least some of his bad moves were only made necessary because the Loonie went to shit, and took the NHL’s salary cap with it. But there isn’t much exciting talent in the pipeline, and the best players on his NHL squad are declining much too quickly for anyone’s liking. And he put himself in this position.

So don’t go telling me that Stan Bowman is the best GM in Chicago over the last three years. He literally took a Stanley Cup Champion and stripped it down to what is currently barely better than a last place team, all while thinking, as far as we can tell, that he was making his team better. He just about slammed his team’s championship window shut while trying to keep it open. At least his last name still carries some weight in the NHL.

Everything Else

Game #38 – Hawks vs. Flames: Douchebag Du Jour – How much wood would a Tkachuk chuck if a Tkachuk could stop being an idiot?

By Adam Hess 3940 0

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but in the case of the Tkachuk family, I think it’d be better to say that the shit doesn’t flow far from sewer. Keith Tkachuk was often a shithead and an occasional committer of the dirty hit/play. He averaged 1.85 PIM/game in his career, so damn near a minor penalty per game, which is honestly almost impressive. The only redeeming quality of Keith was that he was a good hockey player, with 1065 points in 1201 career games, or a .88 PPG.

His son Matthew is none of those things. No, Matthew is always a shithead, and a frequent committer of the dirty play, as you can see here. Seriously, what kind of special asshole do you need to be to have enough evidence of you being an asshole that a twelve minute video can be made to document you showing your ass just one year into your career?? He doesn’t commit penalties at quite the same rate as his dad, but with 143 PIM in 112 games so far in his career, he’s at 1.28 PIM/game already with potential to climb. He doesn’t even score at a similar rate to his father, with 70 points in his career thus far, or a .625 PPG. That basically makes him Milan Lucic (coincidence? I think not).

The problem with young Tkachuk tho is that he sometimes manages to be fun to watch. He managed to do this just a few weeks ago, which was pretty cool. And he sometimes has good taste in targets for his bullshit. But being fun to watch isn’t a redeeming quality of an asshole. If anything, it makes it more frustrating, because there is no need to engage in that useless bullshit when you can do cool hockey things instead.

But being a hockey fan might be less fun if we didn’t have villains to hate, and while there were no shortage of those before Tkachuk hit the league, it’s nice of him to be such a willing participant in ensuring there won’t be a shortage in the future either.

Game #38 Preview

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #33 – I’ll beat your ass if I beat your ass twice and you still here – Blackhawks 4, Wild 1

By Adam Hess 3198 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

The Blackhawks absolutely embarrassed the Minnesota Wild tonight, which is actually harder than you think because the Wild do a pretty good job of embarrassing themselves, usually. To the Bullets-

– The second line was extremely good tonight, dominating the Wild just about every time they were on the ice. They were a threat to score each time they had the puck in the offensive zone, and even Anisimov showed some flashes of fleet-footedness tonight, which was weird but cool. The Hawks first goal was the result of Nick Schmaltz putting yet another pass perfectly in the wheelhouse of Patrick Kane. I will never get used to how nice it feels to see those two go to work together.

– Just to elaborate on the end of that last bullet, I am fully convinced that Schamltz is a better running mate for Kane than Artemi Panarin ever was. Panarin had the speed to keep up with Kane and the shot to put away his good passes, but he isn’t nearly as creative with the puck as Schamltz is. Kane and Yeast Mode did have a great chemistry, but it looks like he has similar chemistry with Schmaltz already. The only change that needs to happen is getting Schmaltz moved to the pivot on that line, but with how well it’s working right now, I’m hesitant to call for too much tinkering.

– Jordan Oesterle has been a pleasant surprise lately. He’s looked good the past few games, and had another good game tonight, including a dime of a pass to spring Kane for the Hawks second goal. He was rewarded with 19 minutes of ice time, third among the Hawks defensive corps. He’s signed through next year at just $650k, so this might be a nice little signing by StanBo. Thanks, Edmonton.

– I know you don’t need me to tell you, but Crawford had another great game tonight. He nearly screwed up in the first period, but recovered well, and then was just his normal solid self the rest of the game. He did have a sweet save on Joel Eriksson Ek in the third period, absolutely robbing him with a stabbing glove save.

– Ryan Hartman showed some more skill tonight with a great, tight quarters goal in the third. He made a nice steal on the boards, and then just went hard to the net before getting creative and scoring from about 5 feet in front of Alex Stalock with a nifty quick shot that was just about impossible to stop. It was the kind of play the Hawks need from him more often – just going to the net and making things happen. He is everything Andrew Shaw was, but with more actual hockey skill, so if he can just embrace a bit more a Shaw-esque mentality (outside of being a shitheel individual) it will result in good things for him and the Hawks.

– Five wins in a row, and two straight over division opponents, is a nice way to head into the upcoming six-game road trip. Here’s hoping they keep the momentum going into that trip.

Everything Else

This is all we got – Blackhawks 2, Stars 2 – Stars win karaoke contest

By Adam Hess 2509 0

The Hawks and Stars played each other for the second time in three nights on Saturday, and they went past their allotted 60 minutes yet again. This time it went to a shootout, and the Stars grabbed the extra point again by going 2-for-2 while the Hawks went 0-for-2. Bullets:

  • Cody Franson made another one of those plays that no other right handed defenseman on the Blackhawks can make tonight when he one-timed a puck that was coming back to him at the point off the boards, and it resulted in the Hawks first goal of the game. Even though he got his face punched in repeatedly against Dallas on Thursday, he recovered pretty well tonight and had some nice moments.
  • I know I am not telling you anything you don’t know, but the power play is so, so bad. If your first exposure to a power play was the Hawks’ man advantage to start the third period, you would seriously question why it’s considered an advantage. I went back and watched it a second time and I still don’t think there was any semblance of a plan.
  • A few weeks ago, I wrote in a wrap that Anton Forsberg has been proving he does not belong in the NHL. Lately, he’s been proving me wrong. He was solid on Tuesday against Nashville, and looked good again tonight. I’ve never played goalie, but I do know that playing the position well requires a lot of confidence, and Forsberg looks very confident in the crease lately. I won’t be too surprised he keeps this team above water in Crow’s absence.
  • Heart Man and Top Cat seem to have developed a nice chemistry that makes them real fun to watch. At one point in the second period, Hartman made a nifty little backhand pass from below the goal line to ADB standing in the right slot that allowed him to get a nice shot off. It didn’t result in a goal, but it got me off my couch for a second. That’s not the only example of said chemistry, but definitely the one I remember most. The Hawks might be able to get a nice scoring line out of this partnership.
  • The Hawks took a lot of irresponsible penalties tonight. Keith stuck out his leg and tripped a guy below the net. Murphy got his stick tied up Radulov’s legs as he was hitting him that resulted in tripping call, and later got caught for elbowing. Obviously there are times where there’s not much you can about some penalties you take, but these ones almost all felt avoidable.
  • The 3-on-3 overtime remains a major gimmick, but this one between these two teams was all kinds of fun. It was constant back and forth with each team getting one or two scoring chances, then having to hustle back to eliminate an odd man rush. I had a very good time watching it. I kinda wish the NHL would just ditch the shootout and let regular season overtime be an untimed 3-on-3 contest. It’d still be gimmicky, but it’d be at least more fun than a shootout.
  • This one isn’t about the game itself, but this broadcast from Comcast Chicago or whatever the damn channel is called now felt so awkward. Brian Campbell clearly feels a little out of place in the studio analyst role, Steve Konroyd sucks (see the quote of the night below), and Pat Foley asked a coach, who doesn’t play the game, if the ice was okay because of the NBA game that happened in Dallas this afternoon. I really didn’t think I’d miss Edzo but here we are.

Next is LA tomorrow night. Onward.

Quote of the night: “Nice job by Brent Seabrook. He didn’t have any speed whatsoever.” – Steve “Somehow I Have Broadcast Job” Konroyd.

Everything Else

It Ain’t Broke, So Don’t Go Fixin’ It

By Adam Hess 1775 0

The worst kept secret in hockey right now is that Alex DeBrincat is tearing up the NHL. After getting off to bit of a slow start, with just four points in his first 11 games, he went on a tear in November, with 15 points in his 14 games (including October 28). In that time, he’s had two point streaks of three games and one of four, and notched four points in the Hawks’ Monday-Tuesday back-to-back against Anaheim and Nashville this week, including his first career hat-trick against the Ducks, before scoring another goal Thursday night against the Stars.

When we did the player previews back in September, I wrote in pretty good detail about how much scoring potential Top Cat had. He tore up the OHL year after year, and basically only fell as far as he did in the 2016 draft because hockey can’t get over it’s fascination with size and girth. Despite all of our nerves that the Blackhawks would ignore his strong pre-season and make him start the season in the A, he forced the issue and was able to make the team out of camp. And he hasn’t disappointed at all.

Among the Blackhawks, Whiskers is second on the team in both goals and points, with 10 and 18, respectively. In the league, he’s tied for 36th in goals and tied for 70th in points, which is pretty damn good for a 19-year-old with 24 games under his belt. He has as many or more goals than the likes of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Brandon Saad, and several other stars. Again, that’s good.

What’s really good is the fact that he’s done all this despite the fact that he’s spent most of the year condemned out of the top six by his mustachioed coach for a reason that has yet to been made public. And though I’m not here to re-hash arguments made on here already, as Sam detailed the other day, Q hasn’t explained himself in any way to lend justification to ADB’s tethering to Patrick Sharp’s opposite wing, or Nick Schmaltz playing wing instead of center, which is pretty much definitely keeping ADB on that third line. Lucky for Q, I am here to do it for him.

We don’t really need an explanation from Q, anyhow, because we all know that any explanation we might get would be completely unsatisfactory and/or filled with some random bullshit. We’d probably hear some reference to the idea of him being on the third line if it’s meant to avoid tougher competition, but at this point Top Cat has proven that he’s worthy of, at the very least, an opportunity to face that competition with higher quality teammates, so that argument would fall flat with most Hawks fans. Even with that, though, I still wonder if any sort of lineup promotion is really best for DeBrincat right now.

We’ve been stressing our desire for DeBrincat to play on a wing with Schmaltz and Kane for so long that there’s hardly any of the dead horse left to beat, but his hat trick on Monday gave us an even better look at the fit those three could have. Twice during line changes, he added goals that were assisted by – guess who – Schmaltz or Kane. The three of them have such similar skill sets and playing styles that the fit seems obvious, but with the recent success of the Schmaltz-Anisimov-Kane second line, it’s hard to imagine Q making too many changes to the lineup right now. Schamltz is still probably better off playing the pivot than the wing, but that’s a conversation for another time. The point is, all three of the guys on that second line have been playing well this year, especially in the most recent stretch of games, so you could question if breaking up that line even makes any sense at all right now.

DeBrincat, though, has also shown that he’s good enough to elevate whoever he ends up on a line with at any given time. Look no further than the Hawks’ first goal against Nashville on Tuesday, when he won a puck battle deep in the offensive zone, on a rush, during a line change, and then threaded a pass through all five Predators that was so perfect even Tommy Wingels couldn’t fuck up the tap in. If the Hawks want to roll out three scoring lines – which we know they do – there really isn’t a better fit to be the main threat on that third line right now than Top Cat. Do you trust Richard Panik to produce meaningfully away from Toews and Saad? What about Anisimov without Kane? Do you really want Patrick Sharp to be the focal point of a scoring line at this point? Me either.

So while Top Cat is most definitely not a third line winger by any stretch of the imagination, and having him on another line might provide a better fit for his style, he might actually be best off left alone for now.

Everything Else

It ain’t broke, so don’t go fixin’ it

By Adam Hess 1608 0

The worst kept secret in hockey right now is that Alex DeBrincat is tearing up the NHL. After getting off to bit of a slow start, with just four points in his first 11 games, he went on a tear in November, with 15 points in his 14 games (including October 28). In that time, he’s had two point streaks of three games and one of four, and notched four points in the Hawks’ Monday-Tuesday back-to-back against Anaheim and Nashville this week, including his first career hat-trick against the Ducks, before scoring another goal Thursday night against the Stars.

When we did the player previews back in September, I wrote in pretty good detail about how much scoring potential Top Cat had. He tore up the OHL year after year, and basically only fell as far as he did in the 2016 draft because hockey can’t get over it’s fascination with size and girth. Despite all of our nerves that the Blackhawks would ignore his strong pre-season and make him start the season in the A, he forced the issue and was able to make the team out of camp. And he hasn’t disappointed at all.

Among the Blackhawks, Whiskers is second on the team in both goals and points, with 10 and 18, respectively. In the league, he’s tied for 36th in goals and tied for 70th in points, which is pretty damn good for a 19-year-old with 24 games under his belt. He has as many or more goals than the likes of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Brandon Saad, and several other stars. Again, that’s good.

What’s really good is the fact that he’s done all this despite the fact that he’s spent most of the year condemned out of the top six by his mustachioed coach for a reason that has yet to been made public. And though I’m not here to re-hash arguments made on here already, as Sam detailed the other day, Q hasn’t explained himself in any way to lend justification to ADB’s tethering to Patrick Sharp’s opposite wing, or Nick Schmaltz playing wing instead of center, which is pretty much definitely keeping ADB on that third line. Lucky for Q, I am here to do it for him.

We don’t really need an explanation from Q, anyhow, because we all know that any explanation we might get would be completely unsatisfactory and/or filled with some random bullshit. We’d probably hear some reference to the idea of him being on the third line if it’s meant to avoid tougher competition, but at this point Top Cat has proven that he’s worthy of, at the very least, an opportunity to face that competition with higher quality teammates, so that argument would fall flat with most Hawks fans. Even with that, though, I still wonder if any sort of lineup promotion is really best for DeBrincat right now.

We’ve been stressing our desire for DeBrincat to play on a wing with Schmaltz and Kane for so long that there’s hardly any of the dead horse left to beat, but his hat trick on Monday gave us an even better look at the fit those three could have. Twice during line changes, he added goals that were assisted by – guess who – Schmaltz or Kane. The three of them have such similar skill sets and playing styles that the fit seems obvious, but with the recent success of the Schmaltz-Anisimov-Kane second line, it’s hard to imagine Q making too many changes to the lineup right now. Schamltz is still probably better off playing the pivot than the wing, but that’s a conversation for another time. The point is, all three of the guys on that second line have been playing well this year, especially in the most recent stretch of games, so you could question if breaking up that line even makes any sense at all right now.

DeBrincat, though, has also shown that he’s good enough to elevate whoever he ends up on a line with at any given time. Look no further than the Hawks’ first goal against Nashville on Tuesday, when he won a puck battle deep in the offensive zone, on a rush, during a line change, and then threaded a pass through all five Predators that was so perfect even Tommy Wingels couldn’t fuck up the tap in. If the Hawks want to roll out three scoring lines – which we know they do – there really isn’t a better fit to be the main threat on that third line right now than Top Cat. Do you trust Richard Panik to produce meaningfully away from Toews and Saad? What about Anisimov without Kane? Do you really want Patrick Sharp to be the focal point of a scoring line at this point? Me either.

So while Top Cat is most definitely not a third line winger by any stretch of the imagination, and having him on another line might provide a better fit for his style, he might actually be best off left alone for now.

Everything Else

Game #24 – Snakebitten – Hawks 2, Predators 3

By Adam Hess 3340 0

Box Score

Hockey Stats

Natural Stat Trick

In general, I’m not a fan of back-to-backs that involve travel. I am especially not a fan of them when it involves having to go play the Predators, who are arguably the fastest team in the West. You’re gonna see a naturally slower Blackhawks team going up against a pack of shitheads and fuckwads that are pretty much going to skate circles around them, and that’s pretty much what happened tonight as Nashville swarmed the Hawks to the tune of a 3-2 win. Let’s get to it:

  • The thing is, though, I am not that frustrated or disheartened by this loss. Again, the Hawks are on the second night of a back-to-back, and had to travel in the middle of the night. Nashville had the day off yesterday, so they were clearly more fresh, and since you’d already give them the legs advantage in this matchup, I’d say all the Preds did was hold serve. The Hawks looked fine and created some chances that they unfortunately couldn’t capitalize on. Move on.
  • I am slightly confused, though, by the decision to start Crawford at home against Anaheim and Forsberg on the road against Nashville. Not that Forsberg played poorly tonight, because he was actually solid, but the decision was just puzzling. I guess it makes a bit more sense to give your starter the extra night off on the back end of it, and the more welcoming environment of home (the Nashville crowd is insufferable anyhow), but I would’ve been inclined to save Crow for the better, divisional opponent.
  • But Forsberg ended up playing very well in the spot. He made a lot of key saves, looked confident, and was pretty much in the right spot for just about every shot Nashville took. I can’t pin any of the Preds goals on him. I’ll take more of this from him.
  • Patrick Kane was snakebitten tonight, and it became pretty clear that it got to him. NBC did a lot of focusing on him because of his missed chances in the first, and he just looked frustrated. Then he took a silly penalty in the third that led to the third Nashville goal, sealing the deal.
  • Garbage Dick wasn’t the only one that couldn’t catch a break, though. Just about the whole top nine was unable to convert on some good chances. Tommy Wingels and Lance Bouma had the Hawks’ only goals. So.
  • Top Cat did another Top Cat thing tonight, winning a puck battle in behind the Nashville goal (turns out being big isn’t necessary for those, who knew) and then sending a fucking dime of a pass through all five Predators that was so perfectly placed that even Tommy Wingels couldn’t fuck it up. Seriously, go watch the play. My pants got a bit tighter.
  • Speaking of, Wingels was a consistent scoring threat tonight. Yes you read that right. No, I don’t want to type it ever again. But here’s how surreal it was: Q put him out with the net empty and 52 seconds left after a Nashville icing, and I did not scream at my television. Life is weird.
  • Guess which defenseman got spun around and caught out of position on Nashville’s first goal. You only get one, but that’s all you need.
  • All three games between these teams have been one goal games this year. These teams are closer than most would like to give the Hawks credit for.

Next is Dallas on Thursday night. Onward.

Beer du jour: Dos Perros by Yazoo Brewing. I thought a Nashville beer might bring some luck in that city. I am truly sorry.

Everything Else

Atop the Sugar Pile – November 27

By Adam Hess 2306 0

Since we last did this, the Blackhawks have taken 7 out of a possible 8 points, and done it against some good competition. They took the Bolts to overtime, though blew a 2-0 lead in the process, and also beat the Rangers, Penguins, and Panthers. Only the second of those three are really among the NHL’s elites, but the other two are fine teams, so we’ll take it. Things are sort of going up, so let’s look at what’s been going on.

The Dizzying Highs

Artem Anisimov: Wide Dick managed 4 goals and an assist in the past 4 games, only being held off the stat sheet in one of those four games. He’s showed a nice bounce back from a low and sometimes frustrating start to the season. He posted a hat trick against the Rags, which apparently was his first of his career, though that surprised me a bit. I don’t expect the torrid scoring to continue, but he’s looked a lot better recently so hopefully that continues, because the results will follow.

Patrick Kane: After being marked by Sam as a Terrifying Low last time we did this, Kane has upped his game. He’s had 5 points in the past 4 games as well, split as 3 goals and two assists, including a 2-goal effort against Tampa Bay in which he scored the Hawks only two goals. He’s officially at a point per game pace this year, and his shooting percentage is back to 12%, which is essentially his career norm. More of the same from the Hawks’ best players will certainly be welcome.

The Terrifying Lows

Brent Seabrook (still): Look, I know this is redundant and lazy, but I can’t ignore it, and there hasn’t been that much esle bad lately. Seabrook hasn’t found the score sheet in the past two weeks, and his CF is down to a miserable 48.11%. He really needs a benching and/or launching into the sun, but Quenneville apparently does not seem to agree with pretty much everybody else in the world on that. It’s getting frustrating to watch him continue to leave nacho cheese all over the ice with nothing positive to show from it. Pray for an awakening.

The Creamy Middles

Richard Panik: Panik had 3 assists against the Rags, and while that was the only time he’s made the score sheet in the past two weeks, he’s managed a nice 61.06 CF% in the past four games as well. Panik is never gonna be a world beating scorer, and he won’t really be a top-line forward, but he’s effective in the role that Hawks need him to play, and that’s more than we can say about some of the clowns around this team.