Despite not having John present and the season being all but over after this past weekend, the other three of us still manage to absolutely beat to death a couple of our favorite subjects: Why is Jonathan Toews bad now, and why is Trevor van Riemsdyk bad always. Usual procurement means after the jump.
The Rockford IceHogs dropped both of their games this past weekend, firmly establishing themselves in the basement of the American Hockey League. It has been a frustrating season to say the least over in Winnebago County. That said, I really have to blame myself for what got me so riled up yesterday.
Yes…I visited the IceHogs season ticket holder page on facebook, where folks were casting their ire about what is fast becoming a lost season. The primary target was goaltender Mac Carruth, who gave up four goals in just over 20 minutes of Saturday’s 5-2 loss to Grand Rapids.
I’ve been hinting at writing in depth on Carruth and the goalie situation for a few weeks. Reading the comments, in addition to what I hear in the BMO stands, has officially pushed me over the edge.
I ran into a fellow IceHogs fan at the grocery store Sunday afternoon. We talked about Rockford’s signing of Jeff Glass, a veteran of the KHL, to an AHL contract this past week. One hypothosis formulated by the two of us is the possibility that a goalie in the Hawks organization (likely Scott Darling…sorry) will be leaving via trade.
“So, I guess the Hawks will call up (Lars) Johansson to back up Crow if that happens,” the person offered.
“Maybe,” I said, “but the guy they should call up is Carruth.”
After I picked my fellow fan off the floor, we exchanged good-byes and went on with our respective weekends. Had we enough time to spend discussing hockey in the check-out line, I would have been able to elaborate.
Instead, I have chosen this forum to make my stand. Mac Carruth is not the cause of Rockford’s dismal performance this season. Here are my vociferous responses to the many arrows shot in his direction.
January 15th, 2017: the day that everyone had to accept the Minnesota Wild and their dipshit coach as their new overlords. Of course, with the Hawks blowing a two goal lead at home to a team that played the night before, they certainly deserved to lose, even to this team.
vs. 
RECORDS: Wild 27-9-5 Hawks 27-13-5
PUCK DROP: 6pm
TV: NBCSN
ANIMALS STRIKING CURIOUS POSES: Hockey Wilderness, Gone Puck Wild
PROJECTED LINEUPS
ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Wild – 49.8 (18th) Hawks – 49.8 (17th)
ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Wild – 54.2 (2nd) Hawks – 47.2 (26th)
POWER PLAY %: Wild – 19.5 (13th) Hawks – 18.8 (14th)
PENALTY KILL %: Wild – 84.6 (6th) Hawks – 76.3 (28th)
Repeat this to yourself, because it’s important: There are no big games in January.
We’re sure the Wild are using this as some sort of exam. The Hawks have been doing this contender thing long enough to know that it doesn’t matter. However, after getting their ass rubbed in the moonshine by the Capitals, the Hawks probably don’t want that to snowball into anything worrisome. So they won’t be completely disinterested tonight, or at least you’d hope not.
We imagine it’s a pretty boring life being a Wild fan. They haven’t really threatened much for a very long time, as their only conference final appearance was in 2003. They spent years suffering under Jacques Lemaire’s life-sapping system. There haven’t been that many dynamic players who have donned the… red and green? Yeah, that’s it. Basically the Wild have just been… there. And there wasn’t much there there.
But we imagine that every so often, they’d take a step back and giggle about the Niederreiter for Clutterbuck trade. We know we would.
Natural Stat Trick
And sometimes the bear… well, he eats you.
Overall, the Caps are probably a better team than the Hawks. They’re deeper at both forward and defense, and it’s one of the few teams the Hawks have no advantage in goal against. Right now is most certainly not the time to be playing the Caps, who are now winners of eight in a row. Add to that they’re probably feeling their oats even more after skulling the Penguins at home on Wednesday night. So this is the Caps at the height of their powers.
Whether you think the Hawks are short in places, or don’t really care in the middle of January, or some combo thereof, the results tonight were especially ugly.
at 
Game Time: 6:00PM CST
TV/Radio: CSN, NHLN (US), WGN-AM 720
Bernie Would Have Won: Japer’s Rink, RMNB
In years past, even for a mid January game, had both the Hawks and Capitals been carrying the two longest current winning streaks in the league (Caps at 7, Hawks at 4) there would be such a clamor over yet another POTENTIAL STANLEY CUP FINAL MATCHUP that it’d be deafening. But with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild on an inexorable collision course for June, it seems that tonight’s game in DC is simply old news to most.
It’s strange that Barry Trotz has avoided being called East Coast Bruce Boudreau. They both don’t have a neck, so it works, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s just because Trotz has only been on the East Coast for three years. Still, his record is what it is and looks a lot like Boudreau’s, except Gabby has actually made the conference final once.
This was a Fifth Feather thing many years ago, but when Joel Quenneville was hired and then eventually a Cup champion, he was the first coach to coach more than 10 years without reaching a Stanley Cup Final to then actually do so. And he remains that. Trotz is getting close to the ten year mark, and he’s never been to a conference final.
Most hockey fans roll their eyes whenever they see the Penguins vs. Capitals on their screen. Actually, they do that when the Blackhawks are on the national broadcast as well. Both are understandable, but we’ll focus on the former for now. Pens vs. Caps was shoved down our throats before we even knew what hit us, thanks to the NHL’s desperation to turn Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin into Bird vs. Magic before either had even made the playoffs. The NHL couldn’t, or wouldn’t, wait for it to happen organically, and for the most part I think hockey fans rejected it. Wrestling fans will tell you about a similar scenario with Roman Reigns, but that’s another discussion for another time with much weirder people.
And I think I, and a lot of other fans, have viewed the games between the teams the same way. But I have brought myself out of it, in time to really enjoy last year’s series between the two, and I hope more fans are as well. Because we have two very special players, ones that don’t seem to be appreciated enough, and both are doing things we might not see again and haven’t seen for a very long time.
Last night, the Hawks ratcheted up yet another one-goal victory, their league-leading 17th. That is by some distance, as the next best team has 13 one-goal wins. That doesn’t mean the Hawks have the best win % in one-goal games, which belongs to the Flames (Hawks are 6th in that category). No one is playing more and winning more one-goal games.
But of course that started what few functioning neurons I had left to stir. Are one-goal wins really a matter of skill or know-how, or are they luck? Obviously, the answer is probably a blending of the two but I still wanted to know. In baseball, the only other sport where the scoring is somewhat similar to hockey–but only somewhat–it’s been a given that one-run wins are mostly luck. Or at least they don’t speak to what kind of team you have. After all, your 103-win and World Series Champion Cubs were merely 22-23 in one-run games, and no one is going to say they weren’t the best team in baseball.
Does it work the same in hockey? In order to find out we’re going to have to get in up the elbow in numbers, so put on your rubber gloves. And for just another bullet point in how dumb the NHL site is, they include OT and SO wins in their one-goal wins category but not in the one-goal loss category. The conspiracy to inflate the standings goes deeper than you think, sheeple!!!
