Everything Else

Poodle Bites! C’mon Frenchie!: Habs Q&A With Laura The Active Stick

By 1338

Sadly the Canadiens only visit once a season, so we don’t get to talk to our good friend Laura The Active Stick as much as we’d like (@TheActiveStick). But hey, she’s been out drinking with me and lived to tell the tale. More than Fifth Feather and his wrist can say. Let’s see what she has to tell us about the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge.

Here we go again. The Habs are on top of the East to start, their underlying numbers are just north of ok, and everyone’s losing their mud. Other than Price staying healthy, why is this team different from last year’s?

I’m cautiously optimistic. The Canadiens are giving up a lot of shots and struggling with getting out of their own zone. The good news is that I think it’s a strategy issue more than a personnel issue. They need to work on that. The other good news is that Carey Price is their goaltender. Nobody wins a Stanley Cup by themselves, but if one player can, it’s Carey Price. 

Everything Else

Sound of the Funky Drummer: Capitals 3, Blackhawks 2 (OT)

By 1273

Box Score

HockeyStats.ca

Natural Stat Trick

You know things are breaking the Blackhawks way when they’re able to successfully recreate the winning shot from the 1984 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship on ice. In the final ten minutes of the third period, the Capitals played about as good of team defense as one team could hope for while protecting a lead. The Blackhawks were having difficulty A) establishing possession in the offensive zone B) completing a pass and C) generating any type of shot towards Braden Holtby.

Everything Else

Beat Is For Sonny Bono: Capitals at Hawks Preview/Archeological Dig

By 1268

Capital vs. Hawk Wrestler

RECORDS: Caps 8-3-1  Hawks 10-3-1

PUCK DROP: 7:30pm

TV: CSN

MISSIVES FROM THOSE ABOUT TO BURN: Japers Rink, Russian Machine Never Breaks

PROJECTED LINEUPS

capitals-lineup-card

blackhawks-lineup-card

EVEN-STRENGTH CF%: Caps – 54.5% (2nd)  Hawks – 50.2% (10th)

POWER PLAY: Caps – 13.2% (24th)  Hawks – 18.6% (13th)

PENALTY KILL: Caps – 81.8% (15th)  Hawks – Gettin’ there!

TRENDS: Backstrom has eight points in eight career games against the Hawks…Burakovsky’s 59.7 CF% (adjusted) is 10th best among all forwards

With the Hawks winning games but not exactly playing well, we said this week would be something of a marker, whoever meaningful that is in November. Tonight will be the first time in a long while they’ll see a good team that is also currently playing well, as the Blues right now couldn’t score at a rave with a five pound bag of exstasy and all the pacifires in the world. The Caps have no such problems.

Everything Else

Caps Adonna: Capitals Q&A With Becca H

By 1373

Becca H is all things at Japersrink.com. You can follow her on Twitter @BeccaH_JR.

Overall a really solid start for the Caps. The underlying numbers are encouraging as well. Anything to complain about or right according to plan?

Amazingly, shockingly, the biggest issue for the Caps is their power play. You know, that same power play that has been operating at close to 25% for the last three seasons, the one that boasts guys like Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov? That’s the one. At the moment they’re operating at a 13.2% clip (just five goals on 38 tries), which is simply not good enough. And it’s not just the start of this season where it’s been an issue – the power play dried up late last season (with an isolated explosion of productivity in their first-round series against Philly). That’s somewhat troubling, and leads us to question whether the rest of the league has finally figured them out.

That said, 12 games in they’re still generating shots and chances with the extra man, and it is only 12 games in – that 13.2% isn’t the worst mark in the League tells you how early it is. There’s time for it to fix itself, and as long as they’re doing well at five on five – and killing penalties at the rate they are – they’ll probably be fine. Probably.

Hopefully.

Everything Else

Get Yourself A Cooler, Lay Yourself Low: Hawks 2 – Blues 1 (OT)

By 1464

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

Hockey Stats

Most of the season, and certainly during this now seven-game winning-streak, the Hawks have relied on their top six and Corey Crawford to bring home a win. On the surface, that’s what happened in West East St. Louis tonight. They got a goal from Hossa and Pantera. Crow was basically impenetrable. Two points. Dig a little deeper and you’ll see that the Hawks’ top six pretty much got buried on the possession charts. But when Crow is in this kind of form, he basically equalizes everything.

Everything Else

Far Later Than It Should’ve Happened, We’re Going To Have A New Name

By 2413

As it says in the title, this should have happened well before this. It’s on me that it didn’t. No one else, despite the team that makes up this blog. We are now going to be FaxesFromUncleDale.com.

We had a serious discussion about this a little less than two years ago. So many of you shared your opinions and suggestions. I thought merely changing the logo would let me get away with it. I told myself it was enough, but it was a half-step. A justification or rationalization, whatever you want to call it. I knew then but did everything I could to ignore it. I took far too much solace in those who agreed with me instead of those who were saying what I didn’t want to hear. You can’t learn anything that way. Some of the people closest to me told me better. They deserved a far better audience than I gave them. That’s not who I want to be.

Everything Else

Top Cat And Other Notes

By 1749

You best believe I’m going to start calling Alex DeBrincat “Top Cat” when he gets here. Try and stop me. He’s got cat moves and he’s got cat style.

You’ve probably seen this already, but if you haven’t the Hawks’ second round pick from June, Alex DeBrincat, is absolutely torching the OHL so far this season. Like, it’s Mongolian hordes shit. So far in just 14 games, Top Cat has 17 goals and 18 assists for 34 points. He’s also averaging almost five shots per game at 4.8.

I was curious what became of players the past few years who have averaged two points per game in the O. It has happened, and while the OHL is pretty free-wheeling it’s not the QMJHL. There are certainly some names here.

Everything Else

One Month In And Nobody Knows Nothin’

By 1583

This week will see the NHL season move into its second month. While the Hawks are one of the hotter teams in the league, that doesn’t mean we truly know what they are. Yes, they sit atop the West, but you don’t need to look any farther than who they are tied atop the conference with to know how weird the season has been. That would be the Edmonton Oilers. And no one thinks they’re really that good. So what the hell is going on here?

For matters close to town, what’s funny is that the Oilers probably deserve their spot atop the West more than the Hawks do. Edmonton is plus in Corsi and Fenwick, though just barely, where the Hawks are not. The Oilers have a plus shot-share per 60 at evens, and the Hawks are dead-ass last in that category. That isn’t good. If you go by xGF%, and whether you do or not I won’t complain, the Oilers are only slightly outplaying their even-strength performance where the Hawks are massively doing so. What a strange world indeed.

Quite simply, pretty much everything about the Hawks is something of a mirage right now. They have the league’s highest PDO by three full points over Minnesota. Their even-strength save-percentage is a full two points ahead of Montreal’s. We know this. In fact, they could be something like last year’s Canadiens, except they have way more top end talent than the Habs did last year.

And yet I can’t sit here and say it’s totally false.

Everything Else

High On The Hog: Traveling Blues

By 1531

The Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, must have had a little extra room on the bus after departing for three road games this past week. You see, the Hogs left their offense on the curb outside the BMO Harris Bank Center.

Rockford dropped all three contests this week to push its current losing streak to five games. In doing so, the IceHogs mustered a single even-strength goal in over 180 minutes of hockey.

The Hogs have sunk to 13th place in the Western Conference following this weekend’s action. Their 4-6-1 mark has them seventh in the Central Division standings. A lack of scoring has definitely played a part in this team’s recent struggles.