All our Nashville friends ignored us. They must really hate Chicago. Guess that’s what happens when you’ve never really won anything. Anyway, here’s the preview from their side.
Game #82 Preview Suite
Last year, when the Hawks season was over, it was just relief. It has become too hard to watch, and it was clear everyone involved just wanted to see the back of the season. No one was upset when it came to an end in Winnipeg.
This year is different, for many reasons. Because of what the Hawks said, because there isn’t the ready-made excuse that Crawford’s injury was last year, because of what the Hawks wasted. They have two 40-goal scorers. Five 20-goal scorers. A d-man with 60 points, even if he can’t read a map in his own zone. And they’re not even going to come close.
It’s going to be very hard to match all that again. Kane and DeBrincat will score a lot of course, but they may not score this much. Toews might not either. You can’t blow this kind of thing, and the Hawks did spectacularly.
Think about how bad you have to defensively to waste that many goals. They were eighth in goals-for this year. No matter the metrics or analytics, the game is about goals. The seven teams ahead of them not only are playoff teams, they are comfortably so. Five of the six teams behind them are playoff teams, the lone exception being the Panthers. How do you do that?
Hopefully the stewing spurs something. You can’t really do this again.
Game #82 Preview Suite
Notes: If the Hawks wanted to have some fun they’d let Lankinen start tonight, as a reward for a season in Rockford. Ward gets to go out with a win, everyone’s happy…Kunitz certainly looked like he was playing his last game last night, starting with Daydream Nation, so you could see Kruger slot back in for him instead of Hayden…Koekkoek scored so maybe he gets to stay in the lineup? Does it matter? No, it does not…four 20 goal-scorers, two 40 goal-scorers, and they’re not even close to the playoffs…
Notes: That’s two picks and a player they gave up for two-thirds for a fourth-line…It felt like Granlund would be a perfect fit in Nashville, as it never quite popped in Minnesota, but his 3.8 SH% has seen that it hasn’t yet…Forsberg only has one goal in his last seven…Rinne’s found it again after a wonky February, with a .927 in March and stopping 56 of 60 in two April starts…Johansen is on something of a heater for him, with three goals in his last five games…
Game #82 Preview Suite
In lieu of doing the normal Tonight Gonna Rock You Tonight, we only need to focus on the games that matter. There’s one spot to be sorted in the East, some seeding in the Metro, some seeding in the Central. Let’s run it through.
Eastern Conference
The Jackets are in the veritable catbird’s seat. They have two games to gather the same points as the Canadiens have in their one, so essentially one win or two ties gets the Jackets in. The Canadiens finish with Toronto, who may or may not care, but the game could be moot by the time it starts as Columbus has the Rangers tonight. Columbus could still catch the Hurricanes if they win both of their games and the Canes don’t beat the Flyera tomorrow.
The Canes however can also still catch the Penguins. If the Penguins lose in regulation to the Rangers at home (not likely) and the Hurricanes win they’ll take the tiebreaker. The Penguins in turn can still catch the Islanders, with a win and a regulation loss by the Islanders at the Caps tomorrow.
So that’s the East.
Western Conference
The spots are all settled. The seeding is not.
At the top of the Central, the Predators need only a win of any kind to take the division. If they get one or no points against the Hawks tomorrow, the Jets can take the division with a win in Arizona. The Blues can still do this, somehow, if neither Nashville or Winnipeg win tomorrow and the Blues beat the Canucks at home.
The only other seeding to be solved is the order of the wildcards. The Stars only need one point out of their last two games to secure a date with the Central winner. But should they whiff completely and the Avs beat the Sharks in San Jose tomorrow, they’ll slide up one and leave the Stars with the Flames.
So there you go.
vs. 
RECORDS: Stars 42-31-7 Hawks 35-33-12
PUCK DROP: 7:30pm
TV: NBCSN Chicago
MOVING ON: Defending Big D
And now the wake. Or shiva. Or whatever other ceremony where the drinking after the service takes place (some would call it life). The Hawks will close out the home schedule tonight, and despite what they told you before and during the season, for the second straight year it won’t be a launch point to something bigger and more exciting. This will be it. They get the 41 here and no more. There will be plenty of time for commiseration, but for now maybe it’s better to enjoy Alex DeBrincat, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane one more time on the ice.
Because if you think about it, there are some pretty heavy questions hanging over this one. A lot of players will be dressing in red for the last time. Could one or two of them be Brent Seabrook and/or Duncan Keith? There is a case to move each of them on. The one for Seabrook is much easier to make but much harder to execute. Keith still has a role to play here if he both accepts what he is now and more importantly accepts who’s in charge. He doesn’t seem inclined to do either. The argument about both can wait. If this is to be the last time they’re seen together here, it will be sad. One or both will take a significant chunk of Blackhawks history with them when and if they go.
Others are more sured of the exit. Chris Kunitz is headed for retirement. So might be Cam Ward. Marcus Kruger will be elsewhere, as his larger-than-you-think contributions to two Cups are yellowing and green with mold as time goes on. We can only hope Slater Koekkoek and Gustav Forsling are never seen here again. John Hayden has a great career in Germany awaiting him. Has Brendan Perlini earned another contract? Will Brandon Saad be trade bait again? Will Artem Anisimov? More than a few, to be sure.
The other sting about tonight is the Hawks only need to look at the other bench to see what could have been. Could the Hawks be where the Stars are? Maybe not that high, but they could be much closer if they’d done a couple things like Dallas did. What if the Hawks had hired their new voice to replace a legend in the summer and given him a fresh start instead of tossing him in midstream in the busiest portion of the schedule? What if they’d opted for Anton Khudobin instead of Ward? The Hawks’ higher end has been better than the Stars, and by some margin. The middle and bottom has not. Instead you got Brandon Manning and Stan Bowman lurking behind the curtain like Claudius, except this time he didn’t let Hamlet get the drop on him.
The Stars did these things, and the Stars won the games they had to, which the Hawks did not. Because of that, they get to use tonight as a rest-up. Jamie “I Don’t Know Which Way Is South” Benn, Mats Zuccarello, and Roman Polak didn’t even make the trip. Ben Bishop is continuing to rest whatever fell off of him this time and is geared to be ready for the playoffs. Which could come against any of the top three in the Central, though all the Preds have to do is beat the Hawks tomorrow night to clinch. That said, given they only have one line and the Stars defensive ways and Bishop’s form when healthy, that could get sticky for everyone’s darling in yellow in a hurry. But that’s a matter for next week, and not a matter for the Hawks at all.
They’ll wrap it up tonight. They told you they wouldn’t be. The real drama comes next, just not the type they promised.
Game #81 Preview Suite
We’ve often bitched about the Old Boys Club that NHL coaches are chosen from. Same goes for GMs. It feels like you only get an NHL job if you had one before, or served as an assistant for years. We think the game could use new ideas, and they need to come from new places.
And yet those coaches picked from different places…it really hasn’t always worked out, has it? In fact, the success rate is pretty low.
Dave Hakstol flamed out in Philly pretty quickly. You can argue about the roster he was given, but no one with the Flyers or who follows them was too upset with his dismissal. At best, you can say the jury is still out on Jeremy Colliton. Remember Dallas Eakins? Boy, that went well. Guy Boucher turned out to be a fraud, twice. About the only coach who worked his way up through the levels and got his first coaching gig without being an assistant is John Cooper in Tampa Bay. It can happen, it just doesn’t all that often.
Jim Montgomery is a name that will get tossed out as a success. And on the surface, that seems correct. Montgomery had a glittering record at Denver University. Over five seasons the Pioneers went 125-57-26, made two Frozen Fours and collected a national championship. If any coach was screaming out for a promotion to the pro ranks, it was Montgomery.
And Montgomery has the Stars in the playoffs. They missed out last year. Except dig anywhere beneath the surface, and there isn’t much difference between the job Ken Hitchcock did last year, which everyone panned, and the one Montgomery is doing now.
The Stars could finish with a max of 95 points, which is only a small improvement on the 92 they collected last year. They could finish with less than those 92 points as well. That’s just a bounce here or there.
On top of that, by any measure the Stars are actually worse than they were last year. They take less attempts, and they give up more of them. They take less shots, and give up more of them. Their expected goals, or types of chances, they both create and surrender are both headed in the wrong direction. The difference is that Ben Bishop has been way better, as they had an ES SV% last year of .925 and this year it’s .934. That’s a difference of about 20 goals just at even-strength, which is about four or five points in the standings. The other difference, of course, is that the conference is so much worse.
The Stars have roster flaws of course. There’s only one line here. They’ve been racked by injuries, as Radulov, Benn, Klingberg, Bishop all having missed time. Maybe for Montgomery to have their peripherals where they are is something of a job. Hard to say, though.
Perhaps hockey is more like football in that the transition from college to pros is just rougher than you’d think. Maybe it’s a path that needs to be more well-worn. It’s also worth noting the Denver has rolled right along without Montgomery, into the Frozen Four again. But those are his kids there, so we know he can recruit. Sadly, that doesn’t do much for you in the NHL.
If the Stars get Montgomery a second and third line, then we’ll see what he’s made of. If they can make noise in the playoffs and Bishop is injured we’ll know. But until then, maybe the exclusive club isn’t as bad as we thought.
Game #81 Preview Suite
None of our Dallas friends wanted to talk to us. So here’s what Logan Stark had to say a month ago when the Hawks were in Dallas. (@LoganStark)
Let’s get this out of the way up top. While the CEO swearing about the team’s two stars is good for comedic value out here, isn’t it nonsensical as Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn are just about the only reason the Stars are anything? (not to mention Benn’s long-standing place with the team and fans)
– First of all, Bishop and Khudobin have been absolute brick walls this season. They’re a large factor of why the Stars are still in a playoff position this late in the season. Second, Miro Heiskanen is a godsend for this team, especially when half the blue line was injured during the first half of the season. Okay, on to the real question. CEO Lites’ comments were beyond nonsensical. Not only did the tirade tarnish the team’s reputation around the league (what high-profile player would want to sign with the team now?), but it also made them a laughing stock. Benn and Seguin have proved Lites wrong with their on-ice performance, but those comments are continuing to hang over them and the team almost two months after they rocked hockey Twitter. Benn and Seguin are the faces of the franchise and are fan-favorites, and they were definitely fan-favorites for their classy responses to the comments. In the end, Lites’ comments backfired, I think, landing egg on his face – while getting some good splatter on the team that will come off with time. CEOs come and go, but Benn and Seguin are here to stay for a long, long time. In the end, it’s their on-ice performance and leadership in the locker room that matters the most. The team and coaching staff still support them, so why should fans do any different?
Why has Julius Honka not worked? The pedigree is there, he seems to have a coach that wants to play faster, and yet four points is four points…
– Do we have time for me to draft a graduate dissertation on why Honka hasn’t worked? No? Okay, let’s give this a shot: The yo-yo effect under Hitchcock last season did absolutely nothing for Honka. Not only was he bounced between the Dallas Stars and their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, but he was bounced with such frequency that he never had a chance to settle into the lineup and make a real impact. When Honka did spend time in Dallas, it was most often as a healthy scratch or with sub-par ice time. None of that helped his development and can only have hurt his confidence on the ice. We’ve seen flashes of his brilliance on the ice, but not this season. He’s been a healthy scratch with regularity under Montgomery, which leads me to believe that Montgomery doesn’t know where to slot him in within the current lineup. There’s just not room in the lines for a player struggling to produce (hush, let’s not talk about Nichushkin) and who needs time on the ice to get his skates back under him, so to speak. At this point, I would say it’s time to trade Honka, use him to bring in fresh talent that’s capable of producing at a steady rate.
Jim Nill has gotten three coaches. At what point does the cannon point at him?
– If the Stars fail to make the playoffs this spring, I think there’s going to be a turnover in the front office. It’s pretty clear that management expects this roster to be a repeat contender, yet they’ve failed to make a real postseason splash. If the Stars fail to make the playoffs (or fail to make it past the first round), I would place good money on Nill being let go. The lack of postseason performances and his lackluster record at the draft table would definitely be grounds for his exit from the team. At a certain point, it’s not about the coaches, but about the guy in the front office saddling said coaches with questionable trades, picks, and players.
What are the Stars gong to do before the deadline (assuming they don’t do anything before we print this, in which case I’ll just switch whatever you said to what they did and make you look like geniuses)?
– Nill has gone on record saying they’re looking for offensive power and depth at the deadline, and Dallas scouts have been checking out Zuccarello and Panarin (they got Zuc, and then he got hurt-ED). I would keep an eye out for the Stars to make a move for either of them on a rental basis (with an extension option on the table). One thing to watch for: the picks and/or players they send the opposite way. Just what is the front office willing to part with in exchange for a player that just might help the Stars get to the playoffs? In the past, Nill has been pretty good about not giving up first round picks or developing players that will aid the team. However, the Stars are getting desperate to make that playoff push this year, so is this the year Nill finally parts with the golden ticket of a first round pick?
Game #81 Preview Suite
That is all.
Game #81 Preview Suite
