Hockey

Game #47 – Hawks vs. Senators: Hedley Lamarr’s Halfwits, Nitwits, Dimwits

By Sam Fels 1303 0

Whichever Garbage Tkachuk Son Is On This Team – We can’t tell them apart and we don’t think there’s any need. This one hasn’t drummed up the same controversy as the other dreaded Laramie, but give him time and he will. As it is with all these Tkachuk’s, and really any son of a former player, it’s hard to take them seriously as some hardened badass when all they are is rich kids who never had to answer for anything given their dad’s status. One wonders what life must’ve been like in the Tkahuk house. Probably Keith making his kids fight in the backyard to see which one gets to eat dinner that night.

Anthony Duclair – Nothing to do with him of course, as he’s having a breakout season. But this was another young player the Hawks didn’t show enough patience with, especially as his short time here was ruined by Brad Marchand. He washed out of other places so the Hawks aren’t alone, but they certainly could have used another forward with speed and skill. Instead, we have Matthew Highmore.

Eugene Melnyk – They don’t come much worse in ownership than this. Crooked, cheap, and blaming the fans for all the problems. When he’s not complaining he’s crying poor. He’d fit perfectly with the Ricketts family.

Hockey

Game #47 – Hawks vs. Senators: Lineups & How They Were Built

By Sam Fels 1118 0

Hawks

Notes: Hawks only had an optional skate today so we don’t know what exactly the lines will be. It would make sense to just insert Sikura up top where Quenneville was, as he and Toews had something going last year. More likely, you’ll see Kane up there with Sikura and Nylander flanking Carpenter. Or we could see a return of Sikura-Dach-Kane. But does it really matter?…Koekkoek, shockingly, hasn’t really done anything wrong to see himself out of the lineup, so Gilbert should continue to sit…

Senators

Notes: The Sens only had an optional this morning as well, so we don’t know who is filling out the last forward spot. It’s been Chlapik of late, but he’s not actually listed on their roster at the moment because NHL teams absolutely suck at updating their websites…Chabot hasn’t played less than 27 minutes since the middle of December and has played over 30 minutes in six of the last 10…Anderson has given up 18 goals in his last four starts so it very well may be Nilsson tonight…

Live From The Five Hole

Live From The Five Hole – In The Thickening Of Fear

By Sam Fels 1403 0

Rose Rankin, Fifth Feather, and Yours Truly discuss Stan Bowman’s puffy-chested press conference, CCYP’s unique morning-skate thoughts, the folly of a Robin Lehner contract, and just how much we all hate both Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Kassian. Enjoy.

Song credit – Suzanne Vega, “Blood Makes Noise”

 

 

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Baseball

Cubs Trade Tony Kemp, Which Shouldn’t Matter, But Kind Of Does, Which Is Sad

By Sam Fels 1676 0

It’s a minor move, and it was hard to figure where Tony Kemp would fit onto this team anyway. In fact, the whole thing with Kemp was weird, as he was received for Martin Maldonado, whom the Cubs only had for a couple of weeks while Contreras was hurt. And they gave up an actual arm for that, even though Mike Montgomery asked out. But he might have been nice to have when the whole bullpen and rotation was burning in September. Like I said, just weird.

Anyway, Kemp was shipped out to Oak-town for Alfonso Rivas today. Rivas is a mid-level 1st base prospect who apparently can’t hit for power, at least not yet. But hey, that carries on a tradition for the Cubs that started with Mark Grace and extended to Hee-Seop Choi, which Grace is still complaining about. Rivas got about eight games above High-A last year, and probably figures to start in AA this year. Nothing more than a lottery ticket.

While Kemp’s production was never going to be anything, and appears to be the second year in a row the Cubs got fascinated with the idea of a pinch runner for playoff games they ended up never playing, it makes the Cubs bench even uglier. And dear reader, it was ugly before. This is the kind of bench that you’d read the names of to punish your children for breaking the rules of the house.

As it stands: Albert Almora, Victor Caratini, Daniel Descalso, Robel Garcia, and Hernan Perez. That’s one glove, a backup catcher who might be good, a backup infielder who isn’t, a switch hitting Pedro Cerano who’s not nearly as fun, and whatever Hernan Perez can do (i.e. not much).

Some of this will be alleviated if Nico Hoerner can make the team out of Arizona and shift David Bote back to a support role. But if that doesn’t happen, the fear is that the Cubs will face a situation where all their regulars are stepping on their tongues come August and can’t finish the season strongly or at all, like we saw with Baez, Bryant, Rizzo, and one or two others last season. And there isn’t anyone out of Iowa who can help solve this right now.

It doesn’t even help the Cubs on the payroll front, as Kemp wasn’t even arb-eligible so the savings are minimal. Most estimates have the Cubs still $2M-$6M over the $208M threshold, which is clearly where they’re aiming to get under. So how they can improve the bench while still cutting payroll is going to be a neat trick. And by “neat” I mean “awful and probably make you feel bad.”

Of course, a simple trade of Quintana while taking no salary back will solve this, except it would weaken the rotation something fierce. But then again, the Cubs don’t seem to care about that kind of thing. Y’know, the thing where you try to win games, and like a lot of them so you can go to the playoffs and possibly win more games and even like, 11 of them. Did you know they give you a trophy for getting under the luxury tax? Yep, gonna fly that flag right out there in right-center field.

Hockey

Game #46 – Ducks vs. Hawks Preview: Picking On Your Own Size

By Sam Fels 1360 0

vs.

RECORDS: Ducks 17-22-5   Hawks 19-20-6

PUCK DROP: 7:30

TV: NBCSN Chicago

OC GANGSTAS: Anaheim Calling

After dropping yet another two games against teams they want to catch to barely hang on to the playoff chase, the Hawks get a rare Saturday night home game against one of the few teams in their wake. The Anaheim Ducks are in the middle of the rebuild the Hawks won’t allow themselves to take on, transitioning from the Getzlaf-Perry era to whatever Sam Steel and the rest of the kids can produce.

We’ll start with the Hawks, who are once again trotting out this mess of a lineup. As we said in the lineups post, yes the Hawks have injuries. And yes the roster wasn’t very good to begin with. But this is as mangled group of forwards as you’re likely to ever see. David Kampf is not a winger, much less a scoring winger, and has no business playing with Dach and Top Cat. Patrick Kane is a third-liner with one worker bee in Ryan Carpenter and one dunderhead in Alex Nylander. Dylan Sikura, still better than any of Nylander, Highmore, or Quenneville, has whatever confidence he might have gleaned from breaking his duck (sorry again) by sitting for another game. John Quenneville, whose next contribution that you’d notice will be his first, remains on the top line with Kubalik and Toews.

This is a one line team right now. So make it one. Put Kane up there with Toews and Kubalik and play them 22 minutes. Pair Sikura with Top Cat and Dach to give them speed and something of a puck-winner with skill. Use Kampf and Carpenter and Caggiula as a checking line. Mash a fourth line together and play them sparingly. The answers are simple. None of them have been taken, and it’s no wonder these players refuse to bother until they’re on the verge of getting embarrassed.

Anyway, Lehner starts even though he missed the morning skate as he’s over his knee- or ankle-knack.

Right, to the Ducks. Who suck. Truly down in the muck. Not sure why you should give a fuck? If you’re looking to us for help, you’re out of luck. You’ll see as soon as they drop the puck.

Let us have our fun.

Much like the Hawks, the Ducks are a top-heavy team. When Getzlaf and Silfverberg (who’s hurt anyway) and Henrique are out there, they can control the play. When they’re not, they get crushed. There’s a fair amount of kids out there now, like Steel, Comtois, Jones, Larsson, Ritchie (also hurt) and one or two others. The Ducks have admitted one era is over and it’s time to find the next one.

It’s still a pretty solid blue line with HAMPUS! HAMPUS! and Cam Fowler and Josh Manson (he’s mad…he’s bad…), despite Erik Gudbranson’s best efforts. Jacob Larsson is the kid back there that they will hope rises to meet the other three one days soon.

What the Ducks haven’t gotten is Vezina-level goaltending from Josh Gibson like they did for most of last season before he gave in to exhaustion. Ryan Miller hasn’t been much better, sending him back to his My Bloody Valentine records. Gibson has had it especially rough of late, so maybe Miller gets the start.

The Ducks don’t do anything especially well, but they might be eager to get out there in what could be a rare road win for them. It’s really about keeping their top six from going totally off, and you can do that through matchups if Colliton were ever bothered (he’s not). Toews has almost always caused Getzlaf to shrivel and give up, and probably can still in both of their advanced ages.

And if the Hawks can’t get this one before heading out on the road…well, that’s probably it. It’s probably it anyway.

Hockey

Game #46 – Ducks vs. Hawks Spotlight: Getz Shorty

By Sam Fels 1312 0

In the easiest sense, Ryan Getzlaf’s legacy is more than secure. Other than Teemu Selanne, he’ll go down as the greatest Duck in their history (whatever that’s worth). He’ll be a Hall of Famer, thanks to the 1,000 career points he’ll rack up before too long. It might even be first ballot, buoyed by having two gold medals for Team Canada which is seen as delivering your people out of the desert up there. He’s even got a ring, which came as a second center at a very young age. There’s not much to point to on the surface.

Still, those in the know we’ll say that once this became Getzlaf’s team, once he was the #1 center, he didn’t stand up to be counted when it mattered most. The Ducks managed two conference final appearances in that time, and in those springs he was chucked to the curb by either Jonathan Toews or various Predators. His style of floating around the outside and looking for passes didn’t inspire his team to greater heights. There was never a charge to the middle to get the goal his team had to have, both literally and figuratively. The past 13 seasons since the Ducks won have been short. Even the crosstown Kings have basically erased the memory of the Ducks one championship, and capitulating to Anze Kopitar in their one playoff series doesn’t help much.

And that might be what most remember, the string of Game 7 losses at home (there were five) where Getzlaf wasn’t anywhere to be found. These are the moments that people remember about players, and Getz doesn’t have any. There is symbolism in Toews or Kopitar or even Johansen scoring in those games and Getzlaf just waiting until it was time to grab his golf clubs. Maybe the points and the paycheck were always enough for him. Only he will know.

The Ducks are clearly ready to move on to the next generation, as Sam Steel, Max Comtois, Isac Lundestrom and others are getting serious time. Perhaps there’s one more move to make.

Getzlaf has the option of taking on one more chase for a ring, being that final, veteran piece. He has one year left on his deal after this one, and at the deadline or even in the summer he would still have value to a contender that needs a second line center. One that can flourish if someone else is taking the heavy fire. Getz’s $8.2M hit is big, but not so large that a team couldn’t make it work. The Ducks don’t have a ton of room to absorb some of his salary or take bad money back, but it’s it can be worked.

Is that what Getzlaf wants? The word on the street is that he’s always been happy to be out of a spotlight in Orange County, and you can’t argue with being warm all the time and amassing points that don’t matter beyond scrutiny of a ravenous fandom and media. You get the impression a market like Toronto or Boston or Vancouver would eat him alive. It would for a lot of players. After all he has accomplished and the money he’s made, you can certainly see why he feels he can duck it (sorry).

And those questions will certainly fade when he retires, which could be as soon as summer 2021 when that contract runs out. They’ll just see the statsheet. Will Ducks fans themselves think there should have been more? Perhaps with another bounce or two, or more inspiring performances from Getzlaf, they could have won in ’15 or ’17 or even ’14. Maybe it was always the goalies’ fault. That would be his and Bruce Boudreau’s argument.

A ring, two gold medals, 1,000 points. It doesn’t sound like a disappointment. But if that’s how it ends, it probably should be, just a little bit.

Hockey

Game #46 – Ducks vs. Hawks: Hedley Lamarr’s Mugs, Pugs, And Thugs

By Sam Fels 1232 0

Erik Gudbranson – It’s actually surprising this wasn’t the pylon the Hawks opted for in the summer. He would have fit right in. Gudbranson is the perfect Tallon player, in that he’s big, slow, and dumb, and sunk the Panthers and Canucks in his past. But the most frustrating thing is that this Mongo kept Olli Maatta out of the lineup in Pittsburgh, and the Hawks thought that qualified to give up Dominik Kahun (three assists last night) for. The Hawks opted for a player worse than Erik Gudbranson, at least in the eyes of a more successful organization than them right now.

Ryan Getzlaf – They say Kirby Dach could be a young Getz. That’s the last thing you’d want, because if he spends his career loitering around the outside and taking his 75 easy points without ever getting between the circles when it matters, the Hawks will go nowhere for a long time. Thankfully, it hasn’t looked like that at all. Yet.

Max Comtois – Sounds like something you need three drinks before getting the courage to ask your girlfriend to do it.

Hockey

Game #46 – Ducks vs. Hawks: Lineups & How They Were Built

By Sam Fels 1020 0

Ducks

Notes: Lot of kids in the lineup these days for the Ducks, as they look to move on to the next generation. Seven players 25 or under in the lineup…Gibson has had a rough start to January with an .885…Getzlaf has one goal since December 6th…That top line has been utterly dominant in their brief time together…but good lord those bottom six metrics…

Hawks

Notes: Here we are with this dumbass lineup again. David Kampf is not a winger, much less a scoring winger. Qunneville on the top line. Erasing all the confidence Sikura might have gained from his first goal by sitting him behind Nylander, Quenneville, and Highmore who are all terrible. Kane trying to make something with Carpenter and Nylander. You can say the Hawks are injured, and they are. You can say the roster wasn’t good enough to begin with, and it wasn’t. But this is absolutely the worst way to deploy it and not giving it its best chance.