Everything Else

Top Jimmy Cooks, Top Jimmy Swings – Previewing Scum’s Man In The Mask

By Sam Fels 1253 0

Oh no! I made a musical reference to a non-Detroit band! Killion’s going to shit a chicken!

Anyway, when you talk to Scum fans (at least the most reasonable ones, but boy is that a world’s tallest midget contest), you get the feeling that they have an inordinate amount of faith in Jimmy Howard. On the other side, you get it because a lot of the Wings goaltending has been so bad over the years (whatever the win-loss record might say) that an actual above-average goalie might look even better than he actually is.

Before I get a bunch of tweets and comments about how I’m totally undervaluing Howard from the Great Unwashed of Southeast Michigan (and that one dude in Kansas), let me be clear: I don’t think Howard sucks at all. He’s very good. And in a positional matchup, this is the only area where the Wings can boast even a push with the Hawks. And any goalie who punches Corey Perry in the back of the head has to be somewhat admired.

Everything Else

Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell – Previewing The Detroit Blue Line

By Sam Fels 1414 0

While the forwards that McClure previewed still have some threat and generational skill sprinkled throughout, when Hawks fans look at this back end is when they probably start licking their chops. The Scum defense was passable enough to see off a Ducks team that really only has one threatening line, as suddenly Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu looked every bit of the combined 175 years old that they in fact are. They will get no such respite here.

Here’s how the pairings shake out:

Everything Else

Whichever Way The Wind Blows: Wild 1 – Hawks 5 (Hawks win series 4-1)

By Sam Fels 1310 0

Well, that’s that then. An underwhelming series came to what was pretty much an underwhelming end. Sure, it looks glossy to have an emphatic scoreline, but I find the most encouraging aspect of the whole thing to be Quenneville’s quote that he wasn’t too thrilled with the last two games and feels that that there’s a few levels the Hawks are going to have to reach before we pack up the cats for the summer.

And I have to agree.

The Hawks weren’t great tonight, just as they weren’t great in Game 4. They did enough, some players more so and some less. And though it’s easy to say that you only have to pull out enough to win to beat the Wild when you’re Milton Berle, I don’t think it’s so simple as to just turn it on when you feel the challenge is up to your standards.

Everything Else

Explode And Make Up: Hawks at Wild Game 4 Preview/Pregame Thread/Mud Ritual

By Sam Fels 1349 0

Hawk Wrestler  vs.  Zakk-Wylde-by-Ivan-Chopik

FACEOFF: 8:30pm Central
TV/RADIO: CSN, NBCSN, CBC for you hosers, WIND 560am
HOLLYWOOD DREAM TEENS, YESTERDAY’S TRASH QUEENS: Hockey Wilderness

Tonight for the first time we get to see how the Hawks bounce back from a loss in the playoffs. Whether it was tactics or effort or discipline, the Hawks get a chance to correct it tonight and for all intents and purposes end this series. Because it’s highly likely that if the Hawks take a 3-1 lead back to Fort Kickass on Madison on Thursday, that will be that.

Everything Else

Blushes All Around

By Sam Fels 1231 0

This didn’t quite feel like a “Grind My Gears, ” so much as a more general musing. I guess these are things I think I think.

-I find it hilarious that in a week where most everyone was lampooning Hawk Harrelson for his “TWTW” southern-fried bullshit, some people still think it’s perfectly acceptable to then turn around and say a team lost a hockey game due to effort and want. And without any sense of how paradoxical that may be. But then again, it gives me material.

Granted, hockey unlike baseball is a game that can be changed by a team trying harder and pressing, in either direction. You can’t grunt and grimace and sweat your way through an at-bat (unless you’re Kevin Youklis), but you can through a shift and make a difference. So I’ll admit that.

But that’s not really what yesterday boiled down to.