Hockey

February Slog – Blackhawks @ Blue Jackets Series Review – Blackhawks Win Series 6-5SO/2-0

By Summer Corson 909

Box Scores: Game 20 | Game 21
Game Logs: Game 20 | Game 21
Natural Stat Trick: Game 20 | Game 21

The first game of this series was filled with lots of offensive FUN (ignore that Kane was in on 80% of the goals and Laine was in on the other 80% for his team) and the slog of a second game was a snooze-a-palooza where both teams decided they were going to bore us all with lots of DEFENSE, CHECKING, and PHYSICAL PLAY that makes up one of those good ol’ fashioned hockey games. Let’s take our 4 points, end this series and get to the bullets.

  • First of all, let’s give a round of applause to everybody’s adopted son Brandon Hagel for finally getting his first goal. It was a beauty and an important one in Tuesday’s game.
  • It’s mighty unfortunate the dam broke for Laine and co. during Tuesday night’s game, and it’s also mighty unfortunate that twice in this game the Blackhawks “defense” just decided to leave Laine alone and uncovered to do what he pleases. Will our defense ever stop doing this to dangerous opponents? Probably not.
  • Taking penalties nearly killed this team. The Blackhawks were unable to stay out of the box and it meant that the Blue Jackets were able to score two powerplay goals in the 2nd and another in the 3rd. Although the Hawks were able to open up the scoring with Carl Soderberg on the powerplay, penalties are not something this defensively-pious team should be taking, even if the Ogie Oglethorpes on the other team are making you mad.
  • Speaking of penalties, Adam Boqvist took two bad ones this series. Last night’s penalty didn’t lead to a Blue Jackets goal, but Tuesday’s penalty allowed the Jackets back into the game to tie it up. Do better, please.
  • Subban was actually pretty solid last night, gaining his second career shutout, but holy Toledo does he need to learn how to freeze a puck. Whatever he’s been working on with Jimmy Waite, please stop doing it and work on this very important aspect of being a goaltender, thank you.
  • Nikita Zadorov getting outmuscled and stripped of the puck by a Blue Jacket last night after the Blackhawks media has been saying he’s supposed to be the one outmuscling others and that’s the greatness he brings to this team…I just can’t help but laugh (again) at this situation. Luckily, Subban was able to make a spectacular stop on the play to keep the game tied.
  • Patrick Kane had a hand in 4 of the 5 goals on Tuesday night. He scored the GWG last night. He has 31 points, and he’s had a hand in 18.6% all of the scoring the Blackhawks have this season. To put that in perspective, red-hot Auston Matthews has only been in on 15% of his team’s total points. For God’s sake, even Connor McDavid himself, playing on one of the worst teams in the league when he’s not on the ice, is at 18.5% of his team’s total points. Believe it or not, the Blackhawks might somehow make the playoffs this season, and if they do it will largely be because of Kane and he should seriously be considered as a Hart Trophy candidate, if not winner, this season. It’s just how it is.

The Blackhawks will next face the incredibly bad Red Wings this weekend. Then, like Pat Foley announced on the broadcast, the Blackhawks will be going on a “MURDEROUS ROW” over the next couple of weeks as they face Tampa Bay, Florida, and Dallas way too many times. What could possibly go wrong?

Hockey

Possession Doesn’t Always Win Games – Blackhawks vs. Scum Series Review: Blackhawks Win Series 3-2OT/2-0

By Summer Corson 1389

Box Scores: Game 17 | Game 18
Game Logs: Game 17 | Game 18
Natural Stat Trick: Game 17 | Game 18

The scoresheet says the Hawks won these games, sure, but it is a bit concerning that they were losing the possession battle to the league’s bottomfeeding Detroit Red Wings four out of the six periods of hockey played. Something needs to be done about that. Let’s get to the bullets.

  • It’s never good news when the Red Wings are beating you in possession, but that’s exactly what happened in the 1st and 3rd periods of both The Red Wings had all the momentum in the 1st period Monday, sporting an obscene 73 CF%. Luckily, starter Malcolm Subban was able to make some important saves, long enough for the Hawks to score on their first shot thanks to a nifty Carl Soderberg pass to Mattias Janmark.
  • With numbers like those, it’s impressive the Hawks won the game in overtime, thanks to a late Dominik Kubalik five-hole with just 15 seconds left in extras. This is good news because the Blackhawks are trash in a shootout and very legitimately could have lost if it had come to that.
  • The Blackhawks also got domed in the 3rd period of Monday’s game to the tune of a 26 CF%, and the Wings also won the possession game in the 1st and 3rd periods of last night’s tilt at 55 and 59%, respectively. This is actually not a new trend, as a similar situation happened to the Blackhawks in the Blue Jackets game on the 11th. Generally, the Blackhawks seem to get crushed possession-wise but use their powerplay abilities to get past teams and win games in OT.
  • Brandon Hagel continues to shine in every way but scoring. On Monday night, Hagel had a great pass to Kubalik to get the second Blackhawks goal at the end of the 1st. We still await a goal of his own, but he’s definitely fun to watch.
  • The Red Wings powerplay really was the steaming pile of hot garbage the numbers told us it would be. I really thought I’d never see a powerplay as bad – worse, even – as the Hawks of yore, but this really was horrendous. Even more horrendous is that there’s an NHL team with a worse powerplay – congratulations, Minnesota Wild!
  • Speaking of Red Wings power plays, a too many men penalty while you are up a skater against a dumpster fire penalty kill team is completely unacceptable coaching-wise. We were lucky the Red Wings powerplay sucks enough that a goal wasn’t scored – against a good team, we would not have been so lucky.
  • The Blackhawks had another great powerplay goal last night by Philipp Kurashev, who received a pass by Duncan Keith and then outskated and outmaneuvered two Red Wings like it was nothing, going five-hole on Bernier. I like Kurashev and he’s just getting more and more fun to watch as he gets more confident on the ice.
  • If this had been literally any other team, that attempt with a little over four minutes left in the 3rd period of last night’s game would’ve been a goal. Lankinen slid way out of position and only by the grace of God did the Red Wings miss on a legitimately wide-open net.
  • I don’t know where the Hawks get off on playing Zadorov in the final minutes of every game, but please stop; it burns my eyes.

The Blackhawks head south on their road trip this weekend to battle the Carolina Hurricanes, who will not be as forgiving if we continue with these possession numbers (which we will). The Hawks are going to need to figure out a way to not flounder in this metric and also win games without going into extra time if they want to continue being a FUN PLAYOFF CONTENDER or whatever the journalists think this team is. Onward!

Baseball

A Legend Returns – Cubs sign Jake Arrieta to a 1-year, $6 million deal

By Summer Corson 1178

During the ensuing clown show that was the Cubs offseason, the front office acknowledged they needed to sign a new pitcher to fill out their rotation. Wouldn’t it be good if they could placate the angry fans after trading away Yu Darvish for a bunch of question mark young players and letting two pieces of the 2016 World Series team in Jon Lester and Kyle Schwarber walk? Killing two birds with one stone, the Cubs front office was able to calm the angry Twitter mob as best they could by signing Jake Arrieta to a 1-year deal worth a whole $6 million.

Jake Arrieta is a Cubs legend and a 2015 Cy Young Award winner – a season in which he posted a crazy 22 wins of 33 starts, a 1.77 ERA, four complete games and three shutouts, one of which a no-hitter. In three postseason appearances in 2015, he won two of those games, one of them a complete game shutout.

In 2016, Arrieta had 18 wins out of 31 starts, a 3.10 ERA and another no-hitter. These weren’t his 2015 numbers, but they still weren’t awful. Although his pitching was slightly underwhelming in the NLDS and NLCS of this year, he was able to come in clutch in two World Series starts, winning both of them and coming out of it with a total 2.38 ERA.

But if you’re reading this, you probably know all of these stats and remember them quite fondly. Here’s what Arrieta has been since then, however, since he left and went to the Phillies for three seasons. His ERA has been steadily declining with each year (3.96, 4.64, and 5.08 since 2018). He has pretty much split wins and losses in his starts and has thrown no complete games or shutouts since 2016. His 2020 stats were definitely not stellar, but it seems like Arrieta is hoping, like many players around the league, that last season would be an anomaly.

It is definitely fun to see Arrieta back with the club, and he will almost certainly be slotting in the starting rotation alongside Kyle Hendricks and Zach Davies. Arrieta is also in the twilight of his career at age 35, and it’s safe to say his pitching decline is among us. However, I am cautiously optimistic that Arrieta improves some on his 2020 stats and throws a few good games for the Cubs as our third or fourth starter, especially if he’s behind a nails defense.

Is he Yu Darvish? No, but few are in this league. Especially if the Cubs are able to get their offense going this season, I think Arrieta at this price isn’t too bad of a signing.

Hockey

There’s Something Happening Here, But What It Is Ain’t Exactly Clear – Hawks Split Series with Hurricanes 4-3(OT)/6-4

By Summer Corson 1489

It’s not a Hawks game if a late-period penalty forces the game to flash before your eyes, am I right? At least it wasn’t Andrew Shaw this time.

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised that the Blackhawks were hanging around in both of these games, and last night’s win was really important for the Hawks’ confidence. There’s some stuff to like about this team, especially when we all thought at the beginning of the season they’d be much, much worse than this. Some of these young guys are really fun to watch, and Lankinen is obviously a much better goaltender than any of us thought he’d turn out to be. Are we a playoff team? No. But at least we’re interesting.

Let’s break this one down. To the bullets!

  • Obviously you hope Martin Necas is okay. The way he landed last night was super nasty and tough to watch.
  • I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when Svechnikov went around Zadorov like a turnstile on Tuesday night, and then when he let it happen again with some other Cane near the end of last night’s game. Speaking of, who’s bright idea was it to have Zadorov on the ice so much in the last five minutes of the 3rd? Much of which was spent in the Hawks’ zone? Or putting him out on the penalty kill or on a defensive zone draw whilst tied? Why does he keep getting rewarded for his hideous play? I’m not sure what kind of 4D chess Colliton thinks he’s playing but he should put a stop to this immediately.
  • Philipp Kurashev is turning into a great player, a really fun one to watch. He had a good read of the situation for the 1st period powerplay goal on Tuesday and was right in front of the net to tip the puck in. (That whole second power play line—all younger guys, by the way—deserved a nod for that goal.)
  • Dylan Strome made himself known in both games, which I appreciate. His goal Tuesday was a thing of beauty and he had a bunch of big chances in last night’s game too. He had 4 shots on goal last night, which is the most he’s had since Tampa Bay crushed us at the beginning of the year.
  • DeBrincat also had 2 assists on Tuesday and was a huge difference-maker in that game. He also scored the game-winner (and an empty-netter on top of that) last night. The offense has been noticeably better since he came back and it seemed easier for the Hawks to generate chances this series.
  • In both games the Hawks were abysmal at the faceoff dot, last night losing more than 60% of the faceoffs. I’ve never missed Toews more than when watching them lose draw after draw both games, especially in the defensive zone.
  • Speaking of defense, these games may have had different outcomes if the defense wasn’t hot garbage. It is unacceptable to let a team like the Hurricanes back in like they did last night, allowing them to score two goals less than a minute into the 2nd period. For the Canes’ fourth goal, de Haan and Murphy were for some reason covering the two guys behind the net and leaving Brock McGinn wide open in the slot to score. And they did not seem to learn from this situation because they were woefully out of position again just a few minutes later. Just the Blackhawks being the Blackhawks, I guess.
  • When the Hawks are able to make their passing plays work, they are things of beauty. Goals in both of these games and from series before came thanks to highlight-reel passing plays between the players on the ice. Sometimes, however, these passing attempts turn into passes directly to the other team’s stick, so that’s something to watch out for.
  • Brandon Hagel had two breakaway chances last night where he was actually faster than the lightning-fast Hurricanes. This is good news. Both times Brandon Hagel was unable to beat Reimer. This is bad news. If he learns to score on these plays he might be…actually kind of good?
  • The Blackhawks will continue to lose games that get to a shootout. They are 0 and 6 for shootout attempts this year and just aren’t built for them. They have to win in regulation to get the two points.

The fact that the Hawks could hang with the Hurricanes, at least offensively, is good news. The way they were able to claw their way back into the game at the end of Tuesday’s 1st period is good news. Maybe it was because Peter Mrazek was injured and they were playing against Reimer, or maybe the Hurricanes are just overhyped. But I’m going to call it good news that the Blackhawks kept both games close, even with their blinding defensive issues.

The Stars are next. Let’s see if this team can keep the good vibes going.

Baseball

Hoyer Makes A Splash – Cubs Sign Joc Pederson One Hour After I Write My Offseason Article

By Summer Corson 989

The Rickettses finally allowed Jed Hoyer to make some sort of “splash” this offseason by signing World Series champion Joc Pederson to a one-year, $7 million deal. And then, a few hours later, their splash was overshadowed by a blockbuster Nolan Arenado trade to our division rival. Cubs fans can never have nice things for long.

Pederson is here to essentially replace Kyle Schwarber, and besides them both being lefties, his numbers indicate him being pretty Schwarber-esque on the field. Schwarber’s batting numbers from last season are all a little bit better than Pederson’s, but Pederson also played 16 less games than the former Cubs outfielder. Pederson’s strike out percentage of 24.6% is slightly better than Schwarber’s 29.5%. His batting average is also better, comparing .190 to .188.

What might be slightly better news for Cubs fans to hear is that Pederson also went through a bit of a slump in 2020, like Schwarber. If you look at his stats from 2015-2019, the years he played over 100 games, he averaged 24.6 home runs and 57.4 RBIs. Additionally, Pederson also crushed it in the 2020 offseason with the Dodgers, with nearly all of his batting metrics getting better. His batting average went to .382, his strikeout percentage went down to 16.2%, and he had 2 homers and 8 RBIs for the Dodgers. I would assume his 2020 regular season numbers are just a temporary slump and he will continue to improve over a longer, slightly more normal 2021 regular season.

The Cubs were sorely lacking an outfielder before this signing, and it looks like your staple guys in the outfield for 2021 will now be Pederson, Ian Happ, and Jason Heyward, respectively. Doesn’t seem like an awful combo, if I say so myself.

While we’re here, let’s also touch on the Cubs’ new starting pitcher signing that happened this weekend. Welcome to the Cubs, Trevor Williams! This offseason has been a nightmare for us but at least you aren’t wasting away on the Pirates roster anymore, am I right?

Williams has inked a 1-year, $2.5 million dollar deal, according to SOURCES. Williams’ best ERA was coming up on three seasons ago, in 2018, where he was sporting a 3.11. Last season, his ERA was 6.18.

How much of this can you blame on the fact that he was on the most God-awful team in the league? Let’s give this guy the benefit of the doubt. His velocity numbers certainly haven’t decreased, and because we are owned by the Rickettses we didn’t pay out the nose for him. There aren’t really any more Yu Darvishes available in this league, and even if there were we’d trade them away for no return. Try to find the positives in this baseball offseason, I guess.

Baseball

I Don’t Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello – Cubs Offseason Moves

By Summer Corson 1252

Hi everyone! My name is Summer and I am now a Hawks and Cubs writer for this fair website. Today I will be breaking down the almost-entirely-disgraceful offseason plays made so far by the billionaire ownership of a certain north side baseball team. Feel bad for the billionaire ownership, okay? They are hurting in the pandemic too! Billionaires can no longer afford to pay any of your favorite players, and when they can you should be glad they looked in their couch cushions and scrounged up the pocket change!

The Cubs will be a different team this year and it’s probably going to suck. Let’s go on a quick rundown of some key signings and departures so far this offseason.

Goodbyes

Yu Darvish featuring Victor Caratini

This is probably the most horrendous trade I’ve ever seen in my life. (I’m still young and relatively new to Cubs baseball, so if there’s been a worse trade than this one in recent Cubs memory don’t get your pants all knotted up.) Yu Darvish was a Cy Young finalist and the only glimmer of hope in the entire pitching roster. The only one who was consistently fun to watch. And the Cubs traded him away for the inferior Zach Davies and a bunch of question mark prospects. What could be more Cubs than that?

Catch me cheering on Darvish and his personal catcher Victor Caratini to beat the Dodgers and hopefully head to the World Series this season because we sure aren’t.

Jon Lester

Yes, we will miss him. Yes, he threw alright for us last season, but he is probably getting too old. His velocity will probably continue to decline, and things could get ugly real fast from there. But then you remember that he was willing to return to the Cubs and sign the cheapest possible contract, and ownership said no. Amazing.

Kyle Schwarber

Another World Series piece going the way of the wind, but nobody cares anymore because he was bad in the outfield and couldn’t hit at all last season. (But then again, could anyone hit outside of Ian Happ?)

Other Releases/Free Agents of Lesser Import: Jose Quintana, Tyler Chatwood, Jeremy Jeffress, Mark Zagunis, Jason Kipnis, Daniel Descalso, Pedro Strop, Albert Almora

Hellos

Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant

Boy howdy am I glad these guys are back again. Baez is my favorite player, but he was awful last season and couldn’t hit a beach ball. We should’ve traded Kris Bryant last offseason when he would get even sort of a return, but of course we didn’t, and now we’re trying to shop him when his value is at zero. At least Rizzo will probably retire here, beloved by every Cubs fan.

Willson Contreras

Whew! That was a funny one there, Rickettses, right after you enraged your entire fanbase by trading Darvish away (along with his incredibly competent catcher in Caratini) and then suddenly rumors were swirling about you guys trading Contreras. He is one of the best catchers in the league, and also one of the few players on this God-forsaken team that was doing any measure of hitting last season. Our catching rotation would be going down the tubes with our pitching rotation if this guy had left, but luckily, they signed him. Right?

Austin Romine

Please welcome our new backup catcher, I guess? Starting catcher if the Cubs decide to trade Contreras anyway? Romine is the definition of mediocre, and his .238 batting average tells you he’s not known for his hitting. Which is good because why would the Cubs want to be looking for hitters anyway after they hit so well last season?

Max Schrock

Speaking of acquisitions who can’t hit…

Zach Davies

Everyone is still—and probably always will be—angry about the Yu Darvish trade. Davies is the one player we got back in that trade who is useful now. Last year, he sported a 2.73 ERA and an over .600 winning percentage! When you look at his average ERA over his past six seasons in the MLB, it’s actually 3.79, but that is still good enough to put him as one of the better starting pitchers in this Cubs lineup. Hopefully he doesn’t blow it.

Robert Stock

ZOOM! This dude throws fast but apparently doesn’t have the whole “control” part of his pitching down yet, and that’s why the Cubs were able to pick him up for free off the waiver wire. What a group of guys our rotation/bullpen is shaping up to be.

Kohl Stewart

Fresh off the presses: Cubs “take a chance” on a failed 4th-overall 2013 draft pick with an average 4.79 ERA in the big leagues!

Other Cubs offseason “splashes”: Jonathan Holder, Dan Winkler, Phillip Ervin

Final Thought to End This Circus

Just sign Ian Happ, you chumps. Does this need to be said? Ian Happ is the only future piece you have for this team, the only one giving you offense, the only one doing fun stuff for the media, and is also running the most interesting podcast regularly featuring Cubs players.

Now you’re making him go into arbitration where you’re going to explain to an arbiter exactly why you think he doesn’t deserve the extra $900k? What does that do to morale? What is wrong with these people? Why is arbitration even allowed? I am appalled at this but will be excited to watch Happ play this season anyways.

Looks like I’ll be here regularly to break down what happens this upcoming season for Cubs baseball, so check back soon if you’re interested. Go Cubs go!