The Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, rebounded from a rough start to the 2016-17 season this past weekend. With three games in three days, the Hogs bested Grand Rapids on the road before opening their home schedule with a pair of wins Saturday and Sunday.
Heading into the weekend, I wondered to myself where the offense was going to come from this season. Rockford’s six-point weekend may have provided an answer or two.
In the immediate moments preceding whatever Hawks/Flames was last night, Sam and Slak try to contain their Cubs Fever while all of us wonder when the PK will improve and when anything is going to begin to matter. Get a taste.
You live by the shootout, you die by it. Or you just take them to mean nothing because they don’t. While some will use this as an excuse to say everything’s fucked, it really isn’t. The Hawks, even as off their game as they were tonight, mauled the Flames at even-strength (which doesn’t say much for Glen Gulutzan Glen Ross). Once again, the penalty kill cost the Hawks a point this time, as it did in Nashville, and in Columbus, and would have against the Leafs if they didn’t get the two minute drill right.
vs. 
GAMETIME: 7:30pm
TV: CSN. NHL Network outside the 606
RODEO CLOWNS: Flames Nation
RECORDS: Cal And Gary – 1-4-1 Hawks – 3-3-0
SCORE ADJUSTED CF%: Cal And Gary – 50.2% (15th) Hawks – 50.5% (13th)
POWER PLAY: Cal And Gary – 4.0% (Dead ass last) Hawks – 20.8% (10th)
PENALTY KILL: Cal And Gary – 74.2% (23rd) Hawks – 42.9% (Dead Ass Last)
TRENDS: Gaudreau and Monahan were a combined -8 against St. Louis last game, the Flames power play is 1-for-25
Much like the Hawks, the Flames start to the season hasn’t exactly kicked into gear like they’d hoped (and getting skulled twice by the Oilers probably hasn’t helped matters much). Cal and Gary stroll in with only one win and three point of the 12 that were on offer. And some of the same problems have bothered the Flames that have bothered the Hawks.
It was something of a surprise not just that the Blues traded Brian Elliot to Calgary, they’ve always wanted to give the job to Jay Gallon, but just how aggressively they did. A 2nd and a 3rd for a goalie that had just been to the conference final and whose five years in Meth County had seen a combined SV% of .925 (somewhat boosted by his ridiculous .940 in half the starts in ’11-’12, but still) seemed a tad on the low side, even if conceding for Elliot’s over-30 age. While three starts is hardly enough of a sample, what Elliot might be finding out soon enough is that he needed the Blues more than they needed him.
Let’s start this off with a cliche, shall we? The NHL regular season is a marathon. There will be ups and downs and by 82 games, the correct teams will be properly slotted in the standings. The majority of the games will feel like a blur and are totally forgettable. Some are a little memorable.
Last night’s may be filed in the category of memorable – at least in regards to the last two minutes of regulation.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 6pm Central thanks to HNIC
TV: WGN, CBC in the Great White North
THE ZOO: Pension Plan Puppets
POSSESSION STATS: Leafs – 54.5 CF% (4th) Hawks – 51.1 CF% (9th)
POWER PLAY: Leafs – 23.7% (7th) Hawks – 27.8 (6th)
PENALTY KILL: Leafs 83.3% (16th) Hawks – do you even wanna know?
TRENDS: Kadri has three points his past two games, you may have heard Auston Matthews has five goals
The Hawks turn right around tonight and face another team full of young go-hards. Though where the Jackets had most of their youth on the blue line, tonight they’ll see the Maple Leafs who are oozing youthful machismo up front. The Hawks certainly won’t get much of a break in pace tonight.
Yes, I’m well aware these aren’t the same movies, but just allow it, all right?
Once again, the Hawks had an ugly period (no, don’t make your menstruation joke here, because as Ash vs. Evil Dead taught us vaginas are powerful and life-affirming and should never be mocked). That one segment kind of colors everything else about the game, perhaps unfairly. The penalty kill remains a tire fire inside of a dumpster fire contained in a landfill fire. But as always, there are things to be learned. Oh, and some bad luck didn’t help the cause. Let’s get to it, shall we? We all have drinking to do.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 6pm Central
TV: CSN
THE HOCKEY BLOG: Jackets Cannon
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SCORE ADJUSTED POSSESSION: Hawks – 50.3 CF% (11th) Jackets – 48.2 CF% (20th)
POWER PLAY: Hawks – 35.7% (3rd) Jackets – 40% (2nd)
PENALTY KILL: Hawks – 47.1% (Dead ass last) Jackets – 85.7% (12th)
Trends: Cam Atkinson only has three goals and seven points in 10 games agains the Hawks. It only feels like has 27 and 43.
The Hawks take it out on the road again tonight, to face a certainly well-rested if oddly-cobbled Blue Jackets squad in the Ohio capital. It’ll start a three-in-four stretch for the Hawks, who return home tomorrow for the Leafs Saturday and Flames Monday. What they’ll find in Columbus is a team built to play a game that no longer wins in the NHL, and one under that that could be a useful NHL team if they let it.
It would seem that in this age of the NHL, the biggest skills a GM can have is the ability to scout his own players, judge them fairly, and also have a really great math guy. Because as we know, it only takes a couple of mistakes with your salary cap, or evaluating your own guys, before you’ve fornicated over all the good work you’ve done.
This is Jarmo Kekalainen’s fourth full season as GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets (he took over in the middle of the shortened 2013 season). They have made one playoff appearance in that time, in 2014 where they threw a brief scare into the Penguins before fading into the background. They haven’t really come close since. And the patience in Columbus is starting to run a bit thin, especially when Jarmo’s hire as a coach was the personification of a bullhorn.
Let’s try and pull in the whole scope of Jarmo’s work.
