Faxes from Uncle Dale

Category: Hockey

  • Game #59 – Fall Out and Take the Bait, Eat the Fruit, and Kiss the Snake Good Night – Hawks 2, Jets 3

    Game #59 – Fall Out and Take the Bait, Eat the Fruit, and Kiss the Snake Good Night – Hawks 2, Jets 3

    Box Score

    Natural Stat Trick

    A 1–4–0 road trip in the throes of a playoff hunt does not inspire confidence. And whatever confidence you had in this team should be revealed as false based on one roster decision. A win may have kept whatever telltale heart we still have for this team beating. But looking up at six points and down the barrel of a hell trip at the end of the month makes the idea of a playoff berth even less sustainable than the style of play Colliton has this team adhere to night in and night out. Let’s mop this mess up.

    – The most telling move the Blackhawks made tonight was starting Nick Seeler over Adam Boqvist. Boqvist had a bad game last night. On a team whose fate and direction aren’t as nebulous as the Hawks’s, you understand that move at least a little bit. But starting Seeler over Boqvist in a must-win game (as pretty much all of these games will be going forward) is the most concrete evidence that the front office truly, unironically believes that this is a playoff-caliber roster.

    This is the kind of move you make when you earnestly believe that you are just a roster tweak away from making the playoffs. Had this team fully committed to grooming the next core, they would have chalked Boqvist’s night last night up to “being fucking 19.” Instead, in a game they had to win, they slotted Seeler—who was about as good as you could have hoped—over what is supposed to be the defenseman of the future for this team.

    If you had any doubt about what this team thinks it is—and you should, since they’ve claimed there is no plan, only a process—tonight should have made it clear. The front office thinks this team can eke into the playoffs. We should judge everything it does from here on out on that basis. If this were a team that realized the chance to make a real run passed them by before last night’s game, you’d have seen Boqvist out there trying to learn from his mistakes. We didn’t, so we can only assume that they believe this is a playoff roster.

    It’s not, and when they don’t make the playoffs, everyone should be fired for that failure.

    – But hey, the Blackhawks still have the high-end talent that lays the foundation of a playoff team. And it all starts and ends with Patrick Kane, who kept the Hawks in it with two outstanding plays.

    On Carpenter’s goal, you got a look at why Patrick Kane will go down in history as the best player to ever lace them up for the Blackhawks. He charged up the near boards, shook Pionk out of his skates around the dot, then fired a bad-angle pass from the goal line that crawled up Carpenter’s stick and in. You’re not going to see plays like that for years from the Hawks after Kane retires.

    – On the Hawks’s second goal, you saw Kane do Kane things and Toews do Toews things, dropping a perfect pass through two defenders in the slot. But the thing that ought to impress most was Dominik Kubalik’s patience on the play.

    Kubalik draws Kulikov to him with his patience, giving Toews the half step he needed to streak past. Then, Kubalik feathered a pass that gave Toews the chance to drop his perfect pass back. The Hawks have found something special in Kubalik, and when he’s given the chance, he usually delivers.

    – There’s not anything Corey Crawford can do about giving up three redirected goals. The only one you can probably even be mad about would be the first goal, and you wouldn’t be mad at Crawford. You’d be mad at the Hawks’s inability to clear the puck and allowing sustained pressure. But you’ve heard that song too many times before now.

    Tonight was a perfect representation of what the Hawks are. They’re a high-end talent team that needs every puck bounce to go right to win games. They had three bad bounces and lost. But the fact that they’re benching their D-man of the future for performance shows that they really think this is a playoff team with a tweak here and a healthy scratch there.

    It’s a different story if the Hawks go into this game with six points instead of two. But they didn’t, and so now we’re stuck watching a team that both thinks it’s truly in a playoff run and that putting Nick Seeler in over Adam Boqvist is a solution to a problem.

    This is our concern, dude.

    Beer du Jour: Yeti Imperial Stout

    Line of the Night: “Rides up Carpenter’s SHAFT.” –Burish on Carp’s goal

  • Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again) Preview: Sundays Are For Peg’ing…Again

    Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again) Preview: Sundays Are For Peg’ing…Again

    vs.

    RECORDS: Hawks 26-24-8   Jets 29-25-5

    PUCK DROP: 7:30pm

    TV: NBCSN Chicago

    SEARCHING FOR AN AIRPORT: Jets Nation

    In the brilliant scheduling genius of the NHL, the Hawks will spend a second consecutive Sunday in Winnipeg, after having to bus in from Calgary last night because y’know, there’s no airport in Winnipeg. Once again, as they’ve seemingly done a dozen times this season and a dozen times last season, after last night’s win the Hawks have a chance to keep their season afloat with a win tonight.

    It’s getting tiresome of course. We know what this team is, and what they probably need to do, but the longer they stay in the race the more justification they’ll have to kind of just float there, without making aggressive moves to bolster next year which should be the real goal here. A win would see the Hawks be within one point of the Jets, and four points within the Coyotes in the last spot with two games in hand. There’s a light week ahead with just two games at home against the Rangers and Predators, before what looks to be a killer roadtrip to close out February.

    And we know how this goes. The Hawks probably can’t string together enough losses to fall out of it, due to both their own individual brilliance at the top of the roster and the Western Conference’s inability to not become a Cluseau-esque waiter. Which means three wins in a row are always around the corner to keep them right on the cusp, and then three losses right behind that to look over the edge of the precipice without going over. So it goes.

    In the week since the Hawks were last here, the Jets biffed home games against the Rangers and Sharks, and deservedly so. Which somehow got Paul Maurice a contract-extension. This team has hated Maurice for two seasons at least, continues to be one of the worst defensive teams in the league and a good portion of that is because they simply don’t care to be anything else. But when they actually can be bothered, as they were for the last 40 minutes last week, they can still blow just about any team out of the building. Much like the Hawks, you can bet on them to keep yo-yoing between getting into the playoffs and ending their season without making a decision either way.

    The Jets are still injured, with Lowry and Perreault still out and Letestu and Little long time casualties. That’s eroded something of their depth, which has led them to lean heavily on the top six and Andrew Copp and Jack Roslovic. There’s been some talk of shifting Blay Kweeler back to wing and Copp to 2C, and they’ll try both looks tonight you can be sure. They tore the Hawks asunder last week either way.

    It’s been a pretty horrific roadie for the Hawks, and winning tonight will at least give them cover for not doing much at the trade deadline. They can argue they were robbed in Vancouver and lucky in Calgary somewhat, though eight goals is eight goals. They can say they split with the Jets, which is about what you’d expect from two games in a week against the same opponent. So the only blip, in their minds, will be losing to EdMo without McDavid. It’s the lowest hurdle to clear, but it’ll be enough for them.

    We’re in this together.

  • Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again) Spotlight: How To Fall Upwards

    Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again) Spotlight: How To Fall Upwards

    Friends, you’ve probably been frustrated at some point watching some moron you work with get a promotion you were sure you were more qualified for, or even just a promotion you know they had no business getting. Or perhaps you just watch things in society and wonder how someone you’re sure can’t tie their shoes can end up with so much more money than you. For instance, Jim Crane clearly has a whistling sound working between his ears, and yet he’s rich enough to own a MLB team.

    Maybe hockey isn’t for us if that’s how we feel.

    Paul Maurice earned another contract extension this week. That’s the same coach who in six years at the helm has won two playoff series, both in the same year. That’s with perhaps the best top six in the league, one of the deepest forward corps around, and before this year at least a serviceable defense. Oh, and two of the past three seasons he’s gotten near Vezina-level goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck.

    And that’s still been the case this year, and the Jest are still outside the playoff places. Sure, the defense has been stripped of Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba, but losing the former shouldn’t hurt your defensive structure much if at all. And the Jets remain one of the worst defensive teams in the league, in terms of the shots, attempts, and chances they give up.

    But if you watch the Jets, it’s not just lack of talent. They just don’t care. Some night, their lack of effort in their own zone is so noticeable it’s laughable. The Jets are one of the worst metrics teams in the league. Even with that defense, given the wealth of talent at forward, they shouldn’t be drowning in attempts and chances against on a nightly basis.

    And this has been going on for a bit. The Jets tried to get Maurice fired during their playoff series lost to the Blues last year. They blew assignments, they lacked desire, they played selfishly at times. They didn’t want to be there, most of all. And yet Maurice wasn’t fired. He wasn’t fired in the middle of this year when they haven’t been in the playoff spots all season. And now he’s installed for more years. How?

    Maurice and GM Kevin Chevldayoff let Patrik Laine force their hand in the lineup and play on the top line, which used to be Blake Wheeler’s spot. They let Trouba stick around for multiple years when he made it clear he hated it there and hated Maurice until they had to trade him (and did get Neal Pionk out of it, but could they have gotten more previously?).

    Chevyldayoff’s draft record is impressive enough, as a good portion of this team is his doing. Though the only player in the last three drafts to even make it to the NHL is Laine. He’s made trades for Paul Stastny and Kevin Hayes to bolster the team for what he hoped would be Cup chases. But it may be up now. The Jets have only just north of $7M in space for next year, and the only players signed are Hellebuyck, Morrissey, Pionk, Poolman, and the top six. If the Jets lose their forward depth, the sink could go even farther.

    But is Maurice really the guy to guide these players? His pedigree is non existent. He has one Cup Final appearance in 22 years coaching in this league. He has two conference final appearances. That’s in 22 years. While the Jets no longer are one of the dumber teams in the league in terms of penalties, which used to be a Maurice staple, it’s still in their locker. And as you’ve seen against the Hawks, this is one of the biggest and fastest teams at forward in the league. But they so rarely play like it, which is how they’ve gotten tonked by the Hawks twice. Last Sunday, when they actually decided to play up to it, the Hawks couldn’t cope. Few teams could.

    But this is the NHL. You get one job, you get 17 (unless you’re Mike Kitchen). And you get to keep coaching in a place you wore out your welcome in long ago.

  • Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again): Hedley Lamarr’s Nitwits, Halfwits, And Dimwits

    Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again): Hedley Lamarr’s Nitwits, Halfwits, And Dimwits

    Patrik Laine – All jokes about how he looks like he’d ask you three questions to let you cross his bridge, the Jets have bent over backwards for this guy in recent years and he’s pretty much just been a floater. They listened to him bitch incessantly last year about playing on the second line. So they handed him a new contract, shifted their captain back to center and Laine up to play on their top line. He’s given them a fine 30-goal pace season but also doesn’t impact the game in any other way. He is what everyone wanted to believe Alex Ovechkin was back in the day. His metrics are woeful. This guy stands around and waits to shoot and nothing else, and the Jets might want to consider what they could get for him in the trade market one day soon.

    Kevin Chevyldayoff – Apparently two playoff series wins in team history is enough to re-sign your dumbass coach. Easier and easier to tell he used to work for the Hawks, huh?

    Mark Scheifele – For someone 6-5 and built like a house he sure does end up on the ice a lot, doesn’t he?

  • Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again): I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again): I Make A Lot Of Graphs

  • Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again): Lineups & How They Were Built

    Game #59 – Hawks vs. Jets (Again): Lineups & How They Were Built

    Hawks

    Notes: With the exception of the goalie, same lineup. Kind of has to be with Zack Smith’s injury as they haven’t called anyone up to be an extra forward…Koekkoek and Maatta led the d-men last night in ES time, which is weird…despite having a rough night, Boqvist led the team in Corsi last night…the best line in terms of possession, and the only one above water, was Dach’s line, which is very encouraging…

    Jets

    Notes: The Jets lines could look like anything tonight. They’ve been playing with moving Wheeler back to wing and Copp up to 2C, which you could see a lot of tonight. They don’t stick with one throughout the game though, so you’ll see everything…Hellebuyck hasn’t been at his best but the Jets allowed the zombie Sharks to throw 35 shots at him on Friday night…Hawks launched a Connor hot-streak, as he has 10 points in his last six…

  • Game #58: Hawks 8, Flames 4 – Gotta Put the Hard Times on Poor Choices, Gotta Put the Good Ones on Luck

    You may have been surprised when you woke up and saw the Hawks score from last night (because I’m fairly confident you weren’t staying up late to see it–only losers like myself, Sam, Matt, and about four other cretins would actually spend a Saturday night that way). And you probably thought, wow, maybe some shaky defense but that’s a dominant offensive performance. The thing is, though, it wasn’t. The score doesn’t really reflect the game itself, but please understand I’m not complaining. I’m just scratching my head, and have been for over 12 hours now. I suppose that after getting shut out on a bazillion shots by Vancouver, a correction was due and boy did it happen. But it didn’t inspire the confidence that you would think an 8-goal performance would. Let’s break it down:

    Box Score

    Natural Stat Trick

    –The first period was all Jonathan Toews, and honestly I’m here for it. He scored 30 seconds into the game, on the first shot on goal, which should tell you how the night went for David Rittich. Not long after that, Toews made smart plays behind the net to hold onto the puck on the power play, and fired a perfect pass to Dominik Kubalik for the second goal. The captain was even busting out the Patrick Kane spin-o-rama move. And that was all fine and good. The bizarro nature of the game was already happening early on, though, with the Hawks ending the period up in shots (12-8) and possession (52 CF% at evens), and yet tied in goals and it felt downright shaky at times. Also strange (well, it’s kind of normal now but it SHOULD be strange) is their special teams–in the first period they were dominant on the penalty kill, and thank christ for that. However just moments later when the Flames pulled a Hawks and took a too many men penalty, the Hawks couldn’t even get out of their own zone, much less get INTO the offensive zone to do anything. It was, as I kept calling it on Twitter, confounding.

    –And then the second period happened and I’m still confused. The Hawks were not good, not by any stretch. Calgary lapped them in shots (14-7 in favor of the Flames), and the Hawks managed just a 38 CF%, but they scored 4 goals in the period. Two of those were from Alex Nylander so what the fuck is that about? The first one from Brandon Saad was off a gorgeous no-look pass from Patrick Kane, so it was lucky in that the Hawks finally got control of the puck for a few seconds, and since Kane and Saad are both good, they took advantage. That’s sort of how the rest could be explained too, I guess. The few moments when the Hawks could hang onto the puck, they scored. There ya go, people, there’s some quality analysis for you. But in all seriousness, Nylander’s first goal was off a steal, perfectly executed in the middle of the ice, Alex DeBrincat‘s (yay for this guy finally!) was thanks to Dach’s work behind the net and a quick passing sequence from Dach to Strome to DeBrincat, and Nylander’s other one…whatever. They just exploded with a handful of really good plays, while otherwise they were chasing and running around like rabid raccoons and getting skulled in possession.

    –So all that offensive production is great, but they also conceded a few, right? Unfortunately 50% of the goals given up can be laid squarely on Adam Boqvist, who did not have a good night at all. On both Sam Bennett s and Elias Lindholm‘s first goals, Boqvist just didn’t pick up his man and left Lehner totally exposed. The offense made up for the shitty defense so it was fine, and as we’ve said, Boqvist is going to have mistakes, but it still wasn’t a confidence builder.

    –And then, to top it all off, the Hawks still sucked in the third and yet piled on more goals. The weirdness just didn’t stop. In fact, when Lindholm scored his second goal, on the power play about five minutes into the third, everyone was palpably nervous that the Hawks were going to blow it. I think the team themselves expected to blow it, given the fact they got outplayed in every way except the one that counts. The Flames outshot the Hawks 20-9 in the third. Please think about that–it’s more than double the amount of shots the Hawks had, and mind you, that’s following the second where they were equally terrible. The difference of course was Robin Lehner, who, up until the third didn’t actually look that great but he turned it on when he had to. As mentioned, his defense wasn’t doing him a lot of favors, but he was giving up a lot of rebounds and his positioning wasn’t too solid through two. He figured it out for the third, though, and definitely bailed the Hawks, until Kane’s empty netter put the game away.

    –The Flames really should be kicking themselves in the ass for this one, because not only did they totally outshoot the Hawks on a night when our goalie wasn’t actually lights-out the whole time, the Flames also had three power plays in the third period and still managed to lose. Also Matthew Tkachuk is awful and made about 50 bad turnovers, so that was entertaining. Rittich got pulled in the second and rightfully so, but Cam Talbot wasn’t any good either (a .692 SV%, lmao).

    So it was all very strange, but it wasn’t boring. And if the Air Raid Offense is the best we can muster because our defense sucks, so be it. (Let it also be known that Erik Gustafsson still sucks and Boqvist is not the only defenseman who wasn’t at the top of his game.) Onto Winnipeg tonight, where it’s once again a “must-win” if you’re still deluding yourself that this team has a chance at the playoffs. Onward and upward!

  • Game #58 – Hawks vs. Flames Spotlight: Backlund That Thing Up

    Game #58 – Hawks vs. Flames Spotlight: Backlund That Thing Up

    It’s hard to believe that Mikael Backlund is only 30 years old. While that’s old in hockey years, we were hearing Flames fans’ excitement about him all the way back during the 2008-2009 season, even before the Hawks put the Flames to the sword in the playoffs. He only played one game that year, and perhaps he never lived quite up to the hopes of being a 1st round pick and a prized prospect for a while. But he’s definitely the cult favorite of Flames Nation. He’s the Fugazi of Calgary, where you only love him if you really know what’s going on.

    Most of that is down to the years where he, Michael Frolik, and Matthew Tkachuk formed one of the best lines in hockey. At least in terms of metrics it was. The 3M line started most of their shifts in the defensive zone, and ended most of them in the other end. They were one of the best possession lines in hockey, and the Flames asked them to do just about everything. And they did just about everything.

    Starting last year though, Racist Ol’ Bill Peters soured on Frolik pretty quickly, and split that line up more often than you would think, i.e. at all. Lots of others moonlighted with Backlund and Tkachuk, but never quite captured the same magic. And Backlund’s metrics started to slide because of it.

    It’s only gotten worse this year, and Backlund has often been used as a winger on the top line to help Sean Monahan and Johnny Gadreau keep the puck. But that’s not really what Backlund is, and it weakened the Flames down the middle as Elias Lindholm was tried as simply an offensive center than the Swiss Army Knife Backlund was and can still be. Recently, they’ve scrapped that and returned Backlund to the second center hole.

    The numbers make it pretty clear that when Backlund is centering Tkachuk, things go well. When he’s on a wing with the others, they don’t, as his percentages drop. Seems pretty simple, but a lot of hockey coaches tend to outthink themselves.

    The weird thing about Backlund is over the years he seems to do worse the more you start him in the offensive zone. It’s like if he doesn’t have ice to skate into he just backs up to find it. He’s more checking than scoring, though he’s consistently put up 40-50 points. Three years ago, he started just 35% of his shifts in the offensive zone and yet carried a 55% Corsi-share and 52% xG%. This year he’s starting 56% of his shifts in the offensive zone, and he’s below the team-rate in the analytics for the first time in a dog’s age.

    Being the sole puck winner from a wing on the top line just doesn’t appear to suit him, and in recent games the Flames have returned Lindholm to that wing. They’ve won three of four with an aggregate score of 18-4 in those three wins. Seems pretty obvious the lineup needs to be tuned a certain way.

    Either way, Backlund will remain the die-hard’s favorite, taking on the top lines of other teams and always getting the Flames out of it. At 30 and signed for a few more years could get sticky as he ages, as a $5.3M hit for a checking center seems a bit ambitious. Once Backlund’s scoring dries up there might be questions. But those are a long way off. Right now, he’s the Flames fans smallpox champion.

  • Game #58 – Hawks vs. Flames: Hedley Lamarr’s Mugs, Pugs, And Thugs

    Game #58 – Hawks vs. Flames: Hedley Lamarr’s Mugs, Pugs, And Thugs

    Zac Rinaldo – The Flames of late seem to get the idea that they need to play up-tempo and creatively. So what this collection of puss is doing in the lineup is anyone’s guess. This team certainly had enough of the asshat quotient with whichever Tkachuk is here and Lucic, but this really takes the cake. The cake made of birth-sauce, that is. Rinaldo is one of the bigger pieces of shit in recent vintage, and no one’s been able to explain how he helps. And yet he keeps finding work. In any other sport he would have been drummed out and playing from whichever league was formed by Vince McMahon.

    Milan Lucic – Still wasting everyone’s time, except for those of us who like to do comedic writing.

    Calgary City Council – You probably missed it, with Calgary all tucked away down there, but the city of Calgary is the latest to bend over for a sports owner and give him money for a new arena that the owner could easily afford himself. They’ll be coughing up over $225M, which they’ll never get back of course. And as we know, the promise of new jobs always seems temporary or never pans out. Maybe one day people will learn. But it wasn’t this day in Calgary.

  • Game #58 – Hawks vs. Flames: I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Game #58 – Hawks vs. Flames: I Make A Lot Of Graphs