Everything Else – Page 139 – Faxes from Uncle Dale

Everything Else

Game #64 – Hawks vs. Sharks: I Make A Lot Of Graphs

By Sam Fels March 1, 2018 1364 0

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Game #64 – Hawks vs. Sharks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels March 1, 2018 1579 0

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Re-Shuffle Recap

By Matt McClure February 27, 2018 2834 0

With the trade deadline come and gone, it’s time to take a look at the landscape now that the dust has settled.

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High On The Hog: Trade Bait

By Jon Fromi February 26, 2018 2944 0

This week’s Rockford IceHogs post is abbreviated. I mean, I could talk about what Blackhawks prospects factored into a weekend split. However, there is a good chance that some of those players will be the property of other organizations.

Due to the uncertainty that is the trade deadline, I’ll hold off on some of this week’s analysis for a day or two. I will sift through any roster shakeup later this week.

Rockford skaters did reach a couple of milestones over the weekend. Matthew Highmore set an AHL franchise record for rookies with his 21st goal in Saturday’s victory in Hershey. Defenseman Adam Clendening also tied a franchise mark, logging his 134th point and 110th helper. Both tie the previous high for IceHogs defensemen with Brian Connelly.

Will Clendening be around to break that tie? Who knows?

Moves will likely be made, either large or small. Viktor Svedberg was a healthy scratch on Saturday and is one of several veteran blueliners who I would not be surprised to see included in a deal. Same goes for Cody Franson and Clendening.

Roster Moves

On Wednesday, with new acquisition Chris DiDomenico ready to roll, Rockford sent forward Matheson Iacopelli to the Indy Fuel of the ECHL. As a player with an NHL entry contract, it’s not a common occurrence.

Iacopelli has spent most of his rookie season as a bottom six option. Without a real strong linemate to get him shot opportunities, the former Western Michigan standout still had nine goals in 40 games this season. He’s been a frequent scratch and it’s apparent the coaching staff feels that there is something missing from his game.

Whatever that is, it isn’t his shot. If Iacopelli could secure a role on a scoring line, he has 30-goal potential in the AHL. With this year’s crop of prospects, top-six minutes haven’t been in the cards for him.

Upon arriving in Indy, Iacopelli quickly displayed the kind of offensive punch of which he is capable. He promptly lit the lamp in each of his first two appearances before Saturday night’s hat trick against Quad City.

I’m not sure why Iacopelli has had trouble finding playing time with the IceHogs, but the only thing that can help him fill out his game is steady minutes. I’m positive he’ll get those minutes in Indy for as long as he’s there.

Recaps

The IceHogs are still on the outside looking in in terms of the postseason. Rockford did, however, leapfrog Milwaukee into fifth place in the Central Division standings. The threesome of Grand Rapids, Chicago and Iowa still needs to be chased down to grab one of the three spots behind Manitoba in the playoff picture.

Friday, February 23-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 6, Rockford 3

Rockford’s road trip began in not-so-impressive fashion, falling behind early to the Penguins and never getting back into contention.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took a 2-0 advantage in the first 8:04 of the contest before the IceHogs could get on the board. Tyler Sikura slipped in front of the net to tip in a John Hayden offering at 10:22 of the first period to cut the Penguins lead to 2-1. However, a late Penguins goal put them up 3-1 at the first intermission.

Over the next 30 minutes of action, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton got three more pucks by Hogs goalie Jeff Glass, taking a 6-1 lead midway through the final frame. At that point, Rockford managed to gain a measure of respectability with a couple of garbage-time goals.

The IceHogs power play got rubber to twine when new addition Chris DiDomenico got a piece of Viktor Svedberg’s slap-shot at the 13:40 mark. A few minutes later, DiDomenico got to a puck in the corner of the Penguins zone. His pass found Anthony Louis near the right post for the score at 16:19.

Saturday, February 24-Rockford 4, Hershey 3 (OT)

The ending was not without controversy, but the Hogs were able to pull out a win in what was a pretty unusual affair with the Bears.

Despite a landslide advantage in shots on goal, this game was nip-and-tuck in terms of score. Rockford was able to gain the first goal of the contest while killing a delay of game penalty.

John Hayden proved to be the catalyst on a shorthanded chance, creating a turnover along the half boards and getting a shot on net that was knocked aside by Hershey goalie Vitek Vanacek. Matthew Highmore was at the left post to collect the rebound, setting a Hogs rookie record for goals with his 21st of the season. Rockford led 1-0 at the 12:35 mark.

The Bears answered in the second period when Liam O’Brien laid a big hit on Alexandre Fortin to separate him from the puck. The big winger worked a give-and-go with Zach Sill before firing past Hogs goalie Collin Delia to tie the game 1-1 at the 13:25 mark.

Rockford’s power play made it a 2-1 game late in the period. Adam Clendening sent a stretch pass to William Pelletier, who got across the Bears blueline ahead of the defense. Pelletier skated to the net before getting a backhander past Vanecek at 17:46 of the second.

Hershey rallied again, drawing even on Travis Boyd’s power-play goal 6:35 into the third period. The IceHogs regained the lead 70 seconds later when Pelletier tipped in a Chris DiDomenico shot for his second of the night.

The Bears, for the third time of the evening, were able to come up with the equalizer, again while on the power play. Riley Barber took advantage of an open look from the right circle to tie the game on what was just Hershey’s 14th shot of the game. Rockford had 38 shots, by contrast, but the scoreboard showed three goals for each club. That’s how things ended in regulation.

Gus Macker Time ended 1:46 into the proceedings. What could easily have been a penalty on DiDomenico after getting tangled up with Barber wound up an odd-man rush the other way. Hayden brought the puck into the Hershey zone and fired past Vanecek to notch the game-winner.

Most nights, stopping just 11 of 14 shots wouldn’t be good enough for a win. On this night, it was as Delia picked up his ninth win of the season. Hayden and Pelletier were named the first and second stars of the game, respectively.

Coming Up

Rockford has a Wednesday night skate with the Texas Stars at the BMO, visit Milwaukee on Friday, then hosts the Penguins of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Saturday night.

Follow me @JonFromi on twitter to get some nuggets of thought on Rockford doings all season long.

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Game #63 He Said We Wouldn’t Get the Treasure We Seek, on Account of Our Ob-stacles – Hawks 2, Blue Jackets 3

By Rose Rankin February 24, 2018 2191 0

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

Corsica

Tonight the Hawks showed up and seemed actually interested in playing hockey. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough, in what was a disappointing follow-up to last night, and a weird reversal of Wednesday night, where they weren’t interested at all yet managed to pull out an overtime win. Well, to the bullets:

–Forsberg made one mistake too many or else he would have had a solid game. Anderson’s goal in the third was one that he should want back, and that’s the one that made the difference. Prior to that goal, Forsberg was screened on the Atkinson’s goal in the first, which wasn’t really his fault. Early in the second he had a sequence of good saves, including on Jordan Oesterle, who tried really hard to score an own goal. But, Forsberg finished the night with a sub-par .897 SV%, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing the J-F Berube Show soon enough.

–Our Cousin Vinny had a strong performance—in fact, his entire line did once again, in whatever composition that ended up being throughout the game. Hinostroza had an assist on Kampf’s goal in the first, and he hit the post twice in the second. Granted, his pass to Nachos was intercepted and that’s what turned into Dubois’ tying goal. But he bounced back with more chances in the third, and generally looked like a coked-up gerbil, as we’ve come to expect out of him. Plus he had a 69.6 CF% (NICE).

–Ryan Hartman took an untimely penalty late in the first, which led to Atkinson’s goal, and he was summarily benched for the rest of the game. I get that Q was pissed, and it was definitely irritating at the time, but the punishment was way out of proportion to the crime. It wasn’t even an egregious hook—it could have easily been a non-call, especially since they let Oesterle slide on a way-more-egregious interference on a breakaway (which also could have been called a hook) early in the first. The reasons this overreaction is bullshit are 1) is he really going to become a better player by getting benched after a ticky-tack call? and 2) Hinostroza to Hartman to Kampf resulted in the first goal, and that was minutes into the game. If these guys had more time to work together, maybe we could have scored more than one measly goal following that one. But no, Q had to SEND A MESSAGE.

–Tomas Jurco got his first goal (anyone? anyone out there want this guy??), and it was off a beautiful feed from Gustafsson way back in the defensive zone. So that was fun.

–Sergei Bobrovsky had a .939 SV% and definitely kept the Jackets in the game, so I don’t want it to sound like I’m taking anything away from him. But damn the Hawks couldn’t hit the net. They ended the night with 33 shots on goal, but it should have easily been 10 higher than that if they could hit the proverbial broad side of a barn.

–Connor Murphy had a somewhat better game than last night. He finished with a 55.2 CF% and didn’t make any dumbass blunders. So that was fun too.

–We managed to out-shit the worst power play in the league. Columbus came into this game ranked dead last on the man advantage, with the Hawks at a sterling 29th. Yet, the Jackets scored on the only power play they had (that aforementioned Hartman penalty), and the Hawks went 0-for-3 with their usual dismal power play performance.

I suppose it’s frustrating that the Hawks couldn’t fuck with the Jackets more and take them out of that last playoff spot, because fuck those guys, that would have been funny. But honestly, the Jackets may do that to themselves, and at this point if we miss out on points, it’s kinda, well, pointless, for lack of a better term. I feel bad for individual guys who genuinely tried but couldn’t pull it out, but at least they made an attempt tonight. Onward.

Beer de jour: Beach Blonde by Crystal Lake Brewing

Line of the Night: This one is dumped in…will there be a retrieval? —Foley, asking what we’re all wondering on a power play zone entry.

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Game #63 – Hawks vs. Blue Jackets Preview, Tub Scouring – What Jail Is Like

By Matt McClure February 24, 2018 1822 0

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Game Time: 6:00PM CST
TV/Radio: NBC Sports Chicago, WGN-AM 720
Maurice Clarett’s Tattoo Shop: The Cannon

As this Wannstedt-esque death march of a season trudges onward, the Hawks turn right around from last night’s win against the Sharks and head to Columbus tonight, where Torts and the Jackets hang on to the last wild card spot in the east by the slimmest of margins.

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Game #63 – Hawks vs. Blue Jackets Spotlight: You’re Not Wrong, Torts, But You’re Just An…

By Sam Fels February 24, 2018 1778 0

We have a lot of fun here at the expense of John Tortorella. And with good cause. His stewardship of the Vancouver Canucks was just the height of comedy. His guiding of Team USA was even “better.” He loves to hear himself talk. He went from “Safe Is Death” guy in Tampa to having his teams be painful to watch in New York, Vancouver, and now Columbus. He’s crushed the development of a lot of young players.

Here’s the thing we’ve come to realize: he might have been right about a couple of them.

1st case: Torts chased Ryan Johansen out of town. He didn’t think he worked hard enough, didn’t get strong enough so he could be knocked off the puck, and as soon as he got his second contract in Columbus he basically became a jelly donut. So he was traded to Nashville, and while he chased another, big-time contract it looked like a terrible decision. The Jackets have never really had a #1 center, and Johansen was certainly looking like he might be one.

Then Johansen cashed in on an $8 million deal this past summer. He’s got eight goals, 39 points so far this year and has for the most part has looked like he’s gone back to his waffle-iron-runoff form. Was Torts right all along?

Case Two: Torts and Brandon Saad never quite saw eye-to-eye. Saad found himself on the fourth line at times, and was even a healthy scratch. Torts didn’t think Saad played in straight enough lines, or would go to the net often enough or hard enough. Given Saad’s skillset, you can’t help but think if he did those things he would be a 35-goal scorer.

So the Jackets didn’t mind sending him back here for Artemi Panarin. Saad has bounced all over the Hawks lineup and while he’s certainly been unlucky and the underlying numbers suggest he’s getting to all the right spots, certainly Joel Quenneville hasn’t been pleased at all times with what Saad has provided. Again, was Torts right all along?

That doesn’t mean we’d want Torts coaching our team. The Jackets goofed a playoff spot last year because their power play went nuclear and Bobrovsky cleaned up the rest. Now that the power play has regressed all the way to terrible, the Jackets are seemingly nowhere. Zach Werenski has seemingly stalled a bit in his development. There were whispers that Seth Jones was mentioned in trade rumors, though we can’t fathom that will be the case. Alex Wennberg hasn’t become a #1 center. Brandon Dubinsky still plays far too many minutes. So did Jack Johnson, but that’s stopped and now he’s bitching about that.

Of course, Torts can’t help that Cam Atkinson got hurt. Or Boone Jenner is shooting less than 5%. Still, Torts shot-block heavy, defense-first ways don’t seem like they’re ever going to get the Jackets through the Penguins now or the Lightning or Bruins in the future. At some point you gotta step on the gas.

But amidst all the funny bluster, Torts might not have been so far off base.

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Game #63 – Hawks vs Blue Jackets Q&A: Alison Lukan, One Of The Athletic’s 163,000 Writers

By Sam Fels February 24, 2018 2211 0

Alison Lukan is the Jackets beat writer for The Athletic Ohio. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonL.

Last year the Jackets ended up with 106 points. This year they’re going to have to scrap to even make the playoffs. The difference can’t simply be the power play isn’t scoring on everything, right?

If you look at the underlying numbers, there are a few things. First, as you point out, the power play was horrible to start the year. It’s rebounded some, but it will never even out over the season due to their start. Now, the penalty kill is suffering and that’s hurting them. The most significant thing impacting this team is their ability to finish. Almost every player is experiencing a career low in shooting percentage and that means this group just isn’t scoring goals. For a group that averaged over 3 goals per game last year, they’re barely managing to stay at an average of 2. Also – with injuries on the blue line, they’ve been letting in a few more shot attempts against compared to previous years. This number has slowly increased over the course of the season too.

Sergei Bobrovsky started the year in Vezina form but has had a terrible February. What’s up there?

I think its two fold, he’s facing a higher volume of shot attempts against, and also he’s not getting a lot of run support from his team.

23 points out of Alex Wennberg wasn’t what everyone had in mind, was it?

In a word, no. While not an excuse, two important things to mention a) he missed 12 games due to injury and b ) how many points he had off of special teams last year and how poorly special teams have performed this season. Last season, two goals and 21 assists (literally half of his 56 points) came on the man advantage. He – like almost everyone else on the team – is also suffering from a career low shooting percentage.

Where does this end with Jack Johnson? He’s obviously walking so should the Jackets cash in before the deadline?

Reports just came out Thursday that the Jackets have circled back to Johnson with an extension offer. Before that, I was more than a little bit sure that the team would move him at the deadline and reap what they could in trade value versus lose him for nothing. There are reports the Jackets offered $22MM-plus over seven years this off-season and the player didn’t bite at that, so I’d wager this is one final test to see if Johnson is willing to stay at the price the Jackets think he’s worth – if not, Kekalainen is likely looking to make a trade.

Do the Jackets make the playoffs when all is said and done?

If they make some moves at forward at the deadline, yes.

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Game #63 – Hawks vs. Blue Jackets Douchebag Du Jour: The Effects Of The Cannon

By Sam Fels February 24, 2018 1627 0

If you’re involved in the hockey world, specifically covering it, for any length of time you’ll come to be annoyed by the things beat writers complain about. The list is comprised of flight delays, because not everyone deals with that or anything. Wifi in hotels and pressboxes. Pressbox food at times.

And of course, the cannon in Columbus.

We get it. It seems a little silly. But seriously, it’s their thing. It’s not there to annoy you. It’s no more annoying than Chelsea Dagger is to other writers. You might have to hear it five times a night, at most. Three times a year. And yet we guaran-fucking-tee that no matter the opponent, when the Jackets score you’ll find a beat from an opposing team complaining about the cannon blast.

You get free travel. Yeah, it can be grueling. Yes, it takes you away from home for a huge part of the year. You also get free hotels. You watch hockey games, and whatever we think about hockey thoughts you rarely get a “no comment” from anyone. Deal with the fucking cannon. It won’t kill you.

If you want to complain something, then mention how Columbus as a whole sucks and there’s nothing to do. There’s a goddamn Tim Horton’s in the arena, and those breakfast sandwiches are mighty. You can’t find that anywhere else outside of Canada. So shut up.

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