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Game #69 – Coyotes vs. Hawks Q&A: Catherine Silverman Of The Athletic AZ

By Sam Fels 1529 0

Catherine Silverman covers the Yotes for The Athletic, as well as working as a goalie expert of In Goal Magazine. You can follow her on Twitter @CatMSilverman. 

The Yotes have hung around the playoff picture, and yet they don’t have anyone who has scored over 42 points. Is this all or mostly Darcy Kuemper‘s resurgence?

So, let me preface this as saying that I think that Darcy Kuemper has been a really solid part of the team this year. He’s had his moments that put your heart in your throat, but he’s internalized the need to play well for the team’s playoff hopes and gotten the job done. 

That being said, I think that the biggest contributor to their success has been their scoring depth. They don’t have anyone over 42 points, but they have 11 players with 20 or more points and 10 players with 10 or more goals. In comparison, the Blackhawks have a 96-point getter, but also only have 10 players with 20 or more points — and they only have eight players with 10 or more goals. It’s why the Dallas Stars have a 61-point player in Tyler Seguin, but are still hanging around Arizona; they only have five players with 10 or more goals. 

While the more top-heavy teams live and die by the success of their stars, Arizona has been getting effective middle-six production from… well, everyone. Add in their injuries (if you project players like Schmaltz, Richardson, Galchenyuk, and Grabner onto an 82-game season, they’d all be sitting on much higher point totals) and their success makes a lot more sense. 

In my opinion

Look, we like Connor Murphy. We may be the only ones, but we’ll hold on. But we can’t help but notice the metrics that Niklas Hjalmarsson is turning in these days. Starting in his own zone most of the time, against the toughest competition, and turning it around. Is that to do with playing with Ekman-Larsson? Because Hammer was starting to turn here before the trade…

I think it has a bit to do with it, but Ekman-Larsson certainly isn’t propping Hjalmarsson up if that’s what you’re insinuating. Isolated on his own, Nik has been one of Arizona’s best players all year; he’s looking incredibly effective, and very much like the player that Chicago initially signed to his current deal. 

It’s possible that the rest from no playoffs last year combined with missed time for injury legitimately gave him enough rest to refuel his tank. Whatever it is, though, he’s looking fantastic.  

We were also Alex Galchenyuk fans and though Arizona got the better of that deal. He’s produced ok, been hurt a bit, but maybe not yet what we were thinking. What is he to someone who watches him far more?

He’s been exactly what the team traded for. After missing the start of the season for injury, he had a bit of a slow start — understandable when coming in with the season in full swing on a brand-new team. 

In the last few months, though, he’s been one of their best players. He’s excellent on the power-play, has 15 goals and 36 points in 57 games (which would be 43 points if he’d missed no time, putting him over that 42-point threshold), and has won 46 percent of his face-offs — his highest percentage in three years. 

Since February 1st, he’s put up seven goals and 11 points in 17 games. If he can continue to perform on the power-play like he has lately — and, frankly, continue to set up plays for Clayton Keller like he has been, even when it doesn’t get him a point on the board — he’ll continue to prove to be a fantastic add for the team. 

Three points out, game in hand on the Wild, 15 to go. Can the Yotes do it?

Three points out and two games in hand now, since the Wild forgot they were playing tonight. But I’d say at this point, it’s really anyone’s game — meaning that I won’t be putting money on Arizona, but I won’t be surprised at all if they make it either. 

Jason Demers is healthy again. Michael Grabner is healthy again. Antti Raanta is getting close. They’ve survived the first of potentially four to six weeks without Derek Stepan, and only lost one game in the process. I think if they put up the kind of performance they did down the back stretch last year, especially with Colorado losing one of their own top-heavy talents and Minnesota and Dallas struggling with consistency, they could easily slip their way in. 

 

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Game #69 – Coyotes vs. Hawks Douchebag Du Jour: Rick Tocchet, We Can Make Ourselves Look Stupid, Thanks

By Sam Fels 1592 0

We reveled, perhaps a bit too much in hindsight, in what appeared to be an overmatched Rick Tocchet behind the Coyotes bench last year. He appeared to be an idiot in Tampa when he had to take over for an admittedly giant mess caused by Barry Melrose. And despite what looked like a fair collection of young talent in the desert, the Coyotes finished up the track once again. As the Yotes have been something of a nuisance to everyone–with their constant stability issues and even bigger issues remaining relevant–it was a small relief to at least have something to laugh at.  At least they were noticeable in any way.

So much for that. Tocchet has negotiated a host of injuries–only Keller, OEL, and Hjalmarsson have been marked “present” for every game among the prominent players–and still a raft of youth to have the Coyotes on the brink of their first playoff berth in seven years. Sure, some of that is Darcy Kuemper’s renaissance, but the team was able to stick together through their other goalies’ struggles. Even with Stepan and Schmaltz out now, the Yotes sit one point out of the playoff picture.

The Coyotes don’t do anything particularly well, but moving toward the middle of the pack in various categories is a step up for them. Last year they were mostly getting their brains turned into mush. So it might be that Tocchet actually does know what he’s doing, or he learned. And our laughter, as always, goes away…

We still think they’ll need a real coach to take the next step. Then again, so might the Hawks.

 

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Game #69 – Coyotes vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels 1284 0

Notes: Couple injuries the Yotes are dealing with. Derek Stepan is out from four-to-six weeks, which could be a real problem, and Schmaltz is done for the season after his knee exploded…Which has vaulted Christian Dvorak up from the minors and into the #1 center role. He’s also a LOCAL GUY, so he’s going to score tonight…Alex Galchenyuk, the American with the Russian name who used to be a Canadien, was on a real heater but only has two points in his last six…Kuemper has a .925 in the calendar year of 2019 and won nine of his last 10 starts…oh Vinnie Bag O’ Donuts, how we miss you…Nick Cousins is a rapist…

Notes: After two wins in a row wouldn’t expect too many changes. Sikura had a turnover that led to a goal against in Dallas but looked more in place with 19 and 20 than Hayden did…Forsling returned with Seabrook and nothing turned into a gas leak so expect that to remain, though Koekkoek could slot in for Dahlstrom for no reason…Perlini had six shots against the Sabres but one against the Stars. Yes, Dallas is a far better defensive team but it’s that kind of inconsistency that drives his teams nuts…YARRRRR

 

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High On The Hog: Just A Smidge

By Jon Fromi 1268 0

Some Hogs thoughts on the abbreviated tip this week, as work commitments have me out of the loop for most of the next few days…

  • Rockford dropped a pair in Manitoba this weekend, losing 3-1 Saturday night and 2-1 in Gus Macker Time the following afternoon. Dennis Gilbert had the lone IceHogs goal in the former, while Peter Holland drew cord for Rockford in the latter.
  • Though 61 games, the Hogs have 63 points and a .525 points percentage. The Moose share that percentage and have a game in hand on Rockford. In turn, the piglets have a game in hand on fourth-place Texas, trailing by four standings points.
  • Tyler Sikura made his return to the lineup from a broken thumb. He skated both games in Manitoba but didn’t post any points on the weekend.
  • Jacob Nilsson continues to be out of the lineup. He’s been out since February 23.
  • No roster moves were made last week.
  • Rockford has a huge three-in-three weekend coming up. The Hogs visit Grand Rapids on Friday night, then host Cleveland and the Stars at the BMO Harris Bank Center Saturday and Sunday. Beating Texas in regulation is a must. The fourth playoff spot in the Central Division is still attainable for any of the last five teams in the standings. If that team is to be the IceHogs, the boys need to start knocking off division opponents.
  • I may squeeze out a few tweets this week if time allows. Follow me @JonFromi on twitter for some Hogs nuggets.
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Game #68 – Hawks 2, Stars 1: That’s Pretty Dumb

By Sam Fels 2068 0

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De-Fense! De-Fense!

Anything that happens with this Hawks team has to be qualified in some way. The Stars are a relatively easy to team to smother if you’re locked in. They have one line, and then one guy in Jamie Benn who’s wasting his time with Jason Dickinson and Blake Comeau. So if you can keep Seguin and Radulov from producing more than one goal, you have a good chance to look as the Hawks did tonight. They didn’t do that a couple Sundays ago, and there’s your difference. The Stars just don’t have a lot of inspiration through the lineup.

Still, that’s as good a road game as the Hawks have played in…all season? Maybe the game in Pittsburgh, which was the first week of January? Either way, it’s been an awful long time since the Hawks were able to hold a team at arm’s length for 60 minutes. And they did that tonight.

I don’t know if the Hawks can ever do it again. I don’t know that it would even benefit them, given the way they’re built sets up better for 5-4 games than 2-1. Still, if they can carry out this kind of defensive effort through the last portion of the season here, no matter where it lands them in the standings, we’ll have tangible proof that Jeremy Colliton is establishing something and just maybe there’s something to build off. But long way to go until that.

To the bluffs!

The Two Obs

-The Hawks put forth that defensive effort with Gustav Forsling in the lineup. Let’s all think about that for a second.

-I still don’t know how I feel about Patrick Kane leading the Hawks in total ice-time again. On the one hand he’s the main weapon and you might as well use it as much as you can. Still, you wonder if some of his shifts wouldn’t pack a little more punch if he was getting a few more off. It also keeps Sikura under 10 minutes, and as this season is actually about development, that seems a problem. Yes, his turnover led to Dallas’s only goal, but he looked spritely otherwise. Would like to see more of him with Toews and Saad.

-Dylan Strome with a 71% share tonight. Again, it helps when he gets to face whatever Jason Dickinson is all night, but seeing as how he’s spent most of the season getting brained possession-wise, let’s start here.

-It’s amazing how much better Corey Crawford looks when you’re only asking him to make 5-6 big saves per game instead of 96.

-If you’re allowing Chris Kunitz to get five shots off in a game, that’s probably cause for relegation.

-Connor Murphy and Carl Dahlstrom were the only pairing that wasn’t in the black, but then they were the only ones starting a majority of time in their own zone. I still don’t know quite what to make of Murphy, who was excellent in his own zone most of the game, set up the second goal with a good defensive play, and yet you can’t keep playing on the back foot. I guess we won’t know until he has a partner who can do that more effectively than anyone here right now.

-The Hawks seemed to figure out that teams are stopping their drop pass on entries on the power play, and tonight started to fake it and then just get in the zone off the initial rush. The Stars were springing their two forwards out at Kane and DeBrincat when the Hawks first made that drop pass. Faking or ignoring it got them up against two defenders with odd-mans. They’ll have to keep doing this. They’ll get more chances than they did tonight.

Wraps up a pretty tidy effort. Let’s hope for more, prepare for not. Onwards…

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Game #68 – Hawks vs. Stars Preview/Eight-Man Scramble: Well Let Me Tell Ya Somethin’, Mean Green

By Sam Fels 1508 0

vs.

RECORDS: Hawks 28-30-9    Stars 35-27-5

PUCK DROP: 7pm

TV: NBCSN Chicago

WE ARE STARDUST: Defending Big D

I used to think that the elimination of the Circus Trip and Ice Show, and not having a road trip longer than three or four games, would be a boon to the Hawks. But looking over the recent schedule, you can see why the players are not exactly pleased with how things shake out. They just came back from a West swing, one they’ll have to do again in another week or two, were home for one game before bouncing down to Texas, then back home for just one before a Canadian swing, and then back home for just two before bouncing out again. Of course, this would matter more if the games did…which they don’t.

Anyway, the schedule says the Hawks have to provide the opposition for the Stars tonight. There they’ll find a Stars team that is starting to bunker into the playoff spots. They’re four up on the Coyotes and are only three points behind the Blues for the last automatic spot in the Central. They’ve done that by winning six of their last eight, five of them in regulation, including being the only ones to remember it’s still the St. Louis Blues after all and beating them twice in that stretch. They’ve shut out the Rangers and Avalanche back-to-back at home, so this isn’t exactly the time to catch them.

It’s not like the Stars have cracked some code or radically changed how they play. They’ve just benefitted from Ben Bishop (THE BISHOP!) shooting lightning bolts out of his arse. THE BISHOP! threw a .936 at the world in February, and is at .989 in March so far, having conceded one goal in three games. The injury layoff has done him some good, obviously.

The Stars have mimicked what the Wild have done the past couple seasons. They’re not a good possession team when it comes to attempts, but as you move up the charts in terms of quality of attempts the Stars get better and better. They’re just about even in scoring-chance share, and then just a tick under 52% in high danger chance share. They’ll let you have it to the outside, but you can’t quite get to the middle on them.

The Stars have moved wunderkind Miro Heiskanen with John Klingberg and they take all the offensive responsibility while the bottom two pairings take turns manning the bunker. While they tried to use the acquisition of Mats Zuccarello to spread out some scoring, he lasted a period and a half before something went CRACK! on him. So even though Seguin and Benn are on separate lines now, they still do the heavy lifting here with assistance from Alex Radulov.

For the Hawks, the chance of a real clunker feel tangible. They weren’t very good against the Sabres but got away with it, and now you have this one game trip in a season that’s lost. You could see where weariness would combine with carelessness and against a team with it all still to play for, it’s not hard to envision where it gets ugly. Corey Crawford will do his best to keep it from doing so. Would guess the lines look pretty much the same as Thursday, which means they’ll be a mishmash because John Hayden sucks and won’t skate with Toews and Saad for more than five minutes. Maybe Sikura slots back in for Kunitz or Hayden, but…whatever.

Keep on keepin’ on…

 

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Game #68 – Hawks vs. Stars Spotlight: The Bishop, Timing, Importance, And Thyme

By Sam Fels 1628 0

Timing is everything, and Ben Bishop has learned that lesson more than most.

You may not know this, but the past five years, Ben Bishop has been a top-five starter in the league. It’s true. In the past five seasons, the only goalies to better Bishop’s .920 SV% in all situations are Carey Price, John Gibson, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Devan Dubnyk. Gibson and Vasilevskiy haven’t even been starters that whole time like Bishop has (save on injury-riddled season), so you could vault him ahead of them if you were so inclined. He’s just a tick ahead of Corey Crawford.

And it’s not like Bishop has been helped by wondrous defensive teams. He was in Tampa before they became this juggernaut, and even the Hitch-led Stars weren’t an Iron Curtain for a season. These days we only have expected Fenwick-save percentage to deal with against actual Fenwick save-percentage. In difference between those over the past five years, Bishop ranks 12th among starting goalies, ahead of names like Rask, Jones, and Hellebuyck. So he hasn’t had to perform as many miracles as Crawford or Gibson, but he’s done more with what he’s asked than can be expected.

And yet you’ll find Bishop to be one of the bigger bargains around. Bishop is the 18th-highest paid goalie in the league, making a lower cap hit than such luminaries as Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Quick, Martin Jones, and Mike Smith. And you may point to playoff pedigree, but Bishop does have a Final appearance to his name, as well as aiding an additional conference final appearance, which means he has more playoff pedigree than Howard, or Jones, or Smith. It’s been a few years though, so maybe that fades with time.

But Bishop hit free agency, or was due to, on the back of his rotten-luck, no good, groin-exploded, very middling 2016-2017. That’s the year he ceded the Tampa job to Vasilevskiy, got traded to the Kings, and then was moved before the draft afterwards to the Stars. It’s the only season in the last five he didn’t manage a .916 save-percentage, and really could not have come at a worse time. In one of Jim Nill’s more shrewd moves, as it turns out, he jumped at the chance to get Bishop at a cut-rate.

And now there’s an argument to be made that Bishop is a Vezina candidate. His .930 SV% only trails Vasilevskiy (how many players are they allowed to produce at this point?). Gibson’s injury and dip in form might shroud his wizard-like season in doubt. The difference in Bishop’s actual Fenwick SV% and expected only trails the dual-headed Lehner and Greiss, who will probably split votes, Gibson, and McElhinney. If Gibson was the front-runner a month ago, Bishop has to be in the conversation.

A win would make Bishop the only Vezina-holder making less than $6M per season. And he’s locked in until 2023 at that rate, which is a real coup.

Then again, the discussion of what goalies should be paid has always been weird. Only Carey Price’s hit or salary is over eight figures, and that doesn’t square. In terms of importance, even with the higher-scoring atmosphere, goalies might only be behind quarterbacks. No one seems to mind when QBs make a fifth or quarter of a team’s cap, because that’s just the way things are. And yet you can only find one goalie paid on par with McDavid or Matthews or Crosby? Strange, no? Look at the top goalies this year and the standings. Vasilevsky – best team in the league. Lehner and Greiss – 1st place. Halak and Rask – top five team. Andersen – top five team. This isn’t all that hard.

One day, a team is just going to hand a goalie $12M and everyone will laugh. Or a goalie will ask for that and be mocked as selfish. If Bobrovsky hadn’t totally whiffed on his free agent year, maybe he would have. Teams seem to know this, which is why goalies are getting locked up as soon as possible. Look at that Crawford deal now, at least before the concussions, and how people lost their mud when it was signed.

Price shouldn’t be alone at that plateau. If Bishop had timed it better, he’d be a lot closer.

 

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Game #68 – Hawks vs. Stars Q&A: Logan Stark Of Defending Big D

By Sam Fels 1416 0

Logan Stark is an editor at DefendingBigD.com. You can follow her @LoganStarkBooks. Hey…Stark on the Stars. We just thought of that! Anyway, here’s the Q&A we did with her two weeks ago when the Stars were here

Let’s get this out of the way up top. While the CEO swearing about the team’s two stars is good for comedic value out here, isn’t it nonsensical as Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn are just about the only reason the Stars are anything? (not to mention Benn’s long-standing place with the team and fans)
– First of all, Bishop and Khudobin have been absolute brick walls this season. They’re a large factor of why the Stars are still in a playoff position this late in the season. Second, Miro Heiskanen is a godsend for this team, especially when half the blue line was injured during the first half of the season. Okay, on to the real question. CEO Lites’ comments were beyond nonsensical. Not only did the tirade tarnish the team’s reputation around the league (what high-profile player would want to sign with the team now?), but it also made them a laughing stock. Benn and Seguin have proved Lites wrong with their on-ice performance, but those comments are continuing to hang over them and the team almost two months after they rocked hockey Twitter. Benn and Seguin are the faces of the franchise and are fan-favorites, and they were definitely fan-favorites for their classy responses to the comments. In the end, Lites’ comments backfired, I think, landing egg on his face – while getting some good splatter on the team that will come off with time. CEOs come and go, but Benn and Seguin are here to stay for a long, long time. In the end, it’s their on-ice performance and leadership in the locker room that matters the most. The team and coaching staff still support them, so why should fans do any different?
Why has Julius Honka not worked? The pedigree is there, he seems to have a coach that wants to play faster, and yet four points is four points…
– Do we have time for me to draft a graduate dissertation on why Honka hasn’t worked? No? Okay, let’s give this a shot: The yo-yo effect under Hitchcock last season did absolutely nothing for Honka. Not only was he bounced between the Dallas Stars and their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, but he was bounced with such frequency that he never had a chance to settle into the lineup and make a real impact. When Honka did spend time in Dallas, it was most often as a healthy scratch or with sub-par ice time. None of that helped his development and can only have hurt his confidence on the ice. We’ve seen flashes of his brilliance on the ice, but not this season. He’s been a healthy scratch with regularity under Montgomery, which leads me to believe that Montgomery doesn’t know where to slot him in within the current lineup. There’s just not room in the lines for a player struggling to produce (hush, let’s not talk about Nichushkin) and who needs time on the ice to get his skates back under him, so to speak. At this point, I would say it’s time to trade Honka, use him to bring in fresh talent that’s capable of producing at a steady rate.
Jim Nill has gotten three coaches. At what point does the cannon point at him?
– If the Stars fail to make the playoffs this spring, I think there’s going to be a turnover in the front office. It’s pretty clear that management expects this roster to be a repeat contender, yet they’ve failed to make a real postseason splash. If the Stars fail to make the playoffs (or fail to make it past the first round), I would place good money on Nill being let go. The lack of postseason performances and his lackluster record at the draft table would definitely be grounds for his exit from the team. At a certain point, it’s not about the coaches, but about the guy in the front office saddling said coaches with questionable trades, picks, and players.
What are the Stars gong to do before the deadline (assuming they don’t do anything before we print this, in which case I’ll just switch whatever you said to what they did and make you look like geniuses)?
– Nill has gone on record saying they’re looking for offensive power and depth at the deadline, and Dallas scouts have been checking out Zuccarello and Panarin (they got Zuc, and then he got hurt-ED). I would keep an eye out for the Stars to make a move for either of them on a rental basis (with an extension option on the table). One thing to watch for: the picks and/or players they send the opposite way. Just what is the front office willing to part with in exchange for a player that just might help the Stars get to the playoffs? In the past, Nill has been pretty good about not giving up first round picks or developing players that will aid the team. However, the Stars are getting desperate to make that playoff push this year, so is this the year Nill finally parts with the golden ticket of a first round pick?

 

 

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Game #68 – Hawks vs. Stars Douchebag Du Jour: Razor, But Only Because He Likes It

By Sam Fels 1345 0

No, seriously, he does. He’s even told us that it was an honor to be named Douchebag Du Jour once. It’s probably our greatest accomplishment. Scratch that, it definitely is.

If it were any other sport, Daryl “Razor” Reaugh would probably be the leading national analyst. He is what Charles Barkley used to be, which is funny, forthright, but also informative. Barkley gave up on the latter long ago, and the first adjective is fading unless he’s drunk (which, to be fair, he usually is). Reaugh uses the most colorful language around, and while it may feel it’s just for affect like Clyde Frazier, it’s just to gussy up some pretty spot-on analysis of a play or team. Reaugh hasn’t ever been afraid to criticize the Stars themselves, which is something of a rarity for hockey analysts.

Reaugh also has the rare claim of sliding from the color role to the play-by-play during Dave Strader’s illness, and he wasn’t half-bad doing a job he really hadn’t ever trained for. He’s slotted back now where he belongs, and remains one of the more identifiable faces of the Stars organization. If the Hawks ever do get around to firing Olczyk for actually being critical of the team and management for once, there’s only one name we’d put forth. And it’s also the one they’d never, ever consider.

But this being hockey, Reaugh’s uniqueness and joie de vivre will never see him rise to the ranks of Eddie O or Pierre McGuire (we assume Razor doesn’t like standing that close to people). There was a time you’d find him on NBCSN playoff broadcasts, but it’s been years since that happened (perhaps his choice). Instead we get Jeremy Roenick’s slowly-swelling head filling up our screens, and Roenick is only trying to be what Reaugh already is. Also Reaugh uses words that 75% of hockey analysts can’t spell (not that 100% convinced Razor can spell them all either, but that’s half the fun!).

The most disappointing thing about Stars-Hawks games is that they’re the four or five Stars games we can’t listen to Razor for, and we’d give anything to know how he’d describe Gustafsson’s or Forsling’s or Seabrook’s defensive play. We’ll just have to move. It would be worth it.

 

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