The Kessel Run writes for Pensburgh.com. You can follow him on Twitter @Gbehanna.
Game #44 Preview Suite
The Kessel Run writes for Pensburgh.com. You can follow him on Twitter @Gbehanna.
Game #44 Preview Suite
So here’s a scenario for you, and one that you might want to prepare for. Matt Murray can’t ever dislodge Casey DeSmith from the starter’s role in the Penguins crease. Because of the mediocre nature of the Metro, and the star power of the Penguins, they could get to a conference final without a huge struggle. And the narrative will of course be how the Penguins unearthed yet another young goalie, and how they just keep going like a machine. “How do they do it?” everyone will ask. Worse yet, DeSmith may get lauded heavily, and perhaps even touted as a redemption story.
That’s because Casey DeSmith is a piece of shit.
As University of New Hampshire, DeSmith was arrested for viciously beating his girlfriend while drunk. He repeatedly jumped on her, as well as punching her. DeSmith was suspended and eventually dismissed from the UNH program. DeSmith was able to avoid jail-time by going into alcohol and anger counseling, as well as community service under a diversion agreement.
Of course, you’ll never hear this mentioned about DeSmith, as most hockey media will dismiss anything in college or juniors as “boys being boys.” That doesn’t mean that DeSmith should be barred from playing hockey or even the NHL, given that the case is now closed. Though it makes one wonder why the Penguins were in such a hurry to sign him.
But it should be a part of any story about DeSmith, but it never is. It’ll be cataloged as an “obstacle” that DeSmith had to overcome on his way to NHL glory, no different than an injury or struggling play or the like. DeSmith can be a successful goalie, and we can separate what he did from that. But what shouldn’t happen is that being ignored, and given the disgusting nature of his crimes, it’s something he should have to carry as well. If the NHL and the media alike were ever serious about this issue, he would.
But listen to any broadcast struggle to talk about Austin Watson now, and you know we’re a long way from that.
Game #44 Preview Suite

Notes: Caligula makes his debut tonight, which for some reason necessitated the demotion of Dylan Sikura, who despite not scoring had been productive. It also give Top Cat even less to work with, as Perlini just doesn’t have the creativity that Sikura at least flashed…Ward starts tonight, with Delia going tomorrow at home vs. Calgary…Jokiharju should return tomorrow, ending our Forsling nightmare…

Notes: A brief apology, Corsica.ca wasn’t working so the individual metrics are still from last month. The line stats are updated…Since returning from injury last month, Murray is 7-0-0 with a .959. He shut out the Jets last time out…Sid has 23 points in 17 games since December 1st…Letang has 12 points in his last nine games…


Game #44 Preview Suite
Jets vs Penguins – 6pm
I didn’t know this, and maybe it’s because I’m getting old and less observant, but the Penguins have ripped off nine of 10 since the embarrassing fate of losing to the Hawks by multiple goals in December. It’s left them on the shoulder of the Caps atop the Metro, and probably started talk of another run in May. Casey DeSmith, piece of garbage that he is, has stabilized the crease. The Jets are the Jets, who with their games in hand have a gap on the Predators. It’s two of the aristocracy.
Second Screen Viewing
Capitals vs. Stars – 7pm
The Stars are trying to round into gear after their CEO ridiculously called out their best players, and they’ve let the Avalanche sink below them in the Central. Alex Ovechkin keeps scoring, Braden Holtby keeps stopping pucks, so even if the Caps metrics never measure up they’re just going to be around.
Other Games
Predators vs. Red Wings – 6:30
Blue Jackets vs. Hurricanes – 6:30
Rangers vs. Avalanche – 8pm
Devils vs. Coyotes – 8pm
Golden Knights vs. Ducks – 9pm
Despite last night’s loss, or tie but goes down as a loss in a gimmick, the Hawks over the last 11 games have gone 6-3-2. That’s a pretty decent record, there are some decent teams in that stretch they’ve played, and had they been at that pace all season would work out to a 104-point pace. Were they to maintain it the rest of the year they’d end up with 87 points. Not nearly enough for the playoffs, not anywhere near the top of the lottery, but probably allows them just enough wiggle room to turn their palms up at the season-closing presser to say if just a couple things more had gone right or Crawford not gotten hurt or something to say they’re on the right path. And hell, maybe in some way if you squint real hard that wouldn’t be entirely wrong, depending on how players like Collin Delia, Henri Jokiharju, Connor Murphy, Carl Dahlstrom, Dylan Sikura, Dylan Strome, and one or two others close out the season and portend to the future.
But because results can get so weird in hockey and not really be connected to anything, we’re more interested in process around here. So in the last 11 games, is the Hawks process any better?

Starting on the day the Hawks beat the Penguins at home, they are 15th in points percentage. But they’re 27th in Corsi-percentage, at an unsightly 45.1% They’re 28th in scoring-chance percentage at an even more homely 44.3%. Salvation in high-danger chances? You best believe that’s a nope: 29th at 39.9%.
Worrying more is that all of these numbers are significantly worse than the Hawks’ season-long marks, which means whatever changes Coach Cool Youth Pastor is trying to make haven’t had an effect, or they have and made things worse than they were. That’s not where the Hawks are supposed to be, especially because he’s actually gotten a small, minuscule even, infusion of talent that Quenneville didn’t get in the form of Murphy, Dahlstrom, and Sikura (who’s been pretty good but keeps getting benched).
What the Hawks are getting over the last three weeks is luck and goaltending. Their PDO has risen over 1.000, to 1.021, and that’s mostly due to an even-strength save-percentage of .935 the last 11, which is ninth in the league, as opposed to their season-long .917. That’s a difference of six goals at just even-strength in 11 games, and you can imagine what kind of effect on results and points those six goals would have had, depending on where they were placed.
Has anything gotten better? Well, yes, a very little. A crimp you can barely hang onto. They’re giving up a touch less attempts and shots per 60, so that’s nice. But they’re taking less as well. They’re also giving up about the same amount of scoring chances per hour but are creating less. So that’s not optimal either.
What the Hawks have done is massively improve the power play, and that can be at partially credited to our very fashionable and hip coach. They’ve piled in nine PP goals in the last 11, where they’d only managed 11 in the 32 games before that. So that helps, and power play goals do count, despite what some would tell you. Somehow though, the penalty kill has gotten worse, giving up a goal per game in this streak while “only” giving up 23 in 32 games before that.
So while it’s been more enjoyable, in some ways, to watch the Hawks win a few games for a change, there’s nothing about it that suggests it’s sustainable or indicative of a brighter future. In the words of Homer Simpson, “It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.” Or more to the point, Collin Delia made a bunch of damn saves and Cam Ward didn’t puke on himself the whole time.
That could be better.
The Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliate of the Blackhawks, have a real issue with goal scoring this season. As the midway point of the 2018-19 season approaches, it’s beginning to create some separation in the AHL’s Central Division standings. For the Hogs, that’s not in a good way.
As has been the case for a while now, Rockford is in sixth place in the division. However, the gap between the IceHogs and fifth-place Milwaukee is growing. The Hogs (.514 points percentage) are closer to seventh-place San Antonio (.485) than they are the Admirals (.571).
This week, the IceHogs were on the short end of a pair of 2-1 decisions. Kevin Lankinen and Anton Forsberg kept things close. In the end, Rockford was not up to the task offensively.
The defense, surrendering just 2.83 goals per game, is ranked fifth in the league. It’s a crying shame the organization doesn’t put some goal-scorers on this team every year. Right now, the IceHogs are made up of prospects and a couple of decent complimentary scorers.
As of this morning, the Hogs are still dead last in the AHL in scoring. Their figure has dropped over the last five games to 2.22 goals per contest. RFD has scored 0, 2, 1,1 and 1 in those past five. To the surprise of no one, the piglets have lost all five of those games.
If RFD is going to pick it up in the second half, some of the kids need to start finding the net. They also are going to need some help in the form of veteran pickups.
Last year, Stan Bowman filled the scoring needs with some trade deadline acquisitions, as well as assigning some players from the bottom of the Hawks roster. The bolstered Hogs reached the conference final. Two years ago, things went sour in Rockford when the team was not shored up with needed talent.
The organization may not start making moves for a few weeks yet. That means that the IceHogs are going to have to start treading water and hope help arrives.
The AHL announced the rosters for the leagues All-Star Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts at the end of this month. Andrew Campbell was named a captain of the Western Conference squad back on December 20. Goalie Collin Delia, who is currently playing with the Blackhawks, was also named from the Central Division.
On Thursday, the IceHogs brought up defensemen Josh McArdle and Neil Manning from the Indy Fuel. Though Dennis Gilbert was back in the lineup this week after missing a few games, Lucas Carlsson and Jan Rutta were out for Wednesday’s game with Milwaukee. The IceHogs were forced to go with 13 forwards and just five defensemen against the Admirals.
The scoreboard wasn’t used until the midpoint; Carter Camper converted for the Griffins on a two-man advantage at 11:19 of the second period. A goal by Graham Knott was waved off due to a goalie interference call on Luke Johnson a few minutes later.
Rockford tied the game for real after a faceoff win at the left dot by Nathan Noel. Henrik Samuelsson tapped the puck to Matheson Iacopelli, who slid it back to Lucas Carlsson just inside the Grand Rapids blueline. The long-distance shot got the best of Griffins goalie Harri Sateri and nestled into the twine to even the score at a goal apiece at 15:50 of the middle frame.
Grand Rapids took a 2-1 lead with 4:44 remaining in regulation when Chris Terry’s maneuvering created the space for Joe Hicketts to send a slap shot past Hogs goalie Kevin Lankinen. Lankinen was pulled with 2:32 to go for an extra skater, but the IceHogs weren’t able to get a shot past Sateri.
Rockford dropped its fifth-straight game, falling to the Admirals at the BMO in front of 3330 humans, several dozen canine friends and at least one pet of the porcine variety.
The Hogs dug a 2-0 hole for themselves over the first two periods. The Admirals swarmed Rockford in the opening minutes, taking a 1-0 advantage on a Yakov Trenin goal 1:45 into the contest. Connor Brickley put back a rebound of an Alexandre Carrier shot 4:21 into the second to double the Milwaukee lead.
Rockford’s starter in net, Anton Forsberg, did not allow another Admirals goal to give his club a chance to rally. The IceHogs had the game’s only four power play chances but could not convert. William Pelletier, Rockford’s most active skater all evening, redirected a Tyler Sikura shot for his first goal of the season. This cut the lead to 2-1 4:26 into the final period.
Hogs coach Derek King went with six skaters for the final two-and-a-half minutes, to no avail. Raddysh sent a shot off the left post but that’s as close as Rockford could get to the equalizer.
The prospect of breaking Rockford’s losing streak is made tougher with a home-and-home series with the Iowa Wild this weekend. The Hogs begin the action in DesMoines Friday. The teams come to the BMO Harris Bank Center on Sunday.
Iowa sits atop the Cental Division. The Wild (19-8-4-3) won their fourth straight Wednesday night, beating Chicago 3-1. Iowa has won three of the four games against Rockford this season, outscoring the piglets 11-5 in those games.
The scoring has been spread throughout the lineup; 13 active Iowa skaters have double digit points, compared to just seven for the IceHogs. Cal O’Reilly, the Wild captain and an All-Star selection, paces his club with 25 points (5 G, 20 A). Iowa is getting goals from Gerry Fitzgerald (12), Colton Beck (10) and Justin Kloos (10).
Rookie goalie Kaapo Kahkonen has three wins over the Hogs this season. In fact, he’s shut them out twice. Rockford has just one goal against Kahkonen, who will also represent the Wild at the All-Star Classic, this season.
Of Rockford’s five goals against the Wild, Anthony Louis has three of them. Two came on November 4 in a 4-2 Hogs victory. Louis (8 G, 13 A) is tied with Darren Raddysh (7 G, 14 A) for the team lead in points with 21.
Follow me @JonFromi on twitter for my thoughts on the IceHogs all season long.
The Blackhawks were lucky this shitfest went to overtime. I am no Pullega so let’s just bullets it:
-The Blackhawks being beaten by a guy named Toews is kind of a hilarious cherry on top of this season, to me at least. Finally Hockey Twitter is right and a Toews was the downfall of the Hawks.
– So, Collin Delia might be an actual thing. Like I said, the Hawks were lucky they even got to overtime in this one, and it was solely on the play of Delia that they got there. He stopped 47 of 50 total shots and was locked in the whole time, save for some slight rebound control issues early on that aren’t exactly surprising given this is his fifth career NHL game. He’s been aces for them and might just end up fucking up the quasi-tank they have going on here. But given the status of Crawford, if he proves to be a franchise goalie, that’s way more important than Jack Hughes would be so it’d be fine. Moving forward there is no reason he shouldn’t be started every game that isn’t a back-to-back, and since the Hawks have just one of those in a light January before the bye week at the end of the month, he needs to be between the pipes this whole month so we really see what we have here.
– I have been very wary of giving up on Gustav Forsling, in large part because I felt like I really saw something in him that proved he could be a good defenseman in the NHL. He has the smooth skating stride, the puck control, the passing that you want to see from a mobile defenseman. The problem is he can’t for the life of him put it all together, and I don’t think they ever taught him what defense actually looks like in Sweden. He has been downright bad for a while now and I have finally come to grips with it. At this point the best case is maybe that you find a team willing to gamble on his upside.
Side note – based on the reports I’m hearing from the WJC and some of the earlier scouting reports, I might be starting to be a little worried about if Adam Boqvist is actually gonna be able to play defense, or if he’ll just be Forsling with better tools.
– The Jonathan Toews “Fuck You Tour” continued tonight, as even in a game in which the Hawks got shitpumped and skull-fucked simultaneously in the possession game with a hilariously bad “are you sure you even tried” 36.89 CF%, Toews dominated to the tune of an individual CF% of 60. Brandon Saad and Dominic Kahun were flanking him and were the only other two Hawks above 50%, with 58.64 and 54.55 respectively. That’s a dominant night from that line that basically went for naught, save for Kahun getting the opening goal of the game.
– Speaking of “Fuck You” tours, this time of a different variety, Duncan Keith was ass again tonight with a 37.14 CF%. I’m sad but also tired of it.
– I had the national NBCSN feed streaming on my computer, because for some reason NBCSN wanted to subject the nation to this monstrosity, but in the end it turned out that the real monstrosity was the broadcast. I don’t know who the announcers were for the broadcast, but they were boring as hell. One of them was a woman who’s analysis was good for the most part save for a few cheap praises of a Hawks team that played like utter garbage, but even with that they were not exciting at all. It also sounded like Nassau Coliseum was dead. And then in the intermission reports, Kathryn Tappen (who is normally very good) butchered Delia’s name to an extent that I did not think could be possible, though I can’t exactly blame her because he’s a relative unknown and she’s on the national level so she probably learned his name today. Then Roenick had the audacity in the postgame to say the Hawks played “good tight defense” and that’s why Delia was able to keep them in it, and I was done. I need to go back to the Mute Lounge.
– GO BEARS BITCH.
Flames vs. Bruins – 6pm
The surprise package of the West, the Calgary Flames, continue an Eastern swing by stopping in to Boston to face the clearly indestructible Bruins. By all rights the Bruins should be buried by the injuries they’ve had, but David Pastrnak, David Krejci, and their goaltending have somehow kept them afloat. The Sharks and Knights are rounding into gear, seemingly, so the Flames are going to have to maintain their start throughout the rest of the season if they don’t want to go through both of them in the playoffs.
Second Screen Viewing
Wrestle Kingdom – 2am
The rest of the games blow tonight. So if you want a hilarious Twitter follow and you don’t have anywhere to be tomorrow, watch a bunch of freaks like me stay up all night to watch Japanese wrestling. It’s their Wrestlemania at the Tokyo Dome, and we’ll all be losing our shit in the middle of the night while we frighten our neighbors. Enjoy the psychosis.
Other Games
Wild vs. Maple Leafs – 1pm
Panthers vs. Sabres – 6pm
Hurricanes vs. Flyers – 6pm
Canucks vs. Canadiens – 6:30
Capitals vs. Blues – 7pm
Lightning vs Kings – 9:30
vs. 
RECORDS: Hawks 15-21-6 Islanders 21-13-4
PUCK DROP: 6:30
TV: NBCSN Chicago locally, NBCSN elsewhere
FUTURE ISLANDS IS A TERRIBLE BAND: Lighthouse Hockey
The Hawks are back on Long Island for the first time in four seasons, as while waiting for their new arena the New York Islanders are trying to make it up to their fans who never took to Brooklyn because they didn’t want to stay in New York after work for one extra second, unless it was the three times a year they bother Rangers fans at MSG. Or Brooklyners never took to the team because Jay-Z’s playhouse sucks for hockey. Or because those stuck on the Island didn’t want to come into the city for fear of meeting a minority. Whatever the reason, the Isles are splitting their home schedule between Brooklyn and the revamped Nassau Coliseum (where they come to see ’em), and the Hawks get the latter trip tonight.
What they’ll find is one of the bigger surprises in the league. The Isles were supposed to be left for dead after they made up for John Tavares‘s departure by hiring Toronto’s decrepit GM and letting him pick up Toronto’s trash. While they did poach a Stanley Cup winning coach in something of a coup, this roster was supposed to be in the first step of a rebuild. It hasn’t quite worked out that way.
But don’t fool yourself. Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz haven’t found some magic formula in their metamucil and oatmeal to turn a roster full of whatsits into a fine oiled machine. What they have is two goalies playing bonkers and some luck. The Isles have the third-best SV% at evens in the league, and the third-best PDO at a kind of unsustainable 103.5 (hey, remember The Blaze?). The Isles are not a good possession or defensive team, they’re just getting two guys stopping just about everything
For Thomas Greiss, it’s not a huge surprise as he’s put up more than competent split-seasons before with the Islanders. He was simply woeful last year, ceded the job to Jaroslav Halak, but has rebounded this season. Robin Lehner, who is nominally the starter at the moment, has done this before as well, with some excellent cameos in Ottawa and Buffalo. Because neither is being asked to shoulder the load alone, and it has benefitted both of them. And they are the reason that the Islanders are one point out of a playoff spot no one saw coming.
Up front, Mathew Barzal and his missing ‘T” have taken the #1 center responsibility and ably so. He’s kept Josh Bailey scoring, which is a trick because pretty much everyone assumed Bailey was a Tavares-product. Anders Lee and Brock Nelson have anchored the second line, and new toy Josh Ho-Sang is running with them in an exciting vision of the future…assuming Nelson and Lee are both re-signed in the summer.
That’s about it though. Anthony Beauvillier has put up 11 goals, and Marcus Kruger East Casey Cizikas has spasmed 10, but this is not a team that scores a ton. They average just about the same amount of goals per game as the Hawks. Their margins are thin.
On the back end, their top-pairing of Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk has been woeful, and constantly bailed out by Lehner and Greiss. Leddy seems to have struggled all year with all the things Trotz has asked of him, and around here we know especially how fragile his confidence can be. The Isles are waiting for the young troika of Scott Pelech, Ryan Pulock, and Scott Mayfield (not as much) to grab the brass ring. And they have at various times and definitely not at others. It’s a work in progress back there, though the Isles are pretty middling in terms of shots and chances against in the league.
For the Hawks, one should expect Collin Delia to return to the net tonight after Cam Ward got his gold-watch ceremony in South Bend. Few other changes would be likely. No word on if Drake Caggiula will make his debut in red or not, but that might be the only one you see. There aren’t any other d-men right now. Unless you are about the usual Martinsen-Hayden flip, and you shouldn’t.
A little further on down the road, peeps…
Game #43 Preview Suite