Hockey

Game #68 – Hawks vs. Red Wings Spotlight: Die Like Dylan Larkin, A Seizure On The Barroom Floor

By Sam Fels 1150

You have to hand it to Steve Yzerman and the Wings. This is how you tank. It’s rare to see this hardcore of a tank in the NHL, outside of Ottawa at least, but the Wings have managed it. As flawed and infuriating as the Hawks are, they have twice as many points as the Wings. Twice. You might clamor for something like this in Chicago, but take a good look at the Wings and decide if that’s what you really want. And remember that the Wings haven’t had players the quality of Kane, Toews, Keith, or Crawford to jettison in years. It takes a while just to get here.

Part of this rebuild is identifying what is going to be on the team when it matters again, no matter how far off that is. The foundation must be ground in something, as General Zod told you. Filip Hronek seems to be something the Wings are banking on, and with cause. Tyler Bertuzzi is another, though probably farther down the lineup in the years to come. Anthony Mantha is already 25, so that’s questionable.

The biggest pillar the Wings are selling is that Dylan Larkin will be the #1 center when they’re ready to not be a reminder of how life can go horribly wrong. What this post presupposes is…maybe he isn’t?

It is hard to judge fully what Larkin is, simply because he’s played on dogshit teams for so long. Last year he put up a 73-point campaign which pretty much nothing on his wings. And yet that very well might be his ceiling, as he won’t approach that this season and again he’s getting top center minutes at evens and on the power play. At some point, if you’re truly a diamond you’ll shine through the muck, as it were.

Our argument falls flat though when you see what kind of relative numbers Larkin is putting up, at least metrically. He six points above the team’s Corsi-percentage rate this year, after being nearly 10 above it last year. His relative xG% is 8.65 above this campaign after 9.62 last year. So even if he’s still in the red overall, he’s doing far better than the wayward and destitute that comprise his teammates.

Larkin’s individual shots, chances, and attempts this year are all down from last year, but that again could be from playing with no one who can create things for him instead of the other way around. We won’t know until he gets some actual talent around him, which might come in the form of Elmer Soderblom, Moritz Seider, Filip Zadina, or Alex Lafreniere if the Wings end up with the 1st pick in June. That’s the hope around there.

And it still kind of has to be Larkin. Lafreniere is a wing, and the rest of the system is much stronger on wingers or d-men than it is on centers.  Joe Veleno is the just about the only center in the system that’s going to make it to Detroit soon, and he doesn’t project to displace Larkin. There isn’t anyone coming to take Larkin’s job anytime soon.

Still, Larkin doesn’t really look like a premier scorer. He’s got one 30+ goal season, but has broken 20 only one other time in five seasons. His career SH% or chances he gets don’t suggest anything more than a 20-25 goal guy. Is he a great playmaker? Doesn’t appear to be, though full judgement will come when his wingers aren’t consistently dizzy or looking for directions. He might just be a #2 center.

Depends on what projection Yzerman has here, but the ballsy call might be to at least see what’s out there for Larkin. He’ll be 24 next year and on a very reasonable $6.1M hit for the next two seasons. There are a lot of teams that could use him as a #2 center (Bruins as Krejci ages? Sharks for when Thornton retires? Stars?), and the Wings might need more than they’ve already got. They’re years from competing anyway. It wouldn’t be the biggest shock, is all we’re saying. Though with this draft as weak as it’s considered at the moment, adding more picks in it doesn’t have quite the appeal.

That would take some brass balls. This isn’t just the only player who’s been worth watching on the team for years. This is a kid who grew up in Michigan, wanting to play for the Wings his whole life and then became captain. You can see why the Wings want to build everything around him. It’s just a question of if they really can.

Hockey

Game #68 – Hawks vs. Red Wings: Hedley Lamarr’s Mugs, Pugs, And Thugs

By Sam Fels 1123

Who The Fuck Are These People? – It was one thing when the Wings fucked off to the Eastern Conference because their precious fans couldn’t stay up past 10pm so they could be up early for the jobs they don’t have, which essentially ruined this rivalry. Also it helped them keep their stupid little playoff streak alive a couple more years so they could get labeled by the Bruins or Lightning a couple times, and they must be so proud. But now that they’re in a full rebuild, we don’t have any idea who any of these jokers they’re running out there are. Or if we do we know enough to not care. Alex Biega? Fabbri Robbie? Patrik Nemeth? These guys have go a far ways north just to get a shoulder shrug. We’d try and build up bile for Dylan Larkin…but really who cares? He’s never played game that mattered and probably won’t for another three years.

Trevor Daley – Dumbest player in the league who plays with chew in his lip. How fucking gross is that? Could it be any more Canadian?

Anthony Mantha – Apparently the Wings always have to have some mule that scores goals for no reason. So here’s Mantha, who skates like a building but yet piles up goals no one will remember. On pace for an prime “Yeah, but who gives a shit?” career.

Hockey

Game #68 – Hawks vs. Red Wings: Lineups & How They Were Built

By Sam Fels 966

Hawks

Notes: Carlsson left the game early last night after taking a shot to the ear, and you would think in the name of precaution and also this being the fucking Wings the Hawks could get away with sitting him for a night. Then again, Nick Seeler might be just that bad…Both Keith and Murphy played over 25 minutes last night. Some of that is being down to five d-men for half the game, but some of that is keeping Boqvist far too sheltered. He’s playing well…If you can’t give Subban a start against this collection of nitwits, then what’s even the point?

Red Wings

Notes: WHO?!…The Wings went with seven d-men last game so we’re assuming they’ll do so again…even if six of these guys suck to high heaven…Lindstrom is not Nicklas’s kid, but you can be sure the Wings drafted him to fool their fans into think he was…Larkin has nine points in his last seven games, and that’s the only line on this outfit that has any pulse whatsoever…

Hockey

High On The Hog: The Big Three

By Jon Fromi 1157

The Rockford IceHogs are about to begin a three-game weekend with big-time playoff implications. Chicago’s AHL affiliate kicks things off with a home-and-home with Grand Rapids before paying a visit to Rosemont and the Chicago Wolves.

Here’s a quick look at what’s waiting for the IceHogs this weekend.

Both the Griffins and Wolves are ahead of Rockford in the Central Division standings. The Hogs have split the season series with Grand Rapids. Their rivals from Michigan have taken ten points out of the first eight games between the teams, compared to Rockford’s eight.

Both teams have won twice on the road in the season series, though in recent years the trend has favored the home team in the rivalry. Over the last five seasons, Rockford is 15-8 against the Griffins at the BMO Harris Bank Center. Grand Rapids owns a 15-4-2-2 mark against the Hogs at Van Andel Arena.

Things get started in Rockford Friday night. A split just isn’t going to be good enough with the Griffins. The piglets need points in regulation, especially against a team battling with them for the postseason.

Back on February 18, Grand Rapids beat the Hogs 2-1 in Rockford. Three of this season’s tilts have been decided by that score. The next two games should also be hotly contested.

Veteran Chris Terry is pacing the Griffins in scoring, with 20 goals and 30 assists on the season. Grand Rapids also gets offense from familiar faces like Matthew Ford (10 G, 16 A) and Matt Puempel (15 G, 22 A). Goalies Calvin Pickard and Pat Nagle have been excellent against Rockford, giving up just seven goals in five games between them.

Rockford enters the weekend with John Quenneville (13 G, 9 A) still out with a strained neck. Joseph Cramarossa’s phyiscal game would be a welcome addition to the Hogs lineup. However, he also may not be ready to play this weekend.

The big injury news comes with Rockford’s announcement Thursday that goalie Kevin Lankinen is finished for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery. Things may not have ended like Lankinen had hoped this year, but the net is still in the capable hands of Collin Delia and Matt Tomkins.

Could Delia play in three straight games this weekend? He’s been the primary man in goal since Lankinen left a February 13 game after the first period. It would probably make sense to use Tomkins on Saturday in Grand Rapids and give the net to Delia Friday and Sunday, when Rockford visits the Wolves.

Chicago has lost four straight, including Thursday’s 4-2 decision to Tucson. The Roadrunners are at Allstate Arena Saturday night before Rockford comes a calling on Sunday.

The Wolves have been a little undermanned of late. They did, however, knock off the Hogs 5-1 in Rosemont on February 23 and made the piglets look pretty bad in doing so. Rockford is 6-2 against Chicago this season. They can wrap up the vaunted Illinois Lottery Cup for the first time in three years with a win in any of the last four meetings with the Wolves.

What’s really important, of course, is overtaking Chicago in the standings. That means getting the job done Sunday afternoon.

Follow me @JonFromi on twitter for my thoughts on the IceHogs throughout the season.

Hockey

Game #67 – Oilers 3, Hawks 4 – On And On The Clouds Have Fought For Control Over The Sky

By Adam Hess 1751

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

It got a little more itchy than it needed to, but the Hawks were ultimately able to hang onto what was a comfortable lead tonight against the Oilers, and grab their fourth win a row to keep their minuscule-but-still-existent playoff chances alive. Let’s discuss:

ADAM BOQVIST AND KIRBY DACH ARE GOOD

– The first period was an encouraging and entertaining frame, as the Hawks did a nice job trading possession and chances with the Oilers, and ultimately netting the first goal of the game. While I loathe agreeing with anything Pat Foley ever has to say at this point, he was correct in pointing out after that period that the shot total from the two teams was a lot lower than it felt it should have been. But with that said, the Hawks were able to escape with a lead after a beautiful play by Dylan Strome set up Patrick Kane for a great scoring chance that he converted after showing some nice patience.

– The second period was all Blackhawks, as they notched a 76.67 (!!!) CF% in the middle frame and out-chanced the Oilers 12-4. It all started right away when Drake Caggiula went into full on hustle-play mode to win a rush and gain possession before a little kerfuffle in front of the net led to a Jonathan Toews wraparound chance that went in off a skate. Later on, Alex DeBrincat was able to cash in on two excellent chances with a little help from Caggiula parking his husky ass in front of Mike Smith, who was promptly pulled from the game after DeBrincat’s second and the Hawks fourth, only to throw a huge pissbaby tantrum while his paraded down the tunnel. In other news, I will be uploading the video of that tantrum to every adult video site known to man for your pleasure. I am a man of the people, after all.

– Let’s talk a bit about DeBrincat’s two goals, as I don’t have much to say about it but do want to touch on it specifically. Mostly I just want to say, damn it felt good to see the man get a pair tonight. It’s been a rough season for Top Cat due to getting hockey BABIP’d to high hell all year, but having those two go in had to feel good for the kid. If the Hawks do have any chance of going on a miracle run and making the playoffs, he is gonna have to get off his shnide a bit, so hopefully this was just the start to that.

– Staying with Top Cat but for a different reason, I cannot figure out for the life of me why he is still standing in front of the net on the PP1 unit. There is no way that is effective in the way it is intended to be, if Coach Smooth Brain is hoping that a few pucks bouncing off his legs and into the net are going to unlock his scoring touch, well that just confirms that his brain is smooth like a half melted piece of ice.

However, I have done Colliton’s job for him (someone has to) and developed a solution to this that is quite simple – swap Top Cat and Kirby Dach‘s respective roles on the PP1 and PP2 units. Put Dach on PP1 with Kane, Toews, Kubbly, and Keith, and let him park his big ass in front of the net where his size is actually useful but he still has the skill to actually make something of it. Then put DeBrincat on PP2 with Saad, Strome, Boqvist and whoever else, and let him work a half wall where is actually a legitimate threat with his quick release. Yes, I know this is too logical for Coach Gemstone, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t brilliant. You know it is.

– Overall, despite the itchiness of the third period, this was an encouraging performance from the Hawks against a team that is more than likely to be in the playoffs. Now all they have to do is string 10-12 more performances like this over their final 15 games. Easy enough, right?

– Hawks go next tomorrow night in Detroit, which should be a layup win. In some ways, that could be the real litmus test here – if they lose that one, you know they’re pretenders and should just pack it in for the draft pick. But winning, while it should be expected, would still mean they can be in because they are at least completing the bare minimum task of actually beating the teams they should. Until then.

Hockey

Game #67 – Oilers vs. Hawks Preview: Fully Operational

By Sam Fels 1392

vs.

RECORDS: Oilers 36-23-8   Hawks 30-28-8

PUCK DROP: 7:30pm

TV: NBCSN Chicago

SO VERY COLD: Oilers Nation

I suppose this is something of the pivot game for the Hawks. You would assume, though that could be a very silly thing to do, that they’ll get the win in Detroit tomorrow night that’s on offer for everyone. Another embarrassing effort against the Blues waits on Sunday (there’s been three already). But the Hawks can turn that into something of a free hit with a win over the Oilers tonight. That would also be four wins in row, with a chance of five in Michigan, which would allow the Hawks to say they’re “charging.” That’s if you buy into all this.

Also, the Oilers aren’t a flu-ridden Ducks team missing its top three d-men (who then went on to beat the Avs in Denver last night, because hockey is here to prove your rules are for shit).

That doesn’t mean we can tell you what the Oilers are. We have no idea. We were sure they would have collapsed by now. We thought Mike Smith would sink them. Or McDavid’s injury. Or a complete lack of forwards. Or just being the Oilers. And yet here they are, not only entrenched in the playoff race but only two points behind the Knights for the Pacific lead with a game in hand. Perhaps it’s just the Pacific Division that makes you question the rules you followed.

So what are they doing here. Special teams, special teams, and special teams again. The Oilers power play is clicking at 30%. They have the second-best penalty kill in the league. They have 56 power play goals, and 30 power play goals against. When you win the special teams battle pretty much every night, you don’t have to be that good at even-strength. And don’t you worry, the Oilers aren’t really.

Then again, it also helps to have two MVP-worthy players centering your top two lines.

The Oilers finally separated Draisaitl and McDavid this year, and have watched Draisaitl carry the team in McDavid’s absence and become the front-runner for the Hart himself. He leads the league in scoring by 13 points…over McDavid. He’s on pace to blow by Kucherov’s 128 last year, which we thought was a number that came from the moon then. And McDavid is McDavid. Seeing as how they’re going to the playoffs, you’d be hard-pressed to find an opposing blue line that would be looking forward to this challenge.

The Oilers sought to shore up their pretty sad forward situation at the deadline by bringing in Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Ennis, who apparently that guy who plays for all teams at pickup games in any sport. Raise your hand if you knew Ennis was still in the league. He wasn’t, he was in Ottawa. Anyway, he’s currently getting the sweetheart spot of playing alongside McDavid.

Which puts McDavid in the strange spot of being the line you don’t worry about as much. Since RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto have been put together they’ve kicked a hole it he world. Athanasiou is currently being used to give the bottom six anything resembling a pulse, so it’s a stronger outfit than the Hawks couldn’t overcome last time they met. And that one didn’t have McDavid, which kicked off that horror show Western Canada swing.

No changes for the Hawks tonight, and nor should there be. CCYP is making noise about starting Crawford in both halves of this back-to-back, but you’d think there couldn’t possibly be a softer landing for Malcolm Subban to make his Hawks debut than against former-Scum.

The Hawks couldn’t deal with the Oilers power play last time, so it will be imperative to stay out of the box as much as possible tonight. No one can deal with this power play. But hey, the Preds stayed out of the box pretty much against this team on Monday, and they gave up seven even-strength goals. So yeah.

But if the Hawks want to claim they have one last charge in them, and they’re on it now, they have to get this one.

Hockey

Game #67 – Oilers vs. Hawks Spotlight: Greece Lightning

By Sam Fels 1210

When news broke on deadline day that Andreas Athanasiou had finally been traded from Detroit, our hearts sank a little. We had dreamed of Athanasiou on Madison, if only for the localized Cheap Trick jokes. In earnest, Athanasiou is the kind of player the Hawks paid lip service to trying to get and find and develop a couple years ago, but never did. The Hawks aren’t fast enough, they only acquire or produce players that aren’t fast enough, and Athanasiou is the kind of speed they need to find more of. We especially were hurt by the seemingly light price-tag that Athanasiou cost the Oilers. Sam Gagner is merely a collection of organs now, and two second-rounders is not nothing but it’s hardly a chest full of gold either. Especially as the Oilers picks will be in the back half of the round, at least this year.

And because it happened in Detroit last year, which is now hockey’s tree-falling-in-the-forest, most don’t remember that Athanasiou went for 30 goals and 54 points last year while mostly playing with the charred ends of Frans Nielsen and Luke Glendening. How could he only be worth two seconds and a youth-coach-in-waiting?

It also seemed curious that Ken Holland is the one who came in for Athanasiou, as it felt like he was leading the charge of under-appreciation for him. It was Holland who stonewalled the player as a restricted free agent in 2017, nearly sending him to Europe and not signing him until three weeks into that season. But then it was Holland who didn’t make that mistake twice, handing him the contract he has now that expires after this season immediately. Maybe Holland has come around.

Still, if you wanted to, you could make the argument that Athanasiou is a glorified Tony Salmaleinen. Because that 30-goal campaign looks a long way off this season.

Athanasiou has only put up 11 goals this term, though playing most of his time in Detroit with yet another cadaver in Valttieri Filppula didn’t help matters. But all of Athansiou’s metrics are way down. He shot 13% last year, but it is just 8.,7 so far this season. His career mark is 12.7%, so this could be unlucky.

But his individual expected goals are down. So are his attempts. So are his scoring chances. And shots. He used to pile up over nine shots per 60 minutes. This year it’s below eight. He’s scoring a touch below what he “should” be, according to his ixG, but hardly enough to consider him hard done by.

Even upon arrival in Edmonton, he wasn’t immediately put in the top six where one would assume he would go. He’s behind Tyler Ennis, for christ’s sake. He’s got a chance to make an impact in the playoffs for the first time, and maybe playing against third pairings will give him the chance to really open things up.

It might be his last chance at a raise. Athanasiou is still a restricted free agent after this year. But he can earn another bridge deal before heading to free agency. It’s clear Holland wants a clear look here in a new place.

Because it feels like Athanasiou should be more than this. That could be simply because his prime skill, his speed, is so easy to notice by anyone. It can look like he’s having more of an effect than he is. Still, at some point he’s going to get a look with Draisaitl or McDavid, for the first time with a prime center, and we’ll find out just what he could be. If Zack Kassian can pile up 15 goals riding shotgun, and he can’t move or think or talk, what could someone with these gifts do?

Hockey

Game #67 – Oilers vs. Hawks: Hedley Lamarr’s Muggers, Buggerers, And Bushwhackers

By Sam Fels 1093 0

Mike Smith – For some reason, the Oilers seem intent on making Smith their unquestioned #1 goalie even though his numbers are worse than Koskinen’s. And what’s worse, with the Oilers looking locked-on for the playoffs, is he probably will play well once they arrive. Smith has only been to the playoffs twice, though that being such a low numbers is partially on him being less than stellar in the regular season, but has been excellent when there. It wasn’t his fault that the Flames got pulverized by Nathan MacKinnon last year. And you know what he did in 2012. Gonna piss the shit out of us.

Zack Kassian – Watch all the Wolves fans come down tonight to cheer their former hero. Just kidding, no Wolves fan ever gets over the fear of entering the city because people of color live here.

Andreas Athanasiou – Just because he’s someone we’ve wanted on the Hawks for a while and it hurts when Ken Holland is the one to make the jump.