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  • Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks Spotlight: Big Save Dave

    Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks Spotlight: Big Save Dave

    The Flames season was on the verge of turning into a mini civil war before October even ended. What was a talented team, and more than talented enough to compete in a learning annex of a division that is the Pacific, couldn’t stop spinning its wheels. They were scoring enough, were even fun to watch for the first time in a dog’s age, but kept seeing their work undone by bulging twine in their own end. The fans had already starting crafting effigies of Mike Smith. You can’t help but wonder if some of the players started to have furrowed brows as well, given the way Smith continually tossed them under the bus for his struggles in the press.

    And then, over the ridge, at first just a silhouette on the horizon, but quickly coming into shape and definition, an apparition of hope and salvation, appeared “Big Save Dave” Rittich. And suddenly the Flames season was pulled from ash and chaos…

    Ok, that’s dramatic. But the Flames are tussling at the top of the Pacific, where very few would have had them before we kicked this all off, mostly thanks to their goaltender from out of the ether (or the Czech Republic).

    And make no mistake, Rittich has earned that “Big Save Dave” moniker, while at the same time proving that though it was indelicate, Smith may not have been wrong in shredding the Flames defense in front of him.

    Currently, Rittich ranks first among all goalies with 500 minutes of even-strength time in high-danger save-percentage, at .883. Quite simply, this is a bonkers number. Last year, Corey Crawford had the best high-danger SV% at .859. The highest mark in this category from the past five seasons is Carey Price‘s .876 in ’16-’17, which earned him a Vezina finalist slot. No one else has been above .870 for a season when it comes to stopping the best chances.

    And Rittich has had to be. Both he and Smith are in the seven-lowest expected-save-percentages in the league, meaning they’re facing some of the best chances around every night. Which is a touch weird, given that the Flames give up the third-lowest amount of attempts per game in the league. But the ones they do give up tend to be prime. Rittich has pulled their ass out of a sling, Mike Smith has eaten that sling.

    That’s getting better, though. The Flames were 24th in October in scoring chances against, and 30th in high-danger chances against. In November that has improved to 2nd and 5th, respectively. They haven’t needed as much of the big saves that Rittich was so happily providing, which is good. It’s also why they rocketed up the standings.

    It would behoove them to keep that going, because given the recent history, Rittich isn’t going to be able to keep up anything near a .880 SV% on high-danger chances. And Rittich’s pedigree is a little on the light side. He played 31 games in the AHL last year and put up a .924 overall, which is promising. But it’s 31 games. Other than that, it’s all back in the Czech Republic.

    But the Flames have little alternative. Smith is what he is at this point, despite his acting chops. He was sinking their season, and Rittich has saved it. They might as well see how far the bolt of fortune can take them, especially if they’re tuning up their defensive game.

     

    Game #28 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks Q&A: Some Survivalist In The Alberta Hinterlands

    Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks Q&A: Some Survivalist In The Alberta Hinterlands

    Mike Pfeil is some nutjob we were pointed to a while ago. He’s got scary views. And face. But we love him, we think. Anyway, he knows his Flames hockey. Which doesn’t say much for him. 

    First place and rolling. Is the Flames success merely down to finally, finally switching to Big Save Dave? 

    It’s a combination of a lot of things, but the surge of legitimately good goaltending performances boils down to Big Save Dave (David Rittich). It’s hard to believe the Flames’ confidence in Mike Smith continued, but a lot of it comes down to the kids (and even Rittich) being perceived as not ready or unable to carry the workload.
    And for the time being, Rittich has proven them wrong; giving the Flames goaltending we haven’t really seen in awhile. We saw glimpses of acceptable or above-average performance at times from Brian Elliott, Chad Johnson, and even Mike Smith but this is different.
    Beyond Rittich the top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and new-Flame Elias Lindholm have been fantastic. A lot of fans were hoping to see Lindholm’s offensive game grow if he spent time with the two and it has blossomed nicely.
    Shit-heel extraordinaire Matthew Tkachuk has taken a huge step forward (again, just like each year) and Mikael Backlund remains a constant in dictating pace of play. The revolving door on the right-wing of Michael Frolik, Sam Bennett, Austin Czarnik, or even James Neal has been hit and miss.
    Depth in the bottom six is great and we haven’t even discussed the blue line. Dougie Hamilton’s departure is huge, but everyone has stepped up. Mark Giordano remains timeless and in pursuit of a Norris Trophy already. Travis Hamonic has returned to form after last season’s doldrums. TJ Brodie has had his moments, but looks better-ish. The rookies: Rasmus Andersson, Juuso Valimaki, and now Oliver Kylington all look pretty solid too.
    It’s just a lot of good happening for once. I could go on and on about the legitimately good things.
    How has Mark Giordano not won a Norris? Is this the year he gets something of a lifetime achievement award? Or Flames fans do what the Kings fans do and just wet themselves until he wins?
    Injuries at weird inopportune times and really deep classes of talent. He should have been a finalist in 2013-14 . He probably should have been a finalist and won in 2014-15. He just does so many things well despite just turning 35.
    He should be a finalist if he keeps it up at this pace. The thing is, the league has some of the best talent on the blue line in ages. This is a golden age we’re living through and most teams have a guy of exceptional caliber. The problem is this league has weird voting habits and typically pick guys who “deserve” it rather than have earned it.
    If he wins, it’ll be evidence that a lot of folks didn’t need, but also needed to prove he has been one of this era’s best.
     Noah Hanifin had a rough start in Calgary. Has that straightened out? 
    Yes and no. He looks a step behind the play at time and still makes boneheaded decisions with the puck. You ask a lot of fans and they’ll say he’s better than Hamilton was; I remain firmly in the “prove it then” camp because he hasn’t been as impressive as one would imagine.
    I like his play at 4v5, predominately on entry suppression and breaking up breakouts that try to enter the zone quite a bit. It’s a very low key part of his game that shows how well he can manage gap control and time & space with plays occurring.
    But to flip that, he’ll throw a puck into a location that is immediately at risk of screwing the Flames over. It’s a weird hot and cold experience with him that hopefully comes down to new town, new team, just some minor anxieties.
    So now that he’s got goaltending is it that Bill Peters might not be a moron? 
    It remains to be seen, but I like the results and the emphasis on the top-nine getting TOI. [Glen] Gulutzan rode four lines regularly; while Peters doesn’t and it’s a welcome change. He needs to tighten up play resulting in high-danger chances though. It’s a huge issue that hopefully gets worked out.
    I think he’s a step above Gulutzan, but anything can happen in this league. I’m sure in a year I’ll be calling for his head for some reason.

     

    Game #28 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks Douchebag Du Jour: The Owner Who Couldn’t Own

    Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks Douchebag Du Jour: The Owner Who Couldn’t Own

    Perhaps the credit should go to the city of Calgary and mayor Naheed Nenshi for becoming one of the first cities to tell the owner of a sports team to go pound when they came and asked for a municipality to pay for a new arena. But then it’s hard to do that when Nenshi turned around and tried to sell Calgary on bringing the Olympics back to Calgary, when everyone knows that any host city turns into Dark City after the Olympics leave town. Still, let’s cherish a step forward for once.

    That didn’t stop Flames owner Murray Edwards from trying to influence the mayoral election in Calgary to get Nenshi out of office, along with the help of one Gary Bettman. But there are no sports in politics, remember.

    Edwards also couldn’t even figure out how to leverage Seattle into getting what he wanted, sitting idly by while the NHL handed that city an expansion franchise (or soon officially will). So for once, an owner is forced to sit and just rake in the cash that his team generates in an arena that is only a touch old.

    There’s nowhere for Edwards to turn. The NHL likely isn’t going to let him move to Quebec City, not when it’s on the cusp of having its perfect alignment. Kansas City? Been muted for a long time. There just isn’t any option.

    And Edwards can suck it. He’s currently worth $2.2 billion, and if he wanted a new arena he could probably find the change in his couch. The impasse for the arena wasn’t that Nenshi was unwilling to put any money into it, it’s that he wanted a return on that investment for the city. Edwards wanted Calgary’s money and then to keep the revenues all to himself. It’s the normal ploy from owners, but it’s one more and more cities are standing up to.

    So you wonder what Edwards thinks when he meets with fellow owners who did get their arenas, but he was too crude or stupid to get his own. Or both. While Calgary will be better off, you can be sure he’s stewing that he can’t match his fellow greed-monsters in the board room of the NHL’s meetings.

    There’s a lot wrong with sports, but the image of Edwards feeling inferior and aggrieved is one we can hold onto that things could get better one day.

     

    Game #28 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks: I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks: I Make A Lot Of Graphs

     

    Game #28 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

    Game #28 – Flames vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

    Notes: Michael Frolik and Jusso Valimaki have missed the last couple through injury…Big Save Dave gave up four to the Stars last out so maybe Mike Smith gets a run-out with tougher games against Columbus and Minnesota later in the week for the Flames…Kylington is a prospect our Flames friends were pretty excited about before the season so he may entrench himself in the lineup…This should be the year Backlund gets Selke consideration but won’t…WHO WANTS TO WALK WITH ELIAS?!

     

    Notes: We imagine Martinsen will keep his spot ahead of Fortin and Kunitz…At least Keith will be rested…Is Saad playing the best stretch of his career?…Funny how Manning played his best game of the season with the return of Connor Murphy looming this week, no?…The Kampf line actually got its head kicked in last night…Strome and Kane and Top Cat were better but once again broken up, would like to see them get the full game tonight…

    Game #28 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #27 – And If It’s Heads I Go to Tennessee, and Tails I Buy a Drink, If It Lands on the Edge I Keep Talking to You – Hawks 2 Preds 5

    Game #27 – And If It’s Heads I Go to Tennessee, and Tails I Buy a Drink, If It Lands on the Edge I Keep Talking to You – Hawks 2 Preds 5

    Box Score

    Corsica

    Natural Stat Trick

    Through the first four minutes, this game had all the feel of a sudden onset of diarrhea after your morning shower, punctuated by slipping off the toilet seat because you didn’t have time to dry your ass off. While things got marginally better and there were some bright spots, the song remains the same: a flaccid start and a broken heart at the end of it all. Let’s clean it up.

    – We don’t condone fighting usually. We get red and nude when anyone in the broadcast booth starts alluding to physicality and barbaric dickery (more on that later). But it’s not hard to understand Duncan Keith completely losing his goddamn mind and assaulting Miikka “I let a cat walking across the keyboard name me” Salomaki early in the first. It was a blindside hit along the boards. I’m sure people will try to argue that the hit came from the side and THIS IS HOCKEY and all that happy horse shit. Those people are wrong, and the Venn diagram of people who defend that hit and who own more than zero piss-yellow Mike Ribeiro sweaters is the same fucking circle.

    Along the boards at an angle that Linda Blair would have had a hard time twisting to see, let alone Keith playing the puck, is inexcusable. I’m not going to defend Keith trying to piledrive Salomaki and getting the match penalty for it, but I sure understand it. There aren’t many good tit-for-tat arguments, but if you wanted to make one for Keith after the no call, I’m open to it.

    – Gustav Forsling is still only 22, and he missed a good portion of last year to injury. But with each game, it gets harder and harder to figure out how he fits in among a D-corps that you couldn’t trade for a cup of coffee along with the two dollars in your pocket. When he’s not getting overpowered (by Ryan Johansen on Goal 1 and Kevin Fiala on Goal 3), he’s freezing up in his own zone (Craig Smith, Goal 4). His vision is questionable at best, and are we really sure he has the skill to be the breakout D-man we thought he was? At this point, you let him shit his pants, dive in, and swim, but you wonder if the clock is starting to tick on whether he’s a guy they keep long term.

    – A quick word on Erik Gustafsson: You might be able to capitalize on whatever offensive potential he has when Connor Murphy gets back. Maybe. But he’s just as bad as Forsling in his own zone, if not worse. You’d excuse that if he’s a point per game D-man, but he’s playing more like an eleven-year-old with a mustache who thinks running head first into a wall is a good way to impress girls.

    – There were some positives here. Brandon Manning was by far the best D-man the Hawks had out there tonight. All of his metrics flesh it out: He had a 55+ straight CF%, a 51+ CF% SVA (score and venue adjusted), and contributed offensively. His assist on Artem Anisimov’s goal was flat-out gorgeous, splitting traffic in the slot and allowing Wide Dick to just be there. He also hit the crossbar off a Henri Jokiharju rebound in the second. You hope that this kind of play continues from Manning, because he’s exactly the kind of guy you can trade for a young flyer or mid-round draft pick later down the line.

    – Brent Seabrook flashed some of the old style of play too. Outside of his terrible turnover that led to the Preds’s second goal, he was, for lack of a better word, crafty with the puck. He nearly set up David Kampf with a semi-breakaway off an area pass, and managed to juke Roman Josi out of his skates with a fake shot in the third, which led to a quality chance for Dylan Strome off a Forsling point shot rebound.

    – Brandon Saad—who has more goals than Artemi Panarin on the year, thanks—did that voodoo that he do so well again. When Saad gets a full of head of steam along the boards, there aren’t many people who can stop him. And he managed to overpower both Ryan Ellis and Pekka Rinne on his goal, swatting his own attempt out of mid-air. Anyone who doesn’t want to admit that Brandon Saad fucks is a jerk.

    – I don’t want to see Alex DeBrincat fighting. In the moment, it’s fun, but let’s not make that a thing in the future.

    – We rag on the broadcast for falling back into the MORE PHYSICAL trope all the time. And while Eddie was guilty of it a few times tonight, nothing was quite as weird as Steve Konroyd after the first intermission. I get being mad about the Keith hit, but Konroyd went so far as to say that a guy like John Hayden should “go after one of Nashville’s smaller guys” to “help bring them [the Hawks] together.” Motherfucker even acknowledged that “that may not be right” and called his own idea “kinda barbaric,” then proceeded to justify it as something to bring the team together. It may not seem like anything more than Konroyd tossing meat to the worst kinds of hockey fans, but this kind of mind-set contributes to guys like Tom Wilson constantly having the chance at gainful employment in the NHL. It’s fucking gross to imply that someone should put a horseshit hit on an opponent as a team-building exercise. Stuff your mouth with my dog’s fart blanket with that suggestion, Stevie K.

    The Hawks get a heaping helping of mulligan stew with a tilt against Calgary tomorrow. If they play anything like they did in the second period tonight, it’ll be fun. But at this point, any wins the Hawks get should be considered gravy, because even if the brain geniouses in the front office won’t admit it, this team is in rebuild mode.

    Onward. . .

    Booze du Jour: Four Roses and Eagle Rare

    Line of the Night: “The Mute Lounge was conceived for nights just like this one.” –Matt McClure

  • Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight – December 1st

    Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight – December 1st

    First Screen Viewing

    Maple Leafs vs. Wild – 6pm

    They won’t have William Nylander yet, but as soon as they do the Leafs very well might be Showtime! That is if they aren’t already. Anyway, they’re at the top of their division, the Wild are near the top of theirs, and that’s the best on offer tonight. With Boudreau behind the bench and Mike Babcock seemingly giving in and actually letting his team be fun, this one should look a little like a track meet.

    Second Screen Viewing

    Flyers vs. Penguins – 6pm

    Both these teams blow right now but these things tend to turn into ECW matches and that’s always good for a laugh. Hmm, the Penguins suck two seasons after they won their third Cup. The Kings never recovered from winning their second. It’s almost like every team succumbs to their success after a while. Wonder if I could think of another example…

    Other Games

    Red Wings vs. Bruins

    Rangers vs. Canadiens – 6pm

    Lightning vs. Panthers – 6pm

    Jets vs. Devils – 6pm

    Jacktes vs. Islanders – 6pm

    Blues vs Coyotes – 7pm

    Knights vs. Oilers – 9pm

  • Game #27 – Hawks vs. Predators Preview/Pilates Mat: I Ain’t Tip Toe Tom, I’mma Tell You Straight

    Game #27 – Hawks vs. Predators Preview/Pilates Mat: I Ain’t Tip Toe Tom, I’mma Tell You Straight

     vs. 

    RECORDS: Hawks 9-12-5   Predators 17-8-1

    PUCK DROP: 7pm

    TV: WGN

    KISS MY GRITS: On The Forecheck

    There’s no such thing as sympathy in the NHL, so even if you’re getting your dick knocked in the dirt night after night, the next team on the docket is going to be real excited to repeat the punishment. So it is for the Hawks, who head from one division favorite to another and the one actually on top, the Nashville Predators. And even in their beat-up state, you fear how quickly it could get out of hand if the Hawks don’t straighten the fuck up. So, cheerful, eh?

    Let’s start with the Hawks. Henri Jokiharju will return after an illness, and looks to be paired with Duncan Keith again. The Keith-Forsling Axis Of What The Fuck? never really worked, though it didn’t work for the same reasons that the Keith-HarJu pairing has struggled at times. Both players are inclined to be aggressive and get up the ice, and only one is supposed to play that way. The HarJu is more defensively inclined than Forsling though, and overall this pairing has done ok this season. So it’s good and proper to have it back. But you can look forward to more tweets from us about Keith having to change his game when he gets caught outside the circles again.

    That slots Forsling down with Gustafsson in what can only be called “adventure time,” and Brandon Manning and Brent Seabrook are paired in what can only be called “fuck my life.”

    Cam Ward looks to be the starter, which is fine because Crawford hasn’t been all that good and could use the extra day. The lines are going to pretty much stay the same, with Dylan Strome at least starting between Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane. Jeremy Colliton went away from it in the 3rd against the Jets but will give it another go. To maximize what they do well and to eliminate as much of what they don’t as possible, they really should only start exclusively in the offensive zone. Toews’s and Kampf’s line can do the defensive starts if need be, and you don’t want any of Kane, Top Cat, or Strome there either.

    Right, the Predators. The headline, other than their marvelous and expected record, is that a good portion of their team is on a trainer’s table. Kyle Turris, Viktor Arvidsson, and PK Subban all will miss out tonight, and Arvidsson is a long-term casualty. It’s put a dent in their mojo, as they’ve lost three of the last four, including getting capsized at home by the Coyotes and getting trounced by the Blues. So if there was ever a time to catch the Preds, it would be now. If the Hawks were anything resembling a coherent outfit, that is.

    If there’s a bone to pick with Nashville, is that they can look a touch short on scoring. With Arvidsson out, Filip Forsberg is the only player with more than eight goals in the lineup. Ryan Johansen has gone back to “Treat Boy” status, and Ryan Hartman isn’t going to continue to shoot the lights out forever. Subban was chipping in a bit from the back, points-wise at least, but he’s out now too.

    Another quirk of the Preds is that their power play is just as bad as the Hawks’ somehow. It won’t get any better with Subban out, but then again there isn’t a power play that the Hawks’ kill can’t cure.

    Given how the Hawks play defense, there’s no reason to think that Peter Laviolette won’t turn the Preds up to 11 and pressure them all over the ice. The Hawks simply can’t match their speed, though they played them pretty tough last year, going 2-2-0. Still, if the Hawks can find their way past what will be a furious forecheck (they can’t), they can get some rushes and chances in the open ice behind it.

    Of course, waiting there is Pekka Rinne, coming off collecting his first Vezina and dead-set on getting a second. He’s your clubhouse leader, as he leads the league in GAA, SV%, even-strength SV%, and difference between his expected save-percentage and his actual. He’s simply been brilliant, so you can have a great game and still lose because you can’t pierce him. Which is great for a team like the Hawks that struggle to score.

    It’s the Flames tomorrow night, who are playing some of the best hockey around. Which means if the Hawks can’t find another gear and some stability in their own end, they’d be a Top Cat miracle goal from losing seven in a row and 15 of 17. Not that 14 of 17 is that much better.

    The season is on the very edge of the precipice. Maybe they should act like it on the ice…or perhaps they’ve already accepted their fate.

    Game #27 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #27 – Hawks vs. Predators Spotlight: Ryan Hartman And The Ever-Changing Message

    Game #27 – Hawks vs. Predators Spotlight: Ryan Hartman And The Ever-Changing Message

    Whatever the Hawks were selling you about trading Ryan Hartman, it’s proven to be just this side of horseshit. That’s not to say Ryan Hartman would greatly change the fortunes of this Hawks team. But ask yourself who you’d rather watch thrash around on the bottom-six right now, him or Chris Kunitz?

    Ryan Hartman sits in the nexus of a lot of Hawks arguments, kind of undoing them all. We’ll see if we can untangle them in no particular order.

    The Hawks love to make it known that they are all in favor of compensating their players. It’s part of the reason Bryan Bickell and Brent Seabrook got the contracts they did (from whoever ordered it in the front office). It’s why they made sure to tell everyone who would listen they wanted Artemi Panarin to hit his bonuses when he was going after those in his entry-level deal, no matter the headaches it caused. The Hawks want their players, and others, to know that they will be treated well. You earn what you get with the Hawks, at least that’s the story.

    They’re also terrified of paying anyone, with only some of that due to salary cap problems. The rest is poor decisions. Hartman was traded partially because he was coming out of his entry-level deal. Though that didn’t seem to scare the Predators, who just handed him a one-year deal because Hartman hasn’t really proven to be anything yet. Yet another thing the Hawks don’t like to do is play hardball with players, but the Preds didn’t mind taking advantage of Hartman’s zero leverage.

    But it’s the same reason, or one of, that Teuvo Teravainen was moved along when he was. Same with Nick Leddy. Same with Panarin, from the contract the Hawks gave him. Brandon Saad before. This list goes on. When you’ve been burned by bad contracts before, you get itchy, even though you want everyone to know how much you love giving contracts to your players. It’s even worse when you’re not prepared to stare anyone down in negotiations, which as callous as it is is pretty necessary in a hard cap league.

    Another theme around the Hartman trade was that the Hawks got a first-rounder back for him, along with Victor Ejdsell. Well, Ejdsell is yet to be here, and Hartman himself was a first-rounder taken around the same spot that the pick he netted was. The Hawks got Nicolas Beaudin out of it, and no one can safely say what he’ll be. What the Hawks did was simply kick that down the road a couple years. And yet they were telling you they wanted to compete this season for a playoff spot. Except they didn’t fill the spot Hartman occupied with anything productive or useful. It’s an empty spot right now. Hartman would be more productive in it than nothing. What about that says, “win now?” Because the prize appears to be Beaudin, that puts the return two years in the future, which sure seems like a rebuilding plan.

    The third thing was about Joel Quenneville. The whispers after the trade was that Hartman was the most vocal about the problems Q had with the younger players on the roster. Hartman shuffled from wing to center and back, up and down the lineup and sometimes into the pressbox. And he was one of the first to claim he didn’t know why any of it was happening and the coach wasn’t telling him what he needed to do. So instead of letting that fester and spread, the Hawks moved him along.

    And then a mere handful of games later, the Hawks fired Quenneville anyway. Partially because they felt he wasn’t getting anything near the most out of their young players, who were getting agitated about their ever-changing roles and little description of them. So…Hartman was right? Was it worth trading him for futures then?

    If the front office had cooled on Q by then, why did he get to win on this player? Especially a player who was then moved along for what appears to be nothing more than a lottery ticket to be cashed in a couple years from now. Now the Hawks don’t have either.

    Again, Hartman is not the player who swings the fortunes of this team one way or the other. He’s just an exhibit of the confusion and vacancies in the current Hawks ethos.

     

    Game #27 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built

  • Game #27 – Hawks vs. Predators Q&A: It’s A Saturday Night On Payday Weekend In Muskogee With JR

    Game #27 – Hawks vs. Predators Q&A: It’s A Saturday Night On Payday Weekend In Muskogee With JR

    Well, not that JR. Not sure where we found JR Lind. He isn’t either. But he’s been our Preds guy for a long time now, which disappoints him to no end. Follow him @JRLind. 

    Most points in the West, second-best goal difference, the Vezina leader…is there anything to complain about in Predators Land?
     
    As Blackhawks fans know, there’s always something to complain about, no matter how sterling the season is. Obviously, the Preds are very, very good and were able to sustain success from last season with a minimum of moves (David Poile’s biggest free agency acquisition was bringing back Dan Hamhuis on the traditional This Guy Used To Play Here Contract).
    The acute complaint is that the Preds are on a two-game losing streak, just the second time this season they’ve gone consecutive games without a point; largely this is a result of a bizarre inability to solve the Arizona Coyotes.
    The more chronic issue is the power play (currently 30th ahead of only…uh hi!). It’d be easy to blame that on the recent spate of injuries with Viktor Arvidsson, Kyle Turris and Pernell Karl Subban all out, though it was worse when everyone was reasonably healthy.
    Kevin Fiala has been in a season-long slump (he finally scored five-on-five Tuesday) in what many expected to be a big year for him after a breakout season last year. And while he was sparkling when he was playing everyday when Pekka Rinne was injured, Juuse Saros has been mediocre in a lot of his spot starts lately.
    There’s always something to complain about.
    Seriously, how has Pekka Rinne been able to come up with a career renaissance at 35?
     
    After his surgery and then missing so much time because of the post-surgical infection, it really looked like he was on the downhill. Then goalie Yoda Mitch Korn left with Barry Trotz and the overwhelming feeling really was that it was time for Poile to go franchise goalie hunting in the ninth round again. And then we all realized there wasn’t a ninth round anymore. Fortunately, Rinne had a career year and finally won the Vezina, signed a very team friendly extension for two more years counting $5 million against the cap (somehow David Poile got the guy to take a pay cut after winning a Vezina).
    So I don’t know what kind of magic he’s working. The only complaint (and this is a weird one, I recognize) is that he might be playing too well, because as a Preds fan, you’d like his regular season workload to be a little lighter so he’s tanned, rested and ready for the playoffs. Last season, he played a lot more down the stretch as the Preds pushed for the President’s Trophy and as he secured the Vezina. Ideally, he’d get a lot more rest in March and April.
    If there’s one quibble, the Preds have gotten 14 goals from Filip Forsberg but no more than eight from anyone else. Is scoring something of a worry down the line? Or is the socialist method of scoring going to see them through?
    Part of that is the injuries. Arvidsson, who hasn’t played since Nov. 10 and is out for a few more weeks, is the guy with eight. Then it’s a jumble of dudes – nine with between four and seven goals, led by Old Friend Ryan Hartman (who I contend should just be signed to a series of one-year deals from now until the end of time).
    Arvidsson’s absence has meant a rotation on Ryan Johansen‘s wing opposite Forsberg, which has included such strange experiments as Rocco Grimaldi. The STF line of Smith-Turris-Fiala has been ho-hum outside of Turris, who is hurt. Smith is inconsistent and Fiala can’t score. But, there are worse things that having one guy who scores 40, another who scores 25 in an injury-plagued year and nine or 10 who go for 15 to 20.
    How is the power play this bad with all the weaponry on it? (please don’t turn this question around on us)
     
    Who knows? Nothing seems to work. Subban is hurt and Ryan Ellis has had trouble scoring (at evens and on the power play), which takes away two of the big outside weapons. With Arvidsson out, the coaches haven’t really found a consistent net-front threat (having tried Nick Bonino, among others, down low). Eventually, it’ll click, we’re told, but it’s getting close to 30 games in now and it’s still 14 some-odd percent so.

    Game #27 Preview Suite

    Preview

    Spotlight

    Q&A

    Douchebag Du Jour

    I Make A Lot Of Graphs

    Lineups & How Teams Were Built