Game #1 Preview Posts
Recent Posts
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Live From The Five Hole – What A Time To Be Barely Alive
It’s a new season, and for the most part that’s probably not a good thing. But there’s a full cast here to discuss it anyway, with John Pullega and Rose Rankin joining in to discuss the slog that’s in store this year. This podcast will probably be more entertaining than the game in Ottawa, trust us. As always, it’s free to everyone, and available for download here along with various other outlets.
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Old Man Yells About Young Men/Your First Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight
One of the worst things about hockey is the amount of old, concussed, entitled men who are not just around the game, but actually running it. It seems the only qualification to be the GM or president of a lot of teams, or a broadcaster, is that you can tell people what was the hot spot to hang out at after a game at the Hartford Civic Center (answer: there wasn’t one).
Brendan Shanahan isn’t as old as some, but he’s doing a damn fine impression of them. If you want the detailed version, here you go. If you want the cliff notes, it’s basically that Shanahan thinks everyone player on the Leafs should take less money than they can get to keep the team together, and here’s the kicker, because that’s what they did in Detroit. The money-shot: “At the end of the day we all found a way to fit with each other so that we could keep adding to the group.”
Gee, what could that method have been? I’m not sure, but I think it had something to do with no salary cap and Mike Illitch’s checkbook.
This is Brendan Shanahan, who had to be dealt to the previously mentioned Hartford because of his maximized contract from the Blues. And then traded to Detroit with that same contract.
That same Detroit team that had Sergei Fedorov making $28 million one season due to signing bonuses. That same Wings team that paid Shanahan $3.6 million in 1998, and now think of that in 2018 dollars. Shanahan also made $6 million in 2002, and again, translate that to 2018 dollars. Also on that 2002 team, 104-year-old Brett Hull made $3.5M, Lidstrom made $8.5M, Luc Robitaille made $4M while being older than Hull somehow, Yzerman made $7.5M, Chelios made $5.5M, and the biggest, brain-gooifying fact is that Uwe Krupp made $4.5M. That’s $40 million, in 2002 mind you, for six players.
They’re practically fucking Job, they are!
While it’s a nice thought for Leafs fans, and probably is meant to poison the water for said players against those fans in upcoming negotiations, they don’t owe the Leafs shit. The Leafs are just the team that happened to draft them. 29 other teams would have gladly taken Nylander or Matthews or Marner if the Leafs didn’t. The system is already rigged against most players that are either in their prime or approaching it.
Maybe Shanahan should explain to his fans why they’re paying Patrick Marleau and his oatmeal $6 million for two more seasons or Ron Hainsey $3 million when they need to sign these players. And they still have $30 million in cap space for next year, plus whatever the cap changes.
Shanahan can go get fucked, is what I’m saying. Anyway, here’s tonight’s stuff:
First Screen Viewing
Ducks vs. Sharks – 9:30
Erik Karlsson’s unveiling, and one of the more boisterous joints in the league should be jumping. It’s pretty exciting to see what the Sharks might look like with #65 in tow, and how they handle the expectations. The Ducks are annoyingly metronomic and these games usually turn pretty chippy. The power play the Sharks are sporting could be showtime.
Second Screen Viewing
Canadiens v. Leafs – 6pm
Well of course the season has to start in Toronto. It’s amazing they’ll play games anywhere else, honestly. Still, it’s Tavares’s debut and as much as the noise around them is going to drive us all to drink more, the product on the ice should be highly entertaining. Assuming Mike Babcock doesn’t get in the way. And hey, who doesn’t enjoy the Habs getting paddled?
Other Games
Bruins v. Caps – 6:30
Flames v. Canucks – 9pm
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Strange Thoughts On This Nervous, Pre-Curtain Raiser Night
This is our last night before the great circus begins. And maybe we can only hope for it be as entertaining as a circus. More likely, it’ll be just like when you realize how unhappy all the animals are in a circus and you kind of wish they’d go away forever or all just be like, Cirque de Soleil. A few thoughts before we dive headfirst into our normal coverage of the Hawks and the NHL tomorrow.
-I’ve been meaning to get this for a while now. If you haven’t seen Scott Powers’s “scouts breakdown” of every player on the Hawks, I encourage you to do so.
I think you’ll find the Brandon Saad section awfully interesting reading.
I’m not going to attempt to defend Brandon Saad. We’ve looked at the numbers, and made our peace. And yet the more I think about his last season, and reading these comments…boy, you can see it, can’t you? The trade looks awful now of course, but when it was made I don’t think many of us thought it would. When we last saw Artemi Panarin around here, he was floating around, waiting for Patrick Kane to hit his tape from the other wing. It was very Patrick Sharp. And you can still rack up a ton of points that way if you’re skilled, as Panarin is and Sharp was. And Kane will always find your tape. No one anticipated Panarin scoring 80+ points without Kane after that. Whoops.
But this has always been the knock on Saad. It’s nothing physical. If you were to design what a power left wing would look like, it would probably look like Saad. Unbelievably strong, quick on his skates, with plus offensive-skill and defensive awareness. The tools are there.
And yet…you can’t close your eyes and see him dominating that many shifts, like the way Marian Hossa did. You know what that looked like. You can still see it now in your mind (hopefully without the tears, but that’s hard to do). Can you see it with Saad? Or do you see a guy just being equal on his shifts, who gets his points really though natural gifts?
The part about playing with lesser players got me, too. Because my initial reaction was, “Well of course he’s going to fucking balk when stuck with SuckBag Johnson and David Kampf.” But that’s not what a player does, is it? This is where I want to say his first three years were spent playing with prime Toews and Hossa, and of course that’ll skew how you see linemates and teammates, It can’t really get better than that.
But that’s horseshit, isn’t it? You play with who’s out there. Not that I’m a fan of when this happens, but when Kane downed tools at times last year because he was playing on a dogshit team and at times with balloon-handed teammates, you could see where it was coming from. That didn’t make it right or excusable, but explainable? Yeah, just a touch.
But Saad doesn’t have that pedigree. Saad has proven to be an above-average NHLer, but nothing more. He flashes being a star at times, but they’re only flashes. He’ll look good with good players, but did he ever really stand above them for more than a handful of games here and there? He’ll play to the level of those around, it seems like.
And the thing is, the Hawks knew this about him. That’s why, though they may have been reluctant, they were willing to trade him when his contract demands got above what they deemed economical. Throughout his first three years here, there were whispers that some in the front office just didn’t think he had “it.” “It” being the determination to fight through defenders every shift and every night to become, essentially, Max Pacioretty. And physically, Saad could be near Patches or Blake Wheeler. If he wanted. But some in the Hawks organization doubted he wanted.
So I’m not sure what changed in the two years before they brought him back. Did their scouts see something in Ohio? If they did, the Jackets’ sure didn’t. And this could lead into another discussion about the Hawks borderline-woeful pro scouting.
This is a huge year for Saad, whatever the Hawks do as a whole. Not in terms of his future, because he’s cashing $6 million for the next three years regardless. But is he going to finally stand up and take games by the collar? Because he can, and I don’t think anyone doubts that. The Hawks certainly need it. Or is he content with that check and his 55 points? Does he care what people think about the latter? Do his teammates think that? This will be worth watching all season.
-With the pieces about to move, my biggest fear about the Hawks is that even after being skated out of the building a lot of nights last year, they’re still slow. That’s how it looked in the preseason, though some of that could be the veterans simply not caring. But then again, the veterans are the ones who are slow.
My fear is that the front office and their scouts haven’t redefined what fast is to them. The Hawks used to be one of the fastest team in the league. But thanks to their success, that threshold changed. Teams got as fast and then faster than what the Hawks were to beat them. I wonder if the Hawks aren’t still working at the same standard.
Because they told us Dylan Sikura’s size wasn’t a problem because of his quickness. But he doesn’t look all that quick in this league. They told us that Victor Ejdsell’s skating would be just enough to find space in this league. They’re both in Rockford, and that could change but you wonder. When he was healthy, did Gustav Forsling really look like he had game-breaking speed to you? Or did he look like he would be fast on a 2012 team?
I think this is changing, because Boqvist and Beaudin and Jokiharju do skate at 2018 levels of speed. But that won’t help much now. The jury is very much out on Dominik Kahun and Luke Johnson (“SuckBag” to his friends), who are here because of the Hawks claims about their speed.
Anyway, whatever it’s going to be, let’s kick this pig.
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You Share The Same Fate As The People You Hate – ’18-’19 Team Preview: The Warm Jets
We wrap up our team previews with perhaps the class of the Central Division. There is no forward group you can love more than the Jets’. They’re big, they’re fast, they’re skilled, and when Paul Maurice finally woke up from his neanderthal nap last season and ceased to have the Jets be the dumbest team in the league and focused on merely skating every team out of their building and into the cold and unyielding Manitoba night, the Jets took off. Didn’t hurt that they finally got some goaltending, as Connor Hellebuyck finally lived up to the billing.
Sadly for the Jets, even though I will argue they were a superior team by some distance than Vegas last year, their seven-game Last Man Standing with the Preds left them softened up for the Knights. They may have outplayed Vegas in four or all five of those games, but Fleury was simply too much. It’s a fate they’ll look to avoid this time around, though it’ll most likely be an even more formidable Sharks team waiting should they escape the torture dungeon of the Central Division.
But they can do it. Let’s do it one last time before we kick this pig for real.
2017-2018: 52-20-10 114 points 277 GF 218 GA 51.5 CF% 52.7 xGF% 8.5 SH% .925 SV%
Goalies: When your goalie last year is 25 and coming off a Vezina-finalist run, there’s little reason to change much. Hellebuyck will look to back up his imperious season of last, and there’s really no reason to think he can’t back it up. His pedigree has always suggested this is what he should be, and the only fear would be fatigue. 67 games isn’ the heaviest load you’ll see, along with 17 playoff starts. He’d made 58 and 56 appearances in the seasons before though, either all in the AHL or splitting time between the bus-league and the plane-league. So it really shouldn’t be too much for him. Obviously, a lot hinges on Hellebuyck, because you can’t go anywhere with bad goaltending. The Jets know, they tried for like five seasons. Still, they’re one of the few teams in the league who can sleep pretty easy about their goaltending.
Laurent Brossoit, which is not a dessert, is going to back him up. Brossoit flashed being a competent goalie at this level in Edmonton two years ago, but with a bit more work last year he was terrible. Then again, being Cam Talbot‘s backup leads to a lot of nights staring at the lights contemplating what existence really means. Clearly, Hellebuyck’s health is paramount.
Defense: If there’s one minor complaint I would have about the Jets, is that their defense just quite isn’t there. It may improve a bit because Jacob Trouba is going to be in fuck-you-someone-will-pay-me mode all year, as he’s in the last year of his deal and previous negotiations with the Jets have been cantankerous. He’ll take on the hard stuff as usual with Josh Morrissey. Which leaves Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Chiarot to get cherry-er starts and opponents, which is a reason why Buff racks up the points he does. And yet you’ll never convince me. I know what the points say. I know what the underlying numbers say. I’ll always think Buff is just dumb and lazy enough to burn you in your own zone, and the only hits he looks for is when someone significantly smaller (which is just about everyone, to be fair) isn’t looking. And he’ll run out of position to get them. Against a fast team in a series this could be a problem, and it was something of one against Vegas but not Nashville.
The third pairing is rounded out by Dimitry Kulikov and Tyler Myers. This is where Myers should always be and Kulikov seems to take more shit than he deserves. Hmmm, wonder why that could be? Certainly not because he’s a good Ontario bo….oh, right.
Clearly, it’s not a bad unit. It’s good, even. Trouba might enter Norris discussion this year, though that would take a leap. It’s just not San Jose’s or Nashville’s. And maybe that’s fine. It was sort of last year.
Forwards: Whatever deficiencies there are are clearly made up by this group. It’s got front-line scoring in Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Patrik Laine and his bewildered face, and Kyle Connor hinted at being that last year as well. It’s got defensive solidity in Mathieu Perrault, Adam Lowry, Andrew Copp, and Brandon Tanev. Nikolai Ehlers is on the third line for fuck’s sake. Bryan Little has been underrated for so long. Jack Roslovic moves to center full-time. Kristian Vesalainen, their first-round pick last year who tore up the Finnish league at 18, joins the ranks now. It’s the best crop in the league. They’ll get you from everywhere. There’s not much more to say.
Outlook: Cup or bust, it’s that simple. As the game gets faster and teams move more and more away from asking their defensemen to do the pushing of the play, the Jets can get away with not having a blueblooded blue line. Because if they’re just getting the puck to these forwards as quickly as possible, they’re fine. More than fine. Sure, maybe some teams can throw out a top line better than the one the Jets have, though you can count them with Jason Pierre-Paul’s fingers. Maybe there are teams that can somewhat match the top six. But you can’t do that with the third line, much less the fourth. There’s just too much. Unless Hellebuyck backs up, you’ll probably find them in the West Final at worst again, But anything short of a parade on one of the three warm days Winnipeg has will be a failure.
Previous Team Previews
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You Share The Same Fate As The People You Hate – ’18-’19 Team Previews: This Time It Will Be Different
Every season we hear that. And sometimes, I’m suckered into believing it. And I think this year more than most. And then I remember it’s the St. Louis Blues, and it can’t possibly be true. Maybe one day the laws of the universe will change, and we’ll all feel even more unmoored than we do now. But until that happens, the only structure we have that keeps us from unending madness is the rules we’ve always known. And one of those is that the Blues will always fuck it up. They will never get out of their own way. Until they do, we cannot reason anything else. Were we to, we would simply bend the world in a way it was not meant to go and the pillars of society and life would indeed crumble and all there would be is chaos and limitless abyss.
What’s dispiriting though is that the Blues this past summer showed the urgency that we ached for the Hawks to show. They knew they were weak down the middle, so in came Ryan O’Reilly and Tyler Bozak. Those were two players we wished the Hawks would make a run at. The Blues didn’t hang on to prospects that looked like they had over-ripened. So away went Tage Thompson and a couple high draft picks, because now is the time for the Blues. We stared at Dylan Sikura’s vacant gape on its way to Rockford. They treated missing the playoffs last year like an insult and something to be eradicated immediately and thoroughly. The Hawks signed Cam Ward and Brandon Manning. You see the problem here.
Anyway, let’s get in up to the elbow, which if you do in St. Louis leaves you with tuberculosis.
2017-2018: 44-32-6 94 points 226 GF 222 GA 51.7 CF% 51.4 xGF% 7.1 SH% .928 SV%
Goalies: And yet it doesn’t matter how you redo your bedroom or living room of your house if you keep introducing various insects and rodents and sharp weapons to your foundation. So here we are again with Jay Gallon in net. The Blues are so determined to make it work with him for the 24th year in a row that it’s gone beyond Tin Cup hitting his ball from the fairway instead of taking a drop. Except this might be the time the Blues run out of balls in the bag.
Jake Allen was bad last year. .906 SV% is bad. Carter Hutton was better. And yet it’s Carter Hutton who goes, just like any other goalie that’s dared to play alongside Allen. He can’t be moved. He’s a southern congressman at this point. No amount of incompetence or bewildering actions will ever remove him.
Allen has been above-average in exactly one of his now five NHL seasons. At this point the Blues must know what he is, which is not enough. It’s not that the physical tools aren’t there. They most certainly are. He’s big, he’s athletic. But he’s always going to do just enough to kill you. Shame they put in all this work to end up where they always do. Really is.
Anyway, backing him up this time around with certainly an eye on usurping him is Chad Johnson. Johnson was woeful in Buffalo last year but serviceable or more in Calgary the year before that and Buffalo again two years ago. Maybe Johnson is just non-threatening enough to get Allen to relax while being able to take 15-20 starts without throwing up all over everyone. I don’t know. But this looks to be Problem Area #1 again for St. Louis, who just seemingly never learn. This time it will be different.
Defense: I don’t know how many different ways we can phrase this for however many years, but the Blues defensive unit just isn’t as good as “experts” will tell you. Alex Pietrangelo somehow conned the world into thinking he’s a Norris-level defender–probably by being big, a decent skater, and Canadian–but that’s utter horseshit. He’s fine. He’s there against the best competition, but he doesn’t roll them over. He never has. He’s a rhythm guitarist miscast playing solos. And paring him with Joel “Assuredly Has Had A Bug Caught In His Ear Before” Edmundson isn’t going to change that.
Colton Parayko is the only puck-mover they have, and his game in his own zone is somewhere around DEFCON Dumbass. I still don’t know what it is Carl Gunnarsson does, and neither do they. Jay Bouwmeester is dead, has been dead, will continue to be dead, and the Blues will continue to play him more minutes until even the worms peaking out from his eye sockets ask to be left alone finally. Vinnie Dun (HEY GABBAGOOL! VINNE DUNN OVA’ HERE!) could be another puck-mover they need, but Mike Yeo apparently can’t escape the stench of Ken Hitchcock and still won’t trust him with more than 13 minutes per night.
It’s probably not as bad as we make out, but it’s certainly nowhere near great. Considering the crops of forwards one sees most nights in the Central, that’s an issue. This time it will be different.
Forwards: Ok, so the center-depth is greatly improved. Brayden Schenn was a steal from Philly, and now they’ve added Bozak and O’Reilly. Bozak really flourished behind Matthews and Kadri in Toronto, and here he’ll get to be behind ROR and Schenn. It’s really a swift move.
However, looking deeply at it now and the winger situation….ooooh boy. Vladimir Tarasenko will still score a ton, whether running with Schenn or O’ Reilly. Jaden Schwartz is still their most creative player. Fabbi Robbry or Robbry Fabbi is back from injury, providing more dash. But that’s just about it. They’re brought back David Perron, and they’re going to have a quizzical look on their face in January when he’s on the bottom six with 17 points and taking the most mystifyingly dumb penalties imaginable. Alex Steen was in need of hospice care at the end of last year and that’s not going to get better now. Patrick Maroon is here, which is just so St. Louis Blues I don’t think I can stand it. It’s a less than impressive group, so the centers and Tank are going to have to have premium years.
Outlook: Overall, they’re just a touch short of Nashville and Winnipeg. But they’re pretty much ahead of everyone else in the division, which sets them up to get thwacked by one of the aforementioned in the first round. Same as it ever was. The wingers don’t look like they provide enough, the defense is slowish and not all that skilled, and even if those things reverse there’s always Jay Gallon walking around with his gasoline can, a book of matches, and a vacant look in his eye. They made the right moves this summer. They just didn’t make enough of them.
This time it will be different…it was ever thus.
Previous Team Previews
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Their Emblems Built of Garbage – ’18–’19 Blackhawks Player Previews – Dylan Sikura & Luke Johnson
For the past year or so, there have been rumblings about how Dylan Sikura was going to be a classic Bowman late-round pick. He was going to wildly exceed all expectations and give the Hawks the scoring depth they needed to recapture the dominance of the early-to-mid 2010s. After an ineffective camp, Sikura gets to take a gray trip up the Jane Addams to Rockford, while despite the odds, Luke Johnson gets to break camp. Let’s double dip.
Dylan Sikura 2017–18 Stats
5 GP – 0 G, 3 A
41.8 CF%, 64.3 oZS%
Avg. TOI 13:24
A Brief History: The former sixth-round pick in 2014 made his debut for the Hawks late last year. After increasingly strong performances at Northeastern from 2016–18, which saw Sikura tally 111 points in 73 games during his junior and senior years combined (43 G, 68 A), Sikura signed a two-year ELC last year. He played most of his time with Alex DeBrincat and Victor Ejdsell in his five games up, tallying three assists despite having his head caved in on the possession ledger. While two of those assists came in his debut during the Scott Foster Game, you’d gladly take three assists over five games. Things were looking up.
Then, preseason happened, and Sikura looked more like Freshman Year at Northeastern than Top Prospect in the Pipeline material. He had zero points on six shots at evens. His possession numbers were somehow worse than they were at the end of last year, as he posted a woeful 39.62 CF% despite taking 56+% of his draws in the offensive zone. His only notable contribution was a power play assist.
Oh, and by playing in just one game last year, the Hawks burned year one of his ELC deal, meaning Sikura is a restricted free agent after this year. Overall, not how anyone had it planned, if anyone had a plan at all.
It Was the Best of Times: We’ve already gone through something like this with Nick Schmaltz back in 2016. Schmaltz struggled early, got sent down to the Hogs, kicked in skulls, then came up for good later that year. The hope (and really, the necessity) is that Sikura follows a similar path as Schmaltz. While Sikura doesn’t have the pedigree that Schmaltz does and would need everything to go perfectly to top out as a second-line right winger, he does have a template to work with. If all goes well, he’s up with the Hawks around Thanksgiving or so and contributes 30–35 points on the third line.
It Was the BLURST of Times: Sikura turns out to be nothing more than a by-product of Adam Gaudette. This has always been the FFUD fear with Sikura, that he’s just the result of a bigger, stronger, better player at center. Since the only person who fills those criteria is Jonathan Toews (Artem Anisimov is too slow, Schmaltz is too small) and Sikura hasn’t proven he can make much on his own to this point, there’s reason to worry he’s much of nothing and peters out after this year, only to sign elsewhere and unlock the potential the Hawks always assumed he had after this year. One bad preseason doesn’t mean he sucks, but he does have the potential to suck.
Prediction: We’ll be lucky to get 40 games out of Sikura this year. I think it’s going to take him longer than anticipated to get comfortable to just AHL speeds, let alone NHL. That’s going to make it a tougher decision when deciding what to do with him as a restricted free agent come this offseason, but with all the water the organ-I-zation has carried for Sikura thus far, they’ll probably re-up him regardless.
Luke Johnson 2017–18 Stats (Rockford)
73 GP – 13 G, 17 A
8.1 SH%, 3 PPG, 62 PIM
A Brief History: Usurping Sikura’s role will be Luke Johnson. Originally drafted by the Blackhawks back in 2013, the moonfaced Johnson has spent the glut of his career in the AHL. And when I say glut, I mean it literally: A big reason he’s never made it to the NHL to this point is because of his weight. He began his IceHogs career at 5’11” 198, and it wasn’t until he dropped nearly 20 pounds last year that he started seeing greater success.
Johnson is essentially a guy. He’s got OK speed now that he’s lost some weight, an OK shot (he shot 8.1% for the Hogs during the regular season last year), and isn’t a zoo without cages in his own end. He was a strong contributor in the IceHogs’s Calder Cup run, with eight points (4 G, 4A) throughout those playoffs. He’s looked good on the fourth line, where he’s spent more time in the defensive zone and has still posted a 54+ CF%.
It Was the Best of Times: Johnson’s not going to light the world on fire. Best case, he stays on the fourth line with Kruger and some combo of Hayden, Kampf, or Martinsen. He plays well enough on the PK to justify rotating him in whenever Hayden disappears or Martinsen goes beyond sucking.
It Was the BLURST of Times: Quenneville gets it in his head that Johnson belongs on a line with Anisimov and Kunitz, and that line gives up 50 goals by itself before Thanksgiving.
Prediction: Johnson earned his shot with a strong camp this year. He’ll play well as the Hawks’s 13th forward and turn into a David Kampf Lite. He’ll get into a fight or two that will endear him to the “I’m gonna wear a headdress to the game” crowd and will pot, let’s say, nine points on the year.
Previous Player Previews
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You Share The Same Fate As The People You Hate – ’18-’19 Team Previews: Takin’ Our Punk Ass To Nashville
It was all lined up for the Preds last year. Coming off their first Final appearance, and after a big trade that supposedly landed them the #2 center they’ve always needed (even though they don’t really have a #1), and a career-season out of Pekka Rinne at 35, this was their moment.
And they fluffed their lines.
They ran into a team that did what they did but better. They ran into a team with four genuine centers and two that could claim to be #1s. Rinne looked his age. Sure, it took to a Game 7, but the Preds only got to that by having to revert from their style and basically trap the Jets. It could only work for so long, because Pekka Rinne for his whole career save one playoff run has been just good enough to get you beat. And so it proved.
Oh, and the summer had yet another Predator proving to be nothing more than a shitbag, which of course they’ll welcome back with open arms because that’s what they do in Music City. AW HERE IN THE SOUTH WE THINK HITTIN’ YOUR WOMAN IS A SIGN OF LOVE. YOU YANKS JUST WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND WITH YOUR FANCY COMPASSION.
Anyway, the Preds are just going to roll it back, with essentially the same team and Rinne another year older. Funny thing though, the Jets haven’t gone anywhere, the Blues suddenly look a little spiky, and the Sharks await whoever survives this cage match. The Preds very well may have missed their boat.
2017-2018: 53-18-11 117 points 267 GF 211 GA 51.5 CF% 50.9 xGF% 8.1 SH% .935 SV%
Goalies: This could be the start of something big. And by “big” I mean a controversy. The Preds have seemingly wanted to hand the job to Juuse Saros for a while now. But they watched Rinne have a renaissance starting in the ’17 playoffs and all through last season. They can’t exactly just dislodge him due to policy.
And yet he’s turning 36 in a month. He has the Game 7 full-body dry heave during the Preds’ best chance for a Cup hanging over him. It won’t take much for their to be a whiff of a switch. They nearly did it two seasons ago before Rinne discovered Ponce De Leon’s secret.
Which in one sense is great for the Preds. Saros has been excellent whenever called upon, even though he’s small and small goalies really struggle in today’s league. If Rinne stumbles, their season won’t be torpedoed.
On the other hand, you’re talking about an organizational legend, the longest-tenured Pred by some distance, and a fan favorite. A team leader, and there’s no telling what kind of effect turning things over to Saros could have. This seems to be a team that has cohesion, but you’ve seen it rip teams apart before. It’s one fissure everyone has to keep an eye on.
Most likely, Rinne is just good enough during the season to keep these questions at bay. But in the spring if something should go haywire, it’ll take quite the tap-dance for Peter Laviolette to negotiate.
Defense: Well, they had the best defense in the league, so no reason to not return with it. Or they did until the Sharks traded for Erik Karlsson. But this is still the strength of the team. They added Dan Hamhuis again to fill out the third pairing, and even though he’s a million years old now he can probably take 12-15 minutes a night and do it well. It’s still the top four that’s the envy of most of the league.
It’s actually only middling defensively, as they give up an average amount of attempts and chances. But with Ellis, Josi, Subban, and Ekholm, they create far more than they surrender. You can’t find a team that has more players that get the team up the ice from the back themselves. Ellis is here for the full run this time, which will help them stay at the top of the division. Sure, they need some bailing out from their goalie at times, but they also keep the Preds on the right side of the ice enough.
Forwards: We’re the only ones who think this, and no matter how much we shout it from the rooftops no one seems to listen. When Ryan Johansen is not playing for a contract, he’s playing for a lava cake. As I said in the Preds’ eulogy, he had the same amount of points as Jonathan Toews last year and everyone tells me Toews is clinically dead. Mark Scheifele kicked his ass up and down the ice in that series last year, mostly because RyJo was still digesting the family size bag of M&Ms he ate at intermission. There’s no reason to think that won’t continue.
The Preds backed that up by acquiring Kyle Turris, whom reports suggest did play in last year’s playoffs. I’m not sure where there’s evidence of that. Maybe I need decoder glasses for it or something.
Turris and Johansen will do enough in the regular season to make you think the Preds are strong down the middle. And then they’ll run up against the Jets or Sharks or Blues, who actually have real center-depth, and the Preds will have a real damn problem.
Other than that, it’s still the same crop of quick forwards who never stop working and basically run most teams out of the building most nights. They’re probably looking for more from Kevin Fiala this term, who had something of a breakout with 23 goals last year. If they get it they’re more than fine. If they don’t, they’re just a touch short on scoring.
Outlook: Here’s another thing to watch with the Preds this year. Lavvy is almost certainly past his sell-by date. He wore out his act in Carolina and Philly well before this, and his intense ways can grind on players. If things go just a little sideways early in the season, they could pull the rip-chord on him. The goalie situation won’t help.
But other than those two maybes, there’s a lot more certainties with Nashville. One of the best blue lines in the league. Two good goalies. Maybe not the forward corps most people think, but certainly one good enough to cash in on the puck-movers they have at the back. They’ll be at the top of the division and conference again.
But there’s also no reason to think that an encounter with Winnipeg will go that much differently. If they survive that, there’s still San Jose, who won’t be nearly as tested in the Pacific, likely. It looks like it’ll be too much for Treat Boy and the gang to overcome.
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Their Emblems Built of Garbage – ’18-’19 Blackhawks Player Previews – Patrick Kane
We arrive at the final few days before the start of the season, with the preseason over and the regular season set to start on Wednesday for the NHL and Thursday for the Hawks. As we get here, we prepare to finalize our preview series of the team today and tomorrow. We start today with the most important skater on the team, Patrick Kane
2017-18 Stats
82 GP – 27 G – 49 A
51.59 CF% – 63.52 oSZ%
20:11 Avg TOI
A Look Back: Kane didn’t have quite the level of success in 2017-18 that he saw in 15-16 and 16-17, and that is likely in no small part because he lost running mate Artemi Panarin. You’ll still be hard pressed to find someone at this site that thought or thinks that Saad for Panarin swap was bad for the Hawks, but it was apparent that Kane missed Panarin a bit, even with spending a decent chunk of time with Nick Schmaltz who is a better play maker than Panarin, though not quite the shooter. The real pitfall was that Quenneville seemingly refused to put Top Cat on that line despite the fact that he’s probably the most natural shooter on the team, and therefore the obvious replacement to the skillset you lost in Panarin. There were times where Top Cat got with 8 and 88, but it wasn’t enough, and I think it cost both all three players a good bit of production. If those three get together more often and get you even 10 more goals total, last season might look a bit different. But that’s in the past. Kane was still one of the league’s better players, and he will be again because he is one of the top-1o talents in the league, and that’s not really up for debate.
It Was the Best of Times: Kane is likely to start the year with Schmaltz as his pivot again, and it’s looking like Brandon Saad will man the other side of the ice, at least early on. That is definitely a good fit because Saad is one of the best players the Hawks have when it comes to being extremely skilled and also doing the “dirty work” extremely well. Saad is strong in front of the net, so if Kane and Schamltz work their playmaking magic together, there should be some easy clean up duty for him. That probably won’t last too long, knowing who the coach is, so I’d like to see Top Cat get some work on Kane’s opposite flank as well, especially with Schmaltz as the center. If Kane is able to spend most of the year with Schmaltz in his middle and Saad or Top Cat opposite him and is able to reach his ceiling again he can climb into the scoring title race and flirt with 100+ points.
It Was the BLURST of Times: Kane is easily the Hawks most important skater now, a mantle he takes over from Duncan Keith as the latter has started down the declining path that comes with age and a fuck-ton of minutes played. Any worst case scenario for Kane is pretty much worst-case scenario for the Hawks as well. If Kane gets hurt and misses significant time, even if Crawford is readily available, I’m just not sure the Hawks have the scoring punch to win games without him. If he gets a Toews and Sadd-like streak of bad shooting luck this year, it could be disastrous as well. As much as Toews and Saad are due for corrections on shooting percentage, and Top Cat can bring you good goal scoring as well, Kane is really gonna be the straw that stirs the offensive drink, and if he’s out or struggling, it’s gonna be hard to watch.
Prediction: Kane is another player where at this point we know what he is, so it’s easy for me to predict he’ll have 70-80 points and just cash in my prediction for clout on Twitter later. But I don’t wanna be boring. While I think this Hawks team is going to be bad, and maybe pitifully so, I think Kane is due for a strong season among it all. Again, he’s gonna need to account for a good chunk of the offense, and if he’s given good linemates as weapons to unlock that scoring ability, he is gonna have a good year. I think he will flirt with 90 points again this year, and yet it still won’t matter. He will look really good playing with Jack Hughes in 2019-20 though.
Previous Player Previews
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High On The Hog: That Time Of Year
The calendar is telling me that hockey is soon to be underway for the Blackhawks AHL affiliate. That would be the Winnebago County Flying Piglets, known to folks in these parts as the Rockford IceHogs.
Second-year coach Jeremy Colliton will be hard at work this week getting Rockford prepared to open its season. That happens this weekend with a pair of games in Cleveland.
Colliton helmed the Hogs to their deepest foray ever into the Calder Cup Playoffs. Rockford reached the Western Conference Final before being beaten in six games by the Texas Stars.
Four IceHogs who spent a portion of 2017-18 in Rockford (John Hayden, David Kampf, Andreas Martinsen and Luke Johnson) are now on the Blackhawks roster. Colliton is once again charged with pushing more talented skaters through the pipeline to Chicago.
To show just how important the preseason is, Rockford had no exhibition games on its training camp schedule. Fans were treated to an intersquad affair at the BMO Friday night before the Hogs pared down the roster.
The Hogs vs Hogs tilt resulted in a 3-2 win for Team White, following a Gus Macker tally by Darren Raddysh. Regulation goals from the winning squad came from Conner Moynihan (who got sent to Indy for his effort) and Terry Broadhurst, both on AHL contracts with Rockford.
Team Red also got a goal from one of the Hogs AHL signings, courtesy of Henrik Samuelsson. New Hawks prospect Jacob Nilsson got a put back goal to round out the scoring.
After some moves from Chicago, we now have a pretty decent idea of who will begin the 2018-19 season in the Forest City. Here is a look at the roster heading into practice this week.
Forwards (15)
NHL Contracts (11)
Dylan Sikura, Tyler Sikura, Viktor Ejdsell, Jordan Schroeder, Anthony Louis, Matthew Highmore, Jacob Nilsson, Nathan Noel, Matheson Iacopelli, Graham Knott, Alexandre Fortin.
At 28, Schroeder is the elder statesman in a group otherwise made up of first or second-year players. Most of the forward group is preparing for their second loop around the AHL. Noel is hoping for a healthy go-round and a full campaign in Rockford. Ejdsell saw mostly playoff action last season.
The two rookies in this group are Nilsson, who has several years of pro experience in Europe, and Dylan Sikura, who was assigned to the Hogs after joining the Blackhawks after his college season ended. Both players could make a big impact in Rockford early in the season.
Noel, Iacopelli and Fortin are looking to entrench themselves into Jeremy Colliton’s lineup in 2018-19. Knott will be looking to raise his level of play a notch or two from his rookie season.
AHL Contracts (4)
William Pelletier, Henrik Samuelsson, Terry Broadhurst, Brett Welychka.
Pelletier did not draw an invite to the Hawks NHL training camp. He was also absent from Friday night’s intersquad scrimmage and most (if not all) of the team workouts before that. If he is healthy and ready to play when the puck drops Friday in Cleveland, he should be a steady presence in the Hogs lineup.
Regardless of Pelletier’s availability, Samuelsson and Broadhurst should see a lot of action. Welychka could find himself with the Indy Fuel at times this season but may hold onto a roster spot for now. (UPDATE-Welychka was sent to Indy Monday afternoon.)
Outlook
As was the case last season, this is a young group that will be more than able to play at the pace Colliton prefers. There would appear to be opportunities to crack the lineup in Chicago for guys like Sikura (pick one), Highmore, Schroeder or Fortin. There are also players who need to prove they belong in the IceHogs lineup, so this should be a motivated group.
Defense
NHL Contracts (8)
Andrew Campbell, Carl Dahlstrom, Darren Raddysh, Luc Snuggerud, Joni Tuulola, Dennis Gilbert, Blake Hillman, Lucas Carlsson.
Depending on how Colliton pairs up his blueline, Dahlstrom provides a solid option on the top duo. Campbell is this season’s veteran presence; don’t expect too much in the way of offense, but he can sure up a pairing with one of the rookies.
Snuggerud is looking to put some injuries behind him in 2018-19. Raddysh is hoping to build on a solid rookie campaign that earned him his entry contract.
This group lacks the overall experience that was in Rockford to begin last season. Tuulola, Gilbert, Hillman and Carlsson are untested at the AHL level and will need to get up to speed quickly.
AHL Contract (1)
Josh McArdle
McArdle could be destined for Indy before too long (UPDATE-McArdle was assigned to the Fuel Monday afternoon). When all of the Hawks prospects are healthy, there may not be too much ice time for him with Rockford. A native of Rockton, Illinois and a former Junior IceHogs skater, it would be a hoot and a holler if McArdle could get into some action at the BMO.
Outlook
If last year’s forward group was unproven last season, it’s the defense that offers the most question marks this fall. The development of a young blueline will have a huge impact on Rockford’s fortunes as a team. This is nothing remotely close to the group that played so well in the playoffs last spring. The goalies could be facing a different caliber of shots in the event of a steep drop-off at the defensive end.
Goalie
NHL Contracts (2)
Collin Delia, Kevin Lankinen
Barring any other moves or injury, this is your net tandem this season. It figures to be a solid one, provided Delia builds on the momentum generated by his whirlwind spring in Rockford.
If Delia starts this season the way he finished the last one, he could earn himself some time protecting the crease for Chicago. That depends on how the Hawks goalie situation works out the first few months.
I’d think the organization would like to see Lankinen get around 30 starts in Rockford, though the primary starter’s job should be Delia’s based on his play. Let’s keep in mind that Delia has just 28 AHL games to his name heading into this season. He’s still going to be learning on the job, as will Lankinen, who is making his debut in North America.
AHL Contract (1)
Matt Tomkins
Tomkins should get a healthy workload in Indy once he is assigned to the Fuel, which is a move the Hogs will make early this week. He wasn’t particularly impressive at the AHL level in his stints with Rockford last season, so you’d like to see Tomkins perform well with Indy and potentially provide a bit more consistency in any action he sees with the IceHogs in 2018-19.
Outlook
Last year’s Hogs team limited traffic and high-percentage shots on Delia, giving him time to play his way into a big role in the postseason run. A younger, less-experienced defense will keep all of Rockford’s goalies on their toes.
New Look Central
The Hogs have some new division foes with which to contend in 2018-19. Cleveland slides to the Eastern Conference, while two teams, San Antonio and Texas, move into the Central Division this season.
That makes for an eight-team division consisting of Rockford, Milwaukee, Chicago, Iowa, Grand Rapids and Manitoba in addition to the Stars and Rampage. Of Rockford’s 76-game schedule, 64 will be contested with a Central Division opponent. As always, beating the teams in the Central is key to being in a playoff slot come April.
That includes a dozen games with the Hogs two closest foes, Chicago and Milwaukee. Rockford has ten with both the Wild and Griffins and face both San Antonio and Texas eight times. As was the case a year ago, the IceHogs see the Moose just four times.
The season kicks off in Cleveland, where the piglets are in action Friday and Saturday. Six of Rockford’s first eight games are against non-divisional opponents…then the Hogs settle in for three months and 40 Central matchups.
Rockford has a six-game road trip November 9-20 and a couple of four-game jaunts in the second half of the season. Their longest home stretch is a six-game stand in February. Starting in late March, the Hogs are at the BMO for five straight.
Unlike 2017-18, when Rockford played a home-heavy schedule in the first few months and were frequently out of town the second half, this year sees a more balanced slate. Of the 35 games in the 2018 part of the schedule, the IceHogs play at the BMO 16 times. Starting January 1, 22 of Rockford’s last 41 games are at the big orange box.
Puppy Power…And Other Promotions
Last season, the IceHogs attendance was down to 3915 a night at the BMO, the lowest it’s been since Rockford’s inaugural AHL season in 2007-08. This, despite a exciting brand of hockey and a deep playoff run. It should be said that the crowds were much healthier in the playoffs, eclipsing Hogs postseason attendance records.
Hopefully the trend will reflect the previous season’s success. The Hogs are working hard to get butts in the seats…even puppy butts.
Rockford held Pucks and Paws Night on November 10 last season. The Hogs lost 6-0 to San Antonio, but enough dog lovers had their pets in tow to merit the IceHogs opening the BMO Harris Bank Center to your fur babies for all seven Wednesday home games. And your dog’s ticket is only two bucks!
The Hogs will also have their share of youth jersey, hat, shirt and blanket giveaways throughout the schedule, along with annual events like the Teddy Bear Toss (December 1) and the Pink In The Rink Night. If watching tomorrow’s Blackhawks playing fast-paced hockey isn’t enough for you, maybe some swag will get you heading to the BMO.
How Will The Piglets Fare In 2018-19?
Before the Hawks organization sent veteran reinforcements in February, Rockford was a young, exciting team that was fun to watch but was probably going to finish a spot or two out of the playoff picture. Not a one of the veteran catalysts remains from the club that reached the Western Conference Final.
Where does that leave this season’s group? Well, it would be foolish to think that the roster will undergo its share of turnover over 76 games.
Players are going to slide in and out of town at various points in the campaign. A lot of skaters earned looks in Chicago last season and that figures to continue with a lot of youth in the Hawks lineup.
As constructed, a lot of the load will have to be shouldered by returning players like Highmore, Sikura and Louis. Broadhurst and Schroeder getting off to hot starts and being steady, point-producing vets would be more than welcome.
Ultimately, it could come down to how Rockford grows up on the defensive side of the puck that dictates team success. Last spring’s playoff lessons could pay dividends with what is still a very young team. Will it be enough to land the Hogs in the postseason? However Rockford answers that question, the action at the BMO should be worth checking out.
I’m looking forward of another year of covering the IceHogs; follow me @JonFromi on twitter for news and commentary on all things Rockford throughout the 2018-19 season.