Everything Else

Great Caesar’s Ghost – Hawks at Senators Preview, Full Synthetic Oil Change

By 1503

 at 

Game Time: 6:30PM CDT
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Justin Trudeau Is A Fucking Con Man: Silver Seven

Given that the Hawks have been hockey monarchy for going on a decade now, with President/Cardinal John McDonough fancying himself its emperor, it’s probably best that they missed being on the Senate Floor in Kanata on the Ides of March by a day. Either way, the Hawks make their way further due southwest along the St. Lawrence seaway to the “capital” of the “nation” of Canada to take on a Sens squad that shockingly still has plenty to play for.

Everything Else

US Women’s National Team Q&A With Zoe Hayden From Victory Press

By 1330

As you have probably seen today, the US Women’s National Hockey team has announced they’re going to boycott the upcoming World Championships due to a labor/pay dispute. We thought we’d check in with someone a little more plugged into things than we are, our friend Zoe at VictoryPress.org. Follow her on Twitter @Zoeclaire_

While I think most everyone can understand what’s going on here, what are the conditions the US Women play under now and what are they asking for from US Hockey?

– Their demands seem to be that they are asking for their costs to be covered to participate in USA Hockey events and also that USA Hockey spend the same amount of money on development for the women’s game as they spend on the men’s game, as well as paying them to develop/train as athletes.  Considering the high profile of the women’s team, their overall skill set and status as a perennial medal favorite in any international tournament in which they participate, this seems reasonable.

Some players receive small monthly stipends from USAH.  I don’t know how the money is divided but it’s certainly not enough to live on and most players have other ways of making income if they play for USAH.  Per the NYT, they receive “virtually nothing” in between Olympic residencies: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/sports/hockey/team-usa-women-boycott-world-championships.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

Everything Else

It Comes and Goes in Plateaus – Blackhawks 4, Canadiens 2

By 1541

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

HockeyStats.ca

In another chapter of The LOCAL GUY doing well…Corey Crawford did what has now become an annual tradition – win in Montreal. Crawford’s performance tonight stands up with the rest of his terrific outings in the Great Bell Western Montreal Forum or whatever they’re calling it these days. In the first period, Crawford made several big saves to keep the Canadiens scoreless while the Hawks waited for Jeff Petry and Alexei Emelin to puke all over themselves.

They didn’t disappoint.

It’s happened so many times this year that I’ve lost count by now, but Jeff Petry gets absolutely abused whenever he’s matched against top competition. Sure enough, tonight he and his partner Emelin combined for a -6 while playing a key part in allowing Kane and the Russian spies and Schmaltz to score three times.

On the Hawks first goal, Petry backed off Kane so far that Kane probably could’ve skated the puck in another four feet before shooting. And this was while Kane was a mere 25 feet away from Carey Price.

On the Hawks second goal, Petry screened Price while Johnny Oduya wound up from 60 feet away. Then he ducked out of the way at the last second to leave Price scrambling to save a shot whistling past his face.

On the Hawks third goal, Petry and Emelin both moved towards Schmaltz as he held the puck in the ultra-dangerous area along the boards with his back turned. Schmaltz, to his credit, made a fabulous no-look pass to a streaking Artemi Panarin and the Hawks had a 3-0 lead.

Other things that may or may not involve Petry and Emelin setting Montreal on fire…

–Artem Anisimov’s high-ankle, lower body injury certainly didn’t look good at the end of the first period. His reaction didn’t make things much better. Anisimov laid on the ice and the mics could pick up his screams of agony.

Post-game, Joel Quenneville said he’s day-to-day and wasn’t considered serious. Of course, this is great news as we saw first-hand tonight how much stronger and deeper the Hawks are with Anisimov. Schmaltz has no problem filling the second line center need but then it leaves the Hawks slightly less better on the top line.

Tonight, they moved Hossa to the top line, Schmaltz to the second line and then used Kane or Panarin with Kruger and Tootoo. I’d imagine with John Hayden on the trip and expected to play in Ottawa anyways, things won’t look that much differently in a couple days.

The important thing is that Anisimov isn’t out for an extended period.

–That third period was so hockey, it may as well have smelled like rubber floors and B.O.. The Canadiens basically had zero push after Panarin gave the Hawks a 3 goal lead and looked no different than when Michel Therrien was being ignored while yelling things at people in French.

The Hawks had no problem just running out the clock and chipping pucks into the Canadiens zone.

Then, Montreal scores a nothing goal on a crazy bounce with 7 minutes left to cut the lead to two. A few minutes pass with the Hawks continuing to keep the clock moving while the Canadiens don’t make much of any push.

With less than four minutes left, the Hawks make a couple bad passes in their own end allowing the Canadiens to set up a forecheck. The puck gets swung around to Shea Weber and he unleashed a howler that made its way past Crawford after Richard Panik took the wrong angle.

Just like that, it was a one goal game in a period where the Canadiens looked like they could barely be bothered if Byron wasn’t on the ice.

In the end, it amounted to nothing for Montreal as the Hawks potted an empty-netter. So hockey.

–With the Wild losing in regulation to the Capitals, the Hawks have moved back in first with a game at hand. The Hawks continue their trip through the Canadian provinces as they face Ottawa on Thursday. Even when the Senators were winning 11 games a year, it seemed like the Hawks could never win there. The Wild will be playing in Carolina at the same time so we get to do this all again in a couple days.

CAN’T WAIT.

Everything Else

I’ll Tell Ya Another Thing About Canada, The Beer Sucks: Hawks at Canadiens Preview/Glass Blowing

By 1787

 vs. 

RECORDS: Hawks 43-20-5   Canadiens 39-22-8

PUCK DROP: 6:30 Central

TV: CSN, NBCSN

JEAN-JACQUES SMYTHES: Habs Eyes On The Prize

PROJECTED LINEUPS

ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Hawks – 50.9 (11th)  Habs – 52.4 (4th)

ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Hawks – 48.7 (19th)  Habs – 52.8 (5th)

POWER PLAY %: Hawks – 18.8 (17th)  Habs – 20.3 (12th)

PENALTY KILL %: Hawks – 77.7 (27th)  Habs – 80.5 (17th)

The Hawks begin an Eastern Canadian road trip, touring the northern members of the Atlantic division all in a row. It starts with invading the constant carnival that is the Montreal Canadiens. And now this carnival comes with a full compliment of carny folk and a freak show. Because that’s how they want it up there.

Everything Else

Habs Q&A With Mega-Nerd Andrew Berkshire

By 1613

You can catch Andrew’s work just about everywhere, but mostly at Sportsnet.ca and RDS.ca. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewBerkshire.

Ok, explain why the Habs think they need every asshat they can find and why it will or won’t work when things matter?

Bergevin has it in his mind that the number one reason why the Habs collapsed last season was that they were “easy to play against”. That was probably because they let in a goal every 5 shots scored on one of every 20 for like 3 months, then everyone got injured, but the team took it to mean GRIT and other crap. This same thing happened after the 2013 playoffs when the Habs throttled the Senators by every metric but Anderson stood on his head and Price was playing with a torn groin, so they lost in 5 and Bergevin brought in Douglas Murray and George Parros in the offseason. He’s a conservative GM for the most part, but he’s also extremely reactionary and seemingly mediocre at diagnosing weaknesses. 

Everything Else

High On The Hog: Goalie Jam

By Jon Fromi 1807

The Rockford IceHogs dropped their only game on the schedule this week. The Hogs are in action Tuesday at the BMO Harris Bank Center, where they will host Milwaukee before heading to Manitoba this weekend.

One area Rockford should not be short in is the crease. By my count, there should be four candidates for the job of guarding the net. Apparently three guys weren’t enough for the IceHogs. Or…maybe someone is on his way out.

Everything Else

Easy There, College Boy

By 1593

Sometimes I wonder how much the Hawks were scarred by having Kevin Hayes spurn their advances and head to free agency after completing his college career. They’ve certainly never let that happen again, though I don’t know how much of a threat that was with any of their college prospects. There were some whispers that John Hayden was looking longingly at the open market, so the Hawks signed him up last night. And they did it by promising he could get int eh lineup this season, thus burning one of the two years on his ELC and getting him to a second contract that much quicker. Because that went so well for Kyle Baun Baun Kyle Baun Baun, Drew LeBlaahhhhh, and all the other jokers the Hawks have punted into a game from the college ranks at the end of a season.

Everything Else

You’re A Big Man But You’re Out Of Shape: Wild 2 – Hawks 4

By 1337

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

I’ll admit to having been a touch worried about Corey Crawford lately. It was starting to look a bit last year. In both seasons, for the first half of the campaign Crow was asked to perform miracles and paranormal phenomenons to keep the wolves from the door. Last year, under the weight of all that he faded at the end, and was only good in the playoffs which wasn’t good enough. We don’t know yet if this year will see the same fade, but of late he just hasn’t been as good as he was earlier in the year. He’d strung four great starts together, but then there was Detroit–where he admittedly didn’t have any help either. And it’s kind of what we’ve seen from Feb. 1 on.

Today was definitely vintage Crow, which gave his teammates the platform to capitalize on the opportunities they did create. And there’s your difference. The Hawks finished theirs because of their greater top-end firepower. Kane, Panarin, and Hossa on the scoresheet. The Wild didn’t. And this is almost certainly how it will go in May when these two teams see each other again.

Let’s clean it up:

Everything Else

Trying To Find A Balance – Wild vs. Hawks Preview, Daylight Savings Spring Ahead

By 1401

 vs 

Game Time: 11:30AM CDT
TV/Radio: NBC, TVA-S, WGN-AM 720
Makes No Sense At All: Hockey Wilderness

Late season, weekend matinee games suck out loud regardless of the two teams involved. The thought process behind having them is clear, with both college and pro football shuttered for their respective seasons, and baseball yet to move north from Arizona and Florida, there is a void that can be filled by the Winter Tenants for viewership when there’s really only Law & Order: SVU reruns on elsewhere. But the vast majority of hockey games are played at night, and professional hockey players, like all athletes, enjoy their ya-ha time after a game and generally keep later hours. There is always at least a 24 hour break going into them so it’s not totally cutting into physical recuperation the way Thursday Night Football does, but circadian rhythms are still fucked with, and now past the deadline there are many teams who are just playing out the string. Couple that with the overall quality of the league due to a flat salary cap, and it’s left an absolute dogshit product on the ice on par with Thursday Night Football by any absolute or relative measure. And on top of that Daylight Savings just kicked in, so now two teams who at least on paper who are still jockeying for the top spot in the Central and the West, are effectively facing off at 10:30AM local time, all for the sake of courting viewers that the NHL is never going to grab. Nice work everyone.