Everything Else

The Hawks Against Good Teams: A Study

By 1500

You can start to feel a lift among the fanbase these days. One that never really came last year, as the Hawks’ flaws were so easy to see and so glaring that a first round exit seemed pretty inevitable, even if a Game 7 loss to the Blues still stung. There are no such concerns these days, as the Hawks remain one of the hottest teams in the league for over a month now and have rocketed to the top of the division and conference. Elsewhere, you can feel the growing sense of dread from the rest of the hockey world, as the familiar face no one really wanted to see looks like it’ll be there when it matters most again (some would call this the “Roman Reigns Phenomena”)

In that sense, it’s been a weird week for the Hawks. Consecutively, they’ve beaten 5th, 8th, and 9th overall in the standings in terms of points and all three teams were either in first at the time or right there for it in their division. And yet, at least in terms of possession, they’ve gotten clocked in all three games. Has this been a long-standing problem and is it indicative of what might happen when all the lights come on in a month’s time or so.

Hey, we can research this! Bless!

Everything Else

I’m A Lincoln Monologue, I’m Livin’ Like A God: Hawks 2 – Sens 1

By 1252

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

“Some guys look at this glass and say it’s half full. Some guys would say it’s half empty. I’m bettin’ you’re one of the half-empty guys.”

“Well what would you, if every day was exactly the same, and nothing you did mattered?”

“That about sums it up for me.”

The last bit of life ennui is brought to you by Guy Boucher, who in high school was voted most likely to take lemons and make it a Chekhov play. Some coaches would look at a roster of 12, fast, and at least decently skilled forwards and think, “Hey, I can make some things happen offensively here!” Guy Boucher looks at a roster of 12 fast, decently skilled forwards and thinks, “Hey, I can use this speed to make sure they all get back to the neutral zone to trap in plenty of time and make every fan question the meaning of existence!”

Everything Else

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

By 1513

 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 1336

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 1550

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 1791

 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 1618

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 1812

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 1607

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.