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Notes On The Cycle

By 1546

Just a few quick notes on tonight’s what-have-ya, contested mostly by guys who will be running a rink in Medicine Hat or the like in five years.

-I was most interested in watching Forsling and Kempny. Both showed composure on the puck, especially Kempny. It’s hard to get a read on him in particular when he’s still not facing the quality of players he’s going to in a couple weeks, but at least he showed a willingness to skate himself out of trouble and try and find a pass. Unfortunately for him, there were like two forwards on his team who could receive said pass cleanly.

As for Forsling, same thing but man is he small. Even if he’s willing he’s going to get crushed by NHL bodies. This is probably what will send him back to Sweden this year. There are small d-men around the league. Jared Spurgeon comes to mind. Toby Enstrom is another. Spurgeon is quite sturdy though, something of a fire hydrant. Enstrom is just really smart with great hands. Forsling has maybe two or three games to show he has the latter.

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Maybe They’re Lookin’ For Answers – C.I.’s Season Preview: Cleaning Up The Rest

By 1438

We’ve been through the biggest questions the Hawks face coming into this season. Next week we’ll spend tooling around the Central Division and Western Conference to see what the Hawks are up against. But for today, let’s try and clear up whatever we haven’t gotten to for the Hawks.

-The working theory for most of the summer, and until they actually show up in camp we have no reason to think any different, is that Marian Hossa is going to slide down to the third line to form some kind of checking line with Marcus Kruger and GTBD (goofus-to-be-determined). Quenneville mentioned it at the convention, Hossa and Kruger have talked about it at the World Cup. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and all that.

On the surface, this seems like a pretty good idea. Hossa is slowing down, he still has defensive instincts matched by very few, Kruger does as well, and perhaps if they really wanted it to they could free up Toews to not have to keep battling the Kopitars, Seguins, Getzlafs, and whoever else’s of the world. That might free Toews to do more scoring, even if there’s just farmland runoff on his wings.

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Maybe They’re Lookin’ For Answers – C.I.’s Season Preview: Can Patrick Kane Repeat Last Year?

By 1404

Well, probably not. But these posts can’t be three words long.

It’s amazing what can happen for a player like Kane when he gets an actual line with which to play. After spending years with the likes of Michal Handzus and Andrew Shaw and Kris Versteeg or centering a line or whatever other jokers and punters the Hawks could drudge up rather than just playing him with Toews, Kane got Brad Richards two years ago and finally a center and other winger in Panarin and Anisimov. It resulted in an Art Ross and Hart Trophy.

And the Hawks needed all of it with Saad and Sharp gone, Hossa falling off, Toews not being able to produce a top line’s production all by himself, and basically no bottom six for most of the season. The problem for the Hawks is that they might find themselves in the same bind again this year. And this time, other teams are not going to be fooled by the names of Toews or Hossa and leave their best out against them instead of Kane’s line.

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Maybe They’re Lookin’ For Answers – C.I.’s Season Preview: Schmaltz Sounds Like A Delicious Drink

By 1694

I don’t know if there’s excitement over Nick Schmaltz’s potential to contribute to the Hawks or more desperation after looking up and down the forwards and realizing he’s about the best chance for any secondary scoring. If it’s the latter… that’s not a good thing, as Corky St. Clair would tell us.

It’s hard to gauge what to even expect out of Schmaltz. The Hawks seemed pretty frantic to get him out of Grand Forks (sidenote: shouldn’t it be easy to convince someone to get out Grand Forks), which gives you the idea that they want him here and  not Rockford. Perhaps they think that much of him, perhaps they see the lack of anyone who can make a play in the offensive zone outside of Toews and The Fun Time Boys on the second line. Most likely, it’s a combination of the two.

But it isn’t exactly easy to make the jump from a sophomore in college to contributor in the NHL. Is there recent precedent?

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Maybe They’re Lookin’ For Answers – C.I.’s Season Preview: 51 Phantom And The Defense

By 1602

When the Hawks opened camp on Friday, we discussed what their biggest problem is, and that’s forward depth. Today might be a good day to swing at the other side, before we spend the rest of this in the middle (sounds like life). And that’s the Hawks’ defense.

Which sounds strange to say, because the Hawks’ defense last year was most certainly not a strength. And some of those problems could be problems this year, too. Duncan Keith’s knee is not really ever going to be “better.” That may be nothing or it may be something, and that something may be down the line. Once you remove that cartilage though, it’s not like it regrows. And he was clearly off by a half-step last year.

Secondly, if Brent Seabrook is still ordering the menu at Manny’s on the way to the morning skate, then there are still issues that Brian Campbell is not going to solve. So far so good, on that front, but we’ll see what the real games have to say.

What we do know is that the signing of 51 Phantom is going to solve a lot of problems.

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Roy Radke – Everyman Prospect

By 2992

With the Hawks opening camp today, their roster is currently about 3 times the size of what it will be three weeks from now, peppered with draft picks, invitees, and career AHLers (and in Tyler Motte’s case, the ECHL according to Fifth Feather). And one entry on the list stands out among all the others.

Roy Radke was taken by the Hawks in the 6th round last year as the 164th overall pick. And what’s striking about him is not his projectable frame or his mediocre OHL point totals, but the fact that he is for all intents and purposes a child under 20 years old named “Roy” in the age of Jadens, Cadens, Braydens, and such and such. Add to it his family name of Radke, and the name is an anachronism for a fresh-faced hockey prospect.

So here at the Committed Indian Chuckle Hut, we have devised a list of hardscrabble occupations far more befitting the name of “Roy Radke”

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Maybe They’re Looking For Answers – C.I.’s Season Preview: The Left Wing Problem

By 1468

I never know quite what to do with these season previews. To go player-by-player gets monotonous for you and for us, but there isn’t really way to do something every day either. We’ve tried multiple paths, so this year we’re just going to blend them all. Over the next couple weeks before Meth County shows up on the 12th to kick things off, we’ll look at certain players, certain questions, and certain other factors on how this season will go. We can’t be contained.

So today, it feels right to look at the Hawks biggest problem, and that’s their forward depth and specifically, who the fuck is playing  the left side on any of these lines?

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World Cup: Fantasy Booking

By 1531

It’s hard to get a gauge one how this tournament is going over. We know Twitter can be something of an echo chamber (ha, “can”). So if you thought this thing was stupid  you definitely can find enough people who agree with you to get the impression that everyone thinks it’s stupid. If you like it, because hey, it’s hockey in September and these are still the best players in the world out there you can find enough voices too.

I’ve enjoyed having hockey back this early, enjoyed laughing at Team USA, and while The Young Ones have been endlessly entertaining I can’t escape the feeling of it being misplaced and manufactured. I feel the same way about the Young Ones that I do about 3-on-3 OT. It’s a gimmick, an entertaining gimmick, and the gimmick-nature of it kind of robs it of its meaning and misses the point of the competition.

So of course the two would merge yesterday afternoon, and anyone watching it couldn’t take their eyes off of it, no matter the internal struggle.