Every penny counts:Chicago Tribune
Along with most Score callers:NHL
Chances:CSN
Hopefully Minor:NBC
Good GMs do that:LA Times
Remember when Paula Abdul was like the center of all your middle school fantasies, which basically amounted to holding a girl’s hand? Ah, the innocence…
Oh right, hockey. It would appear the Hawks are going to try things in reverse this season, if I’m going to make wild conclusions after 11 games because we’ve got nothing else to do. Usually their sloppy, barely bothered effort on the 2nd of a back-to-back on the road comes in February or March. While the Wild did enough to let the Hawks back into this one, the Hawks did more to cost themselves the contest.
It’s rare you see the Hawks so sloppy at both blue lines tonight. So many shifts saw them failing to get the puck out when given the chance and having to cycle back and defend. How many times did they nearly get caught on a change because of misplays at the offensive blue line? Four, five? Maybe more? They just aren’t the most cohesive of units right now.
Zucker’s opener was a result of misplays from a couple Hawks on the boards. Ryan Carter scored off a rush when Kane didn’t quite know what to do when covering for TVR at the point and got caught. The last two goals sprang from Hawks d-men getting caught too far outside, leaving a lane through the middle that either ended in a goal (Spurgeon) or a scramble that did (Niederreiter). It will not make for a happy Q.
To it.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7pm
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN
EVANDER KANE FAN CLUB: Arctic Ice Hockey
The Hawks will take their Keithers-less act on the road for the first time tonight, and they’ll face a Jets team that was a major headache for them last year (though not at MTS Centre). Winnipeg won all three games at the United Center last year, and a couple of them pretty handily. This will be a major test for the Hawks’ reshaped blue line, and they very well could need Corey Crawford to bail them out again as he did Monday.
You’re going to have to get used to the upped quota of wrestling references, given my recent return to fandom.
I was inspired to write this after reading Mark Lazerus’s story on Michal Rozsival yesterday. It’s a pretty good read, and getting the perspective of what it’s like to break your ankle that gruesomely certainly makes it more vivid, at least to someone like me who hasn’t broken a bone (DATS CUZ YER NOT CHICAGO TOUGH, FELS-STINE!). And it got me to think about the arc of Rozsival’s stay here in Chicago, and how much of that should really play in to whether he should still be on this team or not.
Just sharing our past couple Page 8s from the gameday program. For those who don’t know, Page 8 is where we kind of let loose and do anything we think is funny.
The Lottery by Joel Quenneville
The Anaheim Inquisition
I’m actually tempted to apply our normal title policy to these silly overtimes, where we list the score as tied. But more on that later.
Once again, the Hawks couldn’t find a goal during normal time, though unlike Saturday they were outplayed for most of the game instead of surviving an opening barrage and slowly turning the game their way. But they have a second straight shutout, and they can think Corey Crawford for it. By the way, Crow’s now gleaming .943 SV% is good for 4th in the league, as would his 1.57 GAA. Hopefully this time he can avoid any arguments with the H.O.B steps.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You could say a second straight shutout without Keith is highly encouraging (though this is the 5th time the Ducks have been shutout this season, so that accomplishment doesn’t get a bunch of gold stars). Or you could look at the Hawks only having put up one even-strength goal without Keith as something to worry. The answer is probably both.
Let’s do the thing.
vs.
PUCK DROP: 7:30pm Central
TV/RADIO: WGN For both, NHLN-US, Sportsnet
EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: Raw Charge
Always ace scheduling from the NHL when they take their Stanley Cup Final rematch and stick it on a Saturday in October. One of the handful of games the casual fan outside the two markets might notice, and it’s on at the worst possible time. The NHL: 99 years with a thumb up their own ass.
Anyway, the Hawks will get a decent look at what they can do against a premier team in the league without their biggest weapon in Duncan Keith. The Panthers have a decent set of speed and skill on all four lines, but they would be the JV to the Lightning’s varsity squad that roll in tonight.
Now that Slak has taken away my angry ranting posts, and rightly so because I’m just not angry of a person despite what my appearance, music tastes, and general demeanor would indicate (“denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, hon). So I guess I’d better slink back into my other corner on this fun little prison riot, and that’s being a nerdy nerdy dweeboid with glasses who’s terrified of girls (the last two are actually probably quite accurate). So let’s do it, shall we?
48.9%
This is Toews’s season Corsi-percentage, and while that might not seem all that low, it’s basically 10% below where he’s been the past four years, which is canyon-esque, and the canyon I’m referring to is the one Affleck, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Peter Stormare jumped over in their lunar cruiser (Jesus Fucking Christ why do I know that?).
Now, there are a couple huge caveats to add here (and you can add you’re own terrible movie metaphor in your own head for that one). One, we’re still talking about seven games, a mere drop in the pond. Second, this is actually trending the right way because the first couple games of the season Toews was around 40%. He certainly kicked around the Panthers last night and was better against the Jackets, though that probably falls into the low-hanging fruit category. While Barkov is going to be a great player one day soon, he’s probably not quite ready to go toe-to-toe with the league greats like Tavares or Couturier were earlier in the season.
There probably isn’t a more gentle way to start the first stretch without Duncan Keith than playing a young team that puts on a display that looks reminiscent to a group of teenagers having their first weekend with the parents out of town (which most of the Panthers aren’t that far removed from, either the teenagers or the parents depending on the player). They were sloppy and disjointed, and the Hawks stable enough that they could basically step back and let the roof cave in on the Cats just enough to walk away with a 3-2 win. Also helps when you spend nearly half of the last 40 minutes on the power play.
Going into the season, the one thing most Hawks fans and analysts said the Hawks couldn’t have was an injury to Duncan Keith. Time to break the glass on that case, then.
It came out today that Duncan Keith had surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee. He will be out 4-6 weeks. And this is clearly the one injury the Hawks couldn’t cope with. Even if Toews had to miss a month, there are enough competent centers that they could stay afloat. An injury to Hossa or Kane, the Hawks have enough depth with their wings that they probably could have made it work. But this…, like with Miranda Priestly, there is no Plan B.
