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Let Me Guide You To The Purple Rain: Hawks at Wild Game 4 Preview/Pregame Thread/Sauna Time

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Hawk Wrestler vs. Zakk-Wylde-by-Ivan-Chopik

FACEOFF: 8:40pm Central

TV/RADIO: NBCSN, 87.7 FM

ON THE SKYWAY: Hockey Wilderness

As they did last year, the Hawks find themselves having passed up one chance to strangle the life out of this series in St. Paul but with another to do so in  Game 4. This time, however, they have a spikier Wild team to deal with (one that’s already escaped this dungeon this spring) and not quite the doomsday arsenal they once did.

If we go off yesterday’s practice, it would appear that Joel Quenneville is going to hit the blender again and try and spread out his scoring (or watch Sharp’s and Hossa’s usefulness get completely erased by Michal Handzus getting beaten silly by Granlund, Koivu, or Haula. Take your fucking pick). That’s if you believe this wasn’t just subterfuge. Even if he’s serious about putting Ben Smith up top and Kane with Kruger and Saad, you know it won’t last much more than a period if the Hawks aren’t up 3-0 and we’ll go back to what the lines have been this series anyway.

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Wait Til You've Tried Crow And Other Thursday Notes

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I had a bit of a discussion on this on Twitter on Monday, as I was watching yet more slobbering over Jonathan Quick and I was drinking. My best Twitter debates tend to come when I’m at the bar and I have time to kill. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Anyway, the narrative once again is that Jonathan Quick is dragging the Kings kicking and screaming through the playoffs. And I suppose that blue line beneath Drew Doughty does need some bailing out from time to time. But it got me to thinking:

59 games – 35-24, 8 shutouts, .928 SV%, 2.12 GAA

46 games – 27-18 3 shutouts, .925 SV%, 2.03 GAA

The top is Quick’s career playoff numbers. The bottom is Crawford’s. As you can see, other than the shutouts they’re almost identical. Ah, but I’m sure people will point to the Conn Smythe that Quick got and Crow doesn’t have. Ok then.

Quick’s 2012 run – 16-4 .946 SV%, 1.41 GAA

Crawford’s 2013 run – 16-7 .932 SV%, 1.84 GAA

Obviously, Quick’s run to the Cup was a little better, but not by all that much. And in 2012, Quick’s last three opponents didn’t finish in the top half in the league in scoring (and Vancouver was without Daniel Sedin courtesy Duncan Keith and Ryan Kesler was being held together by duct tape and hope), whereas last year’s Kings and Bruins both finished in the top half in scoring. We could easily make the argument that Crow had a tougher path to the Cup than Quick did.

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Wait Til You’ve Tried Crow And Other Thursday Notes

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I had a bit of a discussion on this on Twitter on Monday, as I was watching yet more slobbering over Jonathan Quick and I was drinking. My best Twitter debates tend to come when I’m at the bar and I have time to kill. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Anyway, the narrative once again is that Jonathan Quick is dragging the Kings kicking and screaming through the playoffs. And I suppose that blue line beneath Drew Doughty does need some bailing out from time to time. But it got me to thinking:

59 games – 35-24, 8 shutouts, .928 SV%, 2.12 GAA

46 games – 27-18 3 shutouts, .925 SV%, 2.03 GAA

The top is Quick’s career playoff numbers. The bottom is Crawford’s. As you can see, other than the shutouts they’re almost identical. Ah, but I’m sure people will point to the Conn Smythe that Quick got and Crow doesn’t have. Ok then.

Quick’s 2012 run – 16-4 .946 SV%, 1.41 GAA

Crawford’s 2013 run – 16-7 .932 SV%, 1.84 GAA

Obviously, Quick’s run to the Cup was a little better, but not by all that much. And in 2012, Quick’s last three opponents didn’t finish in the top half in the league in scoring (and Vancouver was without Daniel Sedin courtesy Duncan Keith and Ryan Kesler was being held together by duct tape and hope), whereas last year’s Kings and Bruins both finished in the top half in scoring. We could easily make the argument that Crow had a tougher path to the Cup than Quick did.

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Inside Dr. Weird's Island

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Now that we’re a little separated from last night, I want to try and be as even-handed about Q’s decisions (in this series and in the past) as I can be. It won’t be easy, but if we all work together I think we can get through it.

While Q scratched Nick Leddy for Sheldon Brookbank last night, it didn’t end up working out as a straight swap. As you’ll see from last night’s Extra Skater, Brookbank hardly played with Leddy’s usual partner in Rozsival at all. Brookbank took most of his shifts with Duncan Keith, and like they were in the St. Louis series they were highly effective, at least in terms of possession. Brookbank and Keith were both over 70% in Corsi-percentage, a full 18% above the team-rate for the game. Brookbank didn’t see the highest level of competition either when on the ice, as he mostly saw Brodziak and Niederreiter but there wasn’t a specific matchup either coach was chasing.

Rozsival spent most of his night skating with Johnny Oduya, and they weren’t so lucky. While Rozsvial was above water in overall Corsi, he was below the team-rate. Meanwhile Oduya was completely buried. As far as forwards these two saw it was basically spread out all over the map, as Q couldn’t chase matchups and Yeo didn’t seem too interested when they were on the ice.

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Inside Dr. Weird’s Island

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Now that we’re a little separated from last night, I want to try and be as even-handed about Q’s decisions (in this series and in the past) as I can be. It won’t be easy, but if we all work together I think we can get through it.

While Q scratched Nick Leddy for Sheldon Brookbank last night, it didn’t end up working out as a straight swap. As you’ll see from last night’s Extra Skater, Brookbank hardly played with Leddy’s usual partner in Rozsival at all. Brookbank took most of his shifts with Duncan Keith, and like they were in the St. Louis series they were highly effective, at least in terms of possession. Brookbank and Keith were both over 70% in Corsi-percentage, a full 18% above the team-rate for the game. Brookbank didn’t see the highest level of competition either when on the ice, as he mostly saw Brodziak and Niederreiter but there wasn’t a specific matchup either coach was chasing.

Rozsival spent most of his night skating with Johnny Oduya, and they weren’t so lucky. While Rozsvial was above water in overall Corsi, he was below the team-rate. Meanwhile Oduya was completely buried. As far as forwards these two saw it was basically spread out all over the map, as Q couldn’t chase matchups and Yeo didn’t seem too interested when they were on the ice.

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The Act We Act: Hawks 0 – Wild 4 (Hawks Lead 2-1)

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Box Score

Event Summary

Extra Skater

The Hawks got shut out tonight by Ilya Bryzgalov. Let’s let that sink in for a minute. And once it soaks in… um, can you bathe from the inside out? I guess we’ll all have to turn ourselves inside out and soap up that way.

Once again, the Hawks decided that a Game 3 wasn’t all that important. But honestly, I didn’t have too much of a problem with the first 40 minutes. In some ways it felt like a Floyd Mayweather fight. Work through the first few rounds, time your opponent’s punches, survive a couple hooks, and then slowly take away everything they do and move away in the later rounds when they’ve run out of ideas and tire.

The Hawks forgot the last part, though they did the first part ok. And they forgot the second part because of a couple lazy/non-aware plays.

The first goal sprung from a lazy and ill-advised shot from Michal Rozsival. Rozie got the puck on the point with no Hawks between him and the goal and three Wild players there. Both Kruger and Saad were waiting below the goal-line for the puck to be cycled again. Instead, he flipped a wrister so limp it might as well have been my dead grandfather’s member that was easily cut out.

This started a rush the other way, which in truth the Hawks should have had covered. But Kane lost Haula for just enough time (not sure it would have mattered as Haula is a much faster skater than Kane but considering Kane’s head start…) to bat home a saucer pass from Justin Fontaine.

The second resulted from more incompetent work after a center ice faceoff. I swear, the Hawks committed 87 icings in the St. Louis series right after center-ice faceoffs, and tonight they went the other way. Kruger lost Granlund in the middle, Seabrook was faked into a swim right along with Crawford. And that’s basically game.

Let’s get to the points:

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Angry At Numbers

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Thought it was a good time to do an off-day Angry At Numbers.

40.9, 59.1

These are Marcus Kruger’s Corsi percentages in Game 1 and Game 2. I’m not sure they actually signify anything at all, other than in Game 1 Kruger was dealing with Mikko Koivu for most of it and in Game 2 that switched to Mikael Granlund. I assume this will be something Minnesota will notice and they will try and get Koivu out against him again in Game 3. Though this could be a result of the Hawks sitting back for a lot of Game 1 and no so much in the second game. Just a juxtaposition. Kruger has also struggled at the dot this series, winning 30% in Game 1 and only 45% in Game 2. Considering the amount of times he starts shifts in the defensive zone, it’s a small worry.

1.50, .951

Corey Crawford’s goals-against average and save-percentage during this six game win streak. Also, the Hawks hadn’t won as many as six in a row since the end of November.

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Somebody To Shove: Wild 1 – Hawks 4 (Hawks Lead 2-0)

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Box Score

Event Summary

Extra Skater

I doubt you’ll see a more h0-hum game in the second round of the playoffs than this afternoon’s. It’s clear that the Wild haven’t completely caught the attention of the Hawks’ faithful yet, and they haven’t caused the Hawks to think that they have to pull out the full arsenal. At least not yet. And the Hawks still lead this series 2-0 heading back to St. Paul.

The Hawks exerted a lot of control in the 1st period, without using it to strangle the Wild. They held them to two shots while only managed seven themselves, though they the attempts were 12-4. While the 2nd shows the Wild got 13 shots, half of those were piled in during a power play and almost all of them came on one goalmouth scramble. The 2nd wasn’t really any looser than the 1st, and came capped off with a Brandon Saad laster into the top corner right after a power play after the Wild didn’t fully deal with a cross-ice pass from Bickell.

While the Hawks weren’t as aggressive in the 3rd, it didn’t feel like they were completely turtling. The Wild got one goal off a really well-worked rush from Erik Haula and Cody McCormick (what?) but after that the Hawks soaked up whatever pressure there was and waited for a chance to seal it. They got two. Hossa hit the crossbar. Bickell didn’t. After the Wild goal they only managed six more shot attempts and it was pretty easily seen out.

Shall we? We shall.