So I could go on about the Hawks problems on the blue line, with all of the bottom four taking turns technicolor yawning to let a goal in. Or the Hawks lack of a bottom six. But we’ve all been over that. So we’ll just go anti-DLR here. This is pretty much the sound of Seabrook trying to move in musical form anyway.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 2:30pm Central
TV/RADIO: NBC, WGN Radio
GOPHER, EVERETT?: Hockey Wilderness
While it isn’t the last spike, however minuscule, on the EKG of the NHL season, today’s Stadium Series game is certainly the only “event” left on the Hawks’ schedule before the games really count. Matchups with Dallas and St. Louis will still matter a little more considering the standings (though Dallas’s goaltending will see what they can do about that), and next Sunday’s game against Washington will probably be more hyped. But those don’t take place outdoors, and today’s does. So at least it’s unique.
It’s different than the Foofaraw, as it’s actually about hockey. Just a couple things to clean up today before Outdoor weekend or whatever they’re calling it.
-I’d been meaning to get to this a few days ago, but my life’s inertia at the moment prevented me. Anyway, the idea of trading Teuvo Teravainen came up earlier in the week, and our friend Jay Zawaski addressed it on Twitter:
Teravainen is definitely "thinking" on the ice. Afraid to make a mistake. My source agrees. He needs to relax and dictate his possessions.
— Jay Zawaski (@jayzawaski) February 17, 2016
JZ is pretty plugged in. Generally when he gets something from the inside it sticks. But the tweet after that was to enforce that the Hawks are not going to trade Teuvo unless someone blows their socks, shoes, and arch supports off with an offer. Obviously, everyone knows we agree with this.
As the Hawks and specifically Stan Bowman barrel into trade deadline week, we here at the lab are not only discussing names and proposals but how it fits in with the overall window of the Hawks. It becomes a more and more philosophical discussion, as well as trying to figure out what the actual length is. I’m sure it’s a discussion Bowman and assistants and scouts are having every day, just how much do you shorten the window on the back end for this chance this year?
Last year’s championship basically puts the Hawks on house money. As first-hockey-world problem as it might sound. two Cups wouldn’t have sounded like enough when we look back in 10 or 20 years (though ask Bears fans what a second championship would have felt like in the 80s). A third though puts the Hawks in rarified air, even if they don’t compare to what came before. In my lifetime, only three teams have bunched three Cups or more together, the Oilers, the Devils, and the Wings. Even the Avs in the late 90s, as stacked as they were, only managed two. So even if the Hawks didn’t win again in the Daydream Nation era, three in six basically lives forever.
vs.
FACEOFF: 7pm Central
TV/RADIO: NBCSN, WGN Radio
CBGB Refugees: Scotty Hockey, The Hockey Rodent, Blue Shirt Banter
Only seems like six years ago that the Rangers were in town for the reverse fixture on this on Banner Raising night, where it became obvious to everyone that Trevor Daley was not going to work out here as the Rangers walked out 3-2 winners (you probably were watching Jake Arrieta get in up to the elbow against the Pirates. I know I was). The Hawks finally wrap up the season series with their Original 6 brethren on Broadway tonight. They’ll find a weird squad when they get there.
We here at the C.I. Labs often like to dispel any myth or the storyline that’s floating around at any given time. What can we say? When we’re not doing that we find children’s birthday parties and go pop all the balloons and steal the cake. It sustains us. It is our oxygen. Yes, we need help.
The current one going around these days, that I’ve seen far too often from people who should know better, is that Brent Seabrook is somehow a dark horse Norris Trophy candidate. This is ludicrous on a ton of levels, the first being that you can already set the three finalists as Karlsson, Doughty, and Klingberg and Karlsson should win it unanimously and the other two should apologize to him for taking up any of his time. Then Karlsson can worry about making a run at the Hart, which he has a serious case for but will never get because the Senators won’t make the playoffs, or aren’t likely to. But that’s not why you called.
I’m not really going to waste any more time talking about the Leafs than I have to. It’s what the Hawks ordered after losing three in a row. Without further adieu…
vs.
FACEOFF: 7:30pm Central
TV/RADIO: WGN, NHL-N, WGN Radio
RABBIT SEASON: Anaheim Calling
The Hawks will try and break what constitutes a losing streak for them, all of two games, with their third straight home game against an automatic Western Conference playoff spot holder (there’s a title) in the Anaheim Ducks. Both the Sharks and Stars were able to walk out of the UC with regulation wins which is only the second time all season the Hawks have dropped consecutive home decisions (and the first both have been in regulation). In order to snap the streak, they’ll have to do it against an Anaheim team that is no longer the comedy outfit they were in the season’s first half.
Yep, that’s right bitches. We got Razor! Enjoy.
Let’s start with what everyone wants to know: How have Sharp and Oduya fit in down there?
– They’ve been exactly what they were imported to be. Patrick has been almost exclusively a right winger (till the last few games) so he’s been forced to adjust from his most comfy side and has bounced around from line mate to line mate, but through it all his 2-way game and championship calm has helped immensely. In addition, he’s been a smart, accommodating voice from inside the room for our media and a real asset on an improved PP. Oduya has brought that same champion pedigree to the team. Watching him go about his business I find it hard to believe your ‘Captain Serious’ is a more focused dude than this guy. Wow! 100% bidnass! As you might imagine he’s been a good penalty killer/shot blocker (but he’s only one guy…Stars PK is 21st) and he has formed a nice stable 2nd pair on D with Demers. Both have made the Stars internal community more professional.
Perhaps it took the home schedule in this month to kick in the winter doldrums we’ve come accustomed to. One game of course does not signal anything. The Sharks, as cloudy and weird as their identity might be in a lot of places, were suffocating in their own zone. While the Hawks mustered up an acceptable number of shots, San Jose cordoned off any prime scoring areas for all 60 minutes. Their backchecking was ferocious. The Hawks love to beat a man to the outside and then hit the late man, but couldn’t do it at all tonight with the retreating Sharks’ forwards blanketing that option. Anything from the outside the pretty sizable Martin Jones is going to stop. Tonight’s shot chart tells something of a story. Hawks didn’t get much below the circles.
