at 
Game Time: 7:00PM CST
TV/Radio: NBCSN, WGN-AM 720
Made America Great Again: SLGT
Well the world didn’t end. Not yet at least. And apparently there’s hockey to play down in West East St. Louis tonight.
The back end of the divisional home and home historically tends to be a testier, albeit sloppier and more sluggish affair than its precursor, and tonight was no different considering just how spirited last night’s tilt in Dallas was. Given the Stars’ final push in regulation last night, it looked like both teams took quite a bit to get into the swing of things this evening.
But with the Stars depleted, the Hawks had enough to outgun them finally in overtime. Hawks 4, Stars 3, now time to look at the electoral map.
vs. 
GAMETIME: 7:30pm
TV: CSN. NHL Network outside the 606
RODEO CLOWNS: Flames Nation
RECORDS: Cal And Gary – 1-4-1 Hawks – 3-3-0
Projected Lineups
SCORE ADJUSTED CF%: Cal And Gary – 50.2% (15th) Hawks – 50.5% (13th)
POWER PLAY: Cal And Gary – 4.0% (Dead ass last) Hawks – 20.8% (10th)
PENALTY KILL: Cal And Gary – 74.2% (23rd) Hawks – 42.9% (Dead Ass Last)
TRENDS: Gaudreau and Monahan were a combined -8 against St. Louis last game, the Flames power play is 1-for-25
Much like the Hawks, the Flames start to the season hasn’t exactly kicked into gear like they’d hoped (and getting skulled twice by the Oilers probably hasn’t helped matters much). Cal and Gary stroll in with only one win and three point of the 12 that were on offer. And some of the same problems have bothered the Flames that have bothered the Hawks.
Box Score
Should have taken the left at Albuquerque.
I’m not sure we learned anything we didn’t already suspect is going to be some of the issues early this season. First off, you can’t take five straight penalties when Tarasenko and friends are loitering around the other side. And you can’t have TVR anywhere near there either. So there are two problems.
But we knew the Hawks are a bit mismatched at forward, and there’s going to have to be a level of patience while they see if some of the kids can figure it out. Hinostroza and Motte looked quick, but it was in every direction. Schmaltz looked hesitant as the enormity of the task of being an NHL center sunk in. Forsling showed some really promising flashes, and some flashes the other way. That’s just how it’s going to be. So for now and once again, the Hawks are a one-line team.
Moving on to the overwhelming tournament favorites and the hosts, Team Canada. I’ll give Canada this; they’ve gotten away from trying to pick a “team,” like the US is still intent on doing, and got them in trouble in some junior tournaments, and are just picking the most talent they can find. When you have this much to pick from you clearly don’t need checking and 4th lines. They’re not doing the best job of it, of course. But it also doesn’t matter given the talent gap they have over the rest of the world.
It would probably be more fun to try and pick a team that Canada left at home and see how well they’d do. It would start with Subban and Letang. You could have Martin Jones or Roberto Luongo in net. Behind Subban and Letang you’d have Mark Giordano, T.J. Brodie, Ryan Ellis, and a host of others. That’s probably enough right there.
Speaking of which, how is the corpse of Jabe O’Meester ahead of any of those guys? That’s the thing about Canada’s decision makers. They’re still wrong. And still dumb. And it doesn’t matter. Why is Alex OrangeJello here ahead of Subban or Letang? Because he’s right handed? Kiss a sick monkey’s wet ass. Should Weber be ahead of them? Probably not. Still, Vlasic, Burns, and Doughty is more than enough to push those players down the chart and not make too much of a difference.
Couple of notes popping up the past day or so.
-Duncan Keith has dropped out of Team Canada, apparently to keep rehabbing or resting his knee that he had problems with last season. I think this is a good barometer of what these players think of the World Cup, where they sort of like it but they’re not risking much for it. If this were the Olympics I wonder what Keith would have done. And we’ll go more into the World Cup in September, but it feels like a real missed and biffed opportunity on the NHL’s part.
What’s more important locally of course is the condition of Keith. While Keith’s play didn’t really drop off from what we’ve come to expect, and he certainly benefitted from getting to play with Hjalmarsson the most, it was noticeable that he didn’t have quite the jump that he used to.
This was just about the worst kept secret around here in a while. The only question for the Hawks and Brian Campbell was just how cheaply they could bring him back. $2 mildo and the answer is, “pretty fucking cheap.” I hope Beavis and Butthead in the booth don’t pull a muscle having to backtrack all the things they said about him since he left.
In case you don’t watch the Panthers much, and there really wasn’t much reason you should unless you’re demented like me, Campbell spent the past two years playing with Aaron Ekblad and the two of them basically kicked the competition’s nuts up into their throat. They were +5.2 and +5.7% relative in Corsi to the rest of the Panthers, with pretty evenly split zone starts. Gudbranson and Mitchell (for some reason) took on the toughest competition most of the time for the Cats, but Campbell isn’t going to have to worry about doing that here either.
Yesterday we picked through the wreckage of this season, so today it probably follows that we pivot and what’s ahead. At some point this summer, there’ll be talk of how much is left in the Hawks’ “window.” That’s up for debate and there are things that Stan can do to extend it, or also shorten it.
What is obvious to anyone who has read this blog this season for more than five minutes (other than the desire to talk about music or beer far more than hockey), is that the Hawks are going to be right back here in a year’s time if they don’t figure out their blue line problems. They can say a summer of rest will rejuvenate Keith, Hammer, and Seabrook but two of those guys are over 30 when next season rolls around and Hammer is approaching. The simplest and most obvious answer is they’re going to jam The Hill They Will Die On (TVR) into the second pairing again, but this is not an answer to any question anyone is asking.
Looking back at the night and series before, it isn’t just bewildering that the Hawks’ season came to a conclusion on the back of not one but two shots hitting both posts in this series (Andrew Ladd managed it in Game 3 as well). It’s bewildering that this sort of margin hasn’t come to bite the Hawks before. Of all the things that have been impressive about the last seven or eight seasons, it’s that the tiny, tiny margins that playoff games and series are decided on have rarely if ever bitten the Hawks until now.
Seriously, the Hawks are Zdeno Chara hitting a post and and whichever multiple OT game against Nashville or Anaheim swinging the other way from having just one Cup and essentially being Penguins West. It is that thin for an organization that has constantly rolled out some of the best and deepest teams in the league.
But then, you notice the luck more when your team is flawed in the ways the Hawks were this season.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7:30pm
TV: NBCSN, CSN, CBC In Da Great What Nort’
PALLBEARERS: St. Louis Gametime
Well now we’re gonna see if #ThisTimeWillBeDifferent, aren’t we?
There’s so much riding on this game tonight for St. Louis I kind of want to hurl in delight. If they lose, their coach will assuredly be fired, playing staff will be changed. We can look for CAPTAIN! to have a new address next year (probably going to happen anyway). Kirk ShattenKevin will almost assuredly go on the trade block again. The great goalie search of St. Louis could kick up into hyper drive again, or they’ll try for the 87th time to give the job to Jay Gallon and he’ll watch it go right by him.
If they win, then they’ll have slain their biggest demon, overcome a major mental hurdle, and be looking at a matchup with a Dallas team that probably won’t have its top center and is trying to play with no goalies and a defense that uses the youth soccer tactic of just chasing the puck in packs. There might be some validation for this Blues core with a win tonight. With a loss, it gets broken up.
For the Hawks… eh, if they don’t win they’ll have been a flawed, tired team that still has three banners in seven years with a core intact that is always in position to make a run for more. Win tonight, and they’ll have broken a main rival for nearly just the sheer joy of it. Who’s got more pressure y’think?
