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Game #48 – Hawks vs. Devils: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels January 14, 2019 1373 0

Notes: Ward gets the start tonight, which seems fine as Delia was a little wonky against the Knights. Overall fine, but his tracking and rebound control were not up to snuff, gives him almost a full week off before the Rangers on Thursday…Not too many other changes, though don’t be surprised if Murphy and Dahlstrom are split up late if it’s close. Dahlstrom really struggled on Saturday, and his first flash is fading. Still worth looking at, but maybe not under the glare of the hardest shifts possible…We’d like to see Jokiharju and Murphy together, but that would involve flipping Murphy to the other side and Coach Cool Youth Pastor doesn’t seem inclined to do that yet…we don’t know how Caggiula got himself onto that third line but he’s done jack and shit with it…

Notes: Taylor Hall is still missing through injury…we have Noesen listed but he’s hurt and is on IR…Blackwood is their prime goalie prospect and with both Schneider and Kinkaid either hurt or terrible it’s his net to lose for the next while, or years….Palmieri has one goal in his last eight, but he always seems to score against the Hawks…Hischier has eight points in his last nine games, which on this team is a veritable bonanza…

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Game #47 – Golden Knights vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels January 12, 2019 1407 0

Notes: Patches may be playing better but he sure does drag down that top line’s possession with Reilly Smith on the shelf…Wild Bill has one goal in his last 10…Fleury wasn’t very good in December but is managing a .930 in his four January starts…Smith and Eakin are out, and Haula remains a long-term casualty…Tuch has an eight-game point-streak…get ready for Olczyk to slobber all over the fourth line, especially if Kunitz plays on the Hawks’ fourth…

Notes: Slater Koekkoek was at the morning skate but it’s hard to see where he slots in just yet…Seabrook probably comes back in, with Jokiharju flipping to his off-side. The other pairings have worked enough to keep for a bit…if they’re keeping Anisimov on the second line and not putting Top Cat there for defensive reasons, you know that the Hawks have never seen an analytic number ever…given how they’re giving Caggiula every chance to prove he’s anything, maybe they’ll do the same for Koekkoek.

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Game #46 – Predators vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels January 9, 2019 1315 0

Notes: It’s almost full systems go for the Preds. Forsberg and Arvidsson are back to form the top line that has given the Hawks migraines for a few years now. Turris is still out long-term, but Subban is back, whom the Hawks haven’t seen yet this year either…Saros started Monday in Toronto so it should be Rinne tonight…Jarnkrok could center the second line with Sissons moving down, they’ve tried both in the past….Smith has four goals in his last four games…

Notes: The Hawks might try and wriggle out of their defensive jam by using Seabrook’s sickness this morning (morning sickness?) as cover. They’ll have hard decisions to make otherwise. The best would be to make Keith and Seabrook the third pairing, but they won’t do that…Hayden could draw in for Kunitz, not that it matters….with no back-to-backs on the horizon it’s time to let Delia ride and see what you’ve got…some point soon they’re going to try Caggiula at center…

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Game #45 – Flames vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels January 7, 2019 1234 0

Notes: That top line is going to be quite the challenge for Murphy and Dahlstrom. Gaudreau has 11 points in his last four games and Monahan has nine…Rittich can’t quite seem to fully grab the #1 job yet, as Smith got two straight starts after the turn of the calendar, but Rittich has gotten the last one and they won so expect him to go tonight…Bill Peters still hates Michael Frolik…Tkachuk also has seven points in his last four games…

Notes: Wouldn’t expect too many changes. There’s an outside shot that Jokiharju plays tonight as he came back last night, but without a morning skate or practice to bleed him back in Wednesday seems more likely…Delia will start, and he will be busy…Toews’s line absolutely destroyed the bottom six of the Penguins last night, which was curious that they weren’t eventually combatted with Crosby…Caggiula didn’t look helpless, and they’re already making noise about moving him to center, so you can look for Kruger’s name to come up in trade talks…

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Game #44 – Hawks vs. Penguins: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels January 6, 2019 1318 0

Notes: Caligula makes his debut tonight, which for some reason necessitated the demotion of Dylan Sikura, who despite not scoring had been productive. It also give Top Cat even less to work with, as Perlini just doesn’t have the creativity that Sikura at least flashed…Ward starts tonight, with Delia going tomorrow at home vs. Calgary…Jokiharju should return tomorrow, ending our Forsling nightmare…

Notes: A brief apology, Corsica.ca wasn’t working so the individual metrics are still from last month. The line stats are updated…Since returning from injury last month, Murray is 7-0-0 with a .959. He shut out the Jets last time out…Sid has 23 points in 17 games since December 1st…Letang has 12 points in his last nine games…

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Game #42 – Bruins vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels January 1, 2019 1357 0

Notes: You’ll be shocked and in no way entertained by the fact that this is David Baceks’s third game of a three-game suspension for being a dumbass. This has thrown everything below their top line into even more of a mush…Rask hasn’t been as good as last year and has been outplayed by Halak for the most part, but he still is the #1 so he should get the call…not one of the Bruins d-men have played every game…Krejci’s production is the real miracle because he’s played with everyone and none of them are any good…

Notes: If you want to throw something after seeing Ward start, we don’t blame you. There’s no excuse for it other than Coach Cool Youth Pastor is terrified of telling any veteran player something they don’t want to hear…you’d think Murphy and Dahlstrom will draw the Bergeron line assignment, as would Toews…we bitch about Anisimov but that line in producing…Sikura went back with Top Cat in Colorado but lost out on some shifts to a double-shifting Kane…Caggiula couldn’t sort out his visa things in time to practice yesterday, so we’ll guess his debut comes Thursday against the Islanders…

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Game #41 – Hawks vs. Avalanche: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels December 29, 2018 1290 0

Notes: Wouldn’t expect too many changes from a winning lineup. Maybe Martinsen comes in for Hayden…Delia starts until he drops, at least that should be the expectation…Strome is on a 55-point pace for a whole season since becoming a Hawk…hey remember when that scout said Top Cat would never be more than a 20-goal scorer? Good stuff…

Notes: Grubauer has taken the last four starts from Varlamov, and only given up nine goals in them so he might be seizing the #1 job…Wilson got hurt the last time these two met and is out week-to-week, according to the club…MacKinnon tossed seven shots at MAF in their last game and didn’t score, so he’ll be out for vengeance tonight…Compher has four points in his last three games…it’s gone a bit cold for the Avs, as they have only managed more than two goals in a game once in their last five…

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Game #40 – Wild vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels December 27, 2018 1296 0

Notes: The big story with the Wild is that Matt Dumba is going to be out for basically the rest of the season. Outside shot he could be back at the end of March, but without him they lose a ton of their get-up-and-go from the back. It’s basically Spurgeon now…they’ve moved Coyle back to center, which means six more weeks of winter…Koivu has been demoted, so you can see how his season is going…Dubnyk was awful in November but seems to have rebounded the past few weeks…Granlund hasn’t scored since November 29th…Parise was on fire a couple weeks back, with 13 points in 14 games, but hasn’t scratched in his last four at all…

Notes: Not much change here. Not sure why Sikura gets the demotion when he and Top Cat seemed to have struck up an understanding and it’s unclear what you want out of him on a fourth line. Look for this to last a period…Gustafsson is so unpredictable that he’s basically forced Keith to iron out and pull back his game a bit, which is fine with us…why is Forsling starting so often in his zone?…Delia looks to get the start after Ward’s tour-de-stupid on Sunday. If he plays well, he should keep rolling until he proves he can’t anymore, and that includes South Bend…

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Game #39 – Panthers vs. Hawks: Lineups & How Teams Were Built

By Sam Fels December 23, 2018 1265 0

Notes: Couple big misses for the Panthers as both Bjugstad and Trocheck are out…this was the lineup yesterday afternoon in Detroit, but Alex Petrovic could slot back in on defense…the top line is on fire, as Huberdeau has 16 points in his last 10 games and Barkov 13…Hoffman only has four in his last 12 games…Reimer has given up 10 goals in his last two starts…

Notes: Ward is going to start, even though Delia should…unlikely to see any changes with the Hawks on an actual winning-streak…expect to see Nilsson slot in where SuckBag was and where Kruger would normally go. Only other option is to slot Anisimov back to center and slide Kampf down, but that third line has been too effective to break up…

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