Everything Else

The Doll’s Trying to Kill Me and The Toaster’s Been Laughing At Me – FFUD’s ’18-19 Player Reviews – David Kampf

By Rose Rankin 1254 0

David Kampf ended up being a mildly pleasant surprise this year as basically our best defensive center. And to think, I called him wadded beef! (But seriously, he’s still kind of wadded beef and besides that’s some impressive Photshopping, no?). Let’s do it:

63 GP – 4 G – 15 A – 19 P

49.4 CF% – 48.5 xGF% [5v5]

It Comes With a Free Frogurt!

Kampf was another solid European scouting pickup a couple years ago, and on the cheap too. He was the closest thing to a shutdown center that the Hawks had this year, particularly as Artem Anisimov sucked out loud and Marcus Kruger got slower and less effective. The numbers aren’t going to wow you, but they should all be viewed in light of this one: 63.6 dZS% at even strength, 70% in all situations. At even strength, his shots against were 371, goals against were 25, and his xGA was 26.6—all of these were second-best to Kruger (among centers) but not by a large margin and Kampf played more minutes. Kampf had 31 takeaways to a paltry 6 giveaways. During the stretch in February-March when he was out with a broken foot, the Hawks barely stayed above .500, going 7-6 (I know, not exactly unique to that time but here me out), whereas they went on a five-game wining streak once he came back and ended on a 9-4-3 record. And while it’s not the most enlightening or useful stat, for shits and giggles his faceoff percentage was 45.3; again, not outstanding yet not awful either in light of his zone starts. All of this is to say that Kampf has shutdown-line center written all over him or, in a worst-case scenario, fourth-line center. With contract negotiations said to be underway, the Hawks can give him a small raise to around $1 million a year and have this shit locked up.

The Frogurt is Also Cursed

David Kampf is a bottom-six guy who was on the worst penalty kill in the league. And he was a big part of that PK unit—of all forwards he had the fourth-highest minutes. So I’d like to say he’s an up-and-coming defensive star for the forward corps, but nothing about the Hawks defensively was good enough this season for me to make a statement like that. He’s basically “a guy” for the bottom six who will go no higher than that on the depth chart. And can the slightly better record really be attributed to him coming back from injury? Not entirely, to be generous. And besides, what did it matter anyway? The whole team shat the bed when it mattered most at the end.

Can I Go Now?

The Hawks should re-sign Kampf for a low cap hit and he’ll be an effective 4C, and maybe just maybe we’ll get him, Caggiula, and Kahun making an honest-to-goodness checking line. He could also be part of a penalty kill that somehow learns to play its way out of a paper bag (which it can’t right now). Being wadded beef should be perfectly suitable for David Kampf—unappealing but will keep you from starving in an emergency.

Previous Player Reviews

Corey Crawford

Cam Ward

Collin Delia

Duncan Keith

Connor Murphy

Henri Jokiharju

Gustav Forsling

Erik Gustafsson

Carl Dahlstrom

Brendan Perlini

Alex DeBrincat

Chris Kunitz

Artem Anisimov

Marcus Kruger

Dylan Strome

Jonathan Toews

Brandon Saad

Dominik Kahun

John Hayden

Everything Else

The Doll’s Trying To Kill Me And The Toaster’s Been Laughing At Me – FFUD’s ’18-’19 Player Reviews: Marcus Kruger

By Sam Fels 1445 0

The Hawks love a revival tour, and they tried it again this season with Marcus Kruger coming back from Arizona in the Vinnie Hinostroza deal. And like pretty much every other time they’ve done this, the reunion tour isn’t as good as the one you remember from your youth. “Cold Gin” sounded different in 1978, y’know?

74 GP – 4 G – 8 A – 12 P

48.1 CF% – 48.8 xGF%

It Comes With Free Frogurt!

The thing with Kruger is it wasn’t bad, but even when Kruger was really good it was in a way you had to really pay attention to notice. Defensively, Kruger was fine. He was ahead of the team’s expected-goals rate by some margin, and he did that playing both wing and center. He’s not the possession-monster he used to be when he was first here even while taking the dungeon shifts, and Coach Cool Youth Pastor was more hesitant to dump him in the deep end than Quenneville was. For a fourth-liner, Kruger did basically what you’d ask, which is keep the puck at the other end. But it was more fourth line this year than bonus checking line which it used to be. Still, when you look at his relative numbers defensively he was way ahead of the team.

The Frogurt Is Also Cursed

I suppose to complain about anything that Kruger did is viewed through the prism of his cost, which is the contract the Hawks gave him in the first place. You don’t pay checking centers over $2.5M per year, but that’s not Kruger’s fault. He’s never provided much offense despite not being completely stone-handed. Among the forwards, Kruger was one of the worst penalty-killers, which used to be his forte. He didn’t win as many faceoffs as he used to, not that anyone should really care about that. And he looked a touch slower, and in a league getting faster and faster you wonder how long it is until that looks decidedly more noticeable.

Can I Go Now?

Interesting one here. What Kruger used to do, David Kampf does now. And probably faster. And they need another center to slot ahead of Kampf anyway. So are you paying Kruger to be a winger? Would you do that for a $1M or so? There are probably better wingers out there to sign for that, or let some kid do it, or let someone slot down from higher in the lineup like Caggiula or Perlini if you sign wingers to play in the top six. And even if Kampf were to get hurt, they’ve been selling Caggiula as a future center and could certainly get you out of a week or two as a 4th line one. Kruger’s contributions to the last two Cups were bigger than he’ll ever get credit for, but the idea here is that the Hawks are supposed to stop working on nostalgia. Thanks for the memories, Dream Warrior, but it’s probably time for everyone to move on here.

Previous Player Reviews

Corey Crawford

Cam Ward

Collin Delia

Duncan Keith

Connor Murphy

Henri Jokiharju

Gustav Forsling

Erik Gustafsson

Carl Dahlstrom

Brendan Perlini

Alex DeBrincat

Chris Kunitz

Artem Anisimov

Everything Else

Game #37 – Hawks vs. Stars Preview/Hard Eight Appreciation Society: The More You Know

By Sam Fels 1573 0

 vs. 

RECORDS: Hawks 11-19-6   Stars 17-14-3

PUCK DROP: 7:30

TV: NBCSN Chicago

SOME WERE SHOUTIN’ “TEXAS #1!”: Defending Big D

I don’t know if a team rooted to the bottom of the standings, with the worst goal-difference in the league by open lengths, can have anything resembling “momentum.” Especially when it was only two games ago it gave up a touchdown and PAT while their goalie sank back into the abyss. But hey, the Hawks played what may have been their most solid game all season against the (admittedly beat-up) Predators. And though there isn’t much to make out of the rest of the season, they won’t feel that way. So hence, they will try to build on it in North Texas, facing the same confounding Stars team they always find there.

If you thought the Predators were injury-filled, wait until you get a load of these guys. The Stars have used 12 d-men so far this season. Now you may think, “Wait a minute, the Hawks have used 10! So is 12 really that much!” Well, the Stars have had to go through their entire organizational depth on the blue line because of injuries, not because they’ve populated it with a collection of fuckwits and jackwagons.

John Klingberg has been out for weeks, but he returns tonight, so that’s great for the Hawks. So has Marc Methot and Connor Carrick, though I leave it to you to decide if that means anything, or should. Stephen Johns hasn’t played a game due to concussion problems. Klingberg has obviously been the big miss, as he’s one of the best puck-movers and passers in the league. The Stars base most of their offense on what he can do, and he can’t do anything from the trainer’s room.

And yet, with all that the Stars have been a top-10 team in goals-against at evens and overall. A lot of that is THE BISHOP! having an excellent season. Some of that is Jim Montgomery being able to keep whatever defensive unit he has on a given night playing a tight system. Or maybe it’s still the frame of Hitchcock lingering around. Either way, the Starts have survived.

Up front, it’s basically Colorado-Lite. There’s a great top line here of Jamie Benn–Tyler Seguin-Alex Radulov. While Seguin couldn’t throw a grape in the ocean right now, compared to his career shooting-percentage, these are three players over 25 points. The next forward on the list is Jason Spezza at 18, and he’s sick anyway and might not play tonight either, aside from being three days older than water. This has been the issue for the Stars for years, that they can’t seem to produce a second line, much less a third, that can support the top one. We go into this heavier in the Spotlight, but all the kids the Stars were depending on have basically gone flaccid.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom, or meh and feh as has been the Stars case. Rookie Miro Heiskanen is making everyone go weak in the knees, and will dovetail nicely with Klingberg as a support, second-pairing player. Taylor Fedun has been an analytic revelation filling in for the depleted defense. Which is a good thing, because when you’re rolling out Roman Polak with a straight face, you’re supposed to be in trouble. And we mean literally “rolling,” because Polak can’t skate. He’s basically what Donkey Kong throws on the ice now.

All that said, the Stars are still aimed for another 88-92 points season without a jolt somewhere here soon, the same kind of season that no on remembers when it’s over. It’s also the kind of season that doesn’t push a team forward. This is not a rebuilding team blooding a lot of new kids. They won’t be bad enough to get a real piece in the draft that can help in the next couple years. They’re not contending for banners. They’re just scenery right now, and that’s the absolute worst place to be.

As for the Hawks, you would think changes would be on the minimum. Cam Ward looks to start, which means Collin Delia gets to deal with Galactus’s playthings tomorrow night in Denver in the form of MacKinnon and Rantanen, which seems a tad harsh for a second NHL start. Given the defensive effort on Tuesday, one would imagine there would be no changes there. So Brandon Manning can continue to blame everyone else while munching popcorn. Marcus Kruger didn’t make the mini-trip, and SuckBag was called up yesterday and he’ll probably slot in ahead of Chris Kunitz, because no one wants to watch Chris Kunitz ever again.

This is where we usually try and include some sort of higher meaning to the game and streak the Hawks are on. There isn’t any. They were enjoyable to watch on Tuesday. Let’s hope they are enjoyable tonight.

 

Game #37 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #33 – Blackhawks 6, Penguins 3 – Broke Clock Gets One Right

By Adam Hess 1696 0

Box Score

Corsica

Natural Stat Trick

Holy hell, the Blackhawks finally looked like a competent NHL hockey team tonight. I am not sure if that means that the Hawks are “back” (they’re probably not, cuz they’re still bad) or that the Penguins are just utter ass. The Hawks streak of bad play was not going to continue to be that bad, though, so it’s probably a small mix of both. Let’s do BULLETS:

– I am definitely not about to issue some kinda proclamation that the Hawks forward depth is suddenly good or unsung heroes, but I will say that tonight’s game showed how freaking important it is to get production from your depth forwards if you want to win. The Hawks got goals from Andreas Martinsen and Marcus Kruger in this one, and while Martinsen kinda lucked into his by just being a big guy and getting hit by the puck, Kruger’s ended up being the GWG. Obviously the Hawks depth is still ass, and it’s completely misguided to think that they can somehow become a productive depth group, but it still tells you that you need to get that right to be good. So that’s an area of need this offseason.

– When I was on the podcast this week, I mentioned that one of the most frustrating parts of the Colliton Hawks is that they don’t seem to know what to do in the defensive zone, and that was a theme tonight for sure. The Penguins first goal was a result of two key screw ups in d-zone positioning. Jokiharju was too deep in the zone to cover Bryan Rust in the left slot, but that wouldn’t have been a problem if the forwards were helping down low. So, with both Joker and the forwards out of position, it was a recipe for disaster, and Rust cashed in. To me that’s a coaching thing, and while this is basically a lost season at this point, Colliton has to correct that in his team to keep them competitive now and in the future.

– Crawford looked a bit better in this game than he has recently, but he’s still kinda jumpy-stabby at saves. Sam pointed out on Twitter after the game that he tends to do that kind of thing as he corrects himself, so maybe it’s that, and it never really hurt them tonight, but something to keep an eye on.

– Alex DeBrincat is so fucking good, which I know everyone knows already but we have to talk about it more often. The goal he scored tonight was absolutely beautiful work of art, and the fact that the Hawks got this guy with a 39th overall pick that they got for Andrew Shaw will be hilarious to me forever and ever. Thank you Montreal, you dumb french fuckers.

– Friendly reminder that Jonathan Toews was a Top 100 NHL player and Evgeni Malkin was not. That list was fucking meaningless but idiots on Twitter took it way too seriously and that made it hilarious.

Everything Else

Atop the Sugar Pile – Post-Thanksgiving Hangover

By Rose Rankin 1445 0

It’s time yet again to look at the good, the bad, and the mildly disappointing as the Hawks return from their East Coast swing during this now-finished Thanksgiving week…

The Dizzying Highs

Brandon Saad: I’m honestly not sure that anyone deserves to be considered a “dizzying high” right now, but someone has to be in this part of the post so fine, let it be Brandon Saad. Again. That’s right—Saad has been atop this pile for two weeks in a row. Yes, there were issues with the nuclear option of him, Toews, and Kane on a line, namely being on the ice for multiple Lightning goals on Friday, yet his performance Saturday was enough to overcome that. The gorgeous pass to Kane in the second, the equally if not better one to Alex DeBrincat to save the game in dramatic fashion…this man fucks, my frents. Five points in his last five games, hell, he even made John Hayden look good last Saturday. As of this writing, his shooting percentage is a career-high 13.5, and despite all the line drama he’s still managing a 55.1 CF%, currently third-best on the team. He fucks.

The Terrifying Lows

Marcus Kruger. Of all the players brought back from the dead by this team, Marcus Kruger was the only one I was actually happy to see return. But I have to admit he’s been awfully quiet lately. No one expects a fourth-line scoring juggernaut, but the problem is he’s not really succeeding at the role he’s here to play. He’s got the third-highest PK minutes on the team, yet his CF Rel on the kill is -7.8. I know, it’s the penalty kill, obviously the other team is more likely to score, but for reference, Seabrook’s PK CF Rel is 6.3, and the stat for Brandon fucking Manning, who only has six fewer seconds of PK time than Kruger, is 12.5. No, there’s no minus sign in front of that. Kruger’s possession numbers at evens are troubling too—a career-worst 46.6 CF% right now. Granted, just over 80% of his starts are in the defensive zone, but he’s had similar start numbers in years past and finished closer to or above 50%. Besides, taking a shitload of defensive zone starts and holding onto the puck anyway is his actual job description. Maybe he needs confidence. Maybe he needs better linemates than oafs like Andreas Martinsen (well, he definitely needs that regardless of any numbers). Whatever it is, I hope it’s temporary.

The Creamy Middles

Alexandre Fortin. My earnest little Fortnite has had an interesting week or so. His short-handed goal against the Panthers was darling and gave the Hawks some much-needed hope in a game that was looking like a puke stain meant to be hidden under a rug or cleverly placed piece of furniture (no I’m not speaking from experience, why would you even say that?). Conversely, his broken stick against the Lightning, while not entirely his fault, was emblematic of his enthusiasm yet lack of finish. Still, Fortin is sporting a positive Corsi (52.8 at evens) with a little over half his starts coming in the defensive zone. And, he’s been fast on whatever line he finds himself on—with fellow children Kampf and Kahun, or bouncing around with whatever Scrabble letters Colliton comes up with on a given night. He’s still just a speedy bottom-six guy, but we’ll take all the help we can get.

Everything Else

Game #20 – Kings vs. Hawks Preview: A Chilling Vision

By Sam Fels 1650 0

 vs. 

RECORDS: Kings 5-11-1   Hawks 7-8-4

PUCK DROP: 7:30

TV: NBCSN Chicago

NO MORE CALIFORNIA SONGS: Jewels From The Crown

It’s ok if you mourn the end of the Hawks Era. It can be a tough watch at times, especially when the memories of what a fine, oiled machine it was still so fresh. No team ever exits the spotlight gracefully, or at least it’s pretty damn rare. The fall is always painful. Especially in the callous world of the salary capped NHL, the tumble comes quick and the tide always wins. Maybe it was an impossible task set ahead of the Hawks, even without the mistakes they’ve made.

Then again, they could be the Kings.

It’s an interesting record. Since the Hawks last Cup win, they have three playoff wins. The Kings have one in the four seasons since their last win. They’ve missed the playoffs twice. And whereas the Hawks have tried to dance around their rebuild or collapse, the Kings have fallen face-first into theirs this year. Those days of Kobe and Kershaw wearing Kings’ jerseys are over, because this is a mess only identifiable by dental records. And given that it’s a hockey team, even that’s dicey.

They may provide a lesson in what happens when you cling too tightly to things that have past. The Kings for too long still tried to be a roving horde of barbarians that they thought won them two Cups, and watched as their team got slower and dumber while the league got faster and more skilled. Seriously, this outfit traded for Milan Lucic once. Firing the GM and coach is nice and all, but not if you’re not going to try anything new.

They also bought into fortune-stained results as reality far too much. Last year’s playoff berth was simply due to a magnificent Jonathan Quick season, which is not the norm or anything you should count on, and Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown shooting the lights out. No matter how much their fans bitched and whines that Kopitar should have been the MVP simply because no one stays up late enough to watch their dog-assed team, he was never likely to replicate that. And if he didn’t, he wasn’t taking Brown with him either. That’s what’s happened.

Jeff Carter is 33 now and looking it. Ilya Kovalchuk‘s style of impersonating waiting for a bus until a pass comes was never going to improve the team much, and it hasn’t. Beyond whatever this top-six is, and that’s clearly still very much a mystery, there’s simply nothing on the bottom-six. It’s more of the Kyle Clifford–Trevor Lewis Axis Of Yuck that it’s seemingly been forever.

The real treat is at the back of course, where Drew Doughty got his money and seemingly doesn’t care anymore. He’s playing with something called Derek Forbort, not that it matters. Alec Martinez and Jake Muzzin are starting to look like the remnants of that Big Mac you left on the coffee table at 3am last night and discovered this morning while guzzling gatorade. Dion Phaneuf is even more of a monolith than he was, which shouldn’t be possible but hey, L.A. is the land of fantasy and dreams!

Quick isn’t around to bail this out, which he’s only capable of once every four or five years. He’s out for a while. So is his backup Jack Campbell, which means they’ve brought Statler and Waldorf in to play goalie.

Robb Lake the GM seemingly has recognized all he’s built here is kindling (too soon?), and the sell-off might already be under way. This week he sent Tanner Pearson to Pittsburgh for Carl Hagelin, with Hagelin a free agent after the season. Whatever isn’t battened down should probably be sold at auction, so Muzzin, Martinez, Forbort, and Toffoli could and should be on notice. They’re the only ones whose contracts aren’t an atrocity.

For the Hawks, Marcus Kruger returns to the lineup after Brandon Davidson was informed that he’s hurt, replacing Dream Warrior on IR. SuckBag Johnson will sit. Alex Fortin remains out in favor of John Hayden. Sure. Corey Crawford will attempt to ride the momentum of Wednesday’s shutout, and against this decidedly broken squirt-gun of an offense you’d think that wouldn’t be too hard.

I don’t want to put too much on the Hawks, but there’s really no excuse to not get a regulation win tonight. The Kings are already getting the white flag out of the closet if not waving it already. They’re on their third-string goalie, maybe fourth. They’re slow and dumb, and the Hawks have done all right with the rare slow and dumb opponent you see in the NHL these days. As long as you don’t do anything too stupid, the Kings can’t really find a way to score enough to beat you. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.

 

Game #20 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Game #17 – Hawks vs. Flyers Preview – Life In The So-Called Space Age

By Matt McClure 1454 0

 @ 

Game Time: 12:00PM CST
TV/Radio: NBC Sports Chicago, NHL Network, WGN-AM 720
The Gang Welshes On A Bet: Broad St. Hockey 

With the first game of the Jeremy Colliton Era under the Hawks’ belt in less than thilling fashion, the team leaves for the East Coast for a two-game Metro Division swing. The Hawks find a team in the Flyers who could probably use the recently departed Joel Quenneville’s services.

Everything Else

Game #16 – Hurricanes 4, Hawks 3: Welcome to Your Life

By Rose Rankin 1857 0

And the Jeremy Colliton era begins! So much hope, so much excitement, so much resentment by large numbers of people and…we got reminded how much the defense sucks regardless of the coach. Let’s get to it:

Box Score

Corsica

Natural Stat Trick

– Let’s set aside all of the wailing and teeth-gnashing over Quenneville’s firing because we’re going to hear about it again everywhere, from Twitter to the Score to the Metra platform tomorrow.  The first period was really the awful one where their defense dug them into the hole from which light could not escape. And you know that the giardiniera-soaked masses will take this performance as proof that DEY SHOULDN’A GOTTEN RIDDA Q MY FRENT. In the reality in which we live, however, the Hawks are still dealing with the same amount of talent that they had as of Monday afternoon, and that was made clear tonight. Far too often in the first (and to a lesser degree, the second period), the Hawks avoided the front of their own net as if they had a life-threatening allergy to providing Crawford with some support. By the time Calvin de Haan waltzed in for the fourth goal early in the second on a power play, Crow was so pissed he destroyed his stick on the net like Pete Townsend smashing a guitar.

– Beyond just hanging their goalie out to dry, the Hawks’ defense did other dumb shit such as Erik Gustafsson making multiple bad turnovers early on, and Henri Jokiharju taking a needless penalty, with Keith kind of contributing to it, which led directly the second goal. I’m sure Jeremy Colliton knew what he was getting with this defense—particularly since he sat Brandon Manning so this guy’s already OK in my book—but it was the harshest possible welcoming to the defense that is now his albatross.

– Alright, the defense sucks, we know that. Time for some positives. The Hawks were down by four goals and actually made a game of this, which tells you how shitty Carolina’s defense is, but also that not all is lost with our offense. Saad scored a pretty one (technically Kampf got credit for it but it was his ass being in front that scored, Saad did the actual work), Schmaltz did too (SEE DUMMY, SHOOT SOMETIMES), and Kane lifted TVR’s stick just enough to knock the puck in from the crease.

– On a related note, guess what guys? Trevor van Riemsdyk still sucks! In addition to Kane’s maneuver, Schmaltz also burned him in the third on his goal. Same as it ever was.

– Speaking of Patrick Kane, Colliton rode him like a rented mule tonight. Can’t really blame him either. Kane was out there for an entire power play (fine, cool, whatever), and had just over 22 minutes of ice time. The power play didn’t make huge strides but at least Kane was out there with some right-handed shots. As Sam said earlier, baby steps.

–Marcus Kruger got his knee disemboweled by Clark Bishop basically taking his feet out from under him. Kruger hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire lately but the last thing this team needs is LESS depth, or for the defensive-zone-starting stalwart to be out for any length of time. It looked incredibly painful and shitty though when he hit that post.

– Back to the giardiniera-soaked masses, they’ll surely be rabid about how well Scott Darling played while Crawford gave up four goals in barely more than one period. Nevermind the fact that, as discussed, the Hawks defense completely screwed Crawford over, or that he had multiple fantastic saves after the Pete Townsend impression. If you come across one of these people tomorrow, ignore them and move on.

So it wasn’t exactly the strongest start to this brave new world, but we all knew the defense blows, and seriously Colliton has had barely 48 hours with this team. Remember, he benched Brandon Manning so there’s GOT to be hope. Onward and upward.

Photo credit: Chicago Tribune

Everything Else

Game #13 – Hawks vs. Canucks Preview: Get Here And We’ll Do The Rest

By Sam Fels 2000 0

 vs. 

RECORDS: Hawks 6-3-3  Canucks 7-6-0

PUCK DROP: 9pm 

TV: WGN

THEY DON’T THROW GARBAGE ANYMORE: Nucks Misconduct

It still doesn’t feel right. This trip is supposed to take place at the end of November. That’s when the Hawks go to Western Canada. That’s how it always was. It was understood. There was a rhythm to this.

But thanks to Rocky Wirtz making the (correct) decision to do away with the circus (though maybe not for the right reasons but whatever), the “Circus Trip” is no more and the Hawks are headed to the land of darkened arenas and misplaced Olympic bids now instead of on either side of Thanksgiving. They’ll kick it off tonight in Vancouver, where the memories of past epic battles and triumphs are starting to fade and yellow. That wouldn’t be a bad way to describe the opponent, either.

The Canucks will tell you they’re in a rebuild, and that’s partially true. The Children Of The Corn have toddled off to wherever strange twins go (Argentina, boss?), and the Canucks are moving into a new era. And they have found some young players where you can see the foundation of something at least useful could be built upon. The new toy is Elias Pettersson (WHO WANTS TO WALK WITH ELIAS?!), 2017’s first-round pick. He joins last year’s phenom Brock Boeser. So does Adam Gaudette, who made Dylan Sikura look like something we should care about last year at Northeastern. Bo Horvat continues to have an upward trajectory that no one really saw coming. Troy Stecher on defense is at least a piece if not a big one. Quinn Hughes likely is that big piece on defense when he joins next year. They’re not bereft of hope.

But those kids are surrounded by some of the dumbest-ass signings and trades which make you wonder what it is exactly they’re trying to do here. Here’s a tidy list: Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Sam Gagner, Erik Gudbranson (twice!), Michael Del Zotto. And none of these guys were just one-year signings that they hope turn into gold at the deadline. These were part of a plan, or something they thought was a plan, or maybe just part of a ton of shit being thrown at a wall (which is how Canucks fans celebrate and court the opposite sex, as we know).

Not that if the Canucks used all that money wisely they would be a contender. But they’d be better positioned when they are one, that’s for sure.

Anyway, for tonight the Canucks also come in pretty beat up. Baertschi, Beagle, and Sutter are all out, depriving them of a whole line. Christopher Tanev and Alex Edler and his amazing rising elbows are both out as well, taking their top pairing away. Which means Ben Hutton and Gudbranson have to fill in there. Might have something to do with them losing three of their last five, and one of those wins was a shootout.

For the Hawks, there don’t appear to be too many changes other than Marcus Kruger might pay the price for his penalty-happy ways lately. This seems a touch short-sighted, as Kruger is just about the only one not giving up better chances than he’s on the ice for, especially given the dungeon zone-starts he gets. But it’s one game, so we’re not going to sweat it too much. Perhaps Jan Rutta slots back in after being banished to a timeout on Sunday after his magic show for a confused cat on Saturday, replacing Brandon Davidson. EAT ARBY’S.

The Canucks only threat is Pettersson and Boeser. And they are heavily sheltered, starting 80% of their shifts in the offensive zone. Q might be loathe to do it, but it would make sense to use Toews in his own end more than most of this season to keep the two kids quiet. It’s certainly beyond SuckBag Johnson or David Kampf. If you can keep the Vancouver’s top line off the scoresheet, it’s hard to see where else they’d get it unless you really fuck up and Corey Crawford has a full-body dry heave in net.

It was a disappointing weekend for the Hawks, and they’ll need to make up for it on this trip. While we’ve been slightly encouraged by the Hawks’ start, it still leaves them behind four teams in the Central and you’d have to think this is the pace that’s going to be necessary all season to be relevant. The Oilers and Flames don’t suck out loud but can be had. The Canucks very much so. Get it while you can.

 

Game #13 Preview Suite

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Bargain Shopping, A Real Third Line, And Whatever Else

By Sam Fels 1804 0

So the Hawks have lost a game in regulation. They’ll probably lose many more. And in truth, last night wasn’t anywhere close to the worst game they’ve played. Couple posts, Antti Raanta being what Antti Raanta is now which is weird, and the bottom of the roster letting you down. It happens.

So let’s barge through a couple notes before adjourning for the weekend.

-I’ve mentioned on the podcast, but there’s a school of thought in baseball when it comes to free agency that you either go top shelf or well on your choices, and you don’t mess with the in-between. Because those players have the greatest variance, and if they don’t work out you’ve committed far too much of your budget to them. Whereas if your well whiskey players don’t work out, you’ve still go payroll flexibility to make up for that.

In hockey, the only sport with no exceptions and the hardest of hard salary caps, this might be even more important. While a policy like this employed by every team would freeze out even more middle-six and middle-pairing veterans than it already does, when building a team it might just have to be that callous. Even just a couple of mistakes and your cap is tied up with nowhere to go, and as we all know it’s the players at the top of your roster who make all the difference despite hockey’s undying need to glorify the artisans instead of the artists.

This is what bothers me so much about Brandon Manning. He’s not a bargain-basement signing. While $2.2 million is not a ton of money, it’s significant. Or at least it’s enough to notice. The Hawks nearly doubled this goober’s salary from last year, and I can’t even fathom whom they were bidding against. I can’t sit here and tell you what the Hawks might have done with that extra million or million and a half, but I know it could have been better than this. And it might be the difference to whatever they want to do midseason.

Especially when you’re talking about a third-pairing player. That’s not a middle-pairing player, no matter what you’ve deluded yourself into seeing as the Hawks clearly did, that you think you might get a bargain on. When opting for third-pairing players, you should go cheap and mobile as often as you can. If Jordan Oesterle has been restricted to this last year, not nearly as many would have minded. And I’m sure Brandon Davidson is just another word for Oesterle, but he can’t be worse and he’s far cheaper and more mobile. Go around the top teams in the league and you won’t find too many spending this much on a third-pairing guy, aside from the Penguins and Jack Johnson because there are a lot of fumes in Western PA.

Let’s say instead of avoiding the middle of the market, which we’ll give a wide range of $2-$6 million per year, when you commit those contracts you have to get them right. Look at the Oilers, who have at least gotten four of them wrong and see how badly it can go.

Somewhat luckily for the Hawks, they can probably rectify this if they want. While the thought has been that Gustav Forsling will head to Rockford when healthy, seems to me they can put him in the third pairing role he’s been cut out for. Fuck, pair him with Davidson and at least make it a mobile pairing. I don’t really care what it produces as long as it could move, and I don’t really care what happens to Rutta or Manning.

This would have to cause a shift in usage, as Joel Quenneville has been loathe to start Henri Jokiharju anywhere but the offensive zone, but there seems to be little choice. Burying Jan Rutta and Brandon Manning there has gotten you…well, this. Q hasn’t helped matters by putting Manning and Rutta behind Anisimov and Kunitz the most, which is just aching to get killed. There is probably a shift there needed, too.

-This is probably not pointless thanks to this morning’s practice silliness, but whether he liked it or not Q did stumble upon what could have been a nifty third line. Though he hasn’t played them enough, Brandon Saad–Marcus Kruger–David Kampf have killed the competition in two games. And they’ve done that while starting almost all of the time in the defensive zone.

Look, a checking winger who scores a touch more than most checking wingers (if he does score again) is not what you envisioned for Brandon Saad. But what you did want was a line that could keep your top six away from the hardest competition. For now, you have that. And it was quick and was creating chances.

Sure, it leaves a hole on the top six on Schmaltz’s and Kane’s wing (which once again Q appears to want to fill with Schmaltz himself and give us monolith Anisimov in the middle and I’m so tired of crying), but that’s ideally where the kids they’ve talked up, Victor Ejdsell or Dylan Sikura, are supposed to go. And if neither of them are good, then none of this matters anyway.

Our worry with the Hawks all preseason was that they had two lines. They’re staring a third right in the face, at least temporarily. Don’t worry, Q might get back to it by the 2nd period in Ohio tomorrow.