At this point in this era of the Hawks, there are no statement games. Ownership on down has given an organizational mandate on the standard to which this team is to be held, and that’s silver and parades. That being said. with this being the third game in four nights after playing a back and forth affair in West East St. Louis last night, it could have been very easy for the Hawks to kind of pack it in tonight without their 2nd line center, but that didn’t happen.
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.
Yes, I’m well aware these aren’t the same movies, but just allow it, all right?
Once again, the Hawks had an ugly period (no, don’t make your menstruation joke here, because as Ash vs. Evil Dead taught us vaginas are powerful and life-affirming and should never be mocked). That one segment kind of colors everything else about the game, perhaps unfairly. The penalty kill remains a tire fire inside of a dumpster fire contained in a landfill fire. But as always, there are things to be learned. Oh, and some bad luck didn’t help the cause. Let’s get to it, shall we? We all have drinking to do.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7pm
TV: NBCSN
GOOD GOD DON’T GO THERE: St. Louis Gametime
Power Play (’15-’16): Hawks – 22.6% (2nd) Blues – 21.5% (6th)
Penalty Kill (’15-’16): Hawks 80.3% (22nd) Blues – 85.1% (3rd)
Trends: Tarasenko has 13 points in 15 regular season games against the Hawks, Allen has a .934 career SV% against the Hawks
It’s finally here, after the World Cup made an already interminable-feeling training camp feel even longer. And as the preseason has gone on I’ve felt better about the Hawks and worse about the Blues, which is actually better, because no one wants to feel good about the Blues. That probably goes for the music as well.
We’ve been through the biggest questions the Hawks face coming into this season. Next week we’ll spend tooling around the Central Division and Western Conference to see what the Hawks are up against. But for today, let’s try and clear up whatever we haven’t gotten to for the Hawks.
-The working theory for most of the summer, and until they actually show up in camp we have no reason to think any different, is that Marian Hossa is going to slide down to the third line to form some kind of checking line with Marcus Kruger and GTBD (goofus-to-be-determined). Quenneville mentioned it at the convention, Hossa and Kruger have talked about it at the World Cup. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and all that.
On the surface, this seems like a pretty good idea. Hossa is slowing down, he still has defensive instincts matched by very few, Kruger does as well, and perhaps if they really wanted it to they could free up Toews to not have to keep battling the Kopitars, Seguins, Getzlafs, and whoever else’s of the world. That might free Toews to do more scoring, even if there’s just farmland runoff on his wings.
I never know quite what to do with these season previews. To go player-by-player gets monotonous for you and for us, but there isn’t really way to do something every day either. We’ve tried multiple paths, so this year we’re just going to blend them all. Over the next couple weeks before Meth County shows up on the 12th to kick things off, we’ll look at certain players, certain questions, and certain other factors on how this season will go. We can’t be contained.
So today, it feels right to look at the Hawks biggest problem, and that’s their forward depth and specifically, who the fuck is playing the left side on any of these lines?
If there’s any hope for anything other than a procession for Team Canada to win this thing at home, it’s going to be wearing yellow. That didn’t work out so well in Sochi though, and now the Swedes would have to topple the hosers two out of three on their own turf. But hey, that’s only three games, and they just might be capable.
This is a sneaky solid squad, with probably the best blue line in the tournament (and it’s not even as good as it could be), bolstered by one of the two best goalies in the world, and a forward corps that might lack true star power but is littered with solid contributors up and down the lineup. It’s like the anti-USA.
Last night, during the usual car crash that is the NHL Awards Show (and why does the NHL need a show? No other sport needs one), Chris Kuc from the Tribune tweeted out that the Hawks are actively shopping Marcus Kruger and even Andrew Shaw, though what he could bring back as a pending RFA really wouldn’t be all that much.
The Kruger one is especially baffling.
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.
Let’s spin it all in one today.
I’ve seen a few on Twitter, nearly begging for reasons for optimism in this March Of The Pigs (as Slak called it and I’m going to use for the last four days of March and again next March). Last night was clear evidence of what one of those pieces can be. Though it was only the Flames, the Hawks’ 4th line essentially ran the show on yet another night where it looked like the rest of the team could barely be arsed.
Piece of evidence of that: Marcus Kruger’s line started 8 shifts in the d-zone and two in the offensive. They were still double-digits in the black in attempts. This is what Kruger does, and why he’s making more money than most of the hockey world can fathom. Again, only the Flames but it’s hard to think of a team that is going to toss out an equivalent 4th line. If the Blues didn’t insist on dressing professional rodeo clown for the insane Ryan Reaves they might. The Stars are close. But Desjardins-Kruger-Shaw is probably the best 4th unit you’ll find.
