It was never going to be pretty, and it could have been a lot uglier, but this was pretty damn butt ugly. In a back and forth affair, the Hawks never really looked in-step with one another, and they ultimately got what they deserved from the L.A. Kings.
It was never going to be pretty, and it could have been a lot uglier, but this was pretty damn butt ugly. In a back and forth affair, the Hawks never really looked in-step with one another, and they ultimately got what they deserved from the L.A. Kings.
Fro to skate with 19 and 20: Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Chicago
No Hossa, but Shaw should be ready: Comcast Sports Net Chicago (auto play)
Gettin’ Iggy with it?: Pro Hockey Talk
I think these are stupid but most don’t: National Hockey League
Shero adds to the Pens: Puck Daddy
Little red flags coming to hockey: Sports Illustrated
Parents behaving badly: Buzzing the Net
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Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Bear? Wolf? River? Trees? Sun?: Hockey Wilderness
The Wild come into this game with a feather in their cap that few others can make so far this season. They’ve taken two points from the Chicago Blackhawks. Sure, they had to do it via the skills competition but at this point, I would imagine most teams would consider that a pretty decent bragging point. We’ll have to get used to seeing these new North Stars since they’ll be division mates coming up next year. It could get interesting, seeing as how the two fan bases already have a healthy history of mutual dislike stemming back from before the North Stars became just the Stars. At least more of a rivalry than the Hawks have with the Avs anyway…
The Wild stumbled out of the gate a bit after making a big splash in the off-season but seem to have found their footing as of late as they’re now sitting just two points behind Northwest leading Vancouver and are 6-3-1 in their last 10. Of course, that’s one against the Oilers, two against the Flames and one against the Flames. I’m only impressed by the win against the Wings, seeing as how we’ve seen how much they can actually play when they feel like it.
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Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Bear? Wolf? River? Trees? Sun?: Hockey Wilderness
The Wild come into this game with a feather in their cap that few others can make so far this season. They’ve taken two points from the Chicago Blackhawks. Sure, they had to do it via the skills competition but at this point, I would imagine most teams would consider that a pretty decent bragging point. We’ll have to get used to seeing these new North Stars since they’ll be division mates coming up next year. It could get interesting, seeing as how the two fan bases already have a healthy history of mutual dislike stemming back from before the North Stars became just the Stars. At least more of a rivalry than the Hawks have with the Avs anyway…
The Wild stumbled out of the gate a bit after making a big splash in the off-season but seem to have found their footing as of late as they’re now sitting just two points behind Northwest leading Vancouver and are 6-3-1 in their last 10. Of course, that’s one against the Oilers, two against the Flames and one against the Flames. I’m only impressed by the win against the Wings, seeing as how we’ve seen how much they can actually play when they feel like it.
Sometimes I feel like I’m beatin’ a dead horse….and I don’t know why you keep bringing me down….
That’s kind of what it feels like to try and write about the Hawks these days. There’s a little left to say. We’ve entered the territory of the absurd, and very few people have experience with this sort of thing. But we’ll try.
The Dizzying Highs
The 3rd line – Few would argue that the troika of force that is Andrew Shaw, Bryan Bickell, and Viktor Stalberg haven’t been the Hawks most effective line for the past few games. It seems every shift, they’re pinning whoever they’re against in their own zone for minutes at a time. They’re completing line changes while the other team is still pinned behind their own net. They should have had at least two goals yesterday, got a goal for Bickell against Columbus, had the dagger goal against St. Louis, and we could go on and on.
Sometimes it’s difficult to find beauty after 18 games of not losing in regulation. Against a Columbus team that is still struggling to figure out how to score more goals than the opposition, the Hawks scored the minimum amount required to net two points. If there was a silver lining in tonight’s playbook, it was that the Hawks got a performance from their goalie that we’ve been begging for for a couple years.
No, Corey Crawford didn’t stand on his head or make a plethora of highlight reel saves. All he did was make the saves that should be expected of him. The Blue Jackets had a couple of good chances to find twine but they didn’t and Crawford didn’t give them any breaks by giving up any soft goals. It wasn’t a goalie win. It was a team win. Take it and move on.
–For a team playing its third game in four nights, the Blue Jackets played a pretty solid game. They had a strong compete level and looked way more engaged than they have the last couple seasons. The combination of a new young wave of high draft picks combined with a new coach and the loss of Rick Nash gives the Jackets a new dynamic. If it keeps going this way, it’s only a matter of time until they start winning games like tonight.
The one guy who impresses me the most is Cam Atkinson. For whatever reason, I’ve watched more Blue Jackets hockey than ever before and each game Atkinson has impressed me more and more. That little bastard is a handful.
–Another impressive performance out of Niklas Hjalmarsson. He had as much to do with preserving the shutout as Corey Crawford did. Late in the first, Hjalmarsson saved a sure goal by sacrificing his body in front. In the second, he cleared a loose puck with Crawford swimming in his crease during a scramble in front. He has been the Hawks most consistent defensemen this year. It’s almost humorous to recall his performances from the past couple seasons at this point; like he had some alien pod infesting his body during that time because the difference in his play is that drastic.
–As a fourth line player and top penalty killer, Michael Frolik is a lot of fun to watch. When you forget about the fact that he’s the Hawks 6th highest paid forward and was originally thought to be a key contributor to their secondary scoring, it makes it a lot easier to stomach.
–Maybe it’s the lack of sleep but I think I like Dan Carcillo on that fourth line. Certainly better than him on either of the top two lines.
–Did we really need a spear to the nuts to be reminded that James Wisniewski is a dirty player? This is the same guy who sent one of his groomsmen to the 12th century with a vicious forearm to the mouth. And if you think that Andrew Shaw is going to forgive and forget, you would be sorely mistaken.
–Michael Rozsival is a prototypical 3rd pair defensemen. That doesn’t mean he should be excused for letting not one, but two guys slip behind him for breakaways. Crawford bailed him out one time and the post the second time. Both times, Rozsival was caught napping and let guys slip behind him. Yeah, one guy came off the bench on a change but Rozsival was on the other side of the red line during a penalty kill. That probably shouldn’t happen.
You watched the game. You saw what happened. Let’s get to it.
–The theme of this win comes down to the Hawks fourth line so that seems as good of a place to start.
Marcus Kruger is continuing to impress. Kruger has definitely added lower body strength this season. While he was getting pushed off the puck in the corners and along the wall his first couple seasons, it’s just not happening as much this season. And the result is added time for him to make his patented nifty passes to open linemates.
Moving right along down the depth chart we now come to perhaps the most stable unit of the post 2010 era, Dave Bolland’s third line. While Bolland has never truly become the force of nature that his numbers in junior or his paycheck would have suggested, that he has become one of the premier checking forwards in the NHL is still a victory in and of itself.However, the line he’s been a fixture on is not without its flaws, Bolland included, and it will need to find consistency in short order for this abbreviated season to be a successful one for the Hawks.
Moving right along down the depth chart we now come to perhaps the most stable unit of the post 2010 era, Dave Bolland’s third line. While Bolland has never truly become the force of nature that his numbers in junior or his paycheck would have suggested, that he has become one of the premier checking forwards in the NHL is still a victory in and of itself.However, the line he’s been a fixture on is not without its flaws, Bolland included, and it will need to find consistency in short order for this abbreviated season to be a successful one for the Hawks.
