Everything Else

The Hawks Against Good Teams: A Study

By 1472

You can start to feel a lift among the fanbase these days. One that never really came last year, as the Hawks’ flaws were so easy to see and so glaring that a first round exit seemed pretty inevitable, even if a Game 7 loss to the Blues still stung. There are no such concerns these days, as the Hawks remain one of the hottest teams in the league for over a month now and have rocketed to the top of the division and conference. Elsewhere, you can feel the growing sense of dread from the rest of the hockey world, as the familiar face no one really wanted to see looks like it’ll be there when it matters most again (some would call this the “Roman Reigns Phenomena”)

In that sense, it’s been a weird week for the Hawks. Consecutively, they’ve beaten 5th, 8th, and 9th overall in the standings in terms of points and all three teams were either in first at the time or right there for it in their division. And yet, at least in terms of possession, they’ve gotten clocked in all three games. Has this been a long-standing problem and is it indicative of what might happen when all the lights come on in a month’s time or so.

Hey, we can research this! Bless!

Everything Else

Dr. Livingston, I Presume: Penguins at Hawks Preview/PFT Test

By 1194

 vs. 

RECORDS: Penguins  38-15-8  Hawks  39-18-5

PUCK DROP: 7pm Central

TV: NBCSN (because hoo boy is this a “rivalry”!!!!)

IRON CITY BEER SUCKS: The Pensblog

PROJECTED LINEUPS

ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Penguins – 51.8 (9th)  Hawks – 51.2 (10th)

ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Penguins – 54.0 (3rd)  Hawks – 49.1 (16th)

POWER PLAY %: Penguins – 21.6 (9th)  Hawks – 18.9 (16th)

PENALTY KILL%: Penguins – 80.3 (20th)  Hawks – 76.4 (28th)

You don’t get many marquee matchups in the league anymore. No one cares about the Wild yet, despite their bleeding, so the only teams from the West that anyone in the East is the least bit interested in seeing are San Jose and the Hawks (sit down, Kings, no one gives a shit about you either). And really in the East, there aren’t too many more teams you’d make time out for. So over the NHL season, there’s really only six to eight games that would get the dreaded and overused “Final preview” tag. This happens to be one of them, and you better believe it’s what everyone in the NHL offices is absolutely dying to see. Not that it matters, because if any league could completely biff any momentum from the Gone-Plaid-Speed of a possible Pens-Hawks Final, it’s this home for wayward children.

Everything Else

Penguins Spotlight: Casa De Murray

By 1392

You’d think a guy who won a Cup in his first toe-dip into the NHL would get a little more pub than Matt Murray does. But when you play behind the best player on the planet, perhaps the most gifted player in the league, the one who is always connected to hot dogs, and the blinding good looks of Kris Letang, you’re going to be behind the eight-ball when it comes to attention. We’re guessing Matt Murray is probably fine with that.

In some ways that’s a shame, because Murray has been one of the league’s best goalies, even though he’s not played as much as others due to injuries. He’s also had the constant buzz about whether Marc-Andre Fleury would get dealt or not, and you wonder if the Stars or Jets aren’t kicking themselves about that one now. Still, that hasn’t stopped Murray much.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – After All Is Said And Done, Gotta Move While It’s Still Fun

By 1447

So it took one game longer than I thought it would, and most thought it would. And for at least two periods, it was probably the best the Sharks have looked in this series last night. But because their coach couldn’t stop playing Polak and Dillon, they immediately surrendered the tie they had just gotten, and couldn’t find a way through the smothering Pens defense. It’s too simplistic to pin it all on the Sharks’ third pairing (though awfully tempting), because the Penguins were clearly the better team in this series. But still, that was opening the door and rolling out a red carpet sprinkled with flowers for Pittsburgh to stroll on in.

Whenever we have a new Cup champion, there is a rush to see what we can learn from them and how teams should apply their plans going forward. That’s a little harder to do with this one.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – June 9th: In The House And An Anniversary

By 1379

There’s an added buzz to the hockey world when the Stanley Cup actually enters the building. It will be in Pittsburgh tonight, and one gets the feeling it’s almost certainly going to come up for air. You tend to feel like that when one team hasn’t had a lead all series. At this point it almost feels like we’re just putting the Sharks out of their misery.

You would think that being on the brink would finally force DeBoer to empty the tanks, tell Dillon and Polak that they’re playing eight minutes each at most and try and keep his top four d-men out there as much as possible. But if it hasn’t happened yet it probably won’t now. And basically no matter how well the Sharks play tonight, one shift or two from those will turn the tides.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – June 2nd: High Speed Dirt (Penguins 2-1 Sharks)

By 1385

Well I didn’t get that one right. I thought the Sharks’ PP would clock the Penguins’ high-action PK (they only got one look). I thought the Sharks would get a better handle at the pace the Penguins play. They didn’t, though Martin Jones almost made it hold up to take a split back to California. Wasn’t to be though when the Penguins ran a pretty brilliant play off a faceoff in overtime.

Only when San Jose’s top line is on the ice are they consistently getting things going, because those guys are generally skilled enough to weave around the Penguins flying at them and then can mash them along the boards until something else opens up. All the other Sharks’ lines are having problems.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – June 1st: You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine (Sharks at Penguins Game 2 Preview)

By 1368

shark vs. Ron-Cey

PUCK DROP: Just after 7pm Central

TV: NBCSN

THOSE HYPERVENTILATING: Pensblog, Pensburgh, Battle of Cali, Canafornians

Figure with only the one game we can give it the usual preview treatment.

You may recall a few years ago, when people still scoffed at the idea of puck possession and Corsi and all that and that having the puck was a good thing (hey that’s today too!), there were some out there who claimed, usually from Toronto, that they were opportunistic. That they played counter-attacking and hence would purposely give up the puck to then spring out faster when it was turned over.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – May 26th: #ThisTimeWillBeDifferent

By 1582

Sharks beat Blues in Game 6

It is for one team. Was it really for the other?

I suppose a trip to the conference final is different for the Blues. Winning it certainly is for the Sharks. But all the noise and concerted effort to make it clear that this was a different Blues team than before makes me wonder who were they really trying to convince? It took the Blues seven games to beat a team that basically didn’t have a blue line in the first round. It took them seven games to beat a team that certainly didn’t have a goalie in the second round. And winning is obviously better than losing to those horrifically flawed teams, and that’s what we all thought the Blues would do, but how much of a triumph these things really were is debatable.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – May 25th: It’s The Goalies, Stupid

By 1267

Penguins-Lightning Game 6

Sometimes this hockey thing is silly and simple. Now that this series is going to a seventh game the story out of it will be how evenly it’s been played and how it could have gone either way. And on the surface, that’s true. This series could well be decided tomorrow night on a high-sticking call or another offside review or some goal that goes in off Tyler Johnson’s ass (again). By definition these are all coin-flips.

But in reality, the Penguins have spent a great majority of this series kicking the ever-loving shit out of the Lightning, but Andrei Vasilevskiy has simply held them in.

Everything Else

We Like To Watch – May 19th: The Cream… Rises To The Top

By 1244

Pens-Lightning Game 3

As the Lightning learned, or should have learned last spring, you simply can’t hide their dreck of a blue line behind Hedman-Stralman forever. Hedman makes up for a lot, and sometimes can do it all on his own as we saw in Games 1-3 in last year’s Final. But that’s not a sustainable model. The Penguins have essentially steamrolled the Lightning in three games, and Tampa only has Andrei Vasilevskiy to thank for not being pretty much finished at 0-3 down right now. The past two games the Penguins are carrying a 62% Corsi-percentage. That’s borderline ridiculous.