Hockey

High On The Hog: Into The Realm Of The Moose

By Jon Fromi 25

The Rockford IceHogs helped themselves solidify a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs this past week, winning two of three games at the BMO Harris Bank Center. Fittingly, both wins came in Gus Macker Time and were spearheaded by big goals from their veterans.

The piglets scored a 4-3 win over Manitoba Wednesday night. Luke Philp had a two-goal night to help the Hogs reach overtime, where recently-acquired Rocco Grimaldi swiped a puck and went coast-to-coast for the game-winner.

After suffering a 6-2 loss to visiting Colorado Friday, Rockford responded with a 3-2 overtime triumph. Grimaldi picked up a pair of assists; Zach Jordan notched his first goal since being called up last week in the opening frame. Philp recorded the other Hogs goal in the second period. After a scoreless third, David Gust scored the game-winner off of a pass by Jakub Galvas.

Rockford (29-23-5-4, 67 points) is still tied with Iowa for fourth place in the Central Division. There is a nine-point gap between the Hogs and Wild and the sixth-place Chicago Wolves. The Moose sit in third place with 74 points. The IceHogs have a chance to control their fate in terms of where they finish in the division this week. That’s because Rockford travels north of the border for two huge games in Manitoba.

The Moose have a game in hand on the IceHogs entering Wednesday’s game. Manitoba is coming off a seven-game road trip. Winning the last meeting between the two teams in regulation would have improved Rockford’s chances of catching the Moose in the standings. Nonetheless, picking up two regulation wins in Manitoba is the priority this week.

 

Lynch Steps Up

Former Moose forward Bobby Lynch chipped in with a goal in the win against his former team on Wednesday. Lynch potted his tenth goal of the season in the second period after setting up Philp’s first tally in the first.

Lynch, 24, signed with Rockford after an eight-goal, 13-assist season in 46 games with Manitoba last year. The 6’2″ forward has been a steady presence on the Hogs bottom six most of the season. Lynch has stepped up his game when given the chance, with eight goals and two helpers in his last 20 games. This includes an overtime game-winner on February 4 over Iowa when given a rare spot in the 3-on-3.

He may fall back to a third or fourth line role if expected players come down from Chicago in the final weeks of the season. However, Lynch’s play has helped keep the Hogs playoff chances afloat.

 

Roster News

Back on Monday last week, the Hogs recalled goalie Mitchell Weeks from the Indy Fuel. Weeks was 12-5-1 with a 2.53 GAA and a .912 save percentage in 19 games with Indy.

The next day, Notre Dame forward Ryder Rolston was inked to a PTO by Rockford following his signing of an entry-level contract with the Blackhawks starting next season. Rolston, who had been injured for the latter part of the NCAA season, has yet to play for Rockford.

Gust returned to action on Wednesday night after his wife gave birth. Also back on Wednesday from concussion protocol was D.J. Busdeker. Brett Seney was back in the lineup from his concussion on Friday; he celebrated his 300th AHL game with a power-play goal in the second period of the loss to Colorado.

Follow me @JonFromi on twitter for thoughts on the IceHogs throughout the season.

 

Hockey

High On The Hog: The Rearrangement

By Jon Fromi 76

As the Rockford IceHogs prepare to start the process of locking down a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs, it’s probably a good time to focus on the way the roster was reshaped over the past week. In case you missed it, the Blackhawks made a couple of trades.

This flurry of transactions was a two-prong effort between Chicago and Rockford. As was the case around the league, moves were made involving what amounted to swaps of AHL and NHL contracts. The get-around was using “future considerations”. This fleshed out what seemed to be one-sided trades at the NHL level with reciprocal AHL deals that got the players where everyone wanted them to go.

If you want to sort out all the moves, be my guest. I’m more concerned with the pieces that departed and arrived in Rockford when the trade deadline occurred. Here’s how things currently stand.

Out

NHL Contracts

G Dylan Wells-to Dallas

D Cooper Zech-to Rangers

AHL Contracts

D Adam Clendening-to Hartford

F Carson Gicewicz-to Rochester

In

NHL Contracts

D Andrew Welinski-from Rangers

F Pavel Gogolev-from Toronto

F Maxim Golod-from Anaheim (Hawks assigned Golod to the Indy Fuel)

G Anton Khudobin-from Dallas

AHL Contracts

F Rocco Grimaldi-from San Diego

F Logan Nijhoff-from San Diego (Hogs assigned Nijhoff to the Indy Fuel)

F Zach Jordan-from Hartford (Hogs assigned Jordan to the Indy Fuel)

F Colin Bilek-from Mantitoba (Hogs assigned Bilek to the Indy Fuel)

 

In Addition…

The Blackhawks assigned David Gust, Brett Seney, Issak Phillips, Lukas Reichel, and Joey Anderson (newly acquired from Toronto) to the IceHogs. Reichel and Anderson were paper moves that were pulled back to Chicago following the trade deadline, but both players are eligible to participate in the postseason for Rockford.

So…how did the Hogs make out?

Surprisingly well. Grimaldi is the type of player BMO fans should salivate over; a veteran AHL sniper who has produced in AHL stops in San Antonio, Portland, and Milwaukee. In San Diego this season, the 30-year-old Grimaldi had 27 goals and 29 helpers in 54 games.

Gogolev was responsible for Rockford’s only regulation goal in a 2-1 shootout win in Laval Saturday night, tipping in a shot by Welinski (4 G, 12 A in 40 games with Hartford).

Khudobin sure would have come in handy earlier this season. There was a need for a veteran goalie who could have played the role Arvid Soderblom was cast in due to injuries. With Soderblom now set to receive the bulk of the starts down the stretch and Jaxson Stauber playing well in a Hogs loss in Belleville Friday, the 36-year-old veteran still provides experienced insurance for Rockford.

As a result of the bevy of moves, the Hogs found themselves a little undermanned this past week. Rockford battled but lost 5-3 in Toronto on Wednesday and 4-1 Belleville on Friday before defeating the Rocket Saturday.

Seney and forward D.J. Busdeker left Friday’s contest with injuries. Busdeker returned for the third period. The following night, both players sat out, forcing the Hogs to play two defensemen, Nolan Valleau and Koletrane Wilson, at forward.

I would imaging that Gust, who was with his expecting wife, and Grimaldi will be in the lineup for Rockford this coming weekend, when the IceHogs finish their five-game road trip in Grand Rapids Friday and in Rosemont on Saturday.

Follow me @JonFromi on twitter for thoughts on the IceHogs as they look to maintain and improve upon their playoff position.

 

 

Hockey

Nothing Can Kill The Grimace – Hawks @ Preds, Game 39

By Andy Jonathan 639

VS 

 

Records: Predators 19-18-1 (39) Hawks 17-16-5 (39)

Puck Drops: 2:00 pm

TV/Radio: NBCSN and WGN 720

Why Don’t You Have A Seat Over There: On The Forecheck 

 

As if things weren’t bad enough, the Hawks reward for pissing away points against the Hurricanes in the last 30 seconds in game two on Thursday night is another game against the team that owns them up and down the ice, the Nashville Predators. The last meeting against Smashville went about as poorly as you could think, and if it wasn’t for the impressive effort of Alex DeBrincat most likely would’ve resulted in the Hawks only netting a single goal.

Nashville just plays the type of game that completely pulls apart whatever you would call the breakout “system” employed by Jerry Manuel-Colliton. The forecheck of the Preds completely exposes the inability of the Hawks D  to move the puck out of their own zone. A large majority of the goals scored by Nashville in the last series came off of panicked turnovers by Hawks players in front of their goalie as they tried to fire the puck up and out of the zone by going right up the middle of the ice. This resulted in interceptions by fuckwaddles like Rocco Grimaldi, and were usually deposited right behind Kevin Lankinen.

So what can the Hawks do to flip the script on the Preds? By trading Brad Morrison to the Panthers and bringing back Vinny Hinostroza, duh! On the surface, this is pretty much a nothing trade for the Hawks, as Morrison hasn’t been anything of note. That being said, it’s the most Stan Bowman thing ever to bring back yet another former player. There’s definitely a spot for Hinostroza right now, since everyone’s favorite 3rd liner Brandon Hagel was thrown into the league’s COVID-19 protocol on Friday. Hinostroza plays a very similar North/South style game to Hagel, and the fact that Stan jumped on the phone to replace him this quickly makes me think that Hagel may be out for an extended period. This should not, however, be taken as a sign that the Hawks are going to be buyers at the deadline. The price for Vinny was essentially zero, so Stan can still try and keep the Hawks in the mix and yet gain assets next week by trading players that aren’t going to be part of the plan (whatever that may be) going forward.

As it stands right now, both the Hawks and Preds have the same amount of points, but Nashville has the tiebreaker thanks to the fact that they have the stunning ability to earn points during regulation, a feat that continues to elude the Hawks. After their single game this weekend, the Preds schedule (other than 3 more against the Hawks and two against the Scum) turns more difficult with matches against Florida, Carolina and Tampa all on the docket. It will be very interesting to see what the Preds do a week from Monday when the trade deadline rolls around. Both teams have to know what awaits them even if they make the postseason, so I can’t imagine Nashville being buyers, as hilarious as it would be.

Regardless of what they decide to do at the deadline, if either team has deigns of making the dance they’ll have to stake their claim over the next few weeks against each other. Based on what’s transpired thus far, I don’t like the Hawks’ chances. We’ve yet to see any adjustment by Jeremy Colliton to alleviate the pressure created by the Preds forecheck. As the guys mentioned in the podcast this week, even doing something simple like chipping the puck up and out of the zone off the boards and allowing the faster skaters like DeBrincat to roll with it could help. Really, I’d just like to see ANYTHING different than the piss poor shenanigans that define the defensive breakouts thus far. It’s not a super high bar to clear, but I’m also not holding my breath.

Two very important points sit out there for the taking this weekend, hoping they can get it done but also not gonna place any bets on it.

Let’s Go Hawks