Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s Season Preview: Andrew Shaw

By 905

Should I add “if he’s here?” We’ll get to that.

We know that there are fewer, if any, more made men than Andrew Shaw when it comes to Joel Quenneville. Because the Hawks value versatility and grit pretty highly, as long as that grit comes with skill, Shaw is basically the light of their eyes. Shaw has been deployed in every forward spot on every line in his three seasons here (two full and two half-seasons), and while we scoff when he’s deployed at center up the lineup, it’s not like he’s a total embarrassment there. At least not all the time. It’s just that there’s generally been better alternatives around. And there will be when Shaw is playing third center instead of Teuvo or is on the top line left wing instead of Dano or something this season.

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s Season Preview: Finnish Baby Jesus

By 992

If it wasn’t for all the bullshit that surrounds the Hawks right now, I would have to say the development of Teuvo Teravainen would probably be the most fascinating aspect of the Hawks this year. We have a player who took over a 3rd period in Game 1 of the Final at the age of 20 (and also the 2nd period of Game 5 of the Western Conference Final). He can play wing or center, and even the Hawks don’t seem quite sure where he should go. Once he was finally cemented on the roster, which took too long, he had one play each game where you weren’t so much blown back that he did it, but that he even thought of it in the first place. If the Hawks are intent on producing a new batch of a core to support their old one, or one to replace the one they had behind the old one (*cough*Saad*cough*), Teuvo is most likely the leading light of that.

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Marian Hossa

By 1164

In the words of Macho Man, “And the beat goes on….”

Much like Toews we did last week, doing a preview of Hossa almost seems folly at this point. You can pretty much bank on what you’re going to get in the regular season, and Hossa really is the barometer for the Hawks treat the regular season. He’ll look great to the new year, basically pace himself for the next couple months while picking his spots, close well enough. Then you won’t get eye-popping numbers from him in the playoffs (though he does seems to beat up the Wild ok), some national and even local writers writing one or two articles wondering where he is where we have to cite the underlying stats to show he’s been effective, rinse, repeat. Though I wonder if this season there won’t start to be something of an undercurrent that we haven’t seen before. We’ll get to that.

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Jonathan Toews

By 1110 0

Let’s move from the new guys, some of whom come with a fair bit of mystery, to the surest bet the Hawks have among the forwards, and maybe the roster, in captain and #1 center Jonathan Toews. It almost seems silly to do a preview of Toews, because we know what we’re getting. He’s going to take on some of the toughest competition, he’s almost always going to outplay it, he’s going to score between 28-32 goals, 66-78 points, be a possession monster, and just when you wonder if he’s having a disappointing playoffs he’ll win a game by himself. And then Ryan Kesler will tell us this is the year he’s got him. At 27, Toews is certainly ensconced in his peak years, and should be for a little while yet.

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: CatButt

By 1043

The Hawks have a couple gluts on among their forwards. And let me first say I didn’t know you could pluralize “glut,” so I’ve learned something today. They are no rife with smallish, shifty, playmaking wingers in Panarin, Teuvo, to a lesser extent Tikhonov, and others. They also are kind of bubbling over with fourth line grunts, with Ryan Garbutt joining Andrew Shaw (despite what the Hawks tell you, that’s what he is), Andrew Desjardins, Ryan Hartman (who will get a look at some point), Marcus Kruger (he’s more than that but that’s how he’s used), if he ever gets healthy Phillp Danault might sneak a look, and if the Hawks feel like being dumb they might try and sneak a jobber onto the ice in Mashinter or Tropp or some other dude who gets easily distracted by shiny things.

We’ll start with CatButt today (yes, that’s what I’m calling him all year. Just deal with it). Needless to say, a lot of Hawks fans weren’t exactly thrilled with his acquisition, as he’s spent the past two or three years annoying the piss out of everyone in combination with Antoine Roussel and The Ginger Ninja Cody Eakin. He’s probably not going to get less annoying here, but at least it will be for the right cause?

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Artem Anisimov

By 1063 0

The acquisition of Arty The One Man Party has provided the Hawks more depth down the middle to start a season than they’ve had since they went Toews-Sharp-Bolland-Madden at the beginning of 2010 (I actually had to remind myself that Bolland was a Hawk, which is weird. And remember Sharp as a center? We never, ever talked about that!) And he wasn’t just some name the Hawks came up with in desperation when they realized they couldn’t sign Brandon Saad. They had been after him before he was traded from New York to Columbus. This is a player the Hawks have eyed for a while. Hopefully, he’ll show us all why this season.

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Marko Dano

By 1029 0

I think we’ll keep circling through the new forwards as Matt started that trend yesterday. It’s more interesting that way, as basically you know what you’re getting from the holdovers. So now we’ll get to the main prize in the Brandon Saad deal, or what the Hawks will hope becomes the main prize, Marko Dano.

Last Season: 35 games, 8 goals, 13 points, 21 points, +12, 14 PIM, 54.0% Corsi Percentage (+7.4% Relative), 48.9% Corsi Competition

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: The Rest Of The Defense

By 1174 0

After the first five d-men we’ve previewed, the Hawks have a mishmash of humanity that’s hard to make sense of. So we’ll just group them all together and see what we have. That might not be fair to David Rundblad, but I don’t think he’s going to come and plead his case, and I also doubt he’s going to be a mainstay in the lineup anyway. But we’ll start with him.

David Rundblad – We know Stan is going to force feed him into the lineup and give himself every chance to justify giving up a second round pick for him for… reasons. That doesn’t mean Rundblad is going to have the inside track on the #6 spot, because Q will eat his entire cigar collection if that were to happen.

When I look real hard, I think I can see what Stan sees in Rundblad. He does have a big shot. He does get it through. He does make a nice pass when he gets time. But that’s the caveat. “When he gets time.” Runds needs about five minutes to make that pass. Or get that shot off. And while he does have instincts on how to get into open ice and free himself up, he doesn’t have the feet to get him there in time.

It’s like Rundblad’s skills and skates are mismatched. He wants to play a puck-moving, aggressive game, but he’s got free safety feet. I can’t think of an offensive d-men who couldn’t skate really well. I thought it was Anton Stralman, but after watching him for six games in June he’s a far better skater than Rundblad. Combine that with Rundblad’s defensive allergies, his lack of physical stability when engaged along the boards, and it’s really hard to say what it is, in fact, that Rundblad gives you.

Everything Else

Something In The Way: C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview – Trevor van Riemsdyk

By 1179 0

TVR, as I think we’re now legally bound to call him, won last year’s race to be the player Q falls in love with during training camp, sometimes just to prove how much smarter he is than anyone else. He joined such luminaries as Michael Kostka, Aaron Johnson, Nick Boynton, Jordan Hendry, Sean O’Donnell, John Scott, and probably one or two others I’ve forgotten to preserve my own sanity. And then TVR got hurt before he could prove whether he was just like those or the others, and during his injury layoff watched basically a clown car try and fill the role he had for all of 18 games so that a large section of the fans and media turned those 15 games into something Larry Robinson would be jealous of or something.

So we head into this season, and anyone who says they know exactly what van Riemsdyk is going to provide is either lying to you or to themselves or both.

Everything Else

Something In The Way: C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview – Trevor Daley

By 999 0

Oh you’ve probably been waiting for this one.

If earlier today we previewed the Hawks player with the least amount of questions about his upcoming season, this would be the one that quite possibly would have the most. The d-man taking Johnny Oduya’s place, without having really any of Oduya’s game (though some people still seem to think he does, which I can only assume is because they’re both black). The biggest piece gotten in return for Patrick Sharp (unless you think CatButt can do a whole lot from the 4th line). But if the defense allergic Stars were so happy to include Daley in this deal, doesn’t that give one pause?