Everything Else

Game #68 – Hurricanes vs. Hawks Q&A: The Creatures of Section 328

By Sam Fels 1382 0

@Section328 are the hardcore in PNC Arena in Raleigh. They took off their facepaint long enough to answer our questions.

Let’s start with Scott Darling. Why hasn’t it worked out this season? And are the Canes going to  give up on him or try again next season?
Great question. It truly seems like a confidence issue. We’ve seen Darling play some really solid games, but on more nights than we care to remember, he’d let in a soft or questionable goal, then it’s all downhill from there. His contract isn’t a total albatross, but with a new owner, we wouldn’t be shocked if they completely cut bait. We’d like to see him get another crack at it with another full offseason to prepare.
With Slavin and Pesce taking the hardest assignments, shouldn’t Justin Faulk be a little more of an offensive weapon seeing second-pairing minutes? Is this why he occasionally pops up in trade rumors?
You’d think so, right? Let’s just say he pops up in trade rumors more often than he’s an all-star defenseman worthy of being a captain of this team. We’re looking back at the rumor from a couple years ago of a trade centered around Justin Faulk and Taylor Hall with great sadness.
What’s the feeling about Bill Peters? We’ve always liked him, the Canes always have some of the best underlying numbers in the league no matter where they are in the standings, but at some point it he has to get a team to the playoffs, right?
We’ve always liked him too. He’s as Albertan as the day is long, but we feel he’s taken this team as far as he can. Every coach has their favorite players, but why Bill Peters insists on giving Derek Ryan featured minutes and Jeff Skinner is playing with Lee Stempniak and Phil DiGuiseppe is totally beyond us. Maybe Derek Ryan has some kind of incriminating photos of the coach?
His system is stifling the offensive creativity of guys like Aho, Skinner, and Teuvo The defense, while still good, hasn’t improved. If there’s not hockey here in late April, it’s time to part ways.
Ok…fine… we put it off long enough…tell us how much you love Our Special Boy. 
Joakim Nordstrom?
He’s alright. OHHHH, you mean Taco Tuesday, Torso Tonguepunch, Teuvo Teravainen. Yea, we like him a lot, and we’d like to keep him for a very long time. Thanks for paying Toews $10.5 million until we believe 2033 so that we could have him. That’s very thoughtful of you guys!
Given the blue line, and the style of play, can the Canes make the playoffs and at least throw a scare into a top seed? Or will the goaltending and a lack of scoring punch keep them from both?
If we had to place a bet today, it wouldn’t be on the Canes making the postseason. That being said, we think this team would fare better in a seven game series than it would in any seven games against different teams. They play a “playoff-style” game already for whatever that’s worth, and we’re still waiting to see Jeff Skinner in a playoff game. But in the playoffs, you want a number one goalie to carry you to the promised land. Right now we don’t have that, we just have Cam Ward playing in perpetuity.

 

Game #68 Preview

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Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Our Special Boy, Who Was Too Sweet For This World

By Sam Fels 3609 0

A couple times a week, I put myself through a ritual that makes me feel all the things. It provides joy and excitement, while also putting a mythical flaming dagger right into my chest cavity. It makes me pump my fist, and then direct that fist right into my own teeth/balls, whatever I’m feeling at the moment.

It’s watching Teuvo Teravainen play.

Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t. Our Special Boy, our Finn of Dragons, our Turbo Targaryn, is lighting it up in Raleigh. He’s got 15 points in 17 games. Some of that is piling up eight points in his last four games, but it’s been ridiculous. He’s carrying a +5.0 relative Corsi-percentage on the best Corsi team in the league. He’s got a +3.8 relative xGF% on one of the better ones in the NHL.

But numbers don’t really tell the story. You have to watch him, Sebastien Aho, and Jordan Staal. Staal has 15 points in 17 games as well, the post points-per-game he’s ever had in his career. Teuvo and Aho on some shifts just look like they’re playing a different sport.

It’s amazing what happens when you just let a young player do what he does best. Those whipped passes without looking that Teuvo only got to flash here on occasion, where the puck is only on his stick for a blink before he’s finding someone on the other side of the ice, are heavily featured. He’s added a shooting-mentality at times, which the Hawks could never get through to him, though they pretty much asked him to sacrifice everything else to do so. The little fucker even scored on a slapshot against the Stars to kick off his natural hat trick on Monday.

It’s pleasure you usually have to pay for, mixed with pain… you usually have to pay for. Because it shouldn’t be happening there. When Stan Bowman’s run comes to an end, no matter when, losing Teuvo Teravainen for nothing, merely to clear Bryan Bickell’s contract, might end up his biggest mistake. What would he look like on a line with Alex DeBrincat right now? What would the whole forward corps look like with Teuvo’s skills and flexibility?

It shouldn’t be this way. It’s a huge indictment on the way the Hawks used to run (still do?) that someone’s souring on Teuvo could become an organization-wide feeling. This is a player who took over a Stanley Cup Final game at the age of 20 in the 3rd period. He kick-started a near-miracle comeback in Anaheim in Game 5. His line came up with three of the biggest goals in that run in ’15–the winners in Games 1 and 5 in the Final and the OT winner in Game 4 against the Ducks.

And yet the Hawks could only see what wasn’t there. He wasn’t big enough, even though his hands and mind would have compensated in the middle. He didn’t shoot enough or forecheck hard enough, even though his vision would have made him the clear second-best playmaker on the team, behind only one of the league’s best in Patrick Kane.

Stan and Q will never suffer for it, as all they have to do is point at their three banners. And even if they’d kept Teuvo, after this latest contract is up he might have been too expensive then.

This is the NHL they want. Where if you make the mistake of paying someone like Brent Seabrook, you lose Teuvo and the chance to have Panarin and Saad together and/or Stephen Johns or Nick Leddy. That doesn’t make Stan an idiot. It just makes him not perfect.

I try to just enjoy Teuvo without any of the context. But it’s impossible. Some ex’s never escape your mind. You always wonder…

Everything Else

Game #17 – Hawks vs. Hurricanes Preview/Kick For Touch: Though I Know I’ll Never Lose Affection For People And Things That Came Before

By Sam Fels 1298 0

vs.

RECORDS: Hawks 7-7-2   Hurricanes 6-5-3

PUCK DROP: 6pm

TV: WGN

HE HIT THE FUCKIN’ BULL, DIDN’T HE?: Section 328

It’ll be a reunion of sorts tonight down in Raleigh. The Hawks will visit the biggest collection of their alumni in the league, and they’ll see a Hurricanes team that expected to be ahead of where they are currently. There should be some air of desperation at the RBC tonight, but then again there should have been in Philly and it took the Hawks 30 minutes to find the smelling salts.

Everything Else

Canes Q&A With Cory Lavalette

By 1745

We’re tickled to have Cory Lavalette of North State Journal (nsjonline.com, and on Twitter @corylav) to tell us what’s going on with the red and… black? I guess it’s black. 

Let’s get it out of the way first. Are you taking care of Our Special Boy (Teuvo)? Because if you’re not…

I think so. You can tell Teravainen is starting to feel more comfortable both on and off the ice. I think it helps playing with a fellow Finn, 19-year-old rookie Sebastian Aho (more on this in a second), even though the two didn’t really know each other prior to becoming teammates. Teravainen is getting chances in Carolina he didn’t get in Chicago, and recently he’s played a lot of center and proven he can handle the responsibilities that come with that.

 

Everything Else

Hurricanrana Is Hurricanrana In Any Language: Hawks at Canes Preview/Craft Gin Week

By 1173

 vs. 

RECORDS: Hawks 23-10-5  Canes 15-12-7

PUCK DROP: 6:30 pm 

TV: WGN

HE HIT THE FUCKIN’ BULL, DIDN’T HE?: Canes Country

PROJECTED LINEUPS

ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Hawks – 49.5 (16th)  Canes – 52.8 (5th)

ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Hawks – 47.0 (26th)  Canes – 53.6 (6th)

POWER PLAY %: Hawks -19.2 (14th)  Canes – 20.4 (10th)

PENALTY KILL %: Hawks – 74.8 (29th)  Canes – 90.6 (1st)

TRENDS: Teuvo and Aho combined for 11 shots against the Penguins on Wednesday… The Canes rang up a 67% Corsi in Pittsburgh last out

The title is something my friend who wrestles in Chikara told me once. I think it applies to most things.

The last game of 2016 and the last of the two-game swing through NASCAR country comes up for the Hawks tonight. They arrested their small skid last night, averting something a little more definitive, and will attempt to head into West East St. Louis with a little momentum (assuming this Winter Classic actually ever gets played, which it might not).

Everything Else

If Some NHL Awards Made Sense

By 1120

I’ve been meaning to do this for a bit, and now that we’re over a third of the way through the season I guess this is as good of a time as any. Whereas in baseball we’ve seen some of the postseason awards take on a more analytic angle (though Porcello winning over Kluber shows we still have some way to go, but hey, Felix won a Cy with 13 wins), the ones in hockey still haven’t quite reached anything like that level.

The Hart and the Vezina are pretty easy. Hand it to Crosby and Price and move on. It’s the Selke and Norris that always generate the most debate.

Everything Else

Angry At Numbers -12/16

By 1318

Feels like it’s that time again. Let’s get nerdy!

.969/.929

These are the Hawks’ even-strength save-percentage at home and then on the road. Let’s be clear, the road mark is more more than acceptable. It’s why the Hawks are one of the few teams in the West to be above .500 on the road. Still, it’s a tad weird.

You can understand why skaters would have differing home-road splits. Get better matchups at home, maybe more beneficial zone starts. Goalies are susceptible to the same differences in the colors and the whites, i.e. familiar surroundings, routines, whatever else. But they face the same matchups no matter what.

You’d think with the difference in matchups going your way at home and not at home that the Hawks might be a more defensively leaky team on the road. But it doesn’t appear so. They give up just about the same amount of attempts per 60 between the two, 53.7 off of Madison St. vs. 53.6 on it. Scoring chances? 9.7 on the road per 60 vs. 9.0 at home. xGA60? 2.7 on the road and 2.4 at home.

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I’m Miss World Cup, Watch Me Break And Watch Me Burn: You Don’t Look Finnish

By 1196

How many Yellow Submarine references am I allowed for this? That should be the last one. After all, there’s nothing jolly about the Russians, right?

After winning two of the past three World Juniors, one would think that youth would be starting to spread onto the top international team for Finland. It doesn’t usually work out like that for international teams though. Russia’s win in Buffalo five years ago didn’t propel them to much, and the US team that won in 2013 hasn’t made huge inroads to the senior team (mostly because the core of that junior team is jammed up on Team North America).

So while the future could be bright for Finland, the present just isn’t quite there. Though it might help if their coach wasn’t making a baffling decision in net.

Everything Else

The Chicago Bruins

By 1342

Day late to this, was traveling yesterday so apologies for the delay.

As we spent a season watching the Hawks fuck up pretty much every chance to make themselves likable as an organization, or even appear competent in the ways of PR or understanding, yesterday’s post-trade bus-tossing of Teuvo Teravainen shouldn’t really be disappointing considering the heights of incompetence and deafness they’ve already scaled. And yet it’s another minor notch on the post showing that the Hawks aren’t really anywere near the first-class organization they love to tell us that they are. Maybe they were once again too busy filming an ad with a sick kid they use to sell tickets where they don’t tell us what disease or condition that child has and/or provide information where others might find out where to learn and help.

Everything Else

It’s Hard To Leave When You Can’t Find The Floor

By 1399

Most of Hawks Nation is still clearing the cobwebs from the news that Teuvo Teravainen had to be included to rid themselves of Bryan Bickell’s contract. It’s yet another case of the Hawks choosing to go with their veteran’s floors instead of their prospects’ ceilings. Teuvo is probably the highest ceiling of the players the Hawks have had to lose next to Brandon Saad, and that’s why the sting is so great. Then again, the real sting is that while the Hawks probably HAD to lose Saad given his salary demands, they didn’t have to lose Teuvo. They decided, or more to the point Q decided, that Andrew Shaw was the higher priority.

We’ve done this before, but it’s worth examining whether that’s really the case.