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Friday Argle Bargle

By 1346

It’s different than the Foofaraw, as it’s actually about hockey. Just a couple things to clean up today before Outdoor weekend or whatever they’re calling it.

-I’d been meaning to get to this a few days ago, but my life’s inertia at the moment prevented me. Anyway, the idea of trading Teuvo Teravainen came up earlier in the week, and our friend Jay Zawaski addressed it on Twitter:

JZ is pretty plugged in. Generally when he gets something from the inside it sticks. But the tweet after that was to enforce that the Hawks are not going to trade Teuvo unless someone blows their socks, shoes, and arch supports off with an offer. Obviously, everyone knows we agree with this.

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Turn The TV On It Looks Just Like A Window

By 1416

As the Hawks and specifically Stan Bowman barrel into trade deadline week, we here at the lab are not only discussing names and proposals but how it fits in with the overall window of the Hawks. It becomes a more and more philosophical discussion, as well as trying to figure out what the actual length is. I’m sure it’s a discussion Bowman and assistants and scouts are having every day, just how much do you shorten the window on the back end for this chance this year?

Last year’s championship basically puts the Hawks on house money. As first-hockey-world problem as it might sound. two Cups wouldn’t have sounded like enough when we look back in 10 or 20 years (though ask Bears fans what a second championship would have felt like in the 80s). A third though puts the Hawks in rarified air, even if they don’t compare to what came before. In my lifetime, only three teams have bunched three Cups or more together, the Oilers, the Devils, and the Wings. Even the Avs in the late 90s, as stacked as they were, only managed two. So even if the Hawks didn’t win again in the Daydream Nation era, three in six basically lives forever.

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There’s February: Sharks 2 – Hawks 0

By 1233

Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

Perhaps it took the home schedule in this month to kick in the winter doldrums we’ve come accustomed to. One game of course does not signal anything. The Sharks, as cloudy and weird as their identity might be in a lot of places, were suffocating in their own zone. While the Hawks mustered up an acceptable number of shots, San Jose cordoned off any prime scoring areas for all 60 minutes. Their backchecking was ferocious. The Hawks love to beat a man to the outside and then hit the late man, but couldn’t do it at all tonight with the retreating Sharks’ forwards blanketing that option. Anything from the outside the pretty sizable Martin Jones is going to stop. Tonight’s shot chart tells something of a story. Hawks didn’t get much below the circles.

Screen Shot 2016-02-09 at 10.27.05 PM

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When You Come Undone: Hawks 1 – Lightning 2

By 1200

Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

This harkened back to some other games. The tenets of was made the Hawks 12-game win streak were not in evidence tonight. And while it was only a one-goal game, this was as badly as the Hawks have been outplayed in a long while. Other teams had done it for a period or two during this streak, but for a whole game you’d have to go back to the loss to the Canes. The Bolts are basically the realized version of what the Canes would like to be. A high-tempo team with a couple puck-moving d-men, a band of quick, skilled forwards who play with speed at both ends. The Hawks were nowhere near tonight.

What had gotten them to this point? Let’s go through the checklist:

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A Simple Plan: Hawks 4 – Preds 1

By 1412

Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

Sorry for the delayed wrap. My insomnia got the best of me again and I was going to write this last night before my forehead nearly landed on the laptop.

I don’t think there’s much to draw from this one other than how the two goalies are playing. It was a pretty even 1st period, with the Preds certainly having the upper hand in the first 10 minutes and the Hawks the last 10. The Hawks benefitted from a good bounce to get their goal, but you see how the Preds can get caught trying to play at their skin-peeling pace. 1-0 is certainly no huge advantage.

And then Rinne gives up that goal to Panik, and he might have been screened by Barret Jenkem and his terrible gap but it was not a goal that should have gone in. Sure, the Preds quickly got back within one but the way Crawford is playing you’re just not going to make up two goals on him right now. The Preds didn’t, and once Panarin found Kane for a breakaway this one was basically over. And Rinne wasn’t bad for sure, but he’s giving up the goal he can’t right now. Crow isn’t.

Let’s to it:

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Don’t Play With Your Food: Sabres 1 – Hawks 3

By 1303

Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

The Hawks moved to their sixth win in a row with a simple adjustment after 20 minutes, or at least a tightening of their usual plan. But even though the Hawks basically kept the Sabres under their thumb (it’s down to me) from the start of the second, they let them hang around and hang around. And as the Hawks should know by now, they can’t let any team hang around that has Ryan O’Reilly on it, because he will score against them. Luckily, a few minutes later Rasmus Ristolainen let Phillip Danault have far too much space entering the zone, and Danault was only too happy to gobble it up and bury the winner short-side. Throw in another Toews empty-netter to throw the mainstream off his scent of struggles, and you have yet another Hawks win.

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Altitude Adjustment: Hawks at Avalanche Preview/Ball Dropping

By 1294

250px-Ozymandias vs. Avalanche Snowman Christmas

PUCK DROP: 7pm Central

TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio

COMIN DOWN THE MOUNTAIN: Mile High Hockey, Anthrax Jones Twitter Feed (if you’re really into punishing yourself)

Avalanche Stats

Avalanche War On Ice

The Hawks will close out 2015 at altitude, taking on an Avalanche team that’s probably been their biggest headache over the past few years. Strangely, the Hawks have done much better in Denver than they have at home against the Avs. They won two of three there last year, and the one they lost was the last game of the year where half the team didn’t play and the Hawks certainly didn’t think it mattered in any way. Contrast that to losing both home games against the Avs last year, the first one this year, and two of three the year before that.