Everything Else

Game #32 – Hawks vs. Jets: Douchebag Du Jour – Savior Hendricks

By Sam Fels 1837 0

Actually, we kind of love what Matt Hendricks has become to the Canadian media. If you haven’t paid attention–and judging by the NHL’s ratings, you haven’t–the Oilers media thinks one of the biggest reason their team’s head has been rectum-ized is they let Matt Hendricks move along to Winnipeg. So it stands to reason that one of the biggest reasons the Jets have surprised everyone, including themselves, is that they picked up Hendricks.

It’s funny how in just a few short months, the feeling can from this to this. They both clearly can’t be true, but yet in The Great White North they most certainly can be.

Matt Hendricks is a nothing player. He gives you less than ten minutes per night, he tries to fight a lot. No one in the NHL today actually fights a lot by the old standard. He can’t really do much else. Of course, with all of these guys there’s always some intangible, inexplicable “glue” factor. And this only comes up after they leave. Funny, no one mentioned Jonathan Toews’s “glue” abilities when he was scoring 65+ points a season and he was, y’know, the fucking captain. And no one has used his leadership ability to try and excuse the downturn in his offensive production.

Imagine the Bulls blaming their downturn in recent years on the fact that Brian Scalabrine wasn’t around anymore. We’re sure he was great in the locker room. He would have to be, otherwise Tom Thibodeau wouldn’t have dragged him everywhere. In practice he was probably useful. We doubt Hendricks is any more useful during practice than he is during games.

But when things go wrong, especially with Canadian teams, it can’t be roster construction. There is something mythical that those teams are missing and winning teams have. It’s not that the Penguins have two of the best centers of all time. It’s Conor Sheary’s angry-face that won them two Cups or something. The Hawks wouldn’t have three banners without Ben Eager, Adam Burish, and Dan Carcillo don’t you know?

God bless Canada.

Game #32 Preview

Preview

Spotlight

Q&A

Douchebag Du Jour

I Make A Lot Of Graphs

Lineups & How Teams Were Built

Everything Else

Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight – October 4th

By Sam Fels 1275

This is a new thing we’re gonna try this year, setting up every night’s action outside of the Hawks. We’ll see how it goes. 

Game Of The Night

Flames vs. Oilers (9pm)

Fuck the banner-raising in Pittsburgh, as that’s going to be called by Mike Milbury and will involve the Blues. Although it’s hard to imagine a more perfect marriage than the Blues being watched by Milbury, who will assuredly spend a period and a half wondering how the Blues could have traded Ryan Reaves. Anyway, these are two of the three teams that are going to matter in the Pacific. And they’re way more interesting than the Ducks. Flames fans can already start cutting themselves if the Oilers light up Mike Smith, which you’d have to bet they would. See how Draisaitl shifts back to center and how the Oilers still have no defense.

Everything Else

Your Friends And Neighbors – ’17-’18 NHL Previews – A Speculative Fiction

By Sam Fels 1301

This league wide preview series at long last comes to its merciful end, fittingly in the last place anyone wants to be – Winnipeg.

For as much shit as the Blues get for “This Time It Will Be Different”, the Jets continue to trot out the same roster year after year that simply isn’t good enough, led by a GM in Kevin Chevydayoff that cannot seem to get himself fired in spite of all of this inertia, and a coach in Paul Maurice who people simply accept as being competent for no other reason other than he has been behind a bench since he was 14 years old. But hey, things are bound to bounce their way sooner or later right?

Everything Else

Eh, No Peg: Hawks 5 – Jets 2

By 1388

Box Score

Natural Stat Trick

Wow, wins over the Wild and Jets in the span of three days. You’ll tell your children about it someday. If you talk to your children. Which you probably shouldn’t, because really, what do your children have to say? Nothing, that’s what.

The first period was about as well as the Hawks have played all season, and they were completely all over the Jets and easily could have had four or five goals if it wasn’t for Connor Hellebuyck spasming competence for the first time since… well, the last time he played the Hawks. Fucker.

The second was not so good, but at this point I think we’ve all given up the dream of the Hawks putting 60 minutes together. The swarm/mess that the Jets style is lends itself to swing wildly from one pole to the other in terms of possession and dominance, and once they get going they can be hard to turn around.

But the third saw the Hawks shut it down fairly well. They didn’t generate as much as you’d like but Crawford wasn’t required to perform the same miracles as the 2nd, even though the Jets had twice as many shots. She’s a funny old game.

Let’s clean it up.

Everything Else

Everybody’s Working For The Weekend: Jets at Hawks Preview/We’re Not The Bulls Celebration

By 1589

 vs. 

RECORDS: Jets  22-25-4   Hawks 30-15-5

PUCK DROP: 7:30pm Central

TV: CSN

FOR WE’VE GOT NOWHERE TO BE: Arctic Ice Hockey

PROJECTED LINEUPS

ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Jets – 49.2 (20th)  Hawks – 50.0 (16th)

ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Jets – 50.6 (14th)  Hawks – 47.5 (25th)

POWER PLAY %: Jets – 17.7 (17th)  Hawks – 17.6 (18th)

PENALTY KILL %: Jets – 76.8 (27th)  Hawks – 75.8 (28th)

Interesting position the Hawks find themselves in here. Having won three of four, and with the break right on the heels of this one tonight, you wouldn’t be surprised if they played this one with sunglasses on and Bermuda shorts underneath their pants (I assume this is how Panarin has been playing the last month). On the other, the Hawks are coming off a bad loss on Tuesday, losing in regulation when leading after 40 for the first time since Daley was in charge or some shit (no, not Trevor, moron). Backing that up with an in-division loss would certainly put a small pall (see what I did there?) over the vacation time. But then again, this is still a game in January. So you tell us.

Everything Else

Here Come The Warm Jets: Jets at Hawks Preview/Satellite Dish Cleaning

By 1383

warm-jets vs. Hawk Wrestler

RECORDS: Jets 12-13-2  Hawks 16-7-3

PUCK DROP: 6pm Central 

TV: CSN, Rogers for the creepy-ass Hometown Hockey Mishegas in Canada

COLDER THAN A WELL DIGGER’S ASS: Jetsnation.ca, Arctic Ice Hockey

Projected Lineups

jets-lineup-card

blackhawks-lineup-card

ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Jets – 47.5 (24th)  Hawks – 50.4 (15th)

ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Jets – 48.3 (21st)  Hawks 48.2 (22nd)

POWER PLAY%: Jets 15.2 (20th)  Hawks – 16.3 (17th)

PENALTY KILL%: Jets – 78.4 (25th)  Hawks – 71.3 (dead ass last)

The Hawks get an immediate chance to get the Listerine out to wash out the taste of yesterday’s loss. The Winnipeg Jets dance on in here, though if the Flyers speed was something of an issue, there’ll be no reprieve from the Jets. It’s been augmented by a return to health for Bryan Little and analytic darling Mathieu Perreault, which they didn’t have last time the Hawks saw this squad. And that one didn’t go all that well anyway.

Everything Else

Jets Q&A With Garret Hohl

By 1348

Garret is a contributor for JetsNation.ca. You can follow him on Twitter @GarretHohl.

Let’s start with Connor Hellebuyck, who was supposed to fix the Jets’ biggest problem for years. It hasn’t worked out that way. What’s been the problem? Still hopeful or is this worrying? Are most of the problems on the kill?

Hellebuyck has indeed been better than Pavelec’s overall average. A career 914 save percentage is still better than a 907, and that’s significant. All things being equal, that is an improvement that will lead to wins.

The issue is that all things have not been equal. Team struggles on special teams, penalty differential, and have been their worst shot metric team (both Corsi and expected goals) since the move to Winnipeg.

It’s still early to tell what Hellebuyck will be, you need about 3000 shots (ish) for that. I have confidence he’s an answer to getting something better than Pavelec. The real question: how much better?

Everything Else

And I’m Welcome No More: A Special Guest Hawks-Jets Preview

By 1370

Hawk Wrestler vs. Kenny Smith

RECORDS: Hawks 11-3-2  Jets 8-7-2

PUCK DROP: 7pm

TV: CSN

HOTH: Arctic Ice Hockey

PROJECTED LINEUPS

blackhawks-lineup-card

jets-lineup-card

SCORE-ADJUSTED CORSI%: Hawks – 50.3% (11th)  Jets – 48.8% (23rd)

POWER PLAY: Hawks – 19.0% (14th)   Jets – 18.7% (16th)

PENALTY KILL: Hawks – One day soon!  Jets – 81.7% (17th)

TRENDS: Laine hasn’t scored a hat trick in like a week so he sucks

Gonna try sometin’ a little different today. Krista, a HockeeNight refugee, wanted to let everyone know what you should think about the Winnipeg Jets. We’re going to allow her to do so here. Enjoy, and follow her on Twitter @lechatsavant.

Greetings, everyone. I come to you as someone who knows the Winnipeg Jets all too well. They are a vile bunch of whiners who choose to revise history rather than accept it. I’m all too familiar with this team. You see, I began my love of hockey as an Atlanta Thrashers fan.

It was my best friend who introduced me to hockey via the Thrashers, and we got to the point where we could gauge a win or a loss based on only the goalie (Pavelec good, Mason bad). We were hopeful that nothing would come of the rumors that the team would be relocated. That was some beautiful hope, but it was shattered on May 31, 2011. That was the day the Thrashers died and the Jets were born.

Everything Else

Clowns To The Left Of Me – Jets Spotlight: Blake Wheeler

By 1248

People forget that Blake Wheeler is yet another prime example of excellent GMing by Peter Chiarelli in Boston. But y’know, Rich Peverly was a faithful soldier and all that. But that’s not why you called.

You have to feel a little for Wheeler. If he stuck in Boston, or played in New York or Chicago or Toronto or Montreal, people would realize he might be the premier power forward in the league. Not only is he stuck in Winnipeg where he’ll never be fully appreciated or get to play in the games he deserves, he’s going to freeze his ass off. While this Jets team looks a little more promising than previous editions, no one’s going to be mentioning them as possible West representatives in June.

To fully appreciate Wheeler, one should probably take a look at his WOWYs for just this season (teammates stats when on the ice with him and without).

Everything Else

Eh, No Peg: Hawks at Jets Preview/Turnabout Dance

By 1465

Hawk Wrestler vs. Kenny Smith

PUCK DROP: 7pm Central

TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio

JET CITY WOMAN: Arctic Ice Hockey

Jets Stats

Jets War On Ice

Well, there can’t be a  better way to get healthy after losing four in a row than spending the weekend taking on the Central Division jobbers known as the Jets and Wild (and then a Stars team that will be without Klingberg and Seguin, or the Western Canada swing after that… say, the schedule gets pretty light here, huh?) Considering the Stars’ injuries and the Blues’ sudden case of suck-itis (13 goals to the Flames and Oilers, huh?), if the Hawks have any desire to win the division or put one last regular season surge on film then you’d have to think it starts now.