Last night was always going to be tough with The Hawks trotting out only a handful of players who are sure to make the squad, whilst Boston iced a far more representative lineup. That said and given the number of grinder-types that Coach Q loaded up on, they acquitted themselves reasonably well, outshooting The Bruins and occasionally looking capable of stealing the game.
Anyway, I am compelled to peck a few words on specific players that are in the hunt for a roster spot.
Cody Franson showed me nothing that a few younger, quicker candidates possess. Pass.
Laurent Dauphin is better than I expected. Quicker & shiftier than Kero but lacking Kero's situational awareness and passing skills. I don't see Dauphin making the cut over Kero but he could be a useful firehose in case of injuries or even as the 13th forward.
Bouma / Tootoo / Wingels were really only visible when they coughed up the puck. Pass, pass and pass.
Hayden made a case for sticking around. I still think he's making it up as he goes along a lot of the time but that's stuff he can learn, whereas you can't learn BIG and he does have good hands. The bottom line is that I'd far rather have Hayden around than any of the three Guys mentioned above. A Hayden - Kero - Hino fourth line would suit me fine.
Forsling did himself no favours last night. I still think he has an inside line on a roster spot but, based on his last couple of games, Rutta and Oesterle are equally deserving of the opportunity.
Jordan Oesterle: maybe punching above his weight? I haven't minded him at all, so far, for what he is; decent wheels and hands, maybe a little wander-y and a bit lightweight, but calm and patient with the puck. He did well last night, running on fumes at the end of a too-long shift, to get the puck close enough to Kero to set off the Hayden goal.
Rutta was okay, too. He's poised, for sure, but maybe a little too daring, trying stuff he's been mostly able to get away with but, once the season starts for reals, would likely result in him looking at the numbers on his opposition's back. Not a lock by any stretch but The Hawks are sure giving him every opportunity to crack the squad.
Alex DeBrincat suffered some, apart from Kane & Schmaltz (already?) but I think The Hawks have to at least try him in the top six to start the season. And no lower down the order - top six or Rockford, sink or swim, 'cos his destiny is top three, so there's zero point in deploying him with Guys who won't complement his skills.
The picture's getting a little clearer.
Just a few quick notes to keep things current.
Saturday: The Hawks were goalie'd, pure and simple, and at both ends of the ice, with CMB's Korpisalo turning away 50 shots and The Hawks' JF Berube allowing three softies. That, barring disaster, will likely be the last time we see Berube in a Chicago jersey.
Lines 1-3 each had several excellent shifts, although all three units struggled with consistency. There was some nice puck movement with Kane-Schmaltz-DeBrincat, but also plenty of occasions in which Schmaltz and DeBrincat skated themselves into trouble and couldn't find their way back out. Only Kane seemed to have any consistent awareness of where his linemates were. It's early days yet.
Toews worked hard along the walls but hardly exerted himself otherwise, which is fine. Richard Panik did his thing - dynamite when it works but kinda silly to watch when it doesn't, and it didn't work a whole lot in this game. Saad was a sledgehammer.
Sharp and Anisimov are already signaling some significant chemistry which, with Hartman re-inserted, gives The Hawks a damn good third line. Somebody get Dr. Terry to wrap Sharpie's head in Bubble Wrap™, stat.
As much as I like the idea of John Hayden stepping in and being a versatile big body, I don't think it'll be happening this fall. Hayden either goes all-out, crashing around with no apparent plan, or he stands around, watching, and there's rarely anything in-between. A few months in Rockford would do him good, I think.
The fourth line gonna be the fourth line and, with so many Guys still in camp, could "feature" any number of spare parts guys. I was going to type a few sentences about Alexandre Fortin's obvious skill mitigated by him having no clue how to employ it, but he's been dismissed to Rockford, so maybe another time. Riddle me this, though: what, exactly does Tomas Jurco do? He's not especially quick, hasn't much of a shot and all it takes is a stern look to separate him from the puck. Yeah... I'll pass on that.
As for the defense, it's hard to say much about last night's group of guys, as they really weren't troubled much. I thought all three of the guys who are competing for a spot played well enough. Rutta is maybe a little quicker than I gave him credit for and Pokka played a simple but effective game. Either guy could likely step right into the third pairing, maybe higher for Rutta.
The competition is very much ON, too, as I still believe Rozsie will pack it in sooner than later, and it looks as if Cody Franson has been released from his PTO? (I can find no mention of this but he no longer appears on the team roster) The Hawks have options and they aren't all terrible.
Postscript: well, it's Monday and Cody Franson is in The Hawks' lineup, so I dunno why he's not on the active roster. Of course, tonight's roster insists that Luke Johnson is playing and that Jordan Oestrle is not, so who knows what the hell's going on...
I'll refer to this often, I expect: It's Only The Preseason (IOTP)
As such and as always, it's tough to determine if what you see in one of these games is real or a mirage, what with the uncertainty of the quality of the players assembled on the opposite bench.
Nevertheless, here are a few takeaways after a pair of easy wins over CMB and DET.
1. Brandon Saad is good to go.
2. Patrick Sharp is, as expected, a step slower than I'm used to seeing. His puck protection on his semi-breakaway tells me that he's aware of this, though, and realizes what he needs to do about it.
3. Alex DeBrincat is awfully small but appears to be equally slippery.
Eddie Munster-lookin' mofo.
4. More PTOs: John Mitchell (told ya), Drew Miller and Mark Fucking Stuart quietly arrived and are attempting to hook onto a team that probably has no space and no use for any of them. Mitchell is great at the dot but after observing him on Tuesday I've concluded that his faceoff acumen alone won't open the door nearly wide enough.
5. Cody Franson was steady & unspectacular on Tuesday, although he seemed even slower than I recalled him being. With Stan's latest defense project, Jan Rutta, and Ville Pokka likely having his final shot at making The Hawks, Franson's place on the team is far from assured.
6. It's still way too early to be talking about line combos, but Sharp + Hartman looked fine. I mention this only because those two do seem destined to start the season together.
7. On that tack, I'm seeing forward pairs emerging but not entire forward lines. Will this afford The Hawks flexibility or a lack of cohesion? Given that the missing piece in most cases is the center, I fear that the latter is closer to the truth.
8. I didn't mind Jordan Oesterle at all, but this is a guy who failed to stick with Edmonton and, of course, IOTP.
9. Ugh, Viktor Svedberg again? Give me a break.
10. Vinnie Hinnie certainly made a case for a longer look with his darty yet focused effort on Tuesday.
11. TOO MANY GUYS. Almost all of the forward roster spots are already nailed down, whether those places are entirely deserved or not. Quenneville gonna have his Kero and Tootoo in all likelihood, and Stan will probably insist that Jurco be on the roster and, if those three are slam dunks, that's eleven forwards. That leaves two, possibly three spots remaining for John Hayden, Vinnie Hinostroza, Lance Bouma, Tommy Wingels, Alex DeBrincat and the aforementioned PTOs, Mitchell and Miller. I know which of these fellas I'd prefer to see on opening night, but I fear it'll be Bouma / Wingels / whatever other interchangeable Guy.
And none of these Guys is top-nine center, so Stan's work may not be quite done just yet, as there is still a massive gap at 2C/3C, depending on how ready Nick Schmaltz really is.
IOTP.
Dude, you're leaving Buffalo. Take me with you, for the love of God.
No real news = no posts for two months. Fret not, as there is finally some semi-news to relate.
Many weeks ago the usual sources indicated that The Hawks were prepared to offer Cody Franson a Professional Try Out (PTO) contract, providing that he had not hooked on with another team by the time players began reporting to their respective teams. Unbelievably, to me anyway, Franson has remained available and will attend The Hawks' training camp on the aforementioned PTO deal. I talked this guy up two years ago prior to him signing with Buffalo and still consider him a more than acceptable solution. The greatest difference now is that The Hawks can actually afford to pay him, with Chicago expected to have a few $$ to spend and Franson unlikely to earn a raise from his previous deal.
Let's take a boo at this Franson character and his good and less-good points.
GOOD
- not especially fast but not slow, either, but an agile and confident skater
- decent shot, above average puck mover with considerable power play experience
- still a mere 30 yrs of age
- earned $3mil last season with Buffalo so will likely be had for $2mil or less
- began his NHL gig with Nashville playing behind Weber & Suter and left Music City as one of the most sought-after free agent D-men
- punched above his weight, perhaps, in Toronto at a time when The Leafs were absolutely dismal
- again, exceeded team possession stats with the equally horrible Sabres the last two seasons
LESS GOOD
- while he's a large fella, Franson doesn't really play a large man's game
- somewhat injury prone
The fact that Franson was still available for this PTO audition suggests, I hope, that trying to stick with The Hawks has been his first choice of action all along. I see Franson as a versatile piece who could potentially be inserted anywhere, although I picture him on a third pairing with another of the middling guys like Kempny or Murphy, or perhaps alongside Forsling. As mentioned, Franson played the PP a LOT while in Toronto and, although he found himself behind Ristolainen in Buffalo, he knows what he's doing in that regard. He's also a RH shot, and those don't exactly grow on trees.
Anyway, if all is physically well with Franson and a contract can be arrived at (which I expect has already been agreed to, pending things going alright at training camp) The Hawks might just be okay on D, after all. It'll still require those middling guys to take a step forward in their development but, even with modest improvement, The Hawks might get away with the group in place right now.
Now go find us a center.
