Trade Deadline Recap: I Guess Q WAS Really Pissed

Predictably, The Hawks were sellers at this season's Trade Deadline and made one move that, while not entirely surprising, is still pretty dramatic.

OUT

Ryan Hartman and a 2018 5th Round Pick to NSH

IN: Victor Ejdsell, 2018 1st Round Pick and 2018 4th Round Pick

Well, ol' Harts finally wore out his welcome, and just in the nick of time, too.  Nashville paid a ridiculously high price for this soon-to-be RFA that Coach Q never really knew what to do with.  That's not entirely on Q, mind you; players create and destroy their own opportunities to a large extent and Hartman often made it easy for Q to bench him or have him banished to the press box.  The implication is that Hartman is perhaps difficult to coach and has not demonstrated that he's learned from past transgressions.  It could merely be a personality conflict between he and Q but, given their relative status & responsibilities, that's something that Hartman had to work around, not Q.  The trust was lost and, as we all know, when you lose Q's trust, you're Done, Son.

The Draft Picks are generous and the warm body we've received is of great interest, as Ejdsell is a big center (6'5" and 214 lbs) who was a Swedish Div II MVP last season and is currently the goals leader on his HV71 club.  If this lad can skate at all I'll gladly learn how to pronounce his name.

OUT

Tommy Wingels to BOS

IN: 2018 5th Round Pick (upgraded to 4th Round if BOS make it to round two of the playoffs OR if they re-sign Wingels)

Useful if a bit frustrating, Wingels was slotted up and down the lineup all year.  Smart, defensively responsible and somewhat versatile, yet possessing virtually no hand skills.  As Guys go, he's a very good Guy but had been ridiculously miscast as a first line component.

All that aside, I half expect Wingels to be back with The Hawks for next season.

ALSO OUT

Lost in shuffle, here, but I'll mention it now, was the dispatching of Michal Kempny and Ville Pokka.  Kemps is another player who Q did not seem to like, which mystified me.  Kempny plays a pretty straightforward game and does it reasonably well, but is somewhat mistake-prone.  That said, I'd rather go to war with Kemps than with Oesterle or Gustafsson.  We'll probably never find out but Kempny may well have requested a trade OR indicated that he would not return next year to be a healthy scratch half the time.

With Pokka's departure we say so long to a guy that The Hawks waited on through the duration of two contracts.  Even though he had been called up from Rockford a couple of times during his tenure in The Hawks' organization we only ever saw him play in pre-season games.  He struck me as competent but not really excellent at any one aspect of the game. The Hawks' current devotion to Gustafsson and Dahlstrom, as well as Forsling waiting in the wings, clearly made Pokka an expendable asset.

AND

Lance Bouma, waived and successfully demoted to Rockford, making space for Matthew Highmore.  I cannot say much about Highmore except the dry facts: he's a 22-year-old small forward, undrafted, and leads The IceHogs in goals and points.  Maybe he's A Thing or maybe he's just the first of a series of late season auditions that we'll be treated to in the coming weeks.

We Now Return To Our Regular Scheduled Program: Blue Jackets 3, Hawks 2

It's true that all three CBJ goals were made possible by breakdowns on the part of The Hawks, and that Chicago once again got stuck on two goals-for...but I can't even get mad about it anymore.  At this point I'm looking for silver lining moments, just to ward off the disappointment.
So let's look at those bright spots.

Take away Toews' poor clearing attempt, Hinnie's horrible pass and Forsberg allowing his obligatory softie and The Hawks actually played a pretty solid game.  True, only two goals-for, yet again, but they had the shots and the chances, plus a couple of goalposts.  Mere inches away from flipping this one to a W, but that's the way it's been this season.
It's a small sample but the current forward lines are actually working not too badly. Each line had their share of dominant shifts, particularly the Kampf line (!) and the Schmaltz trio enjoyed a scorcher in which they penned the Jackets in their own end for over a minute.  Despite Tomas Jurco finding twine for the first time in forever, I thought L2 was the weakest unit, and that's mainly on Jurco.  Kane is kinda being wasted while Q fools around with this combination, whether they're showcasing Jurco or simply because Q is a dope.
Regardless, all four lines have scoring potential and I would think that's making it a little harder for the opposition to deploy adequate checking.  
I still think Wingels on L1 is silly at this point but I'll say this: when he's on the power play at least The Hawks are less predictable than usual.  He's a wild card!  An X-factor!  He doesn't know what he's doing!
Ryan Hartman: took a really bad, poorly timed penalty and then spent the remainder of the match sitting in front of Coach Q.  It was an idiotic thing for Harts to do but, thinking back, this is the kind of crap that Andrew Shaw pulled on a regular basis and, at worst, missed a shift or two.  For whatever reason, Q just does not seem to like Hartman, which is a tough, tough thing to overcome in this organization.
The NBCSNCH (I think?) post game show poll asked "Which player do The Hawks miss the most?"  The consensus was that Hossa's absence has been the hardest to make up for, but they didn't even mention Corey Crawford.  I know that Crow could not have done a thing about The Hawks' offense going in the pooper but, damn, you know he would have eked out more than a few wins just by not letting in one or more soft goals, night in and night out.  Review The Hawks' record since Crow went on the DL and tell me it's not true...

Approximately Good Enough: Hawks 2½, Sharks 1

Once again The Hawks defy logic.  After losing a lot of games in which they crushed the opposition in shots / attempts / chances, tonight they were outshot and just below break-even in possession, yet won the game.  Statistics are lies, I guess.
It was an untidy game for both sides but maybe a bit messier for The Sharks.  Neither team hit a pass in the Danger Zone™ in the entirety of the first period and, really, it didn't get a lot better later on.  Would it be damning The Hawks with faint praise if I said The Sharks wanted this less?
* All that aside, if Wingels could shoot or pass even a little bit The Hawks could have had this salted away a lot sooner.  He, Toews and Saad buzzed The Sharks zone all night yet came up empty when they could have used a crisp pass on the tape or a shot on net.  Please, Q, this is ridiculous.
* On that tack, Jurco lined up with Kane and Anisimov again.  Tonight he was muscled off the puck countless times, lost the handle on a couple of rushes and, somehow, missed an open net.  This choice is even more silly than Wingels playing on L1, because Jurco has yet to contribute anything to this team.  There are no past successes to suggest he belongs this high up the order.  He tries, I'll grant him that, but he accomplishes nothing.

* Even though he was probably only in the lineup because The Hawks are shopping him for trade day, Duclair had a fine game, his best as a Hawk.  He was on the move all night, had a strong forecheck going and was one of a very few Hawks forwards making a pass now and again.
* Rutta returned after missing eight games and was fine.  Better offensively than defensively but okay, overall.
* Oesterle was bad again.  Keith was refraining from giving him the puck deep in their own end because, I assume, he's well tired of having it weakly pushed back toward him a few seconds later when Oz is under pressure by a forechecker.  He's been better, it just seems like he's underthinking almost every aspect of his game right now.
* JF Berubé was good.  He didn't get that much work tonight but he did survive a handful of sustained attacks by The Sharks and a few goalmouth scrambles.  Now let's see him do it again.

Partial Effort, Full Result: Hawks 3, Senators 2

Wouldn't it be cool is The Hawks could, or would, play a complete 60-minute game more than once a month?  Tonight, The Hawks started off with an utterly dominant first period but, as is so often the case, took their foot off the gas for much of the rest of the game.  That's a simplistic view, of course, as the Senators upped their game for the second and third, but that's when a good team responds rather than accepts, y'know?
The Hawks were a bit lucky, then, to pick up two points, being unable to maintain a lead but sucking slightly less in the shootout.  Anton Forsberg was instrumental in both of these aspects, as he made several tough saves in the five minute overtime, yet was also guilty of allowing a couple of dribblers into the net.  Whatever, he's doing the best he can, I assume.

The last time these teams met I typed a lot of stuff about The Senators, which I won't do today except to add that they are in tough, tough shape, even more than usual with the trade deadline rushing up and The Sens organization saying nothing to deflect or dispel the legion of trade rumours surrounding them.  The only notable Senator that I have not heard mentioned is Mark Stone and, perhaps by omission rather than action, it appears that every other player is potentially up for negotiation, even Erik Karlsson.  Apart from Stone, maybe Craig Anderson and the handful of "I'm just happy to be here" Guys, the message is that they're all mere commodities at this point.  That knowledge is sure to inspire a will to succeed.
I'm actually surprised that this isn't happening in Chicago, too, 'cos there are plenty of guys who should be worried about their gig.

Back to the game, I was aggravated by some odd deployment choices.
Oesterle played, on the back of possibly the worst game I've seen a Hawks defender foist since, well, I was gonna say David Koci, but you could also pick almost any outing by TVR in the last two years.  Oz was slightly less bad last night but he did demonstrate precisely how not to respond in a one-on-one shooting situation on Matt Duchene's goal.
Jurco on the second line.  At least there was the fun of counting the seconds every time Jurcs carried the puck and never getting past "three" before he surrendered the damn thing.
This Wingels on the top line thing is a bit ridiculous.  Sure, sticking him in there to shake things up and maybe make a point is all well and good, but to persist with that well after the shaking up and point making is done with, well that's dumb.
Meanwhile, Hinostroza has been ripping the arse out of everyone, all while dragging the likes of Baby Huey Kampf and Bouma along behind him.  But no, let's move a couple of plodders from the fourth line and the damned press box to the top six...

Anyway
The next few days will be interesting and I am preparing my wish list of players I hope The Hawks successfully rid themselves of.  I don't even care what they get in return, anything to shake this group out of their vegetable torpor will be welcome.
Oh, and who wants to take wagers on whether Stan, Q or both Stan AND Q get the old heave ho when this merry-go-round stops?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Vol. XIX

Long after the fact due to stuff and things, some thoughts about The Hawks' weekend games...

The Good
Well, snapping an eight-game losing streak was pretty good, and in grand style, too.
Why go all-in like that, though - scoring seven goals in a rare offensive outburst during a drought in which they could rarely score more than two in a game?  We'll get to that.
Possession Domination - both WASH and LA were buried in attempts-against, even if The Hawks only put forth their best effort for one period vs. The Kings.
Key Forwards Emerge From Hibernation - Saad hasn't played this well since October.  Hartman logged two solid games, scoring an absolute beauty vs. The Capitals and gelled well with linemates Sharp and DeBrincat.  Toews looked something like his old self for awhile there and even Anisimov got off his arse.
Tell me Who Is Carl Dahlstrom to Claim Your Five Pounds - after a stinkeroo against Anaheim young Carl bounced back with a solid effort vs. The Capitals and a gem of a game against LA, single-handedly breaking up two odd-man rushes and being one of the few Hawks d-men who were able to consistently push the puck north.  His gutsy pinch and interception that led to Sharp's goal was mighty impressive, too.  SO, that's great for Carl and probably good news for The Hawks...
Vinnie Hinostroza Is The Man.  That is all.

The Bad
Patrick Kane has disappeared in recent games.  It happens, but it cannot happen for much longer.  Also note that as Kane goes, so goes Schmaltz to a large extent.
Carl Dahlstrom was, at best, the eleventh d-man out of training camp and appears to have nailed down the D-5 or D-6 spot, for the moment at least.  When a guy rockets up the depth chart like that you have to wonder if it's his improvement that enabled that or merely a desperate "I'll try anything at this point" attitude where Stan Bowman and the coaching staff are concerned.
Possession Domination Ain't Winning Games - during this six-week funk The Hawks have, more often than not, destroyed the competition in shots and possession, yet have only won four of the last eighteen games.  
I'm Still Not Sure What Lance Bouma is For.

The Ugly

Jordan Oesterle is a bad defenceman.  Love his nerve and his offensive instincts, but he is just flat-out bad at playing defence.  On top of that, his good qualities are often compromised by....I don't know what...brain fade?  Lack of concentration?  He gacked four breakout attempts in the first period alone vs. The Kings, all but one of which was 100% down to simply not putting enough oomph behind his passes.  Do that once, you take note and you adjust.  Do that twice and you should be sitting with the backup goalie.  Four times, though?  That's as much on the coach as on the player.

I Think Adam Burish Might Be Right.  Sweet Jeebus, that was hard to type, but Bur said some stuff about The Hawks being able to run a bit wild on wide-open teams yet struggle against the slightest back-pressure....and I think he's correct.  The Hawk's biggest wins this season were against teams that don't emphasize defence and tend toward a fast, wide-open style....sorta like The Hawks on most nights.  The Penguins, Senators and Capitals were all dispatched rather easily and The Hawks managed to stick with The Golden Knights for two periods before losing the plot, yet they cannot maintain a net-front presence if the other side resists in the slightest, and they are paralyzed by any gumming up of the neutral zone.

Not sure if a solution is at hand, immediately.  The Hawks have a lot of small forwards who are critical to their success and, unfortunately, the few physical players on hand either lack the full package (Kampf, Anisimov, Hayden, Bouma) or aren't applying themselves fully (Saad, Hartman to some extent).  Even if two or three of these "physical" players were to up their game would that be a difference maker?  I like to hope so, 'cos I'd sure like to see what Schmaltz, DeBrincat and Hinostroza can accomplish in the long run, but that's a lot of small forwards, along with Kane, to go to war with.  Unfortunately, you almost need a Ryan O'Reilly or *ahem* a Brandon Saad alongside each of those small, skilled guys....

Any idea where we could find some guys like that?

Back To Our Regular Scheduled Program: Ducks 3, Hawks 2

After being outshot, outhustled and badly losing the Corsi game vs. Vegas on Tuesday, The Hawks really only lost that one in the third period. Tonight, as has been more often the case, The Hawks put the boots to Anaheim in shots, chances, possession...you name it,  yet, they lose again.
One of the Guys in the studio (and they usually are Guys, or goalies, aren't they?) sputtered something about "the all-important first goal".  More horseshit.  
The all-important goal would the third one they score in a game.  Any game.
Because, it seems, almost every big mistake they make results in a goal against.
The goalies are only AHL-quality, after all, so all those breakaways and odd-man chances are gonna cost The Hawks, sooner than later.

That's pretty much it: score three goals in a game.  See what that gets ya.

What Else?
Oesterle cannot miss that open net.
Bouma has no business trying to play with Kane & Schmaltz.
Kempny was pretty poor.  After a solid game in Vegas it was disappointing to see him making things easy for The Ducks forwards.
Toews looked great...until he got within shooting distance of the net.  At that point he either lost the handle, made a poor shot or failed to get a pass to a linemate.
Duclair - I think he played tonight.  I saw him on the bench.
The Hartman Call - Adam Burish needs to settle down.  Sure, the refs got that call wrong, it should have been a 5-on-3, I reckon, but what's the difference?  The Hawks aren't scoring on the power play, anyway, so Burr needs to find another windmill to charge.

Not All Bad?
Saad came out of hibernation, briefly, and Keith finally got a shot through.
Hartman worked incredibly hard and enjoyed some good sequences with DeBrincat.
Wingels, unbelievably, had a decent game, again.

But what it all comes down to is that The Hawks cannot score.  The power play is impotent and their attack, in general, is stale and predictable.  That song remains the same.

When Two Out of Three IS Bad: Golden Knights 5, Hawks 2

Well, after two periods, The Hawks looked as if they might be able to hang onto their slim lead and maybe eke something out.
However...
They stopped doing what was working.  Breakouts got sloppy, the D found themselves too far up-ice when they prolly should have more conservative and the forwards lapsed into the frantic "we have no plan apart from flailing at the puck" schtick that's been their M.O. for the last couple of weeks.  For Two Periods they kept up with VGK, a team that is by and large quicker than The Hawks, and then the bottom dropped out.
Individual performances were a study in extremes: Kane kept his feet moving on every shift, moreso than he's done in recent games.  The whole third line were pretty good, with DeBrincat being thereabouts all evening and Sharp putting in a surprisingly gritty effort.  Kempny and Keith had strong games and Gustafsson had a mostly good game, apart from a few pinches gone awry.  I'm pleased to say that Saad finally had a game in which he wasn't just going up and down the wing and Tommy Wingels played with previously unforeseen confidence. Tomas Jurco won a board battle!  Some good things happened.
Meanwhile...
Dahlstrom and Murphy were making it up as they went, Anisimov was late on every play, Schmaltz's timing was poor the entire game and Glass....oh boy.  While the whole 32-year old rookie perseverance story is fun and all that, there's a reason why Jeff Glass took 13 years to get some NHL games in.  (Just caught Coach Q's brief post-game chat and it sounds like J.F. Berubé will be along, soon enough.)

With The Hawks' playoff chances all but over with, I suspect we'll see more roster shuffling, with guys who are possible trade bait playing north of their normal station, as well as a steady parade to and from Rockford with even more Guys getting a look.  The next six weeks are gonna be strange.

Breakdowns. Breaking Down. Broken: Coyotes 6, Hawks 1

I don't know what's been more difficult, lately, managing to see the games at all or being able to bear what I see when I can watch.  I missed two games entirely thanks to an unexpected TV blackout and another when the guy downstairs knocked the cable out for a day but, by all accounts, those games weren't worth seeing, anyway.
But neither have any Hawks' games the last couple of weeks.

Tonight's effort embodied all of the issues The Hawks have struggled with recently.
Inability to score - I only noticed Kane on one shift before the last three minutes of the game, Toews maybe once or twice, Saad not at all.  Duc started well and then disappeared.  Only DeBrincat was a semi-consistent threat, but....
Lineup Strangeness - DBC skated with Bouma and Wingels.  Bouma was on the first PP unit.  Hartman skated on the second line two games ago but tonight found himself, once again, in the press box.  The third and fourth lines logged more minutes than Duc and Saad.
And let's not forget, tonight there were five players in the lineup who started the season in The AHL, along with another three guys who are marginal NHLers, at best.
But this is what it comes to when the guys that the team are counting on to carry the mail, aren't.
Rubbish Goaltending, full stop.
Careless Errors and Bad Penalties - if Michal Kempny played like Oesterle did tonight Coach Q would have jettisoned Kemps into the sun.  Kampf, Duclair and whoever was the sixth guy over the boards on the too-many-men penalty...all needless infractions.

Burish cracked me up during the second intermission, stating that The Hawks "need to stick with the plan".  What plan is that?  I see no plan, but I see a whole lot of half-hearted execution, underachieving and downright mysterious player deployment, not to mention a single point in the last six games.

Down. Out.

Catching up a bit, here as I managed to miss the Tuesday game entirely due to an unexpected TV blackout.  Speaking of blackouts, though, let's talk about The Blackhawks' offense.

There is none, basically.
During this recent funk, The Hawks have routinely outshot their opponents and have, with a couple games' exception, destroyed their foes in Corsi/possession.  Yet, since their lopsided win against OTT on Jan 9th we have:
A 3 - 7 - 2 record
24 GF vs. 36 GA

During these 12 games The Hawks scored three or more goals only three times and even managed to lose two of those "high-output games", too.

I hear a ton of chatter about how if Corey Crawford had been around things would be different.  Sure, I can point to several games in which, yes, Crow could well have made the difference, maybe even stolen a win here or there.
But they haven't had Crawford to lean on.  They've had to make do with Forsberg and Glass, neither of whom has set the world alight, but that's the reality.  Knowing that each of these Guys will undoubtedly give up one or more ridiculously soft goals, night-in-night-out, the rest of The Hawks should know that they'll have to come up with an extra goal, or two, to even things out.
Instead, Crow's injury coincided exactly with The Hawks' offense going into the pooper - they somehow got worse precisely when they needed to be better.
Forsberg and Glass, despite some frustrating outings, have met or exceeded expectations.  The goal scorers have not.

Last night in the post-game show the talking heads agreed that team defence is the problem.  Horseshit.  They've made their share of defensive errors but scoring more than two goals per game would go a long way toward evening those out those mistakes.
(And while we're at it, can someone please explain to Pat Foley that when your team has the puck 60% or more of the time they're gonna get "out hit".)

The Hawks offense is utterly impotent.  Toews, Anisimov, Hartman and especially Saad have all failed to deliver, and they've received practically no contribution from the back end.  Is it all on these players?  I cannot imagine that to be true.  Toews is getting older and has some hard miles on his clock, but the cases of Saad and Hartman are just baffling.  They've been shuffled up and down the lines (fourth line on Tuesday, in fact) and, in Hartman's case, from a healthy scratch to the top unit and primo power play minutes in consecutive games.
The Hawks' coaching staff are clearly out of ideas.  
I cannot say if the problems are motivational, instructional, strategic or if the players are just bad, but things cannot continue like this.
Change the players or change the coaches.  Something's gotta give.

                                                Bye, bye, playoff chances...

Done, Son: Flames 4, Hawks 3

* That's probably The Hawks' season done & dusted.  Maybe they were out of it earlier, maybe not, but this half-assed effort underlines how far off the plot they are.  If you're only willing, or only able to play 20 - 25 minutes of half decent hockey this is the result you can expect.
* Oesterle, despite his qualities as an okay puck-mover, is a shitty, shitty defender.  He has no business being anywhere near the ice during 3-on-3 overtime 'cos he hasn't got anyone to back him up, which he needs.  A lot.
* Three goals against were caused by turnovers, one of which was inexcusably stupid, and the fourth saw Oesterle get absolutely pantsed.  Too much responsibility is being placed on so-so players and it probably seems necessary to the coaching staff because many of the players who should be carrying a heavier load have been making a mess of things far too often
* Tonight's lineup "featured" four skaters who failed to make The Hawks out of training camp.  This is not to slag on those players; Kampf and Jurco have had good moments and Hinostroza's been a pleasant surprise, but what the hell can one expect if a team that hopes to contend is leaning on Guys that are mostly marginal?  
* BUT the reason those Guys are up from Rockford is because too many players are underachieving mightily.  Toews works hard every game but, especially lately, accomplishes little.  Saad has been a disaster.  Anisimov, albeit recently back from injury, has been out of step.  I'm not sure what to expect from Duclair but it would sure be nice to see him win a puck battle someday or not lose the handle while trying to stickhandle around defenders.  After a promising rookie season Hartman has been a disappointment.  Kane has been good for the most part and Schmaltz & DeBrincat have been outstanding given where they're at in their careers, but how much can one line's worth of players accomplish?
* That so many Hawks are somewhere between struggling and pissing the bed makes me wonder....how much of this is on the players and how much is on the coaching staff.  It just seems so odd, so improbable, that so many players that The Hawks are counting on to produce, cannot.  Is it a lack of skill or a lack of motivation?

If this season ends badly, and all signs point to that being the case, expect a major housecleaning, top-to-bottom.

Backbreaker: Canucks 4, Hawks 2

Chances are good that we'll look back on this game with no small amount of regret.  Elsewhere tonight, The Avalanche, Stars, Predators and The Blues all increased their point totals while The Hawks somehow managed to lose, again, to the feckless Canucks.

How do they do it?  Well, let's start with crap passing.  How many passes were off target, in feet instead of on sticks?  I don't believe Duclair has made more than a handful of clean passes in the O-zone since he arrived in Chicago.  Then there's poor pass reception; too often when a pass was on the tape it was bobbled.  Hinostroza fumbled passes twice when in primo position.  Finally, just poor shooting.  Toews, Wingels and Kampf all missed on point-blank opportunities.

Unbelievably, The Hawks dominated The Canucks in practically every statistical category except, as usual, the only one that really matters.  Granted, three of the four GA were tipped in or deflected in, but when a goof like Brendan Gaunce scores 40% of his career goals against you in a single night and outmuscles and outhustles the guy who is ostensibly your #2 defenceman, trouble is afoot.

Good news?  Sure.  Keith played a great, nervy game while the others stood still, and Saad had two pretty good shifts.  That might not sound too stirring but that's two more effective shifts than he's provided in the last seven or eight games.

Buckle up folks: The Hawks play some good teams in the coming week.