Yes, By All Means!

Having been decidedly unspectacular for the last week and inconsistent at best since December, The Hawks find themselves in need of a jolt, a spark, something...anything to shake them into consciousness. During the current home stand they've managed to get by, which is far less than they need to do if they give a crap about catching either STL or NASH.  Okay, we all know they won't catch those teams, not at this rate, but an effort might be nice.  I'm not sure any of The Hawks played well today.  Some guys weren't awful, but a good many of them sure were.  The usual problems were still problems today, and Hossa, Saad and Keith kinda jumped on that underachiever's bandwagon.  It was just a bad, bad effort against a Bruins team that wasn't even that good, themselves.

But By All Means, scratch Ben Smith in favour of Carcillo, because he accomplished so much in his six minutes today.  We've already learned how well the bottom six gel when they have to play in different combos ALL DAY because Car Bomb can only be trusted to 6 minutes of "work".  Remember last week when that happened?  It was awesome!

But By All Means,  persevere with Rozsival, who was simply terrific today, -3 and caught standing still, waving his stick at Bruins players about to score.

By All Means banish Sharp to the bottom six, as well.  I cannot even say "third line" or "fourth line" or even any particular center because he was alongside different guys for almost every shift.  To succeed, Sharp needs to play with certain types of players; when he is matched with those players he excels and to do anything but that is a waste of a valuable asset.  Is Coach Q trying to punish Sharp for being a highly effective if slightly one-dimensional player?  I fully expect Sharpie to be traded in the next week - if Q won't use him properly GM Stan Bowman may as well trade him, because it's clear that Bowman has no control over any decisions Quenneville makes.  In fact, Q's roster choices make me wonder if he's being purposefully defiant.

And By All Means do this:
Blackhawks Make Roster Changes
Because, yeah, Raanta and Hartman are the problems.  First:
"Quenneville said the demotions of Hartman and Raanta were related to performance, along with giving Darling another look." 
And:

"Raanta went 7-4-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average and .936 save percentage in 14 games for the Blackhawks, including a relief appearance Sunday in which he allowed two goals on 16 shots."
Sure, let's give Darling another go - not much harm in that, but to suggest that Raanta is being demoted because of performance is ridiculous.  By that token Rozsival and Shaw should be playing for a team on the moon, or something.
But what the hell has Nordstrom accomplished in the 20 or so games he's played? Has he outplayed Teravainen?  Is he a better choice than Regin, even?  This is not rhetoric...I really want to know.


Can a team send their coach to the minors?  I'm asking for a friend...