Catching Up and Feasting in The East: Hawks 5, Hurricanes 2 and Monday's Big Boy

First, that was an easy two points with Cam Ward playing like that.  I have little doubt that The Hawks could have dug deeper if need be, but there was no need.

Second, those were some unorthodox and somewhat unexpected line combos.  Not that they were necessarily bad, but I sure didn't expect to see Saad "drop" a line, for example.

Third, Andrew Desjardins:  I dunno, is this an upgrade anywhere?  Is this Carcillo 2.0?  I guess we'll have to see but it seems like a nothing deal to me.  OF COURSE Smith broke his 100-game scoring drought as soon as he arrived in San Jose.  All that aside, Nordstrom wasn't bad at all in Smith's former role.

I'm tired so bla bla, three points, leading from the front and if it weren't for Toews I'd have to bestow this thing on Rozsival.

                   I will juggle one or more pucks to prevent Rozsy from wearing the Big Boy Belt.

More, Please: Hawks 3, Panthers 0 and Thursday's Big Boy

Okay, let's not get too excited...it was just The Panthers again.  But, hey, this time The Hawks kept the pressure on and didn't let the 'Cats get back into it during the third period.  If this was a television news program tonight's lead story would have to be...
ROZSIVAL SCRATCHED - HAWKS DEFENCE NOT TERRIBLE.

- Sorry to dump on the old boy but his ship has sailed.  Even with Cumiskey, Rundblad and Erixon (!) in the lineup things looked (mostly) under control.  Cumiskey had one or two adventure time moments but managed to skate his way out of trouble, Erixon had a couple of nervous shifts but was otherwise fine and Rundy found himself chasing a faster guy driving toward the net...and got his stick in there to break the play.  There is nothing wrong with any of that.
- Teuvo's goal made me feel, just for a few seconds, that Ghost of Patrick Kane had smiled down upon him and It Was Good.  Then I remembered that Kane isn't dead and resumed marveling over Teuvo's no-look shot to open the scoring.
- Speaking of, that Teravainen - Bickell - Shaw line wasn't terrible.  Their best stuff was in the first period but even their "poor" shifts were hardly disastrous, just ineffective, really.  See what happens when Shaw gets to play on the wing - 8 hits, for what that's worth, and more chaos than his caused at center in any game this season.
- I was certain that Smith and/or Nordstrom would pot one tonight.  Both wingers had several excellent shifts with Nordstrom, particularly, getting some creative passes done.  Sadly, his linemates lacked the finish to do much with these gems, but that's life on the checking line, mate.
- Hossa was a bull tonight and it pleased me to no end that he picked a couple of helpies.  Hoss seemed to be fighting the puck a little bit but, holy smokes, he was determined.

So, yeah, More of All This, please.

Yeah, Crow got the shutout and those first-liners each had two points, but this kid's goal earned him the right to eschew suspenders forever.  Being a Finn, you just know he owns suspenders.

                                                    Sillä housuni, you know...?

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...

File Under "Incomplete": Hawks 3, Devils 1 and Friday's Big Boy

Straight away, any compliments or encouraging things I might type tonight must be tempered by the fact that The Hawks were playing the dismal Devils.  Anything less than a win tonight would have been unacceptable yet, for two periods, The Hawks took their chances with losing to these oldtimers.

Good
- Ryan Hartman was not terrible.  I expect that his first-shift crushing check on Zubrus may well define whatever career he makes for himself, but he clearly has a good motor and the behind-the-net pass to Bickell was as good a set up as any tonight.  If Hartman shows any indication that he has NHL-quality hands AND he refrains from taking dumb penalties I think we may assume that Andrew Shaw will be dispatched in due time.
- Corey Crawford was solid again and, thankfully, was rewarded with a win.
- Lighter minutes for Duncan Keith for a second straight game.  It's impossible to tell if this is an effort to go easy on the lad or if Quenneville has a beef with Keith.  


Bad
-  Playing Carcillo in lieu of Smith.  What did Carcillo accomplish in his 4:03 ice time?  What did Q think Carcillo would accomplish?  By all means "send a message" if you feel you must, but it's unclear what message this maneuver conveys.
- Only 13 minutes for Sharp, partly because of, I think, the bottom six being reduced to five for most of the game.  Some of those line combos were probably pulled out of a hat.
- Marcus Kruger didn't look good at all, wandering, hesitant and not moving his feet like he usually does.

Ehhhhh
- Yeah, Seabrook had two assists (both secondary, mind) but it seemed to me that after a lot of Devils' chances I saw 7 drifting into view, not in position or being useful in any way.
- Saad was driving hard enough tonight but, boy, he and the puck were not on good terms.
- Nothing apropos of this game, but if Q isn't going to play Teuvo Teravainen the best place for him is Rockford, where he'll at least get minutes on a top line and in all situations.
- Kyle Cumiskey was not great but not a nightmare, either.

                                            Oh, come on, who else could it be?

                                              53% the last four games, bitches.

 

And the Winner is...

....Adam Clendenning.  Although it took a bit of effort and a fair amount of salary-cap manipulation before it got done.
This comes as a bit of a surprise to most observers, as the odds-on favourite to replace the injured Trevor Van Riemsdyk (out 2-3 months, LBI) seemed to be Klas Dahlbeck.  While Dahlbeck has been described as the steadiest of the defence group in Rockford, Clendenning has certainly waited around long enough to get his NHL looks.
Promoting Clendenning may fill a rather large gap in The Hawks' lineup, as well, since Michal Rozsival has been working on the second power play unit.  Say that out loud.  Anyway, Clendenning is a prototypical offensive defenceman and is quite accustomed to quarterbacking a power play and should see some PP time straight away on the upcoming western road trip.  I would expect to see Clendenning debut on Saturday or Sunday; Saturday if Rozsival is a disaster on Thursday, Sunday otherwise.
With TVR being unavailable for 2-3 months, though, The Hawks will have the opportunity to give their other defence prospects a spin and I fully expect to see Stephen Johns and Klas Dahlbeck play some games before the New Year.  Once Sharp returns from his own injury, still as long as week or two from now, The Hawks' first-unit PP guy will be back and, unless Clendenning sets the world on fire in the interim, that would be the time to give Johns and Dahlbeck their respective shots.

Joakim Nordstrom will join The Hawks on the road trip, as well, presumably alternating with Jeremy Morin alongside Kruger and Smith.

Oh, dear: Stan Bowman loses his mind, Leddy traded, Carcillo signed.

The facts are thus:
- Nick Leddy (and minor-league goaltender Kent Simpson) were traded to The Islanders for three prospects not even worth mentioning at this time.
- On the strength of one pre-season game in which he was punched out by Tanner Glass, Daniel Carcillo has been signed to a one-year contract.

Regarding Leddy, sure, something had to give, it just seems weird that it was Leddy to be sent packing and not Johnny Oduya.  This does solve the Cap Crisis but still only leaves $500K cap space.  Perhaps there were no takers for Oduya, or maybe Coach Quenneville made it clear he wanted Oduya to remain; Q had not shown much confidence in Leddy during the last two playoff runs and there certainly some merit in keeping the Oduya/Hjalmarsson pair intact, if only to soak up the hardest minutes and therefore allow Duncan Keith to worry about other things.  I had kind of hoped that Leddy would someday be paired up with Hjalmarsson, which would have allowed Leddy a little more rope to move the puck and, maybe, just maybe, some of Hjalmarsson's good habits would rub off on Leddy.  All academic now, I'm afraid.
Of immediate concern is what now becomes of the third defense pairing?  This move practically forces The Hawks to carry eight defenseman; does anyone think that Michal Rozsival is up to playing any more than 50 games? Three candidates remain in camp; Kyle Cumiskey, David Rundblad and Trevor Van Riemsdyk.  TVR has been, apparently, the surprise of training camp, and that he's still around whilst the likes of Clendenning, Dahlbeck and Johns have been reassigned to Rockford speaks volumes.  Probably.  It appears that GM Stan Bowman is convinced that Rundblad is a sure thing, while Cumiskey is a player known to Coach Q from their days in Colorado.  As good as he has reportedly been, TVR may well be on the outside looking in.  Any way it shakes out (and I picture the coaching staff having a hotel room-key raffle to decide which two suckers will make up the third pairing) the opening night third pairing will be a nightmare.  On the road, in Dallas, The Stars have last change and will have their way with whoever draws this assignment.
Until Rundblad or TVR (the Cumiskey experiment will fail, one hopes) emerges as the go-to guy and the other adopts the role of propping up Rozsie The Hawks are committed to an eight-man rotation. (EDIT: what the hell was I thinking about eight defensemen?  That'll teach me to write these when I'm tired and/or drunk.  Seven.  Seven defensemen.)

As for Carcillo...how stupid is this?  I'm not prepared to condemn Brandon Mashinter as he's done nothing to disgrace himself, yet, and I cannot hold him responsible for sucking up a roster spot, but I was prepared for him to get a chance to fail, at least.  Parachuting Carcillo in, ostensibly to fill the role Mashinter had presumably squared away makes absolutely no sense to me.  If one takes Mashinter and Carcillo out of the equation, and The Hawks instead ice the best lineup hey have available, they would easily have the best fourth line in the entire NHL.  Marcus Kruger and Ben Smith are givens, of course, and whether they're trotted out with Jeremy Morin or Peter Regin it's an undeniable winning combination.  Morin has above average hands and an almost reckless willingness toward physical play, while Regin lacks the scoring touch that Morin possesses he does have excellent defensive instincts and never, ever takes a shift off.  Inserting slow, out-of-position and on his way to the penalty box Carcillo is a colossal step backward.
Worst of all, they have to pay this idiot.  Details of Carcillo's contract have not yet been revealed, but chances are good that he'll earn enough to still push The Hawks above the salary cap.  Is another move necessary?  Will Morin and/or Regin be criminally assigned to Rockford?
However it shakes out, GM Stan Bowman had the solution to his cap issues within his grasp, and then let it slip away.  One can only hope there's a Part II to this misadventure.

Friday's Big Boy

Is it just me or has this guy been The Big Boy about a hundred times?

Okay, probably just me, but after scoring the game-winning goal with 3.7 sec. remaining, it HAS to be Ben Smith.

                                   
                                      Keep your stick low, good things will happen.

Big Boy: A Day Late (but that's how it goes)

Despite losing Patrick Kane in the first period The Hawks dominated the accursed Blues in every way.

With a goal and a full sixty-minute effort, Wednesday's Big Boy is Ben Smith.

                             Time to pull slack with Saad & Kane on the disabled list.