Been Caught Stealing: Hawks 4, Blue Jackets 1

Yes indeed, The Hawks got away with one tonight, with an "effort" that was 80% vintage Corey Crawford and 20% opportunism.  But sure, we'll have that, 'cos it makes up for being on the wrong end of it against The 'Yotes on Thursday, right?
This should be rather concise, as the headlines are quite broad & simple.

It looks like Crow needed all of one warm up game to find his feet.  Great positioning, few juicy rebounds and outstanding puck-tracking made it appear as if he's fully prepared to go as long this year as his teammates allow him to.  Hopefully not a mirage.
The Possession Game was a near mirror image to Thursday's loss in which PHX hardly touched the puck yet walked away with a kinda easy win.  Tonight it was The Hawks who struggled to gain any traction but, given a few plum chances, were able to beat a team that largely outplayed them.  It helped that CBJ's typically all-world netminder Sergei Bobrovsky struggled.
Nick Schmaltz had his grittiest game that I can recall in some time.  Why he even took a few shots!  If Nicky-Boy continues to suggest that he's willing to do something other than defer, defer, defer Kane's going to find the going a little easier in the offensive zone.
Passing was a big problem for The Hawks tonight.  In the skates, out of reach or, most often and most annoying, too soft and easily picked off by alert Blue Jackets.  All but one of the many CBJ solo rushes were made possible by a guy attempting a lateral pass that simply lacked the oomph to make it to its destination.  Could have been bad ice but more likely a collective failure to apply oneself (oneselves?).
Brandon Davidson made his Hawks debut in lieu of B. Manning tonight.  Ehhh...he's slow, he flails a bit and he was demolished in possession but, on the few occasions he found the puck he made calm, safe outlet passes which I see as a slight upgrade from Manning.  Worth another look, I guess.

So, with karmic balance restored, we reset for a back-to-back at home vs. Tampa.  Cam Ward is likely getting the start, so The Hawks' D had best get their house in order.

Jane's Addiction, Been Caught Stealing

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...

Yeah, but...: Hawks 5, Blue Jackets 1

Once all of the inevitable Saad / Panarin chatter died down we saw an entertaining hockey game, got a result and perhaps got a little insight into this year's Hawks team.  Let's go.

Nick Schmaltz was out of the game within two minutes, the victim of a greasy Malachi Crunch between two large CMB defenders, and will not travel to Canada for the games vs. TOR and MTL.  Not to pin too much emphasis on Schmaltz's absence but, after that and the line-shuffling chaos that followed, only the Toews line was a consistent offensive threat.

                                Best play of the game and he didn't even touch the puck.

Yeah, but the Toews line was fantastic and, all slumps, funks and potential injuries aside, could well tear The NHL a new one this season.  Interestingly, I hardly noticed Toews out there: he won the draws, disappeared into the weeds and reappeared later to take a pass or pounce on a Saad or Panik rebound. Saad was great and Panik had one of his finest games as a Hawk, forechecking and getting after loose pucks (leading to his third period goal) choosing his shots wisely (no tries from the goal line in this one) and, best of all, perfectly executing a search & destroy mission on Seth Jones to create the Toews goal.

The shots-against and Corsi numbers were not especially flattering, but that often happens when a team has a three goal lead by the halfway point of the game.  Crawford did make a handful of sparkling saves but all credit to The Hawks' D, as there were precious few second attempts available to the Blue Jackets. Let's not forget that Crow was a hair's breadth from a shutout, if not for an unlucky bobble through Hartman, sliding into the crease.

On The Hawks' D, it was a mostly-good effort. Seabrook was swallowed up a couple of times by swifter CMB forwards (I guess that would be all of them, actually...) and Kempny had another one of those basically solid efforts, tarnished slightly by a WTF moment or two.  I thought the best pairing was Rutta and Forsling, which is as unexpected as that pairing even being a thing.  I barely noticed Connor Murphy which, given how much I noticed him flailing a week ago in the preseason, is probably a Good Thing.

The Line Shuffling and what failed to come from that, as mentioned above, could signal something significant....or nothing at all.  Once Schmaltz went down and the revolving door opened, with Sharp, Anisimov, DeBrincat and Hayden all filling in on Line 2, the only offense The Hawks received beyond Toews' line was on the power play and on an audacious 50-foot backhand saucer pass from Kane to Rutta, in which the other players on the ice were irrelevant.  

So, was this an indication of how brittle The Hawks' lineup is, and that the loss of one top-six forward can throw their entire effort into disarray?  Maybe, but I kind of think Coach Q took the opportunity, what with an early lead and all, to try some stuff, specifically to see how DeBrincat and Hayden performed when elevated up the lineup.  With special-teams duties, Kane double-shifting with Bouma and Wingels and the occasional insertion of Sharp & Anisimov, though, I'm not sure if anything concrete was learned there.  Hayden's barge up the middle in the first period was fun but he didn't do much else, and DeBrincat wasn't particularly noticeable, aside from clanging the post late in the game.  Hartman did not have a super game, either, but was inserted at center for much of the game which is still an unfamiliar position for him at this level.

We are thin at center, and being without two of the usual pivots is going to be tough, but I'm confident that if the game was at any time in question Q would have popped Anisimov into 2C and left him there, with the remains of the bottom-six being rearranged as the situation demanded.

Yeah, but The Hawks beat up on a couple of backup goalies to start the season.  True enough, but they also didn't press all that hard after zooming out to early leads, AND they managed these wins with only two actual centers for the majority of both games.  That feels like a push to me.

Toronto is next and it proves to be interesting game, as The Leafs are essentially Hawks 2.0, seven or eight years along (but with even more dire and immediate salary cap problems in their future). Anyway, The Leafs have also potted fifteen goals in their first two games, but did not encounter much resistance from the feckless Jets goaltending nor the ghost of Hank Lundqvist and the imposter known as Ondrej Pavelec.  The Leafs have also allowed seven goals in those two games, and I'm unconvinced that Freddy Andersen is a bona fide NHL starter, but I guess we'll see about that.  

Expect to see Crow start in Toronto and Anton Forsberg to debut vs. the less-scorey Canadiens on Tuesday.

Stan Wasn't Kidding: Saad Returns, Panarin becomes latest Blue-watchamacallit

A day or two ago, Stan Bowman said something to the tune of "you don't just go out and get another Marian Hossa".  Well, this is about as close to doing that as one can imagine.
No need to drone on about what Saad brings to a team...any team, as he's a known quantity.  His trade to Columbus was easily the most regrettable of the spate of necessary deals made over the last couple of years.
Along with Saad, The Hawks get a potential backup for Corey Crawford, one Anton Forsberg. Forsberg, 24, has had only a handful of NHL starts with Columbus but posted good numbers in the AHL, and will presumably duke it with Jeff Glass (right...) and Lars Johansson for that gig.

And of course, off to CMB is Artemi Panarin.  I wondered if Panarin might be vulnerable after his utterly indifferent effort in The Hawks' rather short playoffs.  One could argue that the bad press Panarin generated after a video from his KHL days surfaced with the young Rus chuckling through some racist remarks might have had some bearing on this...but I doubt it, and the less said about that the better.  More likely, and back to the first sentence in this post, Stan identified what The Hawks need and went out and got it.  Tyler Motte, who began last season with The Hawks but found himself behind Schmaltz, Kero and even Hinostroza before too long, joins Panarin in CMB.

We're not giving up much in the goal-scoring department with this move and, while Saad isn't the passer that Panarin is, he is the more complete player, able to kill penalties and win puck battles rather than skate around them.

And maybe, just maybe, if The Hawks feel he's ready for prime time, you just parachute wee Alex DeBrincat into Panarin's slot and see what happens.

Maybe I'll just hold off on posting again until after the weekend rather than running to the typer every time Stan dials his phone.  Fun times, fun times, indeed.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good: Hawks 3, Blue Jackets 1

Y'know, despite their record-setting season and glowing record & all that, The Columbus Blue Jackets are going to live and die with Sergei Bobrovsky.  They have two very good but very young D-men in Jones and Werenski, as well as a handful of useful forwards but, past that....a pretty average group.  Get to Bob and down they'll go.
And down they went.  CMB launched a furious attack in the third period, in which The Hawks had only one really great shift, but we've heard this song before.  Maybe they shouldn't always circle the wagons in a close game but this tactic so seldom backfires, so there's no impetus to change, is there?
That said, and despite CMB outshooting The Hawks and pulling ahead in the possession department during their full-court-press-third-period, Corey Crawford wasn't called upon to make any highlight reel saves.  Yes, the one goal against looked a little soft from this angle but, without Hjalmarsson having a blowout a few seconds earlier, The Jackets don't even get that chance. Meanwhile, at the other end, Bob made several fantastic, point-blank saves.  This game wasn't as close as it looks on paper.
The Hawks moved the puck exceptionally well in the offensive zone for much of the game, with lines one through three all mounting sustained pressure at various times throughout the first two periods. Only the Kruger-Hossa-Hartman line managed to get something going in the third but, regardless, there was some excellent passing and creativity on display, early on.  
Nik Hjalmarsson sure took a thrashing tonight, getting a stinger off the foot in the second and clipped with a stick in the third.  He Never Goes Down, though, just like that black knight in the Monty Python film....
Meanwhile, what the hell was TVR doing?  How do you lose every puck battle, fail to break up any plays and still remain in the lineup?  
I wasn't crazy about The Hawks trying to set up Kane at all costs while the CMB net was empty, 'cos some of those failed attempts to get him the puck ended up coming right back at them.  Let's not put the horse before the cart there, lads.

Despite my irritation over The Hawks trying too hard to pad Kane's stats, he was the best Hawk out there tonight.  How many times did he hit Panarin and create a shot attempt?  His puck control was crazy good, particularly when he found himself cycling out to the point, expertly corralling uncontrolled pucks and finding a passing lane in an instant.  And this was all with a fourth-liner as his center.

About Last Night: Blue Jackets 3, Hawks 2

Just a few notes of this depressing effort.

Some Things Went Wrong
- The Penalty Kill is shit.  Common sense tells me that this will smooth out soon enough, that this awful run is simply a blip caused by bad bounces, but I expect nothing until I see a) execution on clearing attempts instead of whiffing, flubbing or straight-up passing the puck to the opposition, and b) proper shot-blocks; too many guys are gacking this and then only serve as screens.  
- Kempny looks tired, five game into the season.
- Panarin took three or four shot attempts from basically the same location; one or two were blocked, one or two sailed wide.  Yes, I realize he's had great success launching pucks from the left circle, but so does everybody else.
- Like a poor student cramming for an exam at the last moment, The Hawks mounted their greatest pressure in the final minutes of each period.  Being aware of the seconds ticking down has to make one grip the stick a little tighter, so I wouldn't mind if they don't leave it late tonight.
- Toews played 24+ minutes and Kane played a whopping 28.  On the first night of a back-to-back.  This is what happens when you dress three forward lines.
- His apparent injury notwithstanding, it was terrific to see TVR shambling about and crashing the (Hawks') net.  The fact that Coach Q felt comfortable, nay - determined, dressing him as a 7th D at the expense of a semi-useful fourth forward line suggests that Q hasn't learned a damn thing where TVR is concerned.
- Bobrovsky was fine but I think the media gushing about him stealing a win is overstating matters.  The Hawks were simply not as precise as they need to be, missed many shot attempts and, you may not have heard this yet, the penalty kill is shit.

Rays of Hope
- That was easily Soupy's best game this season.
- To quote Q, TVR "Could be out 'a bit'".  That may sound harsh but I have better things to do than watch this clod try to learn hockey on the fly.
- The Maple Leafs are just now twigging to the fact that Freddy Andersen is not what they thought;  what looks pretty good behind Anaheim's decent defence is revealed to be somewhere between passable and dogshit behind Toronto's not-there-yet group.
- We get to watch the NHL's goal leaders in a head-to-head duel!

                                My name is Roman.  I am a player in the NHL.

Could'a Been Two

Hawks 2, Blue Jackets 3 in Shootout.

* Looking at the shot count for this game the assumption might be that Bobrovsky stole the game for Columbus, but he hardly looked bothered.  Were the Hawks' chances really not that great or does Bob just make it look sooooo easy?
* How is it that, on Tuesday, Rundblad was good enough to play 16+ minutes, yet he`s a scratch tonight in favour of the guy who played ~10 minutes on Tuesday and 11 minutes tonight?
* What was Rozsival doing on the ice in the final 40 seconds of overtime?
* I had a feeling we would see Morin in the shootout, not in the first three but soon after if it went that far.  He was called in the fifth round and scored, of course.  Enjoy the moment, J-Mo, but don't ever be doing that again.
* From now on, Versteeg should be banished to the dressing room as soon as shootout begins.  His shootout "attempt" was the kind of shot you take to warm up your goalie.
* Bickell wasn't much better, was he?