Such A Shame: Oilers 2, Hawks 1 (OT)

Tough one, tonight.  Once we'd reached The Coin Toss Round I felt that The Hawks were in with a shout given that they'd largely dominated The Oilers in the third period and had some wind in their sails.  However, one ill-timed and extremely rare gaffe by Patrick Kane spelled doom in the end.

Matchups Were Vital and, with last change, The Hawks did a good job with this.  When Coach Q was able to get Toews' line out vs. McDavid & Friends The Hawks typically had their measure.  Meanwhile, the Anisimov - Kane - Saad trio were able to neutralize Draisaitl's line for much of the game simply by not letting them touch the puck.  Where things broke down badly was when Kruger's line was opposite McDavid and were trounced soundly.  It wasn't even close.  Even after Q abandoned that idea and went to a Toews vs. McDavid tactic Kruger's line was overmatched even by EDM's third and fourth units.  This was largely down to one guy: Andreas Martinsen, he of the 0.00 Corsi rating on the night.  I know that Q loves to have a Guy around that can intimidate a bit and crush the odd open-ice hit, but Martinsen is simply too poor a skater to play that role, unable to catch anyone to actually lay that inspiring hit.  I don't know what Q's beef is with John Hayden, 'cos it seems to me that he could ably fill that role with his vastly superior skating, and he's at least able to hang onto the puck, somewhat.
The Duelling Cams was a fun sideshow, what with Cam Talbot turning in a near-perfect performance for EDM while, at the other end, our own Cam Ward played his best game so far as a Hawk.  Wardo was blameless on both Oilers goals, really.
Brandon Saad - back to earth?  The effort was certainly there but the results were not, with a couple of good looks fired wide or right into Talbot's center-mass.  Of course I have no idea why this is happening but I wonder....what if Saad were to take an extra fraction of a second to aim his shots?  Maybe he's been snakebitten so long that he's resigned himself to just bashing away and chucking, hoping for the best.
Kaner's Mistake.  Hard to say if he topped the puck while trying to hit Gustafsson, creeping in from the point, or if he just failed to put enough gas on it.  Once Draisaitl had the puck, and with Gus already moving north and suddenly needing to head south, a quality chance for The Oilers was inevitable.  If Kane had made the pass The Hawks would have had an equally good look, with Gus having a fairly clear shot on Talbot, or maybe a sneaky shot-pass to Saad to the right side of the EDM net. Well, errors like that are about as rare as Pope shit where Kane is concerned, which is remarkable considering the number of high-danger and low-percentage plays he successfully executes.  This is just gonna happen once in a long while.

Next: the meatgrinder that is the Western Canada swing, with three games in four nights including a rematch with The Oilers.  Worse even, those games are on late, so look for my wise observations that are so vital to your lives on the following day.  I needs my sleep.

Talk Talk - Such A Shame

Repeating Myself: Oilers 2, Hawks 1

I really didn't feel much like typing this, not entirely because The Hawks lost, but as much because I'll be mentioning a lot of the same stuff as in the last post or two, which probably shouldn't be happening after fewer than ten games.  I'm also irritated that, even with the departure of TVR to I-don't-care-where, I again find myself droning on about one particular player. If you think reading the same complaints about the same guy over & over is tiresome well, try writing them.  Let's see if I can muster up any enthusiasm for some bits.

* Shots.  I had no idea that EDM had outshot The Hawks until long after the game, 'cos it looked to me as if The Hawks carried the play for the most part.  The possession stats kinda bear that out, as The Hawks were slightly better there...it was all those blocked shots and shots that missed the net, I guess, that has The Hawks' shot total so low.  That, to me, is a blip, but with a qualification.
* Shot Selection and puck patience were problems in this match.  A lot of Hawks were chucking, and that's mostly okay, but there wasn't a lot of attention paid to what their linemates were up to when they were shooting with such abandon.  Wait a fraction of a second before shooting and maybe your winger is there for a rebound.  Or how about not shooting at all if there are five players standing between you and the net?  I think if they had been a little more choosy there would have been some higher quality chances.
* The Jam was attempted 261 times and failed every time.  Get it right or just stop.
* Oesterle was in for Kempny and he was okay.  He looked slower when facing an actual NHL team and looked a little lightweight in board battles, but I like that he's got some nerve - dude carries on like he's Paul Coffey.
* Forsberg was fine except that he made poor decisions when handling the puck. After only two starts who knows if this is an actual weakness or just a bad night in that regard.  If the former, he'll need some coaching on what to do as much how to do it.
Okay, here's the part I hate.
* Seabrook was horrible, again. I get that Connor McDavid is good for one or more preternatural plays each game, and the pass through The Hawks' crease to Maroon for their first goal was just that but, holy shit, Maroon was Seabrook's guy.  He had one job, but chose to gawk at McDavid instead.
Yeah, he's getting older and we all know, and even expect, that he's getting slower, but what bugs me is that he's getting dumber, too.  Other old dudes like Hainsey, Chara and Orpik have also lost a step (or the entire gearbox in Orpik's case) but they've managed to keep their careers going by adjusting how they play so that they don't have to rely on speed to get by.  Seabs hasn't done that and, until he adopts a more cautious approach, he's gonna be gasping to keep up opposing forwards who just beat him and are skating off into the sunset.
And why does his speed drop-off have to be coupled with bad decisions?  I just don't get that.
Rutta took a lot of shifts with Keith after the halfway point of the game last night so that's some indication that Coach Q isn't entirely opposed to Seabrook sliding down the order, as he should.  Seabs has been a great Blackhawk and a clutch guy so many times, but I doubt he has that in him any longer, and I'm afraid the time to try to trade him has come.  Yeah, he has a no movement clause, so there's that hurdle, but Stan Bowman had better get cracking before the gap between Seab's reputation and his capability becomes so large that they won't get anything in return for him.

Ah well, The Hawks missed the net a lot, hit a few goalposts and got schooled a couple of times by the best player in the world .  Take the point and on to the next...

That Will Do, Pig: Hawks 5, Oilers 1

Took my time getting to this since I figured I have all week to do it, what with The Hawks about to take their league-mandated five days off, soon to be known as the "Momentum Destroyer".  Not that the extra time I have to spend on this will make my thoughts any more coherent or anything...
In short, The Hawks really didn't have to strain themselves a whole lot in order to bury The Oilers because:
a) The Oilers' defence is kind of bad.  
b) Their bottom-six may potentially, one day, be okay, but they're not there yet.
c) This was Edmonton's first game after their Momentum Destroyer week (See! It's already a thing!)
d) Even with the last change, Oilers coach Todd McLellan chose to pit his top line, more often than not, against the Anisimov or Toews lines, rather than letting them prey on The Hawks' bottom-six.  I recall a playoff series against The Sharks, when McLellan worked there, in which he refused to do any line matching and, if memory serves, The Hawks swept 'em in four (don't quote me on that and I'm too effing lazy to look it up).  I dunno if he's arrogant, stubborn or really believes this kind of deployment is a good idea but, with a forward corps as thin as Edmonton's, he needs to get better value from McDavid & Co. than this particular strategy affords.  Bitch all you want about Coach Q and his infamous Line Blender, but at least he's responding when Plan A fails to work.  I'm shocked that McLellan's apparent rigidity hasn't resulted in unemployment.

At the other end of the pitch, The Hawks did just enough to bury Edmonton and not a bit more than that.  Mistakes were made, Scott Darling got pretty lucky with some missed opportunities by The Oilers and he didn't pay the piper for any of the numerous juicy rebounds he kicked out.  The Oilers simply don't have enough guys who are able to capitalize on those chances.  The Hawks were crushed in the possession dept., particularly in the third period but, by then, The Hawks had circled the wagons and were content to let The Oilers come at them, hoping to keep their shooters on the periphery and cover the forwards barging toward the net in search of a pass or a rebound.  For all the shots The Oilers took in the third frame their best chances came earlier in the game.

Aaaand a few Bits:
I slated Schmaltz for being defensively clueless and then he turns around and suddenly has this good stick on the forecheck.  Hey, I don't mind looking like an idiot (ask anyone) if I get what I want.
Forsling was in for Kempny and had a decent game, highlighted by a sequence in which he was first pantsed by Eberle (I think) but spun around and made the check on the second attempt.  Eberle overplayed it a bit but I still liked Goose's refusal to quit on the play.
After a fine game on Friday Anisimov was kind of stumbling in this one but, again, his line took a lot of shifts against two of the NHLs best. And also Patrick Maroon.
Kruger took no faceoffs, according to what little I can see on NHL.com's trash heap of a website.  If he's nursing a hand or wrist injury the winter break came at just the right time.

Because any time A Guy dressed up in top-six clothing nails a three-point night eight out of ten Stormares agree IS GOOD.  Little Ricky Panik is the man of the match.

We'll reconvene here in about a week, unless I feel a need to mock the hockey media in the interim, and we'll see if The Hawks come out of their days off with their motors running or not.

World Cup of Hilarity

Hockey and sports news websites seemed to have ramped up the chatter today regarding the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.  While the handful of articles I sampled this morning were largely informational, speaking of the various teams that will participate and the appointment of Peter Chiarelli and Stan Bowman as managers of Team North America, TSN was quick out of the gate with what appears to be the first of approximately 9,826,371 internet articles projecting the lineups of the various teams.  The article itself is pretty straightforward and I'm not going to pay too much attention to their predictions until at least the 9 millionth article is posted but, oh man, the comments section below the article is chock-full of comedy gold.

This lad doesn't seem to realize that Team Canada and Team USA players will all be age 24+, as Team North America has exclusive dibs on those 18-23 year-old players.
It will be interesting to see if McDavid can play himself onto this team.And at whose expense.  My guess would be Duchene or O'Reilly.

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to what Team North America is for.  Will there be Mexicans?
Where's McDavid?
Conner will play his way onto this team and replace Taylor Hall
Now, I wonder which one of these centers Sean Monahan is supposed to supplant? Ha ha ha
Maybe they're in Mexico, having fake I.Ds made so they can play for Team Canada?

You may be surprised to learn that this poster has a Leafs logo on his avatar-thingy.
I'm really surprised that Dion Phaneuf and Bernier are not on this projected roster.  There is no doubt in my mind that they should be on Team Canada.  Why?  Phaneuf is an excellent D-man, a bonifide leader and an excellent hitter.  And as for Bernier, he's a Vezina Calibre Goalie.
One would expect a presumed Leafs fan has watched a game or two the last few seasons, as Phaneuf successfully led Toronto to a "bonifide" (sic) 15th-place last year.  As for Bernier, I intend to refer to him exclusively as VCG from here on.

Ryan orally plays for team BUG??
I don't even know how to respond to this.
Ummm, I think Ryan O'Reilly plays for Buffalo, not Bulgaria.
Ah, there we go, at least partly.  I'm still concerned about anyone except horn players that are playing "orally".

At least these guys were trying to be funny.
NDP candidate in Montcalm riding is in favour of Quebec national teams.  Does the NDP and Tom Mulcair endorse this position?
No Mike Richards?  The nerve of Team Canada not wanting Mike Richards on their team!
I love it when my sarcasm is served with a dash of current events.
m really surprised that Dion Phaneuf and Bernier are not on this projected roster. There is no doubt in my mind that they should be on Team Canada. Why ? Dion Phaneuf is an excellent D-man , a bonifide leader and an excellent hitter. And as for Bernier , he's a Vezina Calibre Goalie.


Where's McDavid?

It will be interesting to see if McDavid can play himself onto this team. And at whose expense. My guess would be Duchene or O'Reilly.

It will be interesting to see if McDavid can play himself onto this team. And at whose expense. My guess would be Duchene or O'Reilly.

It will be interesting to see if McDavid can play himself onto this team. And at whose expense. My guess would be Duchene or O'Reilly.

It will be interesting to see if McDavid can play himself onto this team. And at whose expense. My guess would be Duchene or O'Reilly.

54 minutes ago

rye'n...

if they weren't doing this ridiculous young guns thing mcdavid would be on this team.