Thought we had a good one going, for 35 minutes anyway. Even then I was confident that The Hawks would regroup after those few rough minutes at the end of the second period and resume having their way with The Canucks. Alas, The Canucks stormed the gates right off the trot in the third, while The Hawks failed to respond.
These west coasties always have me a day late so let's not muck about.
No Kane looked like No Problem for awhile. Kunitz was an odd choice to fill 88's boots but Saad was so good that it could have been anyone on the left wing. Saad was a beast all evening with a goal, a shot off the post and an optimistic kick-in that was called back. All his game seems to lack, when he's switched on like this, is precision - he could stand to be slightly more patient and choose his shot locations more carefully rather than just shotgunning the puck.
The Hawks Third Line was a nightmare. Schmaltz's errant pass led directly to VAN's first goal, annoyingly scored by a guy who, had he not stumbled onto that interception, would have been hollered at for lazy-dogging it back to The Canuck's zone. Fortin did little more than chug up and down the wing, rarely involved, probably just hoping for a long pass and a scoring chance. I didn't mind Johnson on the PP, actually. He'd got some poise and he appears to know what to do and where to do it, even if he lacks any finish (which is still left to be seen).
Brandon Manning: I'll partially violate my standing order to not discuss this lump unless he's anything except bad, but only because he was well beyond merely bad last night. As usual, his first pass was rotten all night and, on Virtanen's second goal, he was absolutely pantsed by Granlund. Why was he standing still at his own blue line with three Canucks entering The Hawks' zone? Tipping Roussel's shot past Crawford was just the icing on Manning's shit cake. He might have gotten away with fucking up the Granlund thing had Davidson not been paralyzed by indecision. Maybe if Davidson had committed to Virtanen he could have closed the gap and prevented the shot, or maybe the shooter was always gonna be out of reach. We'll never know.
Crawford had a so-so game, mighty in many ways but three of the four VAN goals were nothing special. That's partly on the guys in front of him, allowing so many mano-a-mano chances, but Crow did lose all of those duels.
DeBrincat wasn't super sharp, either, whiffing on passes and having the puck bounce off his stick a bit. He's going to have off nights like anybody else but his timing kinda sucked, what with Kane being ill and half of his teammates not showing up for the third period.
Dominik Kahun is in a precarious spot right now. That line has been great, generally, but his contributions have been infrequent. If that trio fails to get going in EDM and CAL I expect Kahun to find himself in the bottom six next week.
Trooper - 3 Dressed Up as A 9
Almost entirely disappointing, that one, especially being that this flat effort took place in Garbagetown, whose inbred denizens will get a shit-ton of mileage out of their massive victory. Hell, they'll probably hang a banner or some damn thing.
Only Patrick Kane had a truly good game. Even Anisimov, with three points on the night, bookended his great middle part of the game with some pretty shoddy passing and failing to transition to defence in time. Kahun and DeBrincat both played lazy games. Jokiharju was decent, overall, but made a bad/weird choice abandoning O'Reilly on that first goal. Kunitz was a disaster. Keith had one of those nights when the simplest pass was beyond his capacity and his decision to stand idly by while Maroon screened Crawford, unopposed, was a poor choice. And so on...
Crawford was not sharp, even if a couple of The Blues' goals were simple tap-ins, or made possible by defensive shortcomings in front of him. He got himself ridiculously out of position before Bozak scored, but we'll spread the blame a bit by mentioning that a) that goal was moments after The Hawks committed an unforced icing and b) Manning was, as usual, being worthless.
I saw Rutta commit one obvious giveaway but was there more than that? Is that why he was benched for half of the game? If so, I'd be happy to gin up a lowlights tape of Manning, one that will make Coach Q never stop vomiting.
Passing Was Poor in general. Breakouts were not crisp and O-zone passes were largely off target. Even Gustafsson, who has been on-point nearly all the time thus far, was passing behind guys and not putting enough muscle on his passes. They can be better, they just chose not to, tonight.
I'm Still Not Sure What Luke Johnson does, exactly, but he somehow reeled off 72% Corsi tonight, so I guess he did it properly, whatever "it" is.
Edmonton tomorrow, with The Oilers emboldened after defeating The first-place Predators earlier today. With last change, I wonder who Q will match up against McDavid. Can he afford to "waste" Toews to try to cover McD? What about Draisaitl's line, then? Some tough decisions are in order and, no matter what direction The Hawks choose, it's likely going to come down to them needed Kane & Co. to score a few.
Joe Jackson: You Can't Get What You Want (Til' You Know What You Want)
That's more like it.
It was "only" two goals and one was an empty-netter but the potential effect Brandon Saad's busting out could well be huge. The expected joy and relief of having finally scored was plainly evident but, almost as good, Saad played with fury, purpose and swagger from there on. It's not as if he'd been playing so badly up until last night but, when that first goal went in, it's like a switch was flipped.
I'd thought he was lost, perhaps he is found.
Yes, there's more
I don't know what to do about Anisimov. It felt like he was dragging Kane & Saad down a bit yet, he's pretty good in front of the net, being as he's large and has okay hands. Is it worth putting up with his lack of speed and his defensive indifference for awhile to see what these three can accomplish?
Toews and Gustafsson had fantastic games apart from one gacked play....and it was the same play for both of them and Toews very nearly undid his end of the mistake, barely failing to lift Rakell's stick as they bore down on Crawford. Gus has been a revelation, having upped every aspect of his game to unforeseen levels. Two months ago I'd written that the roster could only support either Gustafsson or Forsling and not both and, at this point, Forsling will be lucky if Stan Bowman doesn't delete him from his contacts list. Gus could still use a bit of improvement defensively but he is already ridiculously better than he'd been last year.
Marcus Kruger - penalty minute leader. Okay, that has to stop.
Luke Johnson - does anyone know what he does? Schmaltz and Fortin had a few interesting moments last night but Johnson was nowhere around. Coach Q seems really enthusiastic about Johnson so maybe there's something there and I just haven't spotted it yet. As it is, he appears to be a downgrade from super-steady David Kampf.
Corey Crawford is The Man.
That is all.
NEXT: The Rangers on Thursday. Get ready for The Attack of The Killer Zees....or possibly Zeds, with Zuccarello and Zibanejad leading "the charge" in the midst of an icky rebuild.
Left Boy The Return of...
WRONG: Yesterday I supposed that The Hawks may have narrowed down the number of guys they're seriously looking at, only for them to ice a lineup made up almost entirely of Guys. Who are these Guys? Why are there so many Guys?
WRONG: Last week I wondered if Luke Johnson was a Real Thing. Based on his invisible man act tonight, in which he was somehow -2, I would say he is not. At least not yet.
WRONG: TVR. -3, flubbing passes, wandering around like a lost child. Please make it stop.
GOOD STUFF: Ville Pokka looks like he knows what he's doing. He never appears rushed, makes a nice first pass and protects the puck reasonably well. The timing is all wrong for him, though, with TVR and Rozsie soaking up two roster spots, as well as Kempny looking likely to make the team and Forsling making a case for a longer look.
Brandon Mashinter showed off that suddenly-there speed tonight with a dash to the net and a breakaway goal. Luckily, it was a straight line to the net, but good for him, anyway.
All in all, The Hawks looked like a team composed of Guys, most of whom will be forgotten in a week or two. With only four kinda regular players in the lineup, this is what you get.
Trouba Requests Trade From Jets
(http://www.tsn.ca/agent-trouba-requests-trade-from-jets-1.573171)
Okay, here's where Stan Bowman has a chance to make up for some things by doing one simple thing that would satisfy many needs:
Van Riemsdyk for Trouba. Or, at least, a deal that involves those two players and possibly some "guys".
The Hawks get Trouba, a young, actually versatile D-man. Win.
The Hawks jettison the not-at-all-versatile TVR. Win!
Stan puts one over on The Jets' "braintrust" (I had to pause while typing that because I was laughing so hard my laptop fell on the floor) which isn't so much a win as just amusing as hell.
Not that The Hawks could pay Trouba but, y'know, a girl can dream.
TSN is Nearly Devoid of Ideas or Talent
This is not news. Expect this to persevere as TSN will continue to broadcast only regional games for teams that don't matter, and the gents who shoulda woulda been working game broadcasts will instead attempt to write about hockey, hockey related stuff...and things.
There are a couple of writers/presenters at TSN who craft a good article and another fella or two who produce informative but not insightful reports. And then there's Maude.
Jeff O'Neill is described as an "analyst". Okay. Has there been an analysis of how it is that Mr. O'Neill appears to be dumber, fatter and somehow less interesting each time he appears on-air?
Gary Lawless, banished to WPG to cover The Jets, so the low man on the TSN totem pole, we must presume. Mr. Lawless reliably points out the obvious in long-winded articles that state and then re-state stuff we already know, which makes me wonder if he won his job in a raffle, or something along those lines. Almost makes me wish I had purchased a ticket for that draw but, let's face it, if I had to live in Winnipeg I'd never stop vomiting.
Anyway, big G.L. did write a couple of interesting paragraphs this week. Here's a taste:
If Russia fails to win the World Cup, marking an 11th straight best-on-best (or almost best-on-best) tournament without a championship, Russia has to do something bold – hire a Canadian to coach the team.
Hey, now that's actually a topic worthy of discussion, but maybe not on a day when said Russian team had an opportunity to eliminate Canada from the World Cup of Hockey. Of course they didn't but, sweet jeebus, that's the kind of piece you run after the team in question loses.
Bob McKenzie: A-hah-hah-hah-hah-haaaaah. This dude has been around so long that one must expect that he has myriad reliable contacts and sources throughout the NHL...yet he continues to talk almost exclusively out of his ass. How is this even possible?
Finally, a general wish / request: until The Maple Leafs are relevant again, if that ever occurs, ease up on the relentless barrage of worthless articles concerning said garbage fire of a franchise. Where else does a last-place team attract so much attention? Today's gem was a bit discussing Brandon Prust's desire to prove he's "still got it." Still got what, no business being in The NHL? If so, yes, he's still got that. Not to pick on B. Prust (but yes, totally picking on Prust), is it just not entirely ridiculous to spend so much effort covering something that does not matter one iota?
Hey, if The Leafs ever recover from being The Leafs, go nuts...write about 'em all day. Until then, though, I wish TSN would aim higher.
World Cup of Hockey Update
I still don't care.
Hawks Training Cup Update
I know only three things:
1) Lots of Hawks are at The World Cup.
2) Duncan Keith has been skating, so that's good.
3) Luke Johnson was impressive at the rookie tournament, apparently. Is he a Real Thing or this year's Roy Radke (who, oddly, failed to be this year's Roy Radke despite, y'know, being Roy Radke)? Is there any reason to be optimistic about Johnson or is he merely part of another cruel trick, such as the Kyle Baun prank of last season? Remember, Kyle Baun, who unexpectedly made The Hawks to start the season, played a whole two games and then managed to score a goal in Rockford? Yes, that.
The 2017 models are in!
