If not for Corey Crawford the Hawks would have come up with nothing against the Rangers. And I hear many people saying that Crawford cannot get us a cup. I don't think we could get one without him. Without him we might not even make the payoffs the way things have been going. While the Hawks played well overall in this high speed game it was the defense that was lacking. Again there were too many shots on Crawford that either never should have happened or should have been blocked. The Hawks had 8 blocked shots while the Rangers had 18! There where many defensive lapses but none that hurt the team more than Roszival missing the pick-up on the OT goal. We have better players in our system than him. While he does make some good plays, he is making way too many mistakes at this point. Combine that with 4 missed power plays and you end up losing. The Hawks are now 21st in the power play rankings.
On the good side, our penalty killing was stellar and the offense was good when we weren't on the power play. We may need to start declining these penalties. Tuevo was having a great game and Talbot was tested by some of the best shooters in the league. Unfortunately Talbot stood up to all of them. At least the Hawks got one point out of the game and gave nothing up to their own division.
Looking back at the game against the Oilers, the Hawks were lethargic in that game. Luckily they tied it up late and then, thanks to the skill of Vermette and the coaching of Toews, they were able to get the OT win.
About the new guys: Vermette is looking pretty good. He is certainly trying to fit in to the Hawks system. I am not too sure about Dejardins but we need to give him some time to fit in. I am really impressed with Timonen given that he had been out for so long. I really think he will come along. I will restate my playoff defensive pairs:
Seabs-Dunc
Oduya-Hammer
Timo-TVR
But be aware that TVR has not returned to playing yet, he is still in practice mode. Raanta has had to starts with the Hogs getting a win and an OT loss. He has made 47 saves on 53 shots with a .887 SV% over those two games. He gave up 3 goals in each of the games including the OT goal at 1:27 of the OT.
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Sunday, March 8, 2015
Thursday, March 5, 2015
New kids on the rink
I made it out to Johnny's today for practice. All Rostered Hawks were there except for Oduya. Oduya was at the rink but did not skate with the team. Q later indicated that Oduya skated but was not likely to play this weekend. Also in attendance was John McDonough looking on from the side lines.
Q indicated that Crawford would start against the Oilers and that he has been happy with Terevainen's play but is not likely to play as Q wants to get a look at Dejardins.
The new guys looked OK and seemed to be talking a lot with the other players and coaches.
Practice consisted of board battles (also know as how to stay away from Hossa), some 3 on 2 work, power play/PK, 4 on 4 and some break-away work. Q worked them for about 50 minutes and most players stayed on the ice at least to the 5 extra minutes that I stuck around.
Lines were as follows:
23-19-81
10-80-20
29-91-11
42-16-65
Power plays were:
2-7-19-81-65
10-80-44-91-23
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#Blackhawks
Q indicated that Crawford would start against the Oilers and that he has been happy with Terevainen's play but is not likely to play as Q wants to get a look at Dejardins.
The new guys looked OK and seemed to be talking a lot with the other players and coaches.
Practice consisted of board battles (also know as how to stay away from Hossa), some 3 on 2 work, power play/PK, 4 on 4 and some break-away work. Q worked them for about 50 minutes and most players stayed on the ice at least to the 5 extra minutes that I stuck around.
Lines were as follows:
23-19-81
10-80-20
29-91-11
42-16-65
Power plays were:
2-7-19-81-65
10-80-44-91-23
Find Blackhawks Insights on facebook at: Blackhawks Insights
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008602110029&fref=ts&ref=br_tf
Follow me on twitter @JimsBHB
Email me at:
JimsBHB@gmail.com
#Blackhawks
Monday, March 2, 2015
And we're done
The trade deadline has come and gone. Due to the injury to Patrick Kane, Bowman had some cap space to play with. And now that we have passed the trade deadline he can go as high as he wants with the players in the system. So where does this leave us?
We all know that there will be a large cap problem come game one of the next season. The three players picked up this week all have expiring contracts. So they, unless signing on for a longer tour of duty, they will not increase that existing problem.
Let's start with Dejardins. He has been a face off leader having a better than 58% record at the dot the past three seasons. This years he is at 49.8% to date. Still not to shabby. But Ben Smith, who was traded in his place, has been a consistent 50%er himself. So no gain there. Andrew is 6' 1" and 195. Ben Smith is 5' 11" 207 pounds. So really not too much there. I have heard that Dejardins brings a little more energy and feistyness to his game. But I also expect that from Smith as we get closer to the playoffs. Points-wise there is really no difference between the two this season. So put these guys about even. But herein lies the rub. Andrew's contract expires at the end of the season where Ben would carry $1.5M into next year. So Scotty just reduced his cap problem for next year. This is his first salary cap reduction trade.
As for Vermette and Timonen we lose nothing short term. I'll address that in a minute.
Vermette has a 56% or better face off record for 5 seasons! The Hawks can certainly use some help in that area, especially on the PK, if Vermette plays there. Vermette also has 24 goals and 21 assists this season . Not too shabby. He could be a big help.
As for Timonen, he is a tough cookie. While he has not played this year he has been cleared and could add some depth to our struggling defense. Imagine the pairs being Timonen(L)-van Riemsdyk(R), Keith-Seabs and Oduya-Hammer. Those would be 3 damn good pairings. I would put Rundblad and Cumisky as the odd men in. Roszival needs to retire.
We did give up a few picks over the next few years. So what? Let's take a look at the system.
Start with forwards:
As for Defense:
We all know that there will be a large cap problem come game one of the next season. The three players picked up this week all have expiring contracts. So they, unless signing on for a longer tour of duty, they will not increase that existing problem.
Let's start with Dejardins. He has been a face off leader having a better than 58% record at the dot the past three seasons. This years he is at 49.8% to date. Still not to shabby. But Ben Smith, who was traded in his place, has been a consistent 50%er himself. So no gain there. Andrew is 6' 1" and 195. Ben Smith is 5' 11" 207 pounds. So really not too much there. I have heard that Dejardins brings a little more energy and feistyness to his game. But I also expect that from Smith as we get closer to the playoffs. Points-wise there is really no difference between the two this season. So put these guys about even. But herein lies the rub. Andrew's contract expires at the end of the season where Ben would carry $1.5M into next year. So Scotty just reduced his cap problem for next year. This is his first salary cap reduction trade.
As for Vermette and Timonen we lose nothing short term. I'll address that in a minute.
Vermette has a 56% or better face off record for 5 seasons! The Hawks can certainly use some help in that area, especially on the PK, if Vermette plays there. Vermette also has 24 goals and 21 assists this season . Not too shabby. He could be a big help.
As for Timonen, he is a tough cookie. While he has not played this year he has been cleared and could add some depth to our struggling defense. Imagine the pairs being Timonen(L)-van Riemsdyk(R), Keith-Seabs and Oduya-Hammer. Those would be 3 damn good pairings. I would put Rundblad and Cumisky as the odd men in. Roszival needs to retire.
We did give up a few picks over the next few years. So what? Let's take a look at the system.
Start with forwards:
Peter Regin – Probably on his way out
Dennis Rasmussen – Good potential, needs to learn to play in
the states
Ryan Hartman – We saw him, we loved him, he will develop
And then there are the rest of the forward that have
potential. Any of these players could be on the Hawks next year. Each of them has potential to develop.
Drew LeBlanc
Cody Bass
Phillip Danault
Dane Walters
Pierre-Cedric Labrie
Garret Ross
Matt Carey
Brandon Mashinter
As for Defense:
Trevor van Riemsdyk - If he recovers well, he returns this season
Kyle Cumiskey - Another guy we saw and we loved.
Stephen Johns - This is another strong defenseman
Viktor Svedberg- Viktor need to be a bit more consistent.
Ville Pokka - This is the guy we got in the Leddy trade. I've seen him play and think he has good potential. He is young and learning.
We also have two goalies that I think could take us to the cup in Crawford and Raanta. I'm not 100% convinced about Darling yet. As for any worries about Raanta, he just needs more ice time which is why he is back in Rockford. This way we will have our top 2 goalies working on a regular basis in preparation for the playoffs.
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