PuckPowWow
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Some thoughts on the Hawks, and last night's game:
"It's tough to look at the bright side of things," Jonathan Toews said. "We played the way we had too, but we gave them too many opportunities on the power play. That's how they separated us from them in this game."
The captain did a pretty good job starting us off with his statement above. This most recent game came down to 2 things. Goaltending and Power-Plays. I guess all that time spent working on the power-play in practice and apparently ignoring the whole PK thing did not pay-off as anticipated.
Twice, Crawford was found overcommitting so bad that he ended up practically behind the net, and twice it cost the Hawks a goal. Add in another weak attempt at a save and you have yourselves 3 goals that I put on Crow. Is he done? I did say that a few weeks back, but he continues to get starts, so who knows how much more we will see of him. I just doubt he gets it together by the end of the season.
My issues with Q and company run deeper than I have time to explain, but it seems like most of the readers here are starting to join me on the darkside. Starting Crawford could be put on him. My guess, the Hawks win that one with Emery in net.
The Q-Stache: Sometimes I wonder about his hockey awareness, and I most seriously question his ethics. Frolik comes out and plays hard, earning himself a 4 minute double minor for high-sticking, and within the first 2 minutes of hockey has found himself moved to the back burner to wallow in his own pity. Stalberg, who was apparently sick, was playing decent hockey on the 3rd or 4th line (who knows), gets moved up again, continues to play decent hockey and then makes one mistake (a mistake Kaner has made more times than I can count, or even Hossa for that matter) and never sees the light of day again. Please tell me that he ended up feeling too sick to play, because if Q really benched him for one mistake in a sea of strong plays we might as well throw in the towel on the Hawks getting out of their mind-set, or Stalberg ever reaching his full potential with Q on the bench.
Keith takes the dumbest penalty of the night and it earns him over 30 minutes of hockey.
The Hawks PK is designed to allow shots from the perimeter, and it keeps killing them. Crawford is not absorbing the pucks, and the D is still weak at clearing the slot. This approach will continue to end with disastrous consequences. Not exactly rocket science here.
Olsen and Lepisto serve up more critiques for Q. Olsen had nearly 20 minutes of ice-time and I think he was good for more really. He looked darn good out there, playing smart, cohesive and aggressive hockey at both ends of the ice. Unfortunately, his stick was the culprit of a Sharks goal, but I hope everyone else saw the beauty in his attempt to stop that SJ rush. He made an outstanding play to break it up moments before, and when pucks end up in your net after something like that, you know the luck is not with you. Lepisto only skated about 12 minutes, and again, I think he was worth more looks, but he ended as a +1 and had an assist. Both played great, and are further evidence to the misuse of players, rather than the need for a trade.
These 2 players and their performance bring up 2 big questions: First, do Q and Stan Bowman even talk? The lack of conversation between these 2 and how it seems players should be used is a much larger concern to me rather than who we can get in a trade. Second, is it just me, or do the players that come from Rockford seem to play smarter, tougher, and better all around hockey? Huh.
A moment on Toews: He has not really been the same since a game about a month back (can't remember the specific one and am too lazy to check) when I had a heart attack about his ice-time? I noticed something that game. Toews overcame his threshold of pain, playing nearly 30 minutes and trying too hard to carry the team on his back and against the odds, or lack of support. I think Q squashed him that game, and the loss of the captain we know (and love) is maybe an overlooked element of this current debacle of a skid. The atmosphere sucks so bad right now for the Hawks that even Captain Serious' powers are no match for it.
The Hawks had the right mojo last night in a matter of speaking, but their many concerns as a team have brought about bad juju, and too many leaks to contain. I felt like they might have had the win there for a while, and then that luck, the luck you make, came and took it from them.
Niemi was far better than Crawford, but we already knew who the better goalie was. Again, maybe some bad juju from a few wrong moves in the past. I hear lots of trade rumors, and yeah, a goalie might help ( I think I remember getting bashed here for bringing it up a little while back), but most likely not one with super-star skills, and that would just cost too much. I am not calling for the trade of a "core" player, but I do find it funny how people complain about the lack of options in the market when the Hawks themselves are unwilling to put up the bait, even when they seem to possess very decent prospects to fall back on. Then again, I don't think this an issue stemming from the Hawks roster.
The Hawks can look at all the tapes they want of other teams and try to fix the power-play, but the others know how to play the Hawks, and especially now. Without the talented roster exploding with production, the Hawks will fall victim to their own design. Just too many holes to exploit. Not until something severely shakes the whole approach can we see lasting results.
Yep, Pheonix is going to come in ready and with a plan, and have a big win to help provide juice.
Click here to view the article
"It's tough to look at the bright side of things," Jonathan Toews said. "We played the way we had too, but we gave them too many opportunities on the power play. That's how they separated us from them in this game."
The captain did a pretty good job starting us off with his statement above. This most recent game came down to 2 things. Goaltending and Power-Plays. I guess all that time spent working on the power-play in practice and apparently ignoring the whole PK thing did not pay-off as anticipated.
Twice, Crawford was found overcommitting so bad that he ended up practically behind the net, and twice it cost the Hawks a goal. Add in another weak attempt at a save and you have yourselves 3 goals that I put on Crow. Is he done? I did say that a few weeks back, but he continues to get starts, so who knows how much more we will see of him. I just doubt he gets it together by the end of the season.
My issues with Q and company run deeper than I have time to explain, but it seems like most of the readers here are starting to join me on the darkside. Starting Crawford could be put on him. My guess, the Hawks win that one with Emery in net.
The Q-Stache: Sometimes I wonder about his hockey awareness, and I most seriously question his ethics. Frolik comes out and plays hard, earning himself a 4 minute double minor for high-sticking, and within the first 2 minutes of hockey has found himself moved to the back burner to wallow in his own pity. Stalberg, who was apparently sick, was playing decent hockey on the 3rd or 4th line (who knows), gets moved up again, continues to play decent hockey and then makes one mistake (a mistake Kaner has made more times than I can count, or even Hossa for that matter) and never sees the light of day again. Please tell me that he ended up feeling too sick to play, because if Q really benched him for one mistake in a sea of strong plays we might as well throw in the towel on the Hawks getting out of their mind-set, or Stalberg ever reaching his full potential with Q on the bench.
Keith takes the dumbest penalty of the night and it earns him over 30 minutes of hockey.
The Hawks PK is designed to allow shots from the perimeter, and it keeps killing them. Crawford is not absorbing the pucks, and the D is still weak at clearing the slot. This approach will continue to end with disastrous consequences. Not exactly rocket science here.
Olsen and Lepisto serve up more critiques for Q. Olsen had nearly 20 minutes of ice-time and I think he was good for more really. He looked darn good out there, playing smart, cohesive and aggressive hockey at both ends of the ice. Unfortunately, his stick was the culprit of a Sharks goal, but I hope everyone else saw the beauty in his attempt to stop that SJ rush. He made an outstanding play to break it up moments before, and when pucks end up in your net after something like that, you know the luck is not with you. Lepisto only skated about 12 minutes, and again, I think he was worth more looks, but he ended as a +1 and had an assist. Both played great, and are further evidence to the misuse of players, rather than the need for a trade.
These 2 players and their performance bring up 2 big questions: First, do Q and Stan Bowman even talk? The lack of conversation between these 2 and how it seems players should be used is a much larger concern to me rather than who we can get in a trade. Second, is it just me, or do the players that come from Rockford seem to play smarter, tougher, and better all around hockey? Huh.
A moment on Toews: He has not really been the same since a game about a month back (can't remember the specific one and am too lazy to check) when I had a heart attack about his ice-time? I noticed something that game. Toews overcame his threshold of pain, playing nearly 30 minutes and trying too hard to carry the team on his back and against the odds, or lack of support. I think Q squashed him that game, and the loss of the captain we know (and love) is maybe an overlooked element of this current debacle of a skid. The atmosphere sucks so bad right now for the Hawks that even Captain Serious' powers are no match for it.
The Hawks had the right mojo last night in a matter of speaking, but their many concerns as a team have brought about bad juju, and too many leaks to contain. I felt like they might have had the win there for a while, and then that luck, the luck you make, came and took it from them.
Niemi was far better than Crawford, but we already knew who the better goalie was. Again, maybe some bad juju from a few wrong moves in the past. I hear lots of trade rumors, and yeah, a goalie might help ( I think I remember getting bashed here for bringing it up a little while back), but most likely not one with super-star skills, and that would just cost too much. I am not calling for the trade of a "core" player, but I do find it funny how people complain about the lack of options in the market when the Hawks themselves are unwilling to put up the bait, even when they seem to possess very decent prospects to fall back on. Then again, I don't think this an issue stemming from the Hawks roster.
The Hawks can look at all the tapes they want of other teams and try to fix the power-play, but the others know how to play the Hawks, and especially now. Without the talented roster exploding with production, the Hawks will fall victim to their own design. Just too many holes to exploit. Not until something severely shakes the whole approach can we see lasting results.
Yep, Pheonix is going to come in ready and with a plan, and have a big win to help provide juice.
Click here to view the article
