Positives? Havlat played well
It's only three games, but if the Blackhawks don't watch out this can all of a sudden snowball into something ugly.
Wednesday's game against Phoenix can't be a must-win already, can it? Well, let's put it this way: If the Hawks don't win they are 0-4 going to St. Louis on Saturday to face a Blues team that has shown it can score goals. Then it's a stretch of five games against Vancouver, Edmonton, Detroit, Minnesota and Dallas.
The Hawks could be staring at a heap of trouble.
There wasn't a whole lot to like in Monday's home opening 3-2 loss to Nashville in a shootout. Havlat played his best game, but too many of his teammates weren't crisp. Huet was OK, but he was beaten twice in two tries in the shootout. A turnover by Kane led to Nashville's second goal.
Savvy played the heckout of Keith, Campbell and Seabrook on defense again and you've got to wonder if they can keep up those big minutes for 82 games. Sopel and Hendry played only 11 minutes each. Surprisingly, Aaron Johnson got 19 minutes.
and park his butt in front of the net on power plays. I watch other teams beat the hawks up while dustin is on the ice and he just stands there. this guy is a giant on a small team and he has to be more of a presence.
he has great hands and skill but the great players put it all together.
I disagree. Havlat coasted into the zone most of the time, avoided any kind of contact, and it was only near the end of the game that he took the puck and drove hard up the middle between two players. Why wasn't that effort there the whole game?
Didn't include comment about confidant defensemen in the other post.
It is too early to say Hendry is an AHL defenseman. He could be a strong 5th/6th. Confidance is key for defensemen in particular. I don't see any really huge deficiencies in his game. I like that he can skate the puck out of trouble and his tendency is to not panic when there is pressure in his end of ice. There were times last year that he was solid. I suppose Sopel didn't suddenly become terrible but I have always seen him as a stop gag measure. Sopel offers veteran know how and last year he didn't seem the type to panic under presssure. He also is a tad on the slow side and he doesn't use his frame to bang with the bigger forwards barrelling in -- which is ok if you are an all star, which he is not. I don't know what Sopel's problem(s) are this year. I also thought Walker was better but I hadn't watched him closely in past years. Is he really a bad skater? Perhaps Barker could return and play better, or should I say he could be improved in the areas in which he has received criticism. Hjalmarsson I strongly feel has the confidance to play as a top three but he is not quite ready for that responsibility now. He could be effective as a third pair or even as a 2nd pair if he has a partner who doesn't bungle things up and this same partner must not be too soft in handling the big-sized forwards. I saw a lot of Hjalmarsson last year and he is all star calibre in the AHL. Ask John Anderson what he thinks about Hjalmarsson's ability.
The Hawks slow start can be laid at the feet of the new Bill Writz Sr of Hawks hockey, John McDonut. Just as the old man hated marketing McDonut LOVES marketing. He gives a hockey puck about the game. He only wants to see John McDonut succeed. His moves thus far have been on every Hawk fan list for years. His meddling in hockey operations is reminiscent of Bob Pulford. Huet's signing had more to do with marketing than hockey sense. All the hype to sell tickets is also a play out of the Cubs playbook. The team may be mediocre but the hey the hype is first class.
Savvy and Tallon have made some bad moves but they have only had one year out from being under the thumb of the old man and Pully. Since the McDonut hiring they have had a different thumb to contend with.
I do blame Savvy for not having the forwards circle back to help the Defense get the puck out the zone. The forwards play at the red line during breakouts making it easy to double team the D man with the puck.
Tallon screwed up post lockout however Pully was still pulling many of the strings. Now he had Huet shoved down his throat by McDonut.
Hang on to your seats Hawk fans because the front office side show will take on new lows this season. Savvy will be gone by Christmas and Tallon will be relegated to a small office on Michigan Ave.
You are dilusional if you think an NHL team being marketed like it's the 20th Century has anything to do with this slow start. Please, this is how is is in the rest of the league.
I like the way the team is being marketed. All I am saying is that the hype does not equal the product. At best they just make the playoffs this year. If you believe the hype and interference by McDonut in hiring decisions, they are going to be in the Cup finals. You don't sign free agents based on what it does for marketing. This is what McDonut has done and has been sited in this and other news media.
Huet is not the answer. The most he has ever played in a season is 56 games. He could turn in a strong season but his history speaks otherwise. A season being 65 starts. Crawford and the new guy Nemi were supposed to be the future. Rather than Huet how about a couple of veteran wings or a center to anchor the second youngest team in the league?
The Hawks are a team of kids who have been fed all off season that hockey is back and that they are a great team. Yes hockey is back compared to the last 10 years however no amount of hype will make this team play better than it is which is a 6th to 10th place finish.
I have made a point in post that Kontiola should be tried at center before a trade is consumated. Put your best two scoring lines together and then leave Versteeg with Kontiola; both had success as linemattes in Rockford. Versteeg is NHL material. A second experiment could be to form a power/physical line. Bufuglien and Ladd don't appear interested to play physical along the boards; nonetheless, I'm challenging Buff to play physical on the top line. If you want to call up a Rockford player to be on a physical line, then look at how each would work on that line. Blunden hits a lot and is the best skater. Brouwer is the best scorer but plays inconsistent physical style of hockey. Berti can deliver crushing hits but maybe is too slow a skater. Bickel has a great slapshot, is a good skater, but reportedly doesn't show up to play often. Maybe he's pouting he's not on a top line? Know this: Tallon is going to have to make a decision on some of them this year. They can't all languish in Rockford. Bertram is a fireplug/fiery competitor who is solid in all areas of game, but skill level points to 2nd or 3rd line and he is a smaller-sized player. Davis injury prone and unsure about his physical game. Brophey has size, yet to show offensive game but can skate and is being watched for development. Fraser can't skate and isn't NHL material. Dowell is solid all areas but isn't strictly power forward. Others forwards are fringe players. Our hope for grit/sandpaper is in Beech and Aliu. Beech could use more size and Aliu carries a bad rap, which may be either in the past or unfair. I feel those two should be kept if at all possible next year in light of an absense of rough and tumble forwards on the team.
I have made a point in post that Kontiola should be tried at center before a trade is consumated. Put your best two scoring lines together and then leave Versteeg with Kontiola; both had success as linemattes in Rockford. Versteeg is NHL material. A second experiment could be to form a power/physical line. Bufuglien and Ladd don't appear interested to play physical along the boards; nonetheless, I'm challenging Buff to play physical on the top line. If you want to call up a Rockford player to be on a physical line, then look at how each would work on that line. Blunden hits a lot and is the best skater. Brouwer is the best scorer but plays inconsistent physical style of hockey. Berti can deliver crushing hits but maybe is too slow a skater. Bickel has a great slapshot, is a good skater, but reportedly doesn't show up to play often. Maybe he's pouting he's not on a top line? Know this: Tallon is going to have to make a decision on some of them this year. They can't all languish in Rockford. Bertram is a fireplug/fiery competitor who is solid in all areas of game, but skill level points to 2nd or 3rd line and he is a smaller-sized player. Davis injury prone and unsure about his physical game. Brophey has size, yet to show offensive game but can skate and is being watched for development. Fraser can't skate and isn't NHL material. Dowell is solid all areas but isn't strictly power forward. Others forwards are fringe players. Our hope for grit/sandpaper is in Beech and Aliu. Beech could use more size and Aliu carries a bad rap, which may be either in the past or unfair. I feel those two should be kept if at all possible next year in light of an absense of rough and tumble forwards on the team.
I agree with physicality response. This has been the problem for a long time with the Hawks. They are just to small and other teams out-muscle and out hustle them.
The Red Wings fixed this and won a cup (ask Pittsburgh). On other teams Toews, Kane, Sharp, Havlat are 2nd to 3rd liners because of their size and the Hawks need to get some big fast skaters.
Trade Havlat and Habby and get some bangers to protect our skill guys and plug up the slot.
Personally I think yesterday's "event" is taking it a little to far. It's time to stop with the "pomp and circumstance" and start playing Hockey. There is way to much pressure on these kids from the team, league, and fans to perform. They just need to get back to the basics.
I would try to pair up the players as closely as they were last season.
and that uncertainty caused the blown shoot out opportunities? Naw. This team thought it was gonna be a wee bit easier with the additions. They still have to adjust to the gunslinger style Campbell plays, and the lines look far from jellin'
You would like to enter the season with one line intact, dontcha?
I found the Aaron Johnson call up a good one as he was great along the middle zone wall, and good offensively with the puck. (It is interesting that he was also ahead in the pecking order of Barker, if we could believe the call-up/Barker demotion wasn't Cap related.)
Buff has got to the left point so he can slide to the slot and let the cannon go, Campbell has got to be the right point rover, and Kane, I guess, will have to get used to playing the left half boards, if you want to get the most out of the power play.
Your s-o guys have to score, so now you change that order
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Huet IS a major league tender, but hasn't been a huge upgrade so far has he?
I still think big Handzus would look good at centre, but unlike everyone else, I am willing to watch the play of Bolland, and the farm Centres, as they improve as a team.
That 6th spot was never the lock that everyone kept putting on it. Phoenix Edmonton Nashville and Columbus want to win too. ...and these three first games may have been important in that race, but this is the true growing year. Last year was the revealling, "they are better!" year.
Patience, grasshoppers!
Look at a few things related to this franchise:
• A dormant fan base just looking for a reason to come back.
• Horrible talent evaluation, leading to not only two seasons of absolutely awful hockey but also to getting two high draft picks.
• An out of touch owner passes away, and the new regime brings in a brilliant marketing mind that has proven he can generate revenue and profits even in the absence of actually winning a championship.
• That new regime corrects all the off the ice missteps made over the years, and the two high draft picks help spearhead a push for the playoffs for the first time in a long time. The building fills up again and there is actual hype around the team.
• In the offseason, lots more marketing hype, with the inaugural fan convention and the big outdoor game announcement. On the ice, two big free agent signings, along with all the proclamations the Hawks are back.
• On the flip side to all these positives, you still have the GM in charge who made numerous personnel decision errors that resulted in some terrible hockey that put them in a position to draft #3 and then #1 in consecutive years. This is the GM that miscalculated what style of hockey would be played in the new NHL after the devastating strike year and numerous rule changes, and signed a bunch of big, slow veterans that couldn’t keep up with the faster play. He also overpaid for a goalie coming off a big year, but that GM never questioned why that goalie coming off of a Stanley Cup winning year would come to a team where it was blatantly obvious there was no chance of winning anytime soon. He then signs another big money free agent goalie while having no plan to get rid of the other big money goalie, resulting in going into this season with $12M off the cap tied up in goaltending.
• With no cap space available, the team goes into this season lacking an entire second line, and no real physical presence to protect the young stars. The GM crows about all the young prospects they have, but none have stepped up and shown they’re anything more than third and fourth liners at this point.
• The coach, while being a legend in this town, hasn’t shown the ability to develop any of this so-called young talent. That’s potentially a problem seeing they have the second youngest team in the league. He also spent most of his time as an assistant coaching the power play, which has (and continues to be) been absolutely dismal during his tenure.
If you actually can look past the hype, you shouldn’t be surprised they came out slow, and potentially may not be as good as advertised. On the positive side, they brought in a very good hockey mind in Scotty Bowman, who should see his GM and coach are overmatched and make some recommendations to Rocky.
The biggest problem is all the hype they generated. This should have been another year of developing and seeing what you have in all the young players, let Khabibulin finish out his contract and get Niemi and Crawford playing time to see what you have in them, and continue to build. Instead, with all the marketing and fluff, expectations are now make the playoffs and maybe win a round or two. Not the smartest way to build a team that could actually win a championship someday.
Thanks to Tallon's mismanagement & playing "favorites", rather than making decisions purely based on performance on the ice, I think this team is already heading down the same path it followed under the former owner.
Take Barker for an example - 3rd overall pick - Tallon says he was sent down for hockey reasons (i.e., presumably not because of his relatively large $ contract & Tallon's cap mismanagement) yet Tallon is the same guy who deflected questions about the hawks remaining cap space after he signed huet to mega dollars by saying they were comfortable with $12M spent in net...
how much credibility does Tallon have with the prospects still in Rockford (and for that matter with guys in chicago)? yea, he may have drafted or acquired most or all of them, but if they perceive that they aren't getting a fair shake, how many of them are going to bust their butt and stick around long term? that isn't the type of environment which winning organizations encourage or build, but it is the type of environment often found in dysfunctional organizations.
Tallon may boast of all his talent on the farm, but those prospects may be looking to bolt the first chance they get or perhaps even demand to be moved to get a better, fairer shot with another organization (which explains why it seemed so many players played better once they left chicago under the former ownership regime)
Rather than dick around with a top prospect like Barker and offering him either 5th or 6th Dman minutes in the nhl, the better option would be to try to deal him while his value is still relatively high (perhaps as part of a package along with khabi) for what the team sorely needs now - a second line center (lang should never have been dealt) or power forward or a big, physical Dman.
moving khabi might open up some cap space for a guy like shanahan who is looking for a place to play and is just the type of experienced vet this team sorely needs.
the hawks have some big young wingers in rockford in brouwer & blunden & bickell - i can't imagine these guys could do any worse than versteeg and fraser and with a strong vote of confidence from the organization, perhaps they could surprise - they certainly have the size this team sorely lacks (that anyone paying any attention would notice, including these guys) - they must wonder what type of team the hawks are trying to build & what they have to do to get a legit shot to prove what they can do in chicago.
this team is going nowhere fast unless some major moves are made to improve the team now with solid veterans, imo, but unfortunatley i don't think tallon has the judgement to make them. that said, i think rocky will realize (if he doesn't already) that if he wants the team to live up to at least some of the hype & keep the positive vibe going this year, he's going to need to listen to bowman a lot more than tallon...
i wonder how long he will allow the team to flounder before making the first big move...
Chicohawk, dead on about Tallon. I thought they should have got rid of him before this offseason. My biggest concern with him was that they had some money to spend on the free agent market, and he's somehow screw it up. You can debate the Campbell move, but I couldn't understand the Huet signing. I then assumed they had a deal in place to move Khabibulin, but we see how that worked out. Tallon is and has been in over his head during his entire tenure. I keep saying it, but if Tallon didn't screw up so bad, they wouldn't have been in a position to draft Toews and Kane in consecutive years. And even with that, long term will Kane be better than Turris? Remember, a big factor in drafting Kane was he would sign
I completely agree with trying to move Barker. The problem they have with that now is they did ship him off to Rockford, not exactly the best way to showcase a guy you want to trade and get maximum value. That idea about bringing in Shanahan would be intriguing. A team this young still figuring out what it takes to win needs a guy like that around. Toews had a pretty good mentor in LaPointe while he was here, but who's that veteran presence now?
well said Irish
I would definitely be worried about Campbell, Keith, and Seabrook and all of the minutes they are logging. Sure, those guys are in great shape but you can't pound them into the ground because Sopel and Hendry simply can't pull their weight. Hendry had a great year last year but let's face it. He's an AHL defenseman who played above his head. Sopel had a bounce back year last year but he's old, looks slow, and was dumped by Detroit and Vancouver and we picked him up off the scrap heap. Johnson played more minutes but he deserved it. He played solid. If you don't know the type of person Wiz is, you'll see it when he comes back. He's hard nosed, plays mean, and can pitch in occasionally on offense. We need him back soon...
Hendry, Sopel, Sharp had good seasons last year - and were prematurely rewarded by Tallon, imo.
now faced with higher expectations from everyone and less support from vets who were replaced by more young guys like versteeg, skille, fraser, bolland, etc., these guys are not surprisingly not showing the same form they did last year.
i hope they turn it around, but to expect these guys to respond to pressure that they have not previously shown they can handle is unrealistic.
this team is being as badly mismanaged now as it was under WWW.
I have been watching each of the Hawk games, and is it just me, but do the other teams seem to be pushing us aside? It's as if the other team(Rangers, Caps, and now the Preds) says enough is enough after the Hawks score a couple goals and they take over.
The Hawks top lines are just ridden out of the play and pushed out of the middle. Even if we do get a play off, the puck usually bounces off one of the bigger players for the opposition because they can more easily clog up the middle with bigger players. I guess size does really matter. That, and maybe the other teams have figured our system out since last year because they had some time to study us.
Tim, how can you be worried,,,just 3 weeks ago you were crowning Savard as one of the best coaches around, and want to see him get his extension asap. Maybe now you will start to see where the real problem lies. Did anyone notice how our power play looks so far and how Nashville's made the Hawks PK unit look like they were skating in cement? Where's Joel Quenville now ?
Me, worried? I am just presenting the possibilities. Believe me, I certainly don't sit around worrying if the Hawks win or lose. I still think Savard should receive an extension, but I never "crowned" him one of the best coaches around. Maybe the uncertainty behind the bench is one of the problems. You think the players don't see what's going on? Maybe the Hawks should just change coaches every year.
"Maybe the uncertainty behind the bench is one of the problems. You think the players don't see what's going on?"
If Savard is letting a lack of contract extension affect his coaching or how he handles players, that in & of itself proves he doesn't have what it takes, imo.
And if the players are all in savard's corner and think that what is going on with his contract is unfair, wouldn't they be busting their butt for him more than they are to ensure he gets his extension?
From what I see, I sense there was and perhaps still is a significant schism on the team - the young guys who get a lot of prime ice time (like kane) certainly like savard - the ones who are bounced around on lines or in minutes or from the lineup and implicated indirectly at least for some of the team's problems probably don't care that much one way or another and that list perhaps includes some vets who've played for proven coaches like bowman, ruff, martin, etc.
some guys like lang, williams, ruutu, etc. may have been purged for not "buying in", but who have they been replaced with? more pliable youngsters who lack experience in a never ending quest for the right "fit"....
this wouldn't be anything new with most teams and certainly not the hawks whose history is filled with with playing "favorites" (just ask pit martin who spoke out about it in the early 70s that the team had to change to be successful).
The only reason Savard was named head coach (ahead of much more qualified candidates like Andy Murray) and later retained ahead of more proven candidates like Bob Hartley, is the same reason Dale Tallon got the GM job ahead of guys like Doug Armstrong - they were already on the Hawks payroll, and not because they were the best candidates for the job.
Nothing has changed to make them the most qualified people for such important jobs in one of the most important NHL markets...
Tim, I'm all for stability behind the bench, but is Savard the guy? You're there all the time, what have you seen to make you believe that? You wrote about Quenneville lurking around, to me that's a sign Bowman may have some questions on Savard's abiliites. How does Savard work with the young talent? Can Savard relate to a guy like Skille or Bolland and take them to the next level? Or are some of these young guys just never going to live up to expectations like so many before them? Then that's on Tallon, and an indictment of talent evaluation. Right now it's tough to get a read on a team this young. Is the talent really what it's cracked up to be, and can the current coach develop them? I guess we'll see one way or the other.