Circle March 13 on your calendar. If the Blackhawks lose a game six or seven in San Jose that keeps them from playing for the Stanley Cup, Saturday’s loss to the Flyers will likely be the cause for that elimination game being played somewhere other than the United Center.
Cristobal Huet played an exceptional game for 57 minutes on Saturday, keeping almost everything the Flyers could throw at him out of the net and matching an incredible effort from his counterpart, former Hawks prospect Michael Leighton. Despite a number of bad turnovers by the skaters in front of him, Huet kept the Hawks in the game for most of the afternoon.
But with 2:04 left, Scott Hartnell beat Brent Sopel to the net and put a shot past Huet to tie the game. Huet was frustrated, and wasn’t getting any help.
Perhaps the worst few moments of the Hawks season came as the clock was expiring on regulation. With five seconds left in the game, for no good reason at all, the Blackhawks went for a line change. A line change… with five seconds left in a tie game… on the road.
Brent Seabrook, who’s terrible turnover led to Philadelphia’s first goal, was left hanging as the Flyers rushed up ice and a strong cross-ice pass to Chris Pronger sealed the deal for the Flyers. Despite being outshot 41-34, the Flyers stole two points from the Blackhawks with 2.1 seconds on the clock.
This loss will test the mettle of the youngest team in the league, as they now have to fly home and host the best team in hockey, the Washington Capitals, 20 hours after suffering a heart-breaking defeat. Huet will take a lot of the blame for the loss on Saturday, but he should share the burden with the defensemen in front of him. Sopel and Seabrook both played far from their best hockey on Saturday, and subsequently had a good look at each of the Flyers’ three goals.
On the positive side of the ledger, Kris Versteeg scored his second momentum-killing goal of the week quickly after the Hawks’ opponent had taken a lead. On Saturday, it came on the power play just seconds after a quick whistle had wiped away what should have been a game-tying goal for Jonathan Toews. Versteeg scored on a rebound to tie the game at one less than two minutes after Philadelphia took the lead.
Almost ten minutes after Versteeg’s goal, Marian Hossa gave the Hawks the lead with a wicked shot from just above the circle. That would be the end of the Hawks’ scoring on the afternoon, though, as Leighton stood on his head against an attacking offense. Not only did the Hawks get 41 shots to Leighton, but the Flyers were credited with 26 blocked shots. On the other end, the Blackhawks were also aggressive defensively, blocking 17 shots aimed at Huet.
This hard loss adds more intrigue to Sunday’s nationally televised game against the Caps. How will the Blackhawks bounce back from this devastating defeat? The answer could determine their postseason fate.
If nothing else, we aim to please at CommittedIndians, and received an insightful question that warranted not only an answer, but some research as well.
Tom, a regular reader, asked what the Blackhawks’ record was in the new alternate third jerseys this year. So, we did some research, and came up with the following fun facts.
The Hawks will wear the third alternate jerseys 12 times this year, and still have six of those games remaining in the final 18 of the season. Nothing like driving sales through the finish, right?
So far, the third jerseys have been worn on Dec. 1 and 22, Jan. 5, Feb. 9 and 14 and March 2. In those six games, the Blackhawks are 4-2-0 with three shoot-out victories.
But looking deeper into the games is more intriguing…
Cristobal Huet has started three of the six, but relieved Antti Niemi in the Rangers game. Overall, Huet has allowed nine goals on 74 shots (.878 sv pct), while Niemi has allowed ten goals on 67 shots (.851 sv pct). The ugliest performance from Huet was the Dec. 22 loss to San Jose at the United Center, when he allowed three goals on only 14 shots. Obviously the start in New York was Niemi’s worst in the alternate jersey.
The defense in front of the netminders hasn’t been that bad. Opponents have only put an average of 23.5 shots per game on net, but have scored 3.17 goals per game. The Hawks have only allowed three goals on 22 power plays, an 86 percent kill rate.
On offense, it’s been all about Patrick Kane in the alternate jerseys this year. He has six goals in the six games in the alternates, and Marian Hossa has two multi-point games to lead the team. Patrick Sharp has also played well in the third jerseys, scoring two goals. The Hawks have only scored on six of 26 power plays in the third jerseys, though, good for only a 23 percent conversation rate. Jonathan Toews has won 72 of 127 faceoffs in the third jerseys (57%). The Hawks have supported their goalies with 3.50 goals per game of offense.
One point that was odd regarding the six games in the third jerseys that was odd was the number of players that have scored. Besides Kane, Hossa and Sharp, eight Blackhawks have scored a goal in an alternate jersey this year: Toews, Kris Versteeg, John Madden, Troy Brouwer, Bryan Bickell, Jacob Dowell, Dustin Byfuglien and Brian Campbell.
The Blackhawks will wear the alternate jerseys six more times this yeah:
It only took 37 seconds for the gloves to drop, and the penalties kept coming all night but the Blackhawks handled their business with a stunning 6-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.
The Blackhawks ran a clearly frustrated Roberto Luongo after only one period by scoring five goals in the first 20 minutes and Vancouver was never able to get into the game. With their win, the Hawks stay tied for the Western Conference lead with the San Jose Sharks and move within three points of the Washington Capitals for the top spot in the NHL.
Despite being shut down for a full two-minute, two-man advantage after two fights broke out less than a minute into the game, it didn’t take long for the Hawks to get on the board. Andrew Ladd, who was involved in the first altercation of the evening with crybaby Ryan Kesler, scored his 12th goal of the year just 3:48 into the game to give the Blackhawks the lead. Seven minutes, six penalties and two fights later, Duncan Keith scored his 12th goal of the season on a power play to extend the lead. The flood gates were now open, and Luongo’s leash was shrinking.
Troy Brouwer scored his 19th goal of the year only 31 seconds after Keith’s, and the route was on. Kesler made a pretty play, shooting the puck between Keith and Cristobal Huet’s legs to get Vancouver on the board, but Kris Versteeg got off the schnide with his first goal (and only his third point) in his last 16 games. When Jordan Hendry added his first of the season with only 43 seconds left in the period, Luongo looked like he needed a shower. The Blackhawks five goals came on only 14 shots.
Andrew Raycroft replaced Luongo after the first period and would allow two goals on only ten shots in the final two periods. Alex Burrows tried to help Raycroft out by scoring the first goal of the second period and drawing the Canucks to within 5-2, but Marian Hossa made sure the hopes of the visitors were short-lived when he put in his 19th at 16:55.
Tanner Glass had an impressive night for Vancouver, being whistled for five penalties, all for separate offenses. His nine penalty minutes led the way in the game, as Ben Eager and Vancouver’s Andrew Alberts would also serve seven minutes in the box. In total, 18 penalties were called on Friday night. The Blackhawks took advantage of a man-advantage situation on Keith’s goal in the first, but ended the night just 1-7 on the power play; Vancouver was 0-4 on the night.
Hossa, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews all continued their hot scoring streak after the Olympics on Friday night. Kane had one assist, Toews two assists and Hossa one assist and one goal to lead a balanced offense for the Blackhawks. Jordan Hendry, the game’s Number One Star, had one goal and one assist. Also being credited with assists on Friday night were Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Kim Johnsson and Patrick Sharp.
Huet’s raw numbers weren’t spectacular (three goals allowed on only 23 shots) but he made a number of spectacular saves early on and, for the most part, controlled the puck in traffic when needed. Once the lead was established in the first period, the action spread out and Huet only faced 12 shots in the final two frames.
Over the next three weeks, the Blackhawks will learn a lot about how they stack up against the rest of hockey’s elite teams.
Between now and March 25, the Hawks will play nine games against playoff teams, most of whom made significant moves at the trade deadline to improve their club. When the Hawks play a home-and-home against Columbus, they should have a good idea of what they’ll need to do to win the Stanley Cup.
Starting Friday, when the Vancouver Canucks come to the United Center (after hammering the Red Wings 6-3 on Wednesday), the Hawks will face one of the toughest stretches of games on their calendar. Four of the first five games are at home, against Vancouver, Detroit (now at 11:30 AM in Chicago, thanks NBC), Los Angeles, then at Philadelphia before hosting Washington on the 14th. In that stretch, the Hawks will do battle with teams currently in third, fourth and eighth in the Western Conference and first and sixth in the East.
If the last two games against the Islanders and Oilers seemed rough at times, wait until this stretch. The little mistakes in the corners will turn into goals, and the probability that the Hawks can hold one of these teams to three shots in a third period like they did on Wednesday is zero.
March 14: Ovechkin in Chicago
While the Hawks have faced the Canucks, Red Wings and Kings already this year, the game against the Washington Capitals on the 14th will be the only time during the regular season that they will face the team with the best record in the NHL.
Despite their potent offense and 92 points, the Caps were very busy at the deadline. Washington added defensemen Joe Corvo and Milan Jurcina, and forwards Eric Belanger and Scott Walker in four deals that give them more depth all over their roster. This game will be a nationally-televised gauge for how the Blackhawks match up against the Eastern Conference’s best.
After the first five games, the Hawks hit the road for an intriguing three game trip filled with familiar faces in new places.
The trip starts in Anaheim, where the Ducks added defensemen Aaron Ward and Lubomir Visnovsky at the expense of Ryan Whitney. The Ducks are presently sitting in 11th in the West, but are just three points behind Detroit for the final playoff spot. Adding the trade of Jean-Sebastian Giguere to Toronto for Jason Blake and Tesa Voskala (who was subsequently traded to Calgary for Curtis McElhinney), the Ducks made a number of impact moves to make a run for the postseason.
The Hawks play the following night at the Kings, who made a few strong moves of their own. Gone is Teddy Purcell, but the Kings added Jeff Halpern and Fredrik Modin. LA is the hottest team in hockey right now, running off an 8-1-1 record in their last ten games.
After a Friday night off, the Hawks spend the night of Sat. March 20 visiting the busiest team at the trade deadline, the Phoenix Coyotes. Peter Mueller is gone, but the Coyotes added Derek Morris, Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak to a team that’s been playing very well of late. The Coyotes are just one point behind LA for the fourth seed in the West, and the added scoring of Wolski and Stempniak should only improve their 25th-ranked offense.
The Hawks will then come home and play the Coyotes again on Tues. March 23, concluding the nine-game gauntlet.
Following the home-and-home against Columbus, the Hawks will play each of their final eight games of the regular season against teams that are either currently in the playoffs or within four points of the eighth spot. Perhaps the best playoff barometer will come on Friday, April 2 when the Blackhawks play in New Jersey against the Atlantic Division-leading Devils.
In all, the Hawks’ final 19 games will prove to be a hard testing ground against teams battling for playoff position. Any questions the Hawks have in net will either be answered or magnified, and any scoring droughts will cost them games. When the regular season ends, Hawks fans should have a very good idea of how far this team can go in the playoffs.
Will the Hawks play for this?
Most Chicago fans felt that the Blackhawks would make at least one major move, if not more, before Wednesday’s trade deadline. After all, there are a few areas (goaltending, goaltending and… goaltending) that most fans and analysts thought could use improving if the Hawks are going to make a run at the Stanley Cup.
But then the deadline came and passed… and the Blackhawks did nothing.
The knee jerk reaction to the lack of action from the United Center is a lot of four-letter words and sweaty palms. How are the Blackhawks supposed to win the Stanley Cup with the guys they have? What are we going to do? Help!
Pause.
Deep breath.
OK. Let’s take a step back and look at the Blackhawks from a sane, big-picture perspective. It’s going to be alright.
First of all, let’s be realistic about playoff position. The Blackhawks are going to win the Central Division; they have a 14-point lead on second-place Nashville. Despite a few moves by the Predators, it’s unrealistic to think that the Preds will catch the Hawks with 20 games left in the season. By winning the division, the Hawks are assured of one of the top three seeds in the Western Conference in the playoffs.
Secondly, at the top of the Western Conference there are as many issues with the other teams as there are with the Blackhawks. The Sharks are only two points in front of the Hawks for the top seed, and have questions surrounding their own situation between the pipes. While Hawks fans might have reasons to question Antti Niemi’s lack of experience and Cristobal Huet’s questionable, albeit limited, results in the postseason, the Sharks have a netminder in Evgeni Nabokov that not only has a resume filled with recent playoff failure, but he just crapped his pants in the Olympics for Russia.
There’s no reason to think that the Hawks can’t catch the Sharks for the top spot, and should have at least even confidence with the Sharks, if not better, in the goalie situation in Chicago. With Vancouver nine points behind the Hawks in in third, and with a tough division chasing them, to assume that the Blackhawks will end the year in one of the top two seeds in the West isn’t far fetched.
So the Central Division and seeding in the playoffs shouldn’t be a concern.
The Blackhawks, despite their offensive droughts and struggles in net, still rank near the top of the NHL in most statistical categories. This team is not bad. It’s easy to scream about soft goals and a bad night when the team’s playing for a championship; remember, two years ago the Blackhawks were trying to remember how to spell the word “playoffs.”
Also consider the reality of what’s left this season.
Because of the Olympics, every team in the NHL will have to slam 20 games into the next five weeks. Simple math indicates that teams will average four games per week, with travel, before the playoffs begin. Whenever a trade, no matter the profile of the player, takes place, there is always an adjustment period that will take place. Before the Olympic break, the Hawks added Kim Johnsson from Minnesota and are still working through who will play how many minutes on the blue line.
Practice is where players get to know each other, and where coaches are best able to gauge how players work with each other. It’s hard, in any sport, to establish flow to a game plan when you’re mixing up players that don’t know each other. But with teams having only two, sometimes three days off per week to not only travel but also practice, working new players into the rotation is going to be hard to during the rest of this year’s regular season.
Another factor the Blackhawks had to consider at the deadline is that Dave Bolland has only played a couple games after returning from injury, and Adam Burish is coming back on Sunday. Adding two smart players to the mix, along with Johnsson, gives coach Joel Quenneville too many pieces to have in uniform every night already. The Blackhawks will have enough trouble picking someone to watch from the suite every night.
Let’s not ignore the reality that every team that will compete for the Stanley Cup this spring had players in the Olympics. This presents a few situations for teams to deal with when considering a trade.
First, the immediate impact of a trade on contending teams is players missing from the ice. On Wednesday night, the Blackhawks host the Edmonton Oilers, who will be without Denis Grebeshkov and Lubomir Visnovsky on their blue line; both players were dealt before the deadline. The Oilers received only a draft pick for Grebeshkov, and won’t have Ryan Whitney (acquired for Visnovsky) in uniform yet for the game. So the Blackhawks will face a depleted defensive unit a night after getting their tails whipped in New York.
The Oilers are just one of many teams that will be without players in key positions tonight. If points are at a premium at this time of year, can a team trying to gain the best position possible in April afford a night with two or three AHL guys playing a major role on the ice? No.
Second, the medium-term impact is trying to work new players into the rotation and still get Olympians the rest they’ll need to be fresh in the postseason. Look at Anaheim, for example. Ryan Getzlaf and Cory Perry played seven games in Vancouver for Canada, and now they’re not only losing Whitney but they’re looking at a roster that is adding Aaron Ward and Visnovsky on the blue line.
The on-ice chemistry will either remain a work-in-progress that will have to be figured out during games (again, potentially costing the team valuable points), or will be achieved through practices on the limited off days the team has in the coming weeks.
The long-term impact on a roster is dead legs. Both Ward and Visnovsky should be key contributors for the Ducks down the stretch, but at what expense to the odometer of their Olympians’ legs? With limited time for rest between now and the end of the season, finding time to be off the ice will be crucial for teams hoping to make a deep run.
Look around the Western Conference. Phoenix improved the most, moving underwhelming Peter Mueller out and adding Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak up front and Matthieu Schneider and Derek Morris on the blue line. The Los Angeles Kings also made a couple solid moves, adding Jeff Halpern and Fredrik Modin. But outside of Phoenix, LA and Anaheim, nobody in the West did much to make a dramatic improvement.
In the East, the Washington Capitals certainly made some strong moves, as did the Pittsburgh Penguins. But only one of those teams can play the Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup, and anything can happen in a seven game series.
If the Blackhawks were good enough to be at the top of the conference with what they had, if they stay together and avoid the potential headaches that other teams will have to deal with moving forward, they’ll have a great chance to run deep into the playoffs and possibly compete for a Stanley Cup.
On Tuesday night in their first game together in two weeks, the Chicago Blackhawks looked like a team that was still on vacation.
Despite outshooting the New York Islanders 22-9 in the first period, the Hawks failed to pull away from a struggling team that was playing without one of their key defenseman, Andy Sutton, who was traded to Ottawa a couple hours before the game. While some credit was earned by the Islanders, the loss was cleary earned by the two goalies from Chicago.
Amid swirling trade rumors, coach Joel Quenneville started Antti Niemi for a fifth straight game. After the team’s practices at the end of the break, Quenneville stated that Niemi had his chance to win the starting job in net and had taken control of the situation with his play; various media outlets in Chicago, however, reported that Huet’s role in a potential trade was keeping him on the bench.
Niemi’s play on Tuesday couldn’t keep Huet on the bench for three more periods.
Niemi played just over 22 minutes, allowing three goals on just 12 shots. After the third goal was allowed, Quenneville pulled the plug and replaced him with Huet. In perhaps his best shot at staying with the Hawks, much less regaining his status as the team’s top goalie, Huet allowed two awful, soft goals despite only facing 11 shots. In all, the Blackhawks tandem of goalies allowed five goals on 23 shots, which adds up to a save percentage of not good.
The offense that looked crisp in the first period was miserable in the final two frames. Marian Hossa appears to have left his legs and hand-eye coordination in Vancouver on a number of occasions. Patrick Kane was credited with an assist on Brian Campbell’s goal in the first, and scored the second goal for the Hawks, but that was pretty much when the offense disappeared.
It wasn’t until Dustin Byfuglien scored with less than five minutes left in regulation, and the Hawks trailing 5-2, that the Hawks would score again. Kane was credited with another assist on the third goal, giving him a three-point night. Jonathan Toews also had two assists for the Blackhawks on the night.
A wonderful tribute to the six Blackhawks that played in the Olympics from the organization. Worth watching a hundred times.
from Blackhawks.nhl.com
What an incredible two weeks for six of the Chicago Blackhawks!
In Sunday’s gold medal game, the United States and Canada played a legendary game that featured all of the drama the Olympics is about. Finally, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews put the puck in the next to push his point total to eight (one goal, seven assists) in the tournament. Toews was voted the best forward of the Olympic tournament by the media, and led the tournament in assists. He also ended the tournament fifth in faceoff win percentage at 64.76. The United States’ goalie Ryan Miller was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, but a strong case was made for Toews to win that honor as well.
Duncan Keith ended the tournament tied for second among all Olympic defensemen with six points (six assists). His +6 rating was tied with fellow Canadians Drew Doughty and Eric Staal for third in the tournament; Toews tied for the overall tournament lead in plus-minutes at +9 with Ryan Suter of the United States. Amazingly, not a single goal was scored in the tournament while Toews was on the ice.
Brent Seabrook became the seventh defenseman for Canadian (and Red Wings) coach Mike Babcock, and average just 8:26 on the ice per game in the tournament. Seabrook did record one assist, however, and ended the Olympics +2 despite his lack of playing time.
For the United States, Patrick Kane was the object of some criticism before the medal rounds began. Some national analysts went as far as to say that Kane was as disappointing for the US as Toews was exceptional for Canada. In five games, Kane had only one point on a goal early in the tournament. However, Kane silenced his critics in his final two games.
In the medal round against Finland, Kane led the Americans with two goals. Then, in the gold medal game, Kane was the exceptional creator Hawks fans know. He was credited with an assist on both of the United States’ goals, the first being a re-directed shot that got past Roberto Luongo and the second a quick release in traffic that Luongo left enough of for Zach Parise to score the dramatic game-tying goal with just 24.4 seconds left in regulation. Kane ended the Olympics with five points (three goals, two assists) and a +4 rating.
Slovakia, a darkhorse in the tournament featuring a handful of NHL players including Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky, advanced further than any team in the country’s history. The hard-fought loss to Finland, in which Hossa scored a goal and had an assist, ended a great run in which Hossa finished second in the Olympics in scoring with nine points (three goals, six assists). Kopecky played very well, and will hopefully see his confidence carry over to the final six weeks of the NHL season.
The best case scenario for the NHL, and the Chicago Blackhawks, has been realized: the United States will play Canada for the gold medal on Sunday afternoon.
Round II: For the Gold, Sunday
On Friday, the United States began the day’s action with a jaw-dropping annihilationof Finland. It took the US less than 12 minutes to put six goals on the board against two goalies as the Americans ran away with a 6-1 victory. After quietly putting up some of the best numbers of any netminder in the tournament, Mikka Kipprusoff appeared to remove himself from the game after allowing four of the six goals, many of which were easily preventable goals.
After some analysts had pointed out how little Patrick Kane had done for the US compared to the impact his five Chicago teammates have had for Slovakia and Canada, the young forward responded with his best game of the Olympics. Kane scored two goals and was much more aggressive with the puck, leading the onslaught. Among US forwards, only Ryan Kesler was on the ice more than Kane (17:04) on Friday.
Ryan Miller continued his exceptional play between the pipes, running his shutout streak to 112 minutes entering the gold medal game.
In the night game, Canada was simply too deep for the Cinderella team from Slovakia. None of the Blackhawks were involved in the scoring in the game, but Duncan Keith led Canadian defensemen in ice time. Early in the game, Canadian coach Mike Babcock played Brent Seabrook with Keith for a rare few minutes in the tournament before putting youngster Drew Doughty back with Keith.
In his limited action, Seabrook was +1 for Canada. Keith was -1 and Toews even on the night, and none of the Hawks had an assist or goal. Among Canadian forwards, only Sidney Crosby was on the ice longer than Toews.
For Slovakia, Marian Hossa enters the bronze medal game tied with Pavol Demitra for the team lead with seven points (both have two goals and five assists in the tournament). Both Hossa and Demitra were held scoreless in an exhilarating third period, though, as Slovakia came as close as 3-2 in a well-played loss. This is the best performance by a Slovak team in any Olympics.
Perhaps the biggest surprise for Slovakia, and a wonderful development for the Blackhawks, was the solid play of Tomas Kopecky. On the talented roster in Chicago, Kopecky has been lost in the shuffle and has struggled to find his niche after signing as a free agent with his good friend Hossa this past summer. In the Olympics, however, Kopecky displayed a confidence and quality of play that has not been seen in a Blackhawks’ uniform yet this year. In fact, Kopecky performed well enough that in the last minute of the game, when Slovakia was pressing to tie the game, Kopecky was on the ice.
Sunday’s gold medal game will air on NBC at 2:00 pm in Chicago.
