On Friday afternoon, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville made a seemingly subtle announcement that could have a significant impact on who will be between the pipes for the Hawks in the playoffs.
In light of each goalies recent struggles, culminating with Cristobal Huet’s removal against Detroit, the starting job is completely up for grabs. After Antti Niemi’s strong performance against the Kings, Quenneville’s confidence appeared to be at least teased into favoring the rookie. However, after Thursday’s practiceQuenneville indicated that both Niemi and Huet would start one of this weekend’s games. On Saturday afternoon, the Blackhawks play in Philadelphia, followed by another late-morning start on Sunday in Chicago against the Washington Capitals.
Friday’s announcement may have shown that Quenneville is ready to go all in: Huet will start the Saturday matinee against the Flyers, and Quenneville said there’s a “good chance” Niemi will start Sunday against the NHL-best Capitals.
If the Hawks wanted to see whether or not Niemi is ready to be a playoff goalie, Sunday is the best opportunity on the schedule. Washington puts 33.1 shots on net per game, which ranks second in the NHL (the Blackhawks are first at 34.2). They are deeper than just superstar Alex Ovechkin, too; the Capitals have four players with more than 25 goals already and four with at least 66 points.
If the Hawks defense wanted a test, they’ll have their hardest on Sunday. The Capitals have the top offense in the league, scoring 3.88 goals per game; San Jose is second in the league, more than half a goal less per game (3.24) than Washington. The Caps also have the top power play unit in the league, converting 25.6 percent of their opportunities.
Sunday will be a nationally televised battle royale between the top offense in the league and the Blackhawks defense that, despite recent struggles, is still among the best in the game.
By starting Huet on Saturday, the Hawks will also get a good look at how the veteran responds to his recent failure against an Eastern Conference playoff team. Both goalies will be tested, but the decision to put Niemi on Sunday appears, at least on the surface, to indicate that the Hawks are ready to formally make him “the man” for the Cup run.
The General Managers of every NHL team met for the past three days in Boca Raton, FL to discuss the state of the game. Central to their annual discussions was the recent run of shots to the head, most notably the shot that Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke put on Boston’s Marc Savard that likely ended Savard’s season. After three days of deliberations, the group has agreed to present a motion to the NHLPA’s Competition Committee for their review.
The following language was agreed to unanimously by the group:
“A lateral, back pressure or blindside hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and or the principal point of contact is not permitted. A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.”
Cooke’s cheap shot, seen below, is a clear-cut example of the type of play this rule change recommendation would make a penalty-drawing offense, if not worse.
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Earlier this year, the Blackhawks had a scare when Willie Mitchell of the Vancouver Canucks left the penalty box and caught Captain Jonathan Toews with a high hit. Clearly, the game is concerned that their younger players are at risk when unnecessary violence takes place on the ice, and is taking steps to avoid these horrific injuries.
What made the presentation of this recommendation strange was the news that came later from the league office. NHL senior vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell informed the Pittsburgh Penguins that Cooke would not face any league penalty, including any suspension, for his hit on Savard. While the recommended rule change won’t take effect until next season, Campbell noted that suspending Cooke would not be consistent with other, similar issues the league has dealt with this year.
How much did we miss Adam Burish?
An assist AND a fight on his first shift.
Well that didn’t take long.
Fans barely knew he had stepped on the ice before his presence was felt in the box score. Adam Burish, playing in his first regular season game after tearing an ACL in the preseason, came flying off the bench for his first shift in over five months. He skated straight to the back of the net, got his stick on the puck, and pushed a gorgeous wrap-around pass to Patrick Sharp in front of the net for the first goal of the game.
Only 2:34 had come off the clock when the goal was scored, and Burish hadn’t yet been on the ice for ten seconds this season.
At 2:54, Burish brought the other part of his game that fans had missed. Just 20 seconds after notching his first assist of the season, Burish drew his first penalty of the season. And, of course, it was a five minute major for fighting Richard Clune.
When the term “energy player” or “impact player” is used, fans need look no further than Burish for a definition. After throwing, and receiving, a few punches, Burish skated away from Clune with a smile on his face, pumping his fists with obvious excitement. This was the player Hawks fans had fallen in love with over the past couple years, and his emotion on the ice set the tone early.
The Hawks skated through a physical first period that ended with a 1-0 lead favoring Chicago. However, as has become all too familiar for Hawks fans recently, the second period was a different story.
Just under five minutes into the second, Dustin Brown beat Antti Niemi to tie the game. Only 61 seconds after the Brown goal, Jonathan Toews was called for a goalie interference penalty that can be best described as garbage. Toews was not only pushed into Kings’ netminder Jonathan Quick, but Quick extended his right leg to ease himself into Toews. Everyone on the ice, and in the stands at the United Center, thought the penalty was going to be on Los Angeles. It was not. And, as has been the trend for the Hawks in recent second periods, their opponent made them pay. Anze Kopitar scored at the mid point of the power play to give LA the 2-1 lead.
This would become a crucial point in the game, and perhaps the Blackhawks’ season. The recent stretch of poor second periods, punctuated by Sunday’s debacle against Detroit, has seen the flood gates open wide when the Hawks started struggling. When the Hawks lost the momentum, it snowballed in favor of the opponents until the game was either out of reach or the period ended.
Wednesday night saw a different result from the Hawks.
A strong shift from John Madden, Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd paid off with Versteeg finding the back of the net to tie the game only 95 seconds after the Kings took the lead. After Versteeg tied the game, the Hawks’ defense settled down and the flow of the action was significantly more controlled through the end of the second. Despite an early flurry and Niemi allowing two tough goals, he rebounded well.
The third period saw 17 minutes of solid checking and back-and-forth action from both teams. Both Niemi and Quick fought off tough shots in traffic to keep their respective teams in the game. After a hard hit into the boards, Dustin Brown decided he wanted to dance with Troy Brouwer. Just as Burish had done early in the first period, Brouwer landed a couple solid blows to win the fight. The hope was that the Hawks’ offense would respond.
Wayne Simmonds helped the Hawks out by taking his second dumb penalty of the game with only 1:23 remaining on a potential breakaway, but the first 83 seconds of the power play expired with the regulation game clock with the score still tied at 2-2. In regulation, Niemi stopped 27 of 29 shots while Quick had a busier night, keeping 38 of 40 regulation shots out of the net. Considering the Kings only allowed 11 shots on net in their previous game, the offensive play from the Hawks was solid; the effort from Quick was exceptional.
In the overtime, on a terrible Los Angeles turnover, Sharp got a one-on-one chance with Quick in open ice and was victorious. His second goal of the game clinched a 3-2 win for the Hawks in a game that should carry a lot of significance for the Hawks.
First, the Hawks had their regular lapse in effort in the second period, but didn’t let the game get away from them.
Secondly, they FINALLY had a netminder battle with another quality goaltender in a playoff matchup and play well. Quick was great for Los Angeles, but Niemi’s effort must be noted. He was strong for all 60 minutes against a very good Kings team, and Hawks fans should hope this propels him into a stretch of solid play that extends into the postseason.
Third, the Hawks saw contributions from all over the ice. Patrick Kane had the second assist on Sharp’s first period goal, extending his point streak to nine game. But Troy Brouwer was credited with six hits, Duncan Keith blocked three shots, Brent Sopel returned to the lineup and skated effectively and the Versteeg-Madden-Ladd line again made an impact. Niklas Hjalmarsson was also a physical force on the ice.
The Hawks are now off until a Saturday matinee in Philadelphia against the Flyers. That game, which will be broadcast on WGN in Chicago, begins at noon Central.
Elliott Friedman of CBC has an intriguing couple bullet points in his latest blog. He says:
“… Strongly believe there was one, possibly two teams who were willing to take Cristobal Huet from Chicago. (Should clarify: I’m more certain about one than the other.) But the Blackhawks decided to stand pat, much to the surprise of other GMs. Unloading Huet’s contract (two years remaining, $5.625 million cap hit) would have cost at least a first-rounder and an established player. (I know you’re going to ask, but I’d be guessing on whom. The source wouldn’t tell me.)… Why did Chicago decline? Scotty Bowman believes strongly in the Detroit model: If you don’t have a top-three goalie, you protect him with great team defence and puck possession. The Blackhawks – disciplined and talented – have a shot. But, to duplicate the Red Wings’ success, they will have to show two things: their forwards are as committed to back pressure as Detroit’s and their defensive corps is as good. As great as the Blackhawks look, we’re talking Lidstrom/Rafalski/Kronwall/Stuart here. What a tough, tough call to make.”
“… Strongly believe there was one, possibly two teams who were willing to take Cristobal Huet from Chicago. (Should clarify: I’m more certain about one than the other.) But the Blackhawks decided to stand pat, much to the surprise of other GMs. Unloading Huet’s contract (two years remaining, $5.625 million cap hit) would have cost at least a first-rounder and an established player. (I know you’re going to ask, but I’d be guessing on whom. The source wouldn’t tell me.)…
Why did Chicago decline? Scotty Bowman believes strongly in the Detroit model: If you don’t have a top-three goalie, you protect him with great team defence and puck possession. The Blackhawks – disciplined and talented – have a shot. But, to duplicate the Red Wings’ success, they will have to show two things: their forwards are as committed to back pressure as Detroit’s and their defensive corps is as good. As great as the Blackhawks look, we’re talking Lidstrom/Rafalski/Kronwall/Stuart here. What a tough, tough call to make.”
This will raise red flags all over Chicago. “You mean to tell me the Hawks could have dumped that piece of garbage at the deadline and didn’t?” Let’s hold that emotional response for a moment…
Note that Friedman says the Hawks would have to part ways with “at least a first-rounder and an established player” to make the deal happen. The gamble of GM Stan Bowman is not only dealing with Huet’s contract moving forward, but those two other crucial pieces to the deal.
The reality for Blackhawks fans is that there are players on the NHL roster right now that won’t be in Chicago next year. We’ve discussed it; Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien and others might be wearing a different sweater on Opening Night next year. If the Hawks are going to be in a tight financial situation next year and in the future, the replacement for players like Versteeg, Sharp and Byfuglien are going to need to come from within the organization. But players like these don’t magically show up in August with a gym bag looking for a contract; draft picks, especially high ones, are critical to the Hawks sustaining any success.
The second piece of this gamble is the on-ice cost of dumping Huet. Friedman doesn’t speculate what the Hawks would have received in return for Huet, but what if they weren’t receiving an NHL player in return? If the Hawks’ current playoff outlook is questionable with Huet and Antti Niemi, how much more/less comfortable would you be with Niemi and Corey Crawford as the only netminders ont he roster?
Furthermore, what if the roster player had to be Sharp? Versteeg has struggled with consistency this year, and Byfuglien as hot/cold as anyone on the roster. While Byfuglien’s presence in front of the net was a big part of last year’s success, it’s clear that the player of these three that the Hawks could least afford to be without moving forward is Sharp. Whether it’s his ability to be an effective center or quality play at the point on the power play, Sharp has a big role in the Hawks’ rotation.
Moving Sharp and Huet would have actually hurt the Hawks’ depth.
The other consideration to make is that, if a team was willing to take Huet’s contract now, what are the odds that there will be an available partner to move his contract this summer? As the draft draws near, the Hawks will have to make decisions about current NHL players that will be restricted free agents (Andrew Ladd) and will also have a better grasp of the value of their first round pick. There is still potential for a move to happen that clears the cap space.
This is an interesting piece of information from Friedman, but needs to be digested with a grain of salt.
When will the carousel stop?
After Tuesday morning’s skate, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville told the media that Antti Niemi would start in net against the Los Angeles Kings.
Round and round we go…
The staggering issue the Blackhawks continue to deal with is that neither of their netminders appears ready/willing/able to grab the top of the depth chart. Niemi has had a handful of opportunities to become the undisputed number one, and has struggled with each chance. Meanwhile, Cristobal Huet has defined mediocrity all season, especially since the beginning of the calendar year.
When the trade deadline passed as quietly as a far in an elevator for the Blackhawks, the stink every fan now has to deal with is the situation between the pipes. Niemi has shown flashed of ability to become the man, but hasn’t consistently brought that effort to the ice. Indeed, Niemi’s goals against average has increased in every month since November (1.44) by just enough that while December was still exceptional (1.74), January (2.41) and February (2.84) have allowed doubt to creep into the minds of Hawks fans.
And yet by comparison, Huet has been worse. Since November (1.97), Huet’s goals per game average has increased to decent in December (2.02) and poor in January (2.98). Since the Olympics, Huet’s average has been awful (3.56) with a save percentage (.831) to match.
Sunday’s performance against Detroit became the latest spark for Huet haters to call for Niemi to be the man. Quenneville isn’t as quick to place blame.
“I’m not blaming [Huet for the] last game. I just think Antti gets a chance to grab the net,” said Quenneville after Tuesday’s practice. “We have back-to-back games over the weekend. We have a lot of tough opponents as well, and we have a condensed schedule. So they’ll both see some time here, and we’re looking for both of them to take charge.”
Clearly, the talent surrounding the netminders on the Hawks is good enough to compete for, and win, the Stanley Cup this year. But the defensive play in front of the net has also left a lot to be desired lately. The PK has allowed a goal in seven of ten games since the start of February, and one of the three they didn’t was when the Islanders didn’t have a chance.
What has compounded the problem has been the number of penalties the Hawks have been forced to kill; since the start of February, the Hawks have had to kill 39 penalties in those ten games. That represents a ten percent increase in the number of penalties the Hawks are killing per night through January.
The Blackhawks have eight shut outs this season, four by both Huet and Niemi. However, the Hawks have only held their opponent off the scoreboard in one game in 2010. Meanwhile, the Hawks have allowed more than three goals nine times in only 25 games. Allowing at least four goals in 36 percent of a team’s games is clearly not good enough to win at the end of April.
On Wednesday, Niemi will face a Kings team that comes in averaging 3.75 goals per game since the Olympics. He’ll be tested, and Hawks fans hope he performs.
Um, Cristo... that little black thing that's behind you? Yeah, about that...
Andrew Ladd had the first hat trick of the season for the Blackhawks, scoring three of the Hawks’ four goals. Unfortunately, four goals wasn’t enough on Sunday, as the Hawks lost to Detroit 5-4.
Cristobal Huet ripped the heart of the team out by folding liks a sheet of notebook paper in the second period, allowing four goals on just eight shots in the period.
Despite all of the positive thinking and forced attempts to paint the Blackhawks goaltending situation as survivable, until one of the two settles down and grabs the job for himself, the Blackhawks achilles’ heel could keep them from achieving their One Goal this year. After Sunday’s debacle, coach Joel Quenneville indicated that he won’t comment on the starting goaltender situation until after practice, which means the Hawks still have a question mark on their most important position.
Will one of these guys step up? Please?
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:
On Saturday, the Chicago Blackhawks activated forward Adam Burish off the injured reserve. He is now available to return to game action.
Burish had speculated before the Olympics that Sunday’s game against Detroit might be when he appears in a game for the first time since having surgery on a torn ACL, but it now appears the Blackhawks will wait until they host the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday for Burish to see real action again.
When Burish returns, the Hawks will expand an already crowded group of forwards. When center Dave Bolland returned before the Olympics, the Blackhawks were forced to sit a regular contributor on a nightly basis because they had too many bodies for the roster. Colin Fraser and Ben Eager have been the most frequent healthy scratches. When Burish returns, there will be two too many bodies for the spots available.
