Jets Cruise Past Blackhawks
Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
The Blackhawks scored first.
The Blackhawks got their asses kicked.
It took all of 11 seconds for the Blackhawks to get on the board in Winnipeg. Brandon Saad opened the scoring with his 16th of the season.
But Winnipeg challenged the goal, saying the Hawks were offsides.
So the officials reviewed the play.
And reviewed it some more.
And… continued reviewing the play.
What felt like a half hour later, the goal stood, Chicago got a power play, and the game started over again.
Again, 11 seconds had come off the game clock.
By the time 9:36 had come off the clock, the Hawks were down 3-1 and Anton Forsberg’s night was over. He faced six shots, stopped only half, and got the hook before the game was ten minutes old.
JF Berube came in and faced seven more shots in the first period, stopping only five. And after 20 minutes the Blackhawks were buried 5-1.
Patrick Sharp scored the only goal of the second period, getting the Blackhawks back within three.
Which doesn’t even qualify as a moral victory.
Usually, teams that are trailing tend to put more shots on net than teams protecting a lead – especially a lead of three or four. The Blackhawks managed to get out-shot 26-16 in the final 40 minutes as the final score came out to 6-2 in favor of the Jets.
Chicago got outskated, outscored and outclassed on Thursday night.
Hopefully most fans in Chicago were out drinking to celebrate Loyola’s stunning win earlier in the afternoon.
To his credit, Berube ended up stopping 30 of 32 in his 50 minutes of relief work.
Looking for another silver lining? The Hawks successfully killed all four Jets power plays.
Sadly, moral victories stopped carrying any significance for this team a couple months ago.
I read comments from Henrik Zetterberg a few days ago after the Wings played poorly in a loss. He used the phrase “poke and hope” to describe the defense some of his team mates were playing. Zetterberg knows what it takes to win in this league and he was disgusted with this lack of effort and described it as poking at the puck and hoping something good happens rather than fighting for the puck with an all out effort.
“Hope and poke” – doesn’t that describe the Hawks play? Granted, the Hawks are the 98 pound weaklings of the NHL so to see them get manhandled is to be expected, but to see them put out a less than 100% effort is not to be expected, or tolerated. And lest someone would come to their defense with the excuse that they have nothing to “get up for” now that the playoffs are out of reach – I would say they’ve been playing poke and hope defense pretty mush all season long.
As for the game tonight – same ole same ole. Bad goaltending. Bad defense. Bad passing. Bad physical matchup. Bad effort. Besides the piss poor play of the Hawks, all the other loser teams that played tonight lost too so draft position remained the same.
After watching countless Hawk players get knocked to the ice by Jet players tonight, I thought of a good over/under game – number of times an opposing player knocks a Hawks player to the ice. It happens a lot. Or maybe it should be the difference between the number of times an opposing playing knocks a Hawk player to the ice versus the number of times a Hawk player knocks an opposing player to the ice. An example: let’s say Hawk players got knocked to the ice 22 times in the game versus 3 times a Hawks player knocked a Jets player over. So it the over under is 17.5 – then if you took the “over” you would win because the difference was 19 (22-3). Gotta do something to make these last 11 games interesting.
The Hawks chemistry is awful. Look back at that Chicago Blackhawks team that had the Saint Patrick’s Day Massacre with the St Louis Blues. Now that was great chemistry. Skilled players who were also tough. What a team!
Wow, Winnipeg really looks good! Foley said that nine of their first round picks were in the line up. When is the last time the Hawks held someone under twenty five shots?
Winnipeg and Nashville will contend for years with all their youth, talent and cap space. Colorado isn’t far behind either. I’m not sure what SB has in mind but I’m curious to know because this roster sucks along with the shit roster they are rolling out at RFD. I’m still pissed about all this NMC that will keep the club in the basement for YEARS!
Could only watch about half the game-but continue to see players (even Murphy) have opportunities to hit (even rub out) players to get he puck. Poke is a good word.
Do they avoid contact with teams like the Jets to not poke a bigger, meaner bear or not willing to do the little things to win? Or is it not in too many of their DNA’s. (ala Hartman and Shaw)
You don’t have to be crash and bang but you do need to engage physically to win battles. One of their most engaged physical players is little Debrincat.
Bouma and Wingels aren’t the answer but at least they understood what their job was and were willing to do it. I don’t see Hayden involved but he may not want to be acting alone. It may be a chronic-team wide malaise.
This team has some parts and emerging skill but needs an identity/style and appropriate system to play well. They need to be energized with a younger, different coach in my opinion. (and perhaps GM)
After the score went to 3-1 I stopped watching so I’ll only comment on the first 10 minutes.
I know the Hawks have lots of issues currently (their D corps being a priority) but c’mon every problem seems that much worse when your goaltending sucks and that’s what we got last night for 10 minutes.
You simply can’t win without goaltending – it is very demoralizing for a team to watch those soft goals going in consistently
If CC is not back next year they obviously have a huge problem – if he is back and playing to the level he has before a lot of things (not everything) will start to look better
I think SB will try to pluck an RFA D man from a cap strapped team – the same reason we had to deal players like Shaw and Saad and/or sign a UFA D man
Definitely agree young and fast needs somebody to play physical too. When you keep getting goaltending thats not nhl calibur bad things will follow. Berube was fine after he settled in but game was over by then. Like the idea of Saad with 8 and 12 and giving Sikura a shot with 19 and 88. Saad can help Debrincat in the dirty areas. Not against trying to move nmc and going total rebuild but the issue i have with it is who has dismsntled the core of a dominant team and done a successful rebuild in a few years. Normally that leads to many years of mediocrity. A dman who isn’t averse at hitting somebody and moves the puck well would help, which is what i like about OEL. He gas good possession numbers on a bad possession team also which could fit ok.
Great post EB, poke and hope should be the theme and maybe replace the One Goal slogan for this season. Noonan is right, there is some emerging skill on this team, you can see flashes of what Schmaltz, DCat, Hino, Hayden are capable of doing. But there is no team identity, they are two worlds. Young guys trying to get better and establish themselves in the NHL, and older guys who won 3 Cups years ago but are no longer the players they once were. And I am not sure how much these two groups gel and mix, or if they do at all.
Even when past Hawks teams were undersized, like in 2015 when we beat Anaheim in the Conference Final, you had guys playing fearlessly even though they knew they would get hit. Our guys took hits to make plays all series long (Kruger for example). Then we had a 3rd line with Bickell and Shaw that would lay the hammer on their D every chance they had.
This version of the Hawks seems to play the game without the physical aggressive element entirely, and I don’t think you can be successful in the NHL without the will to engage the other team physically. You don’t have to outhit them, but you do have to compete for the puck and position all over the ice. I think that is a personnel thing, and it was made worse by moving Shaw and Hartman in the last two years. Not that those moves were bad or that element can’t be replaced. But you can’t fill a team with Hino, Kane, Sikura, Schmaltz, Osterle, Forsling, all non physical small skill guys, and not expect to get run over by a Winnipeg.
Wrap I would love us to sign another teams RFA dman, but has Bowman ever signed an RFA from another team? Have the Hawks ever done that? It is almost an unwritten rule that teams don’t do that. Hammer with SJ in 2010 was the last one of significance I can remember, and then the Hawks matched but were unable to resign Niemi, who went to SJ as RFA.
Plus, depending on salary, you have to give the team that loses the player draft pick compensation. The Hawks are not in a position to give away draft picks, if anything we need more of them.
It is really hard to win the Stanley Cup. I am glad we did it 3 times. But I think this team is not going to do it again without a near total tear apart and rebuild. There is too much that is broken and doesn’t fit together. There is no way we win another Cup by tinkering on the edges of the roster.
Stan just doesn’t get the physical thing. It just blows me away how he has such a boner for bantamweights. If he blows these first rounders on smurfs this year I will be very upset.
2018-2019 slogan; “Passed our prime” we “used” to be good! If Crow comes back healthy that will cure some issues and this can be a playoff team but at 33 now and with 2 yrs left its only a band aid. The problem is and will be the blue line. Which is why it will be a LONG time until this team wins another cup.
“Stan just doesn’t get the physical thing.”
Guy has drafted Shaw, Hartman, Hayden, Gilbert, Bondra, Barratt and we’re still going back to the cliche “we need more size” argument.
Bowman signed guys specifically to be more physical to start this year and it didn’t work. The game is getting faster. The Hawks – like jordy’s comment – have stuggled to keep up…
I think it’s not size they lack, it’s heart. The ability to win 50-50 puck battles. Hossa was great at it. Shaw was too. He wasn’t the biggest guy either. But let’s be honest, letting Shaw walk was a good idea. He will never live up to that contract he signed in Montreal.
It’s just that this team shows little inclination to engage teams physically in order to win the puck or manage the puck’s position on the ice to be in our favor. Kruger was a small guy but was great at this. I’ve never seen a guy that small so good and getting the puck out of the defensive zone when a dman zings it around the board and there is a defenseman on his back. He would get it out nearly every time.
We can’t seem to do those little things.
I miss the days when our 3rd or 4th liners were being acquired and overpaid by other teams to play top line minutes. Speaks to the respect and talent of an organization. One can tell that the climate has changed when our 3rd liners are acquired to be 4th liners or not being acquired at all.
Hereismike agree with you and that is why i was hoping Soderlund might be ready as his game sounds like it has that edge plus speed. As EB mentioned poke and hope is not going to do it.
Hereismike… add your $10M captain- does not win the majority of puck battles… like 3 yrs ago…
Kruger/Desi… didn’t always win battles… but they could muck it on boards and draw for several shifts a game versus TOP lines in league… huge advantage to Hawks
We are easy to play against. Nowadays teams need adequate size, lots of speed, and even more grit/compete level. The average NHL player is 6’2″ and 202 pounds — the game is faster but it’s still not for smurfs (look at our left-handed defense who routinely get manhandled — if they even engage at all — Gus (176 lbs), Ost (182), DK (192). Stan has a clearly demonstrated preference for smaller guys a lot of whom aren’t that scrappy. Teams get to our net all the time. We stay on their perimeter. Hard to miss.
Maybe the chemistry got killed when Stan brought back Sharp who according to the rumor was poking one of the teammate’s females. If the victim of this inconsiderate poking is still on the team (according to the rumor, yes) Stan killed the locker room.
Just a thought.
Hawks play Buffalo Saturday at noon. I haven’t seen Buffalo play much this season but my sense is they’re not a large or overly physical team … so I’m thinking the “knockdown over/under” should be set at about 10.5. What do you think?
I’ll take the “over”, meaning I think Hawk players will be knocked down by Sabre players at least 11 times more than Sabre players will be knocked to the ice by Hawk players.
So let me understand this…………..when we won 3 cups in 6 years and WERE NOT a physical team, every team was jealous because we had speed, quickness and skill. AND we had the ability to take people off the puck.
Now………….we’re not physical and we are LOSING games, so we’re too small?
This logic is all wrong, boys. You no longer have to be of big physical size to play the game. You need HEART, DESIRE and DETERMINATION. We DO NOT out work teams any longer. We accept our fate and get outplayed and man handled.
Patrick Kane is not a big man but he takes people off the puck on the boards because he has such quick hands and he WANTS THE PUCK. Simple.
When we are winning 5-1 and one of our players gets run over, it’s no big deal. When we’re losing 5-1 and we get run over all of a sudden we’re too small? Sorry, the logic is wrong. We need more heart, not size. Period.
While we weren’t big and physical during the cup runs we also didn’t have half the team made up of 170 pound guys. The fact is we are at a disadvantage in winning board battles with this group, last night just being the most obvious example. I’m a little surprised that SB is looking to sign the German guy in Tab’s last post as another 170 pound guy and then Sikura will sign. Yes the game is getting faster but you still have to compete in the tough areas and it is harder to do when you have so many smaller players.
Not that it was the reason for losing but Forsberg’s amateur effort last night just reinforced again how good we had it with Crow. If he can’t return next year we are in a world of hurt.
HereisMike – my scenario re: RFA is not an offer sheet but making a trade with a team that can’t afford their own RFA – probably one who is arbitration eligible
Let’s say WPG can’t afford Jacob Trouba who is due a new contract or same in OTT with Cody Ceci or Ryan Murray with CLB
maybe trade Rutta plus Duclair and a draft pick something like that – perhaps take back a contract they don’t want
For the first time in this Hawks era we have the cap space to do somethin like that
SB hasn’t done it before because the Hawks were always the team needing to trade out RFAs they could no longer afford – the shoe is somewhat on the other foot now
I see your point and that would be a great idea. It will be very interesting to see if and how our cap space gets utilized this off season, and if we can move Hossa’s contract.
Trading away Hossa’s contract would be ideal but if not there is an option to use that $ in the summer rather than in season
If they chose that latter option that would free up another $5 mil for a UFA potentially
maybe another D man
Add 2 NHL D men get CC back the youngsters improve the core bounces back (19 and 20 are already starting that process – now we need 2 to do the same) and they’re right back in it
Not undoable.
@ REG DUNLOP
No its that the Hawks core was good enough to over come their issues in the past and now they are no longer able to over come those flaws.
Wall’s right. The Hawks would be so much better off w/ Desjardins & Kruger on the team instead of Jonathan Toews.
We pounded them 5-1 in one of the first games against them. They have been waiting for a chance, to pound us back for that.
We do not have a full roster, yet. We will be close in 19 and will in 20.
This is their yr, thay deserve it the most. Playing good and being one of the best teams in hardest division.
WIN in any other division their 1 seed (maybe TB).
The core guys will be better then this yr, once we have a full roster and are deep again.
That doesn’t mean we do not need to make adjustments.
Huge part of the Hawks problem is our A.H.L quality goal tending ,.,.,Forsling is not even qualified for that ! F@#king atrocious ,please never play that piece of crap again . P.S we are NOT physical enough to compete in the west right now . We need our forwards to start knocking folks on their asses ,.,.,.starting say,.,.,.,.,.tomorrow v.s. lowly Buffalo . P.P.S Q has his head so far up his own ass that well ,.,..,he`s was yapping about consistency ,.,.,.can you freeking believe that ? That man is truly amazing . Fire Q and just get on with it .
I do not think judge any game/performance from a little while before the 0-7-1 stretch is worth any time. You cant go by anything since then because were not playing.
We were a 6 over .500 team at game 28ish (17-11). That’s the kind of team we have with Crow and more of a full roster then now/recently.
Young guys are going to get better each yr and we need adjustments. We have lots of assets and 3 good young players to add to 8 and 12. (Jokeru, high top pick, other 1st) Core guys cant be any worse then this yr, basically.
Its finding what adjustments to roster we need (everybody is on the table/like 38 was).
Lets load up and not chip away.
Tab,
I know, last month, you proposed signing 3 college goalies and give them a looksee. My question is, with the player “movement rule”, is this even possible anymore? I’ve seen enough of Berube and Forsberg. They are not even a question for an answer. I’d love to tryout these college goalies and see what they have. Look at Winnipeg. That 24 y/0 goalie looks great. Maybe we could stumble into another Eddie Belfour? Why not? The season is winding down and it might inspire the rest of the team to play for next year. I think quite a few may be gone. But, that’s just my opinion. We’ll see. Thanks.
DREWP wins stupid post for this thread.
Yeah, Patrick Sharp killed the locker room.
Sharp’s last season with the Blackhawks was plagued with rumors.
Blackhawks also won the f*cking Stanley Cup that year.
Yeah ……. he was bad for the locker room.
That was really evident when a number of players, including Duncan Keith (who kept popping up in the rumors as being a “victim”) said Sharp would be missed in a big way and that he was one of their individual (Keith’s words) best friends on the team.
Some stories are just really old and stupid.
And, by the way, even though I’ve advocated for Sharp to transition into a role similar to Brian Campbell’s, Sharp has at least gone to the net the last couple of games and scored, gotten knocked on his ass, has shown some energy etc etc.
He has 9 goals this season by my count, and that’s coming off of a season with pretty serious concussion issues plus hip surgery.
Let’s see some guys get drafted in the off-season, maybe see a move or two made in the off-season, and try and look forward to an improved season next year.
Next.
Big Indian or is it BIG INDIAN
That is why I said, just a taught.
At this point, we will never know the real reason why they are not jelling. You can put the public comments where the light does not shine. Everything in life is a business model, including our beloved BLACKHAWKS.
Peace
Just read the Hockey News Future Watch, very encouraging how many difference makers appear to be in the top 8.
I am convinced the Hawks would LOVE Zadina. It says he does everything hard. Passes hard, skates hard, backchecks hard, shoots hard. He’s got Quenneville written all over him plus THN thinks he will play in the NHL at 19.
The question is, will the Hawks be in a position to nab him.
The only way to get Zadina would be wth a lottery pick, he goes 2nd or 3rd ovrrall.