Johnny Oduya To Return Thursday
According to coach Joel Quenneville on Tuesday, the Blackhawks anticipate defenseman Johnny Oduya returning to the lineup when they face the Coyotes in Arizona on Thursday night.
Oduya left the lineup after one shift against Boston on February 22 and has not returned to game action since. He has two goals and three assists in in 60 games this season, and is an unrestricted free agent this summer.
gotta wonder what the blue line looks like in the playoffs. 2,4, 7 are obviously mainstays, but what do the other 3 look like. Timonen, Rozy, Oduya? Does TvR or Runblad have a chance of seeing playoff ice time? Look forward to seeing how this plays out the rest of the way. On that note, hey Tab, has TvR skated in Rockford at all? What kind of minutes?
Lets hope the time off allowed Oduya to rest up and return to form, he’s had a pretty below average season so far and the Hawks can use him playing at a high level. It wasnt long ago that the Hawks went on a sick run after they acquried him. Hopefully his addition will allow Rosy to sit.
Oduya coming back is a good thing. He’s top 4 on this team all day every day. When people here grind on the guy I really have to shake my head being that he and 4 are playing against the toughest comp every night. 4 and 27 (top pairing)have taken the tough minutes and zone starts all season which is a point lost on many here when they express their love for Keith and Seabrook, (second pairing).
Timonen will slide into the 5 – 6 spot. What a waste of two draft picks.
I wouldn’t consider Timonem a waste of picks because he justs bolsters the depth. He doesn’t need to contend for the Norris. 44 removes 5 from the lineup in the playoffs (I like Rundblad but I won’t kid myself and believe he’ll skate 12+ minutes in the playoffs- which really don’t fit his game as an offensive puck mover weak on the boards and afraid of contact).
57 suppose to be in lineup on the wknd.
27 coming back will really help min. for all 6D.
Oduya has been god awful this season, which is why Q moved him away from Hammer since they were getting eaten alive while taking the top assignments. Not surprisingly, Hammer was doing significantly better when not paired with Oduya. Any critisizm given to Oduya was well deserved.
That being said, he’s still better than Rozsival. So this is a welcomed return.
Bobby Orr, Jr., welcome back… maybe… I think…
iceman says:
March 11, 2015 at 8:19 am
Bobby Orr, Jr., welcome back… maybe… I think…
You are correct sir, however it’s the Bobby Orr that played for the Hawks at the end……
Morrison- 57 in this weekend in Rockford??
Who do you trust more on the backend; 32,5,or 27? All of them have their flaws, In 100% seriousness I think I’d take 5. I really want someone to handcuff 32 in the bowels of the UC. My concern with Rundblad is whether or not he’ll crap himself in his own zone. But I think he is more useful than Oduya.
Take a look at things like Offensive Zone Starts, Quality of Competition, and Quality of teammates JS. If you think Oduya has been a trainwreck tell Q to stop feeding him the second most difficult minutes on the team with the second worst set of teammates in front of him. Of the top 4 Seabrook gets the easiest ride. Hjalmarsson gets the toughest.
I’ll say it again. As a pairing 4 and 27 play the toughest minutes against the toughest comp with the worst zone starts and worst teammates. That should be a tell for you.
Oduya hasn’t been great this season, but I still think I trust him the most of 32, 5, and 7. That being said, it seems like 5 gets better/more exciting offensively each game. I really wouldn’t mind 2,7,4,27,44,57, with the occasional 5 to give 44 a break if necessary? If TvR doesn’t come back, I still think 5 would be fine and provide an occasional offensive burst.
Yeah, that “7” in the first line was supposed to be a “27”.
4 and 27 have done that the last two seasons… 27 has been poor no matter where he has played. That being said, he ought to be able to eat 12-15 minutes with out doing anything too detrimental to their success in the playoffs assuming he’s healthy.
Rundblad is not someone who should be playing in the spring. I predict he plays 0 playoff minutes.
Another thing to consider is Keith’s minutes have been way down since he started getting paired with junk. I don’t know if it was done on purpose because it is so un Q like but he should be pretty fresh come the post season and ready to eat 30 minutes.
Zamboni, that’s funny.
Not to beat a dead horse but Kevin Hayes is putting together a pretty nice rookie season for the Rags. 13 G 17 A & +9,…..he’s having the type of season Bickell wishes he is having and he’s 6″5 225. Maybe Stan figured he was too big and strong to be a Hawk. This was last last night against the Islanders.
SSHM – all you need know about the Hawks problems is explained in the tab at the top of this blog “stan-bowman-history-as-chicago-blackhawks-gm” Find me the gold nuggets hidden on that resume in what is now a 5 year history.
SSHM- The Hawks tried hard to sign Hayes. He signed a 2 year ELC with the Rangers. The Hawks couldn’t offer him any more than he got, and I doubt they offered less. ELC are pretty standard. Roughly 950 at the NHL level, roughly 65k at the AHL level. All ELC are 2-way. Hayes, seeing the depth the Hawks had, didn’t like his chances of cracking the Hawks roster. So he chose a place closer to home that would guarantee him almost 900k a year for the duration of the contract(2years). While still playing for a good team. I can’t fault him, that’s a lot of coin and to be closer to home is a plus.
Hayes did the Hawks a favor by going all four years of school. He could have opted out after his junior year and the Hawks would’ve been screwed. Like Anaheim with Justin Schultz. And What is speculated Mike Reilly of Minnesota will do to Columbus. Because he completed school the hawks were awarded a compensatory pick since they did offer Hayes a fair contract that was turned down. Yes Hayes would look good in place of Bickell, but you can’t fault the Hawks. They found the kid, which is usually most of the battle.
Kayes for 2nd pick and Riemsdyk. That’s what Bowman got.
please someone tell me why kevin hayes is on the rangers he was a first round pick of the hawks why didnt he make it im watching the rangers capitsls game and hayes seems to be a good player olcyzck says hes good what was the scenario that he left the hawks id like to know hes also a large human being thanks B
I know the regulars on here including myself have discussed Hayes in great lengths but to be honest he’s a much better player at this stage then I ever thought. The Rags have been on a lot lately and the more I see the more I like. Hayes could have helped this team now!
The more I watch the Hawks this season the less I like. The more I look forward next season the less I like. The more I look at other western teams the more worried I become. The Hawks are a very talented bunch no doubt but I have a lot of concerns with the present and future of this team.
Sorry no Blackhawks for a few days makes the mind wonder.
Getting Oduya back is huge. He’s not had a good season but the last two years proved his value. He’s going to be counted on for substantial minutes. Runblad, Kimmo and Rozy will alternate in the 5th and 6th man role. Runblad will not play much in the playoffs I would assume because his awfulness in the defensive zone trumps any of his puck moving ability come crunch time.
another question about players is why did the hawks unload troy brower i liked him he was another big guy
Re:SSHM, Quite understandable…I think we all share those thoughts even if some won’t admit to it. Our experience in playoffs and other intangibles is our great hope.
Hawks are in trouble next season. Going to be a major roster makeover. Talking 2-3 new starters on defense, a big hole at Center once again, the ongoing dilemma of size and grit. Hossa will be another year older. Probably will lose Kruger and that will hurt more than people realize. The pickings and Rockford are overrated. Not a Teuvo fan on any level.
Really do need to hope Kane comes back in the playoffs and this team can make one more serious Cup run before the summer of cap pain coming.
I do not trust 32 or 44 on the back end Ernie. I still can’t believe we gave up 2 picks for 44. His speed brings back memories of Zus. 5 does have some defensive lapses every game but at least he has an offensive upside and can skate. Dale Talon built the Hawks championship team. Other than 20 and hopefully 86, Stan’s moves and picks have been mediocre. His defenders always argue that he never gets high draft picks. Seems to me 2 and 4 were taken later than the first round. 80 needs to start scoring to justify the 1st round draft pick we gave away.
AlbertaHawkFan- I’m well versed in advanced metrics. I’m also well aware that when Q changed up the defensive pairings earlier this year, it was because Hammer and Oduya were getting crushed when together. Hammer away from Oduya, still taking on those tough assignments, did significantly better. So as I said, Oduya has had a bad season, but he’s still a huge upgrade over Rozsival.
Holy shit, the way some people have negative thoughts about thing in general, you would think we were going to be one of the 5 worst teams the next 5 yrs. Even in 2011 when we had to play short handed with 6ahl players we could have beat the top team that yr. We wont be as good/deep (obviously) as we were in 09,10,13,14,15 but I think we will be much better then 11,12. The difference will be all top10 teams wont be as well.
All of the top10 teams arnt going to be able to keep everyone. ANA and CHI are the only top10 teams that have a good farm. Even if are farm sucked (like LOS, NYR does) we are going to be in a position that we havnt been. We will have some roster spots open for a young players like KHayes to be a poor sport and not sign with the team that drafted him and for more real good guys likes Riemsdyk. If Hayes was a senior this yr or next, he probably sign here.
Bronco, if Tall was the gm he would have keepd Big buff, Brow, Nemo, etc and traded/not keepd 4, 81, 10. During the last 5yrs (2010-2015) there isint one guy who played/or is better then the 7core players Bowman kept. Other then Laddy none of them were as good/better. (Now going forward from here for 5yrs, its diff. because of what age people are)
We do not have to have the above and beyond best/one of the two best rosters and depth to win Stanley Cup. I think we raise the Cup 4or5 times in the 22yr careers of 19 & 88. On one or two them we probably do it on a yr we just one of the top teams.
We are on/ahead of pace the redwings did, when they were the best team for 20yrs. Perspective. Perception.
The Hawks success in recent past was dependent on a role solid mix of role players and specialists that supported the core players who were in their primes. Toews, Kane, Saad and Hjalmarason are the only core players who should stay steady or even improve. Hossa is in slowdown clearly. Keith and Seabrook will invariably see some downturn soon, though good years will continue. We will lose Kruger. And beyond that we no longer have the top mix of support players like we had in Ladd, Brouwer, Bolland and others. Shaw has regressed and we are guilty of overrating him anyway. Bickell has been a bust for the money. And Rockford is populated with an overrated mix and/or non descript role players.
So it is absolutely proper and sobering to contemplate a new future for the Hawks.
Timonen has played 3 hockey games this entire year. It is probably going to take him another two weeks or so to find his legs. If he is 70% of what he was last year going into the playoffs he helps this team tremendously. Especially if he has Seabrook or Hammer on his off side allowing him to push the play.
Unless he ends up in the hospital, that guy is the least of my concerns.
Rufus:
Wow, the Hossa slowing down myth strikes again. What a bunch of absolute nonsense. His shooting % is off from last year and his career average. If he shoots what he did last year he would be at 25 goals right now and people would talk about how timeless his talent is.
Hossa is 8th in the league in even strength scoring chances. Yes hes slowed down so much that he is 8th, in the entire league, in creating his own scoring opportunities. By himself.
This is the highest average TOI Hossa has had in 3 years.
Hossa is 16th in shots for \ 60 at evens. That is pretty cool.
Oh and the way all of that is playing against the toughest matchups.
NOTHING aside from shooting percentage, indicates that there is any drop off in quality of play. NOTHING.
This absurd idea that Hossa is falling off some cliff is preposterous and needs to stop immediately. This same crap happened to Patrick Kane in 11-12 and escalated into the whole trade to Buffalo for Ryan Miller nonsense. When he strings a few seasons shooting under 10% together like Richards has done then maybe you can start to talk “aging” but until then lets please not cry wolf and read a book or at a minimum a stat sheet.
AJ stop with that. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
Morrison, “Kayes for 2nd pick and Riemsdyk. That’s what Bowman got.” — I know about the compensation pick (#54), but how does van Riemsdyk figure-into it?
TVR really doesnt fit into it other than saying “The roster spot that would have been filled by Hayes was now open and Bowman was able to offer that spot to TVR because Hayes didn’t/wouldn’t sign”.
DD, just my way of being ok with it (overall). We got 57 for free and hes nhl ready now as well. Their both the same age and it happened at the exact same time/basically.
Hossa will catch up to at least three younger players tonight and back-check, steal the puck or disrupt the pass/play to change possession. 81 continues to be one of the best players with-out the puck year in and year out, this year included. I am, however concerned with the TOI this year. first line, first pp, first or second kill adds up. Remember who picked up the minutes at the end of last year when 19 and 88 went down. I was going to change this to two back-checks but I have nothing but faith in 81, three it is. GO HAWKS, GO HOSSA.