Kyle Cumiskey In, David Rundblad Out?
After a performance that left a lot to be desired, it appears coach Joel Quenneville is going to give David Rundblad a night off… or more.
Kyle Cumiskey, one of only two IceHogs recalled at the start of the postseason (with Antti Raanta), was skating with Johnny Oduya during Monday’s practice in Anaheim. The 28-year-old played six NHL playoff games with 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche.
He posted two goals and 18 assists in 54 games with Rockford this season, and appeared in seven games with the Blackhawks.
Hahahahhaa eat ur words tab
It was obvious. Glad they are correcting this
The epitaph on this series may end up reading Keith, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook and Oduya were worn into the ground. How ironic that everyone’s whipping boy Rosival is so severely missed. The idiot brigade wanted to rip Q for playing Rosy, but guess what he did for good solid reasons in a strategy to roll 5 defenseman. Runblad is an abortion on defense and somehow some are surprised by game 1?
I’ll say two things. Kimmo is incapable of more than 5 minutes. So if you are Anaheim and you are smart then your strategy for winning this series is to make 2, 7 , 4 and 23 work their asses off to the point of exhaustion each game. Then have Getzlaff, Perry and Kesler fresh for the 3rd period to stick the knife in on offense.
This really truly is on Bowman. At least last year we could turn to Brookbank if faced with a similar dilemma.
Our only real salvation is for Crawford to play like a goalie possessed.
And you idiot brigade members had better believe I will be in Bowman’s ear at the next super secret awesome seat season ticket holder meeting. I told you Kesler was the best. All the medals and cups prove that. From my seats…Ducks in 3.5. Stan should have listened to me like Q did. I am afraid I cannot save them this time. Like I said you morons, Ducks in 3 and a half.
Thinking back to all the criticism of Rozy I will say this. He’s been a solid pro for a long time and the reality of aging and the grind of the game was taking its toll. At this point of his career he was no worse than a former Dman (that we all love to this day) Brett Sopel. Sopes had slowed down considerably by the Cup run in 2010 and relied on experience and guile to be a solid contributor. Same as Rozy; in fact, I would say Rozy had a touch more mobility than Sopes ended his career with.
So yes, we all would be thanking our collective lucky stars today if Rozy was still in the rotation.
Hoping Cumiskey can step in and produce. At least he’s got good puck-moving ability and some veteran background that may work out.
GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with at least one point made above by Rufus…Brook bank sure would look good in the Indian Head sweater right now.
Where are you Sheldon?
Ah yes, you have to love the posting integrity of this shit show of a site. The previous post is not from RTF. I never once professed interest in Kesler. One, the cap made it a non reality. But I can’t fight the shit show that is this site, so I will go back now to SCH.
Brookbank…
It appears Q has decided that Timonen is pretty much done. Even after Rundblad’s gaffes, Rundy was still out there much more often on Sunday.
K-T is quoted as saying its very difficult to sit there and play just 5 minutes and he’s never experienced anything like this in hs career. Sounds like he certainly is not happy with the Leddy playoff treatment from Q.
Thing is, by the looks of it, the Hawks are one injury from Svedberg or Pokka suiting up and the way Nik h blocks shots you just never know.
We simply cannot have 4 guys shouldering the load for up to 13 more games…with Kimmo eating up 5 minutes and pretty ineffective ones at that we have the big problem that we all saw coming. Cumiskey needs to play out of his mind and the Swedes on the team need at sit down with Rundblad. Crawford needs to up it 2 notches to make make up for shaky defense times. Kane needs to be Captain America and Toews, Hossa, Saad need to solve the Kesler line. Ducks seem to be getting secondary line scoring and we are not. Mr. Bickell…it’s your time of the year ..remember? Challenges all over the place. Stay out of the box. Why on earth with all that talent, a question asked multiple times by just about everyone here, is the Power Play such a bust. Its the Conference finals,,,no time for moral victories or fancy stuff. We can do this. Its the Ducks for cryin’ out loud. Put Carcillo on D…tell him “go smash” ala Hulk…I’m just joking here guys…the Captain America referance made me think of it. Honest just joking.
Conspiracy theory / Footnote from game #1 in Anaheim: attended live at Hkmda Center, and the ice was so ridiculously wet that many Hawks fans thought the Zambonis were broken. It literally looked like a lake out there. Some of us Hawks fans there believed the ice crew was doing this intentionally to create a slower playing surface to favor the home team…
Silicon…..that wouldn’t surprise me. A few years ago in the Memorial Cup the host Shawinigan Cataractes altered the ice plant and affected the ice surface (in the game for the favored Sea Dogs-very quick mobile team) so bad that you had to take a slapshot to make a pass. The next game when Shawinigan played the ice conditions were mysteriously corrected.
When two of your bottom defensemen are derailed by season ending injuries (Roszival and TVR), this is exactly what happens, your depth gets tested. It can happen to any team.
It sure looks like Bowman miscalculated in Timmonen, so the depth is now Rundblad and Cumiskey. Rundblad has not responded, now it looks like it’s Cumiskey’s turn.
Bottom line is it’s the playoffs. Either guys step up or they don’t.
The Hawks offensive stars need to score goals!!!!!! The bottom two defenseman should not make that much of a difference. GO HAWKS!!!
“When two of your bottom defensemen are derailed by season ending injuries this is exactly what happens, your depth gets tested. It can happen to any team.”
“Bottom line is it’s the playoffs. Either guys step up or they don’t.”
2 perfectly said lines Hof…
Im guessing at some point Q will have to get KT more involves for better or worse, but i guess we will see. It will be very interesting to see the minutes tonight.
Gotta feel good going into tonight though. I feel the Hawks played the better game on sunday for about the first 45 minutes, they just couldnt get it to show on the scoreboard. I’m looking at the first 7 minutes tonight very carefully. If anderson stiffs kane once or twice, im worried if Kane will start losing confidence and floating around and flying the zone trying to play superman… but if they come out and get anderson uneasy and smell blood in the water, LOOKOUT!
Hawks 4-2 tonight…
I understand that the Hawks are trying to win a cup and have Toews hand the cup to Timonen… Problem is, what if you never get to the cup final?
Kimmo needs to be sitting in the press box and ANYONE else needs to be playing 5+ minutes per night!
better to be a general in the idiot brigade…
Careful Hof… TVR is a “fringe” defenseman…
As i have said on this site before the only reason S Bowman is GM of this team is because his last name is Bowman the rocks of this team is still Tallons B
Rufus – here is the problem as I see it. The only time you pop up on this site anymore is when the results of a given game or games has a result that suits your narrative – that the defense is paper thin and is going to cost the playoffs. So far they’ve been playing pretty well, but Roszival goes down, Runblad falls on his face and, oh, look who’s back to pat himself on the back about it…
I think Hoff had it right. We had 2 starting D men (Roszy and TVR) who went down. The hope was that someone – take your pick who: Runblad, Cumiskey, Johns, Dahlbeck pre-trade, even Paliotta had a shot to earn a spot and none of them have. Timonen was brought in to close the gap but he’s lost a step and a half since he was out and is clearly not the same player he once was.
This team has the talent on the offensive end to put pucks in the net and take pressure off the defense. Will they? Who knows but depth was always going to be an issue this season given the cap constraints and their defensive plans b/c/d/e fell through. So I think we’ve received your message Rufus and you can stop with the sanctimony. Go enjoy yourself at SCH.
Chev, you are absolutely right this team has talent. Not only offensive, but defensively also. In the game Rosy went down, the forwards picked up their backchecking to help our dmen. The forwards will rise to the occasion through the balance of the playoffs.
Bottom line, Bowman and Q are both to blame for this apparent defensive dilemma we appear to be facing. Bowman did not get the right bodies and Q did not prepare Rundblad and Cumiskey with some minutes to prep them for the playoffs should they be needed.
Irregardless, we have the best core in hockey. With them and the support group, they will overcome.
Go Hawks…
Bronco made me laugh… this team is still Tallon’s… good one
The 5th and 6th defenseman have been discussed here since Leddy was traded during the preseason. Hard to believe that was still this season. Everyone on here knew this was going to be an issue and now it is exactly that.
There is no magic solution to this problem but the Hawks tried a number of players to plug the bottom pair and none have panned out. The Hawks attempted to use TVR and it looked good then he got hurt. SB made a trade deadline move for Timmo and it has failed. John’s was never healthy enough to come up, Clendening was traded for a younger prospect and never got a serious look, Dalbeck was traded for Vermette.
If you want to fault Stan that’s your opinion but sometimes these things happen
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=irregardless
English lesson…
the irony being the deeper we go, the more costly the 44 trade becomes
Other than the Wild series Rozy was lousy most of the year. If the team can’t overcome the loss of a lousy player than that does not say much for the team. I happen to think the Hawks will overcome the loss of the suddenly stellar Rozy and win this series and the Cup. The core stars will come through. Crawford has to outplay Andersen.
Stan will recoup a bunch of draft picks on June 26 at the draft. I think he knows that, perhaps much like 2010 when the Hawks wound up with 4 second round picks.
Buffalo and Edmonton will be hunting for NHL level players and have an abundance of those. Having said all that, kimmo, rundblad and to some degree Vermette have all been very very costly.
I will say this, mark Kelley and company have done well in the 4th thru 7th rounds nabbing guys like Shaw and Kruger, so I expect the Hawks to have a decent draft despite the above mentioned failures. Of course more important matters are taking place right now.
I’m assuming that excessive hitting takes energy……really how deep are they? I look forward to a W tonight!
Rosival was limited, but Rosival was reliable in the defensive zone and this team could count on 12-15 minutes of him on the ice in the playoffs. Now he is gone and the options to fill those vital minutes are out the window. Other than asking 2, 4, 7 and 23 to log even heavier minutes and workload. Kimmo is 5 minutes max. And Runnlad and Cumiesky on the ice at any time, especially against a team like Anaheim, is a defensive zone disaster waiting to happen.
Can’t be RTF-no reference to idiot brigade/moron or usual suspects-
RD love the irony comment-bottom line huge game-let’s hope for the best.
Rufus are you suggesting they put Versteeg at Defense? Interesting. I like your outside the box thinking.
Could be Noonan we are seeing the kinder, gentler RTF.
All we need to know about the D Man situation is when Hammer went to the Box and still 5 or 44 didn’t get any ice time. People hammer Q, but what is he supposed to do? The D players aren’t stepping up. While I get the issue with Timmo suiting up for 5 minutes a night is laughable, so is his defense when he plays. Watching him play with the long change (2nd period) is like watching the ivy come on the walls at Wrigley…it just doesn’t happen right away. Q tried to play 5 more, but he didn’t earn the time. While I believe he should have made the play on the first goal, he didn’t and I will give him a pass. The 2nd goal “giveaway” was him being scared to take the hit to get the puck out…He doesn’t deserve more time. Let’s see what 26 does. In reality it would be great for the 5th and 6th dmen to eat 25 minutes a night; however if they can eat 20 minutes, the Blackhawks have a better than average chance to win the game.
Peter… just to be clear… Rozy was on the ice approximately 17 minutes per night in the number 5 d role.
Q is trying to fill that role with anyone… I do pin this somewhat on Q because he had plenty of opportunity to get someone other than Rozy ready during the regular season. Or instead of wasting a spot on the bench with Timonen, he should have had Runblad there all along.
Obviously there is a difference of opinion regarding the talent of the Hawks defensive core between SB and Q… That will need to be rectified in the off season.
Hopefully whoever fills the 5 and 6 spot the rest of the way, does enough to keep our 4 core d-men from getting worn completely down AND we have enough skill (and bodies) back there to bring home the cup!!! God help us if someone else gets hurt!
Oh and BTW… the number 5 and number 6 defensemen on this team are not supposed to be “fringe” players.
Most teams have “serviceable” number 5 and 6 defensemen or at least the good teams do!
@ Hockeyjunkie
please name the Hawks 5th & 6th defensemen on both Hawks cup winners without looking it up,…..I think I know the answers but I’m not 100% sure
So without question these are fringe or serviceable guys. I guess it depends on whats your definition between a “fringe” or “serviceable” player. I prefer the term “replacement level player” but thats just my flavor. Too put it in basic hockey terms these are guys you don’t want to notice on the ice.
So while I was looking up the answer to my question I also looked up the total ice time for for the Hawks defensemen in the 2013 cup run. What I found was down right amusing and if anything should help posters on this website relax.
2013 playoff TOI 2015 playoff TOI
Keith-27 30
Seabrook- 23 24
Hammer-23 24
Oduya-22 24
@SSHM
Maybe the definition of “fringe” is in order: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fringe
I didn’t have to look up Brent Sopel in 2010, don’t recall the 6th dman. The game has changed a bit since then…
Also, didn’t have to think back too far on Nick Leddy in 2013 or Rozy in 2013 either.
So, if someone playing 17 minutes per night is still considered fringe or “on the periphery”, I stand corrected.
That was a tough choice regarding who play those last two D spots as the regular season wore down. They were chasing home ice down to the last 2-3 games and the Wild were nipping at their heels. People here would’ve screamed bloody murder if the coaching staff had dressed Rundblad and/or Cumiskey in those situations. Posters hated Roszival enough as it was.
Had the coaching staff explained they dressed them because they “wanted to get them ready for the playoffis” I can just see the response from some posters here. “You have to get to the playoffs first” “getting home ice is more important” “worry about that other stuff later, just beat St. Louis now” etc. etc.
It’s easy to Monday morning q-back. Real easy.
Up until now, their depth hasn’t come through and their depth has been injured. I bet Timmonen is injured (bad groin?) but we won’t hear anything about it until later if at all. It was a gamble that so far is not looking great. They should’ve anticipated things wouldn’t go seamlessly with a guy turning 40 coming off that amount of layoff.
They tried a bunch of guys at the bottom of the defense (Roszival, Rundblad, Erixon, Dahlbeck, Clendenning , TVR, Cumiskey). They’ve either gotten hurt or haven’t worked out thus far.
If Cumiskey does poorly then I bet we see Pokka. His play leveled off at the tail end of the year but they’ve got no one else.
I believe Boyton was with Sopel most of the time in 2010
Hof…
Good points.
This clearly points to the fact that SB didn’t get Q the players he felt could fill these roles, OR SB didn’t think Q was playing players he felt could fill these roles.
Scary to think “they’ve go no one else.”
Good memory Bill… Thanks!
I have been critical of Q in the past but you can’t blame him for the 5/6 defensive problems. He tried everybody available to him and none of them worked out. Stan did not get him the players. Hopefully we will have better options next year.
So it’s Bowman’s fault that Rozsival broke his ankle? Not buying…
the front office & coaching staff don’t control injuries, whether it’s Rozsival, TvR, Johns or anyone else.
That being said, Q needs to at the very least see if Timonen CAN skate 10+ minutes.
I am including Roszival in the group of d men that didn’t work out.
Hockey junkie, again the 5th and 6th man need to eat 20-25 min together a night. Rosy was getting 17. That is 8 minutes for the 6th man. I am saying if the 5th and 6th dmen can eat a total of 20 now, the Hawks can win. If the Hawks don’t, their chances diminish greatly. Rozy’s 17 minutes became valuable in the Wild series because he raised his level of play. The 5th and 6th dmen are fringe players on the Hawks. They just are.
Tab im glad i made you laugh it beats crying B
Tab is right, at this point it’s crucial that Quenneville sees if Timonen can play at least 10+ minutes nightly. The guy has pride, see if he can rise to the occasion.
The only reason against it if he’s nursing an injury, which I suspect he is.
I agree with both Tab and Hoff about Timonen getting more minutes. But I also had the same thought about Timonen possibly being hurt. I think if he could play more minutes Q would be playing him, right? I hope he’s alright and can step up because we need him, though it is a tougher call on the road when Q can’t pick his match ups. He certainly won’t win many races at this point, but every time the guy has the puck on his stick, he makes a safe, smart play with it.
Also hockey junkey, after taking time to look it up, Jordan Hendry is listed as having 15 games for the playoffs in 2010 and being a minus 4, I don’t think he dressed in the finals. And Kim Johnson disappeared, never to be seen again, don’t know what happened there, he still is younger than #44.