All y'allz been givin' me shit for saying that the Blackhawks have a tendency to blow games off, and that someone ought to hold the captain accountable for the way the team routinely blows leads and/or takes first and second periods off. Well, word is getting out that longtime NHL reporter Elliotte Friedman has done a little legwork and said that yes, the Blackhawks do find this business of playing hockey for six months rather boring:
Quote:
With Chicago – they were in Toronto last week and the real impression I got talking to people around the organization, and even some of the players, is their biggest battle is almost sometimes boredom. ... They hated the way they lost last year to L.A. and they’re basically sitting there – you know if you’re Chicago you’re good enough to make the playoffs - and you’re sitting there and you’re waiting for the rematch, or the challenge of getting there. ... And I get a real sense – they’ve played a lot of hockey the last couple of years – I get a real sense that organization is worried about that team’s commitment to detail right now simply because they know they’re good enough to get there.
This from an interview on a sports talk station up in Calgary. So there you have it. The Blackhawks are bored. I guess that makes Toews the chairman of the bored. Now if you want to disregard that because you don't believe in acknowledging guys who spell their names with a silent E, I respect your beliefs, but know that he is a pretty crackerjack reporter. And in some sense, I get it: yes, the Hawks are good enough to get there, yes, it is silly to play 82 games to ascertain this. The Blues play hard every game, but they've gotten bounced the last three years by either the bored Kings or the bored Blackhawks. Still, can't this team maybe get a little better at being bored? If you don't give a fuck about the third of three games with the Sharks because you already won the first two, okay, fine. If you don't want to exhaust yourself against the Penguins because it's a back-to-back with the Blues, okay, discretion is the better part of valor. But these games against shitty teams like Washington and Winnipeg? Those are the games where you should be trying to find some fun! Make games for yourselves about how badly you can beat them! You get these teams that come to you like "here, have two free points," you take them up on it! That way, you're banking points and can afford to take your foot off the gas now and then without having to say "boy, I sure hope we can pass the Winnipeg Jets by Thanksgiving." You don't want to look at the standings, look at the schedule, and feel like you need to grab some points against the best team in the league.
And that's where we are now, with the Hawks needing to grab some points against the best team in the league. The Bolts are leading the East and NHL on the back of a six-game winning streak. So far this year, they've hung a 7 on Montreal, 7 on Phoenix, 7 on Columbus, 5 on Calgary, and 4 on a number of teams, including the same Capitals the Hawks couldn't beat. It's a little awkward to call this a Stanley Cup preview when our team isn't even in a playoff position right now, but I expect that they will be, and that this could easily be a Final.
You know about Stamkos, you know about Hedman. Jonathan Drouin has seven points in ten games. Valtteri Filppula, whose name is virtually Finnish for "Wally Phillips," has 13 in 15 as a scary #2 center. Jason Garrison, whom I've always liked very much, wound up here, with two goals and six assists already, surely from his giant shot. I've never been crazy about Ryan Callahan, feeling that he just got his dick sucked for being a grindy American captain of the team in America's biggest city, but he's racking up points here in Tampa after coming over for that Caller Bob Martin St. Louis. Anton Stralman is down from New York as well, having signed in free agency, and has been effective as well with 10 points and a +14. And on top of all that, they've got this nifty little Russian kid named Vladislav Namestnikov, which is the kind of nice crunchy Russian name that was all over the league in the late 1990s/early 2000s before the advent of the KHL gave the National its much-needed ethnic cleansing.
In goal, it's Ben Bishop, all six-foot-seven/214 of him, with nine wins and a .910 over 11 starts. He fills a lot of net. The only way to beat Bishop is to get up close, keep the play moving around him, and make him guess wrong. If you just sit back and lob shots from the perimeter as the Hawks are wont to do, all you're going to do is hit human. God forbid this is another game where the Hawks crank off 45 shots (plus misses and blocks) but 40 of them just bounce off his chest. It's only because of Bishop's season-ending injury that the Bolts crapped out the way they did in the playoffs. If you build a team that's a little light in front of the goalie, you can't lose the goalie.
The coach of the Bolts is Jon Cooper, a Really Smart Person who gave up his law practice to coach minor-league hockey, and Yzerman may have found a gem in this one. Of course, we said the same thing about Guy Boucher, but then teams learned how to bust the 1-3-1 and now he's off working at a Canadian Tire in fucking Val d'Or for all we know.
For the Hawks, Richards to his promised second line, Shaw busted down to the fourth. The Hawks are generally good at not taking penalties, but tonight they really have to avoid them: Tampa is converting at 26.4%. They will punish. Conversely, they're less than nails on their PK, so that would be the time to strike. I hope no one finds it boring.
Bolts: 11-3-1 (23), 10-3-2 adjusted (22), 20.528 expected
Hawks: 8-6-1 (17), 6-7-2 adjusted (14), 20.202 expected
Hawks: 38.0 shots for (1st), 27.7 shots allowed (7th)
Bolts: 30.1 shots for (16th), 27.4 shots allowed (6th)
Bolts: 3.800 scored (2nd), 2.667 allowed (14th), 1.133 differential (2nd)
Hawks: 2.600 scored (T-16th), 1.867 allowed (1st), .733 differential (3rd)
Bolts: 9.8 PIM/game (10th)
Hawks: 7.9 PIM/game (3rd)
Bolts: 14/53 26.4% on the power play (T-3rd), 35/46 76.1% on the kill (25th)
Hawks: 11/58 19.0% on the power play (18th), 41/45 91.1% on the kill (1st)
Hang on to your hats.
_________________
Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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