Chicago Rinkcast staff members Andy Campbell, Sean Fitzgerald, Eric Andrews, Andrew Bard and Jimmy O’Malley discuss the Chicago Blackhawks’ latest happenings:

Honest recaps of this miserable season.

Thoughts on Frank Nazar.

Ethan Del Mastro makes his NHL debut as well.

A special segment where we welcome Ford Hatchett from ABC15-Phoenix to discuss the sale of the Arizona Coyotes to Utah.

Watch the entire replay of the Facebook live right here:

Watch the entire replay of the YouTube right here:

Watch the entire replay of the X right here:

#Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 8, Episode 17 – Hawks in Review and The Sale of the Coyotes https://t.co/1WO6BJswFS

— Hockey Rinkcast Channel (@TheRinkcast) April 19, 2024

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The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 7, Episode 17 – The Blackhawks (and Coyotes) Bitter End appeared first on The Rink.

If one only watched the first period, you might have figured the Kraken ran away with this game. Seattle got goals by Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde in the first minute of play to put the Kraken out ahead against rookie goalie Karel Vejmelka, which ended his night early.

Enter fresh waiver acquisition from the New Jersey Devils, Scott Wedgewood.

Arizona forward Antoine Roussel cut the Kraken lead in half at the 1:33 mark on a bad neutral zone turnover by Kraken forward Morgan Geekie. Nathan Bastian scored his first of the season just past the midway point of the period to give Seattle back a two-goal lead. Seattle carried that lead into the first intermission. The score read 3–1 and the shot totals read 11–8, both in favor of the visiting team.

The second period was relatively tame compared to the first (and eventually the third). Arizona’s Travis Boyd cut the Kraken lead down to 3–2 with his goal just over three minutes into the middle period following a lazy backhand clearing attempt by defenseman Haydn Fleury. Shots were low, as well, with the Coyotes holding a slight 8–7 edge. All the action would be in the third period, though.

Seattle outshot the Coyotes 13–6 in the third period, yet yielded three third period goals on those six shots faced. A long strike by Lawson Crouse and a power play goal by Amanda Kessel’s brother, Phil Kessel, left the Coyotes up by one goal heading into the final minutes of regulation play. With the goalie pulled and the extra attacking on the ice, Kraken captain Mark Giordano scored his third goal of the season to tie the game for the visitors with just 1:18 remaining in the game. But, just 13 seconds later, Crouse scored his second goal of the game following an awful Adam Larsson turnover. Crouse’s goal ended up being the back-breaking game-winner for the Coyotes.

Anchor points

Goaltending and the power play. The Kraken are either going to live or die with these two areas. They failed on two power plays while giving up a goal on their only shorthanded chance. Philipp Grubauer was less than mediocre on the evening. Five goals on 22 shots is flat-out bad no matter who you are facing. He was out-dueled by a career backup that was picked off waiver just hours before. This would have been a perfect game to get Chris Driedger some action, but Head Coach Dave Hakstol thought otherwise.

That said, Wedgewood played an incredible game, especially coming in cold in a 2–0 hole.

When you outshoot a team 31–22 and score four goals, that is a game you should win. The Coyotes did, however, play a much more physical game and beat the Kraken handily at the faceoff dots 57% to 43%. If Gourde is going to be their first-line center, he needs to win more than 27% of his faceoffs. Eberle and Jaden Schwartz led the way in shots with five each.

Analytically, the Kraken looked on par for a win with their 5-on-5 play. They led in Corsi 59% to 41% (shot attempts), Fenwick 57% to 43% (unblocked shots), high danger chances 57% to 43% and expected goals 63% to 37%. The fourth line of Bastian, Max McCormick and Riley Sheahan was eaten alive at even strength with sub-40% possession metrics.

Kraken forward Ryan Donato played only 3:39 and left the game with an apparent upper-body injury.

The Kraken are off Sunday and Monday. They will travel to Las Vegas Tuesday, where they will return to the same place the regular season began. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST.

The post RECAP: Kraken hand Arizona first win of the season appeared first on The Rink.

But this move made sense for the Blackhawks on numerous levels. And for a team that’s 9-10-4, where Schmaltz was failing to deliver what the front office and coaching staff had been counting on from him, it’s hard to see a downside right now.

Further, this trade signals that Bowman, instead of arrogantly, defiantly doubling down on his bad bets (as he has in the past), stepped up and corrected his own mistake (ie, pinning the future of the franchise on the unreliable, questionably committed Schmaltz).

Here’s a point by point as to why this trade works for the Hawks.

1. Strome fills a need

If you’ve been reading our analysis pieces here, following us on Twitter, or listening to the RinkCast, you know we, at least, have been saying that another legitimate NHL center has been as big a need as any on the Hawk roster. Make no mistake, Strome has not really lived up to sky-high draft billings yet either.

But Strome, at just 21, is a legitimate NHL center. Schmaltz wasn’t, and probably never will be. The differences between Strome and Schmaltz—good and bad—are pretty stark. Where Schmaltz is blazing fast but seems allergic to contact and going into high traffic situations, Strome is pretty much the opposite—not a great skater, but big and more willing and able to create offense in the tough going. Schmaltz was 40% on faceoffs last year, Strome was 58%. And, like Schmaltz, Strome has offensive upside that will be somewhat more fulfilled playing with the likes of Patrick Kane and/or Alex DeBrincat.

Strome’s profile as a legitimate center, and his faceoff ability also takes some situational faceoff and TOI pressure off of one Jonathan Toews—and historically this has elevated Toews’ game.

2. Schmaltz needed to go

It’s one thing when a player is trying but underperforming. But Schmaltz’ shortcomings were never due to a lack of talent, rather to a lack of heart and willingness. Sure, somewhat like Teuvo Teravainen after he was dealt to Carolina, Schmaltz may grow up and see the light in the desert, and more fully realize his talents. But no one knows him, his off-ice habits and his character, like the Chicago Blackhawks do. And while we’ve heard a few things here and there here at The-Rink, and probably not enough to present a fully damning picture, we heard enough, and saw enough in terms of Schmaltz not making basic, cost of entry plays in order to avoid contact, to say that his coaches and teammates probably, privately felt a change was needed. Nothing kills morale quite so much as a teammate to whom much is given, and much is expected—and much is left wanting.

3. The money

Another issue with Schmaltz was a looming issue over his value on his next contract. At one point, fans and writers (at the very least) had jacked him up to being a $6 million a year player. This was always probably nonsense, and in the early parts of this season, as Schmaltz continually failed to meet small, but important metrics on the ice (Can he play center? No. Has he acquired more of a nose for high traffic areas and physical play? No. Will he shoot the puck? No), it’s become more and more clear that paying Schmaltz anywhere close to that kind of money for any kind of term could have been a huge waste of valuable cap space.

4. The math

In Strome and Perlini, the Hawks acquired two young, legitimate NHL players of some value, and at least one of them has upside that could be significant in Chicago. They gave up one. This is important because the Hawks need building blocks right now—not aging lineup patches. Here at The-Rink, we’ve been making the case for trading veterans (including Schmaltz if the return was right) for high end prospects and draft picks. the return on this deal, while not exactly that, is nonetheless heading in that direction. Strome especially, and possibly Perlini as well, have to be seen as potential pieces of a downstream Hawk resurgence, not just “guys” to prop up a flawed roster this year—though both may help for the above reasons this season.

Perlini is a guy the Hawks liked in his draft year—and if I had to provide a quick scouting report, he is the kind of guy the Capitals and Preds have drafted and developed in recent years. Big, physically willing, and good enough to pitch in some offense at the NHL level.

5. Bowman has learned

On our last RinkCast, we talked about the mark of a good GM. All GMs make mistakes. The good ones recognize and correct them fairly quickly. Bowman has done that here. We can all debate whether the team cut bait on Schmaltz too soon, and time will tell, but clearly, perhaps no Hawk player or prospect has fallen from grace more quickly—and certainly there were fairly obvious reasons for it. Just go back and listen to Eddie Olczyk’s commentary on various Schmaltz plays (and non-plays) this season.

Again, there’s no guarantee this trade pans out or bombs to one extreme or the other. But most signs point to a win for the Hawks here, especially as a modest rebuilding move. Comment below.

The post Analysis: Bowman gets this one right appeared first on The Rink.

Heading to Arizona is former Blackhawks 20th overall pick in 2014, Nick Schmaltz.  Schmaltz was having a terrible season following what was thought to have been his breakout season in 2017-18. He had not scored a goal in eight games, and scored just one in his last 15 games. Schmaltz also saw his role go from fixture at second line center to third line wing. Apparently the Blackhawks organization was tired of waiting for him to become more consistent and mature.

Heading back to Chicago is 21-year-old former 3rd overall pick in the 2015 draft, Dylan Strome, and 22-year-old former 14th overall pick in the 2014 draft wing Brendan Perlini.  Strome has recorded six points (3G, 3A) with Arizona so far this season, while Perlini registered six points (2G, 4A) in 22 games this season with the Coyotes.

In acquiring Strome and Perlini, the Blackhawks are off the hook for the sticky contract negotiations that will have to take place this summer with the disappointing Schmaltz, as he will be an RFA on July 1. Strome is signed through the end of next season, while Perlini becomes an RFA this coming summer.

Dylan Strome

Brendan Perlini

The post BREAKING: Blackhawks Trade Schmaltz to Arizona appeared first on The Rink.

Believe in The Crow#BelieveInOneGoal pic.twitter.com/0kB27ncAEK

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 18, 2018

The Arizona Coyotes came into the game last night in Chicago having scored zero 5-on-5 goals in five games this season. In fact, they had only scored three goals total.  They would more than double that total before the night was over.

Being Corey Crawford’s first game action since last December 23, the hope was that this struggling Arizona team would be a good opponent for him to shake off the rust and settle into the game.

This would not be the case.

FIRST PERIOD

Corey Crawford did see some easy, long range shots early on as the Coyotes tested him.  As a casual observer, you could make an argument that we were just happy to see him on the ice in game shape. Naturally, as a competitor, it was great to see him look game ready from the get go.

End-to-end action early on did not result in many high scoring chances until, with 11:19 left in the first, Patrick Kane found Alexandre Fortin all alone in front of the net. Fortin gathered in the pass and rifled a shot wide blocker side. Three Coyotes players flocked to Kane, leaving Fortin wide open with only Coyotes netminder Antti Raanta in front of him.  The Blackhawks rookie wing could not take advantage of the situation, though.

At the 11:43 mark of the period, Henri Jokiharju was caught at the Coyote’s blue line by a nice stretch pass from defenseman Jordan Oesterle to forward Clayton Keller along the boards. Keller skated in 2-on-1 from center ice with Lawson Crouse and made a nice dish over Brandon Manning’s stick. Crouse was left with an open net to bury the first goal of the game passed Crawford.

Not only did Jokiharju allow a stretch pass that should have been broken up, Manning was caught between taking the puck and/or taking the pass away and left Crawford out to dry.

There was minimal action the rest of the period and Coyotes entered the locker room up 1-0, with the Hawks leading in shots on net 13-12.

SECOND PERIOD

Within the first two minutes of the period, Crawford was put to the test. Forward Michael Grabner corralled a rebound from a point shot in the slot but could not bury it past a sliding left pad of Crawford.

Stop it right there, Grabner!#crOwMG pic.twitter.com/q1Eh7APwRR

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 19, 2018

Five and a half minutes into the period, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and John Hayden were both sent off to their respective penalty boxes to open up the ice for some 4-on-4 play.

Erik Gustafsson did an excellent job of controlling the puck deep in his own zone until he found a lane for an outlet pass to a streaking Alex DeBrincat. Debrincat made the blue line with ease and found Jonathan Toews coming down the left wing. Gustafsson jumped back into the play on the right side where Toews found him all alone and he buried the puck past Antti Raanta.

Zig zag cross the floor#CHIvsARI pic.twitter.com/WYXRnLCRT0

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 19, 2018

As far as perfect plays are concerned, the Hawks executed a beauty from end-to-end. They gained the blue line, found the open man and hit the trailer on the backdoor. It could not have been drawn up much better.

This goal, however, would be the last thing Blackhawks fans would have to cheer about.

Just a few minutes after Gustafsson tied the game, Former Blackhawk Vinnie Hinostroza took a pass from Ekman-Larsson and buried it past Crawford. The cross-ice pass left Hinostroza alone with time to pick apart a moving Crawford, glove side. This goal gave the Coyotes the lead for good, at 2-1.

Raanta, on the other hand, was not challenged much in the period. Most shots were from low percentage areas with no traffic in front. The Coyotes’ defensive scheme of making the Hawks shoot from the perimeter was working.

As far as uninspiring goes, this period fit the bill. The Coyotes out shot the home team 10-9 in the period and held on to their 2-1 lead.

THIRD PERIOD

Action was very limited in the first three-quarters of the third period.  By this time, the crowd had started to dissipate, already. You could have heard a pin drop across the ice for most of the period.

With 5:43 left in regulation, Chris Kunitz found himself with the puck along boards in front of his own bench. He telegraphed a horribly irresponsible pass attempt through the middle of the ice which was picked off by Clayton Keller at the blue line.  Keller walked in all alone on Crawford and buried it five-hole.

The turnover, and resulting goal, sucked the air right out of the building. This was one of the types of simple mistakes that could be avoided.

Joel Quenneville, who seemingly had no answers, pulled Crawford with 5:11 left for the extra attacker. Just like the power play, the extra man did not generate enough pressure to matter. Making matters worse, most zone entries were sloppy and the Hawks spent most of the time attempting to retrieve the puck. One could almost make the argument it looked similar to the 5-on-5 play, if you ignore the empty net on the other side of the rink.

With just under three minutes remaining, Vinnie Hinostroza buried his second of the night into the gaping net to seal the win. This goal combined with little pressure left Blackhawks fans with little option but to head for the exits early.

The Hawks outshot the Coyotes 34-31 for the game, and Arizona left with a satisfying 4-1 win.

THE GOOD

• The return of Corey Crawford. His presence in net is needed. The last time we saw him, he was putting up Vezina Trophy type numbers. He did not get much help from the guys in front of him tonight but kept the team in the game for the most part.
• Jonathan Toews and Alex Debrincat have kept the offense afloat. The pair each recorded points again tonight. The chemistry between the two continues to grow.
• A real nice salute to Niklas Hjalmarsson on the video board during a timeout. Hjalmarsson was a huge piece on the backend during the cup runs. He is still the shutdown type defenseman this Hawks team is sorely missing.

THE BAD

• Another goose egg on the power play. Zone entry and puck possession continue to haunt the power play. Even when set up, too much standing around and low percentage shots from the point with no one in front makes for easy saves.
• High scoring chances for the Coyotes. This is becoming a common theme with these Hawks.
• Turnovers (see above).

SUMMARY

The Hawks looked uninspired. Four days off between games is not an excuse. This effort might get them a point in the cup era but not with this hole filled roster. I could not pick out a player of the game even if I had was forced. It should be interesting to see how they respond from this effort.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks Lose to Coyotes in Crawford’s Return appeared first on The Rink.

Ok, this trade can be viewed today as it likely will be years from now—as Vince Hinostroza being the price of losing the cap hit and annual long-term injured reserve headache that comes with the last three years of Hossa’s deal.

I heard from sources going into the summer that the Hawks intended to deal Hossa’s contract, and that was why, as first reported here, the team had engaged Hossa in talks about his returning to the organization at the end of his contract in an “organizational” capacity, most likely coaching.

Mission accomplished. Hossa is a Coyote on paper, and remains a Hawk in everyone’s hearts. The $1 million actually owed to Hossa in salary is off the Hawks’ balance sheet—and the team now has a boatload of salary cap room.

Almost immediately, in the aftermath of the Hossa trade, rumors began flowing that the Hawks intended to move quickly to acquire one of 2-3 high profile left wings rumored to be on the trading block: Max Pacioretty, Artemi Panarin, and/or Jeff Skinner. Intermittently, rumors had also been out there of interest in defensemen Justin Faulk or Erik Karlsson.

I heard and reported the Faulk, Karlsson and Pacioretty rumors here on The-Rink.

Meanwhile, when Hawk GM predictably went into “tamp down expectations” mode (“we like our team,” “if we make a move it’s more likely to be inseason”), the usual suspects lapped it up and took it as Gospel: “See, Bowman says they aren’t gonna make any moves. Must be true.” LIke GMs never play their cards close to the vest with the media. I mean, I am not the biggest Bowman fan out there, but even I give him more credit than that. Because I know better.

The truth is, for about a week to ten days after the Hossa trade, rumors quietly intensified, especially surrounding Pacioretty—who I was told had been recommended to the Hawk brass by none other than Patrick Kane, who had played with the Montreal winger for the U.S. team in the World Championships.

But then, one day, I opened my inbox and found this:

“(A Hawk source has) expressed serious frustration in the FO and their ability to get deals done to a point that there are ruffled feathers…. the FO A) Overvalues their players B) Think the Hawks are still THE premier destination for FA’s (low-balling contracts) C) Overthink deals to the point where they get over-complicated (which rd pick, retained salary, prospect rankings) and the potential partner backs off the deal. The FO feels they need to “clearly win” any deal instead of the deal being “equally beneficial”. This explains why they have had such an issue trading anyone of potential value to another team and why they are having a hard time signing any FA’s of importance.”

Skeptics out there (and there are always some) will say that is “made up” (easy for them to speculate, but I have better things to do on a Sunday morning), not from a valid source (this source tipped me on Ryan Hartman being dealt before anyone else had it—among other accurate rumors). So, to them, I say, God Bless and believe what you will.

But I will also tell you this is not a new narrative. I have separately heard essentially this from two other sources over the previous 4-5 years. That it can very hard to deal with the Hawk front office as an agent or a GM because there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen, all deals need to be “approved” (or endlessly tweaked) from above, and that the Hawks tend to overvalue (and perhaps, not coincidentally, overpay) their own assets and players.

To be fair, there’s nothing wrong at all with adhering to the principle that sometimes the best deal you make is the one you don’t. And there is nothing wrong with winning a deal. But as Bowman has said himself, GMs like to be able to make value for value deals—where both teams benefit by dealing from each team’s relative depth and strength to add to their relative weaknesses. And the Hawks, having finished 13th in the West last season and rumored to be suffering from softening demand for things like like the recently concluded Fan Convention and actual game tickets, would seem to need to make some deals.

Now, some will point to the theory first mentioned on our RinkCast a few weeks ago, that the Hawks might, in fact, be in the midst of a “Silent Rebuild.” Great.

But the Hossa trade makes almost no sense in that scenario. There is no reason to trade an asset like Hinostroza—who, although he might not be quite the elite offensive prospect some believe him to be, is regardless a useful, young NHL player—to just lose cap hit, if you are in fact rebuilding.

The reason for that move has to be to lose cap hit in order to do something relatively soon with the restored cap space. In terms of actual dollars paid out, Hossa’s deal only cost $1 million a year.

But here we sit, 3+ weeks out from that deal, with other teams still making moves (Skinner was traded to Buffalo last week for a handful of middle round draft picks. Karlsson and Pacioretty at minimum, appear to still be the subject of trade talks), and the Hawks having done very little improve their team for the 2018-19 season.

Last year’s porous blue line, on paper, is only “improved” by the acquisition of Brandon Manning. Now that the always dubious “it was a playoff team with Crow” narrative has been rendered moot by the likely eventuality that Corey Crawford might not even play this year, the goaltending tandem appears to be Cam Ward (the guy Carolina deemed not as good as Scott Darling) and maybe Anton Forsberg. At forward, the team has added Kruger and 38 year old Chris Kunitz.

There are those who will always see the glass as half full: that this is just a rebuild and the next great Era in Chicago Blackhawks hockey is only a season or two away.

The truth, in all likelihood, is not so pretty. The fundamental problem with a “halfway,” or “silent” rebuild (not unlike that of the Detroit Red Wings over the last 8-9 years, among other teams) is that you don’t ever quite get the years of very high draft picks that typically drive a rebuild. In other words, Alex DeBrincat, Nick Schmaltz, Dylan Sikura et al may end up being good to very good NHL players in the right roles, but none are ever going to be comparable to Kane, Jonathan Toews, or Hossa.

Not even close.

This year’s first round pick, Adam Boqvist, selected 8th overall, has obvious talent—but he is also tiny and has apparently already had a concussion or two. Again, the optimists will point to Duncan Keith as a comparator, who was about 165 pounds when drafted in 2002. And that may be perfectly apt—but it remains to be seen if Boqvist possesses the legendary desire Keith had to work and sacrifice and push himself to become an elite NHL player.

Many take for granted the hot, some might say lucky, streak the Hawks went on from 2002-2007 or so in terms of acquiring young talent. And that it was made possible by several years of on-ice struggles—and a lot of empty seats in the stands.

Losing Hossa’s cap hit has provided the Hawks a unique opportunity: to complement their aging, but arguably still potent, core with another young, but proven NHL star. But it also would mean Bowman giving up 1-2 of the “rebuild” assets mentioned above. Value for value.

And it seems—for now anyway—the Hawks can’t do this, even as hope for a return to the playoffs this season are not very realistic in the very competitive Central Division.

So, we return to the abiding question of the offseason: what’s the actual plan? Is there a plan? And if there is, why can’t the Hawks seem to execute it?

Sure, a lot of things could miraculously go right for a team that has not seen that happen much over the last couple of seasons and painfully short playoff runs, but it usually works out differently. In hockey, there’s a degree to which good luck is a by-product of hard work and sacrifice.

And yes, there’s still time for a big move.

Perhaps said big move might really ignite the team on the ice, versus one that is primarily meant to garner some headlines and spur ticket sales. Who knows, Bowman might even pull of a great acquisition before the in-season trade deadline, but historically, “buyers” get completely taken to the cleaners at that time of year.

All of this seems to poin to a front office paralyzed by conflicting beliefs and agendas—and not adapting well to the worst personnel situation arguably since the 2006-07 season.

It seems that, for the time being, the Hawks organization want you to believe, because apparently enough of them still believe—or want to believe—that this is still an elite or near-elite team in the NHL.

In spite of mounting evidence to the contrary.

All I have for now. Discuss below and give me a follow @jaeckel.

The post What the Hossa trade may say about the state of the Hawks appeared first on The Rink.

But, on the other hand, there could end up being more to this deal for either or both teams.

Jordan Oesterle goes to Arizona, and the Hawks pick up three guys who are either prospects (Mackenzie Entwistle), or AHLers/fringe NHLers (Andrew Campbell and Jordan Maletta). Meh.

To my eye, the “x factors” in this deal are center Marcus Kruger and RW Vince Hinostroza.

If Kruger can regain some or (who knows?) all of the form he had in 2015, then this could go down as a pretty shrewd deal for Hawk GM Stan Bowman. Conversely, Hinostroza may get the opportunity to be a regular top 6 forward in Arizona that he probably wasn’t going to get in Chicago. Will he produce—and more importantly—will he help elevate the rebuilding Coyotes in that role? Or will the Coyotes slot Hinostroza—and develop him—as I and others always felt the Hawks should have, as Kris Draper/Darren Helm 2.0: a fast, energetic, tough as nails guy to play against, with some occasional offense, who can be an absolute gem in a lower line role?

Kruger has battled injury for much of the last three years—a couple of wrist injuries and a sports hernia last year. Still, in 48 games with the Hurricanes last year, he was 55% in the faceoff dot.

Kruger never lit up the scoresheet in Chicago, and he became a whipping boy for Hawks’ fans when he signed a 3 year, $10 million deal after the last Cup. But the reality is, a healthy Marcus Kruger was the kind of guy who helps NHL teams win games, and series and Cups (not unlike the aforementioned Draper and Helm). Because he filled some important lower line/utility roles that not any bum can fill. Killing penalties, shadowing opponents’ top centers, driving a really effective shutdown/energy line.

The question is, is he still that kind of player. As of this writing, I don’t know what the Hawks’ scouting is on his health, and in truth, they may not even have any assurances. In that regard, Kruger could be nothing more than salary and a contract slot coming the other way to soften the cap hit for Arizona, at the same time a lottery ticket for Bowman.

Because if Kruger is relatively healthy this year, can still wein faceoffs and play his style of game, which is a lot bigger than his 6’1”, 190 pounds, then Stan Bowman very adroitly filled an underappreciated need on his team going into next season.

Which leads this narrative to another “overpaid” whipping boy: Jonathan Toews.

As far as Toews’ dropoff since 2015, there have been numerous theories. “Doesn’t care.” “Vegan.” “Takes too many supplements.” “Back injury” (which at least was legitimate season before last).

But one theory that I’ve heard from a team source, and has been echoed by Eddie Olczyk and others, is that when Toews is forced to do too much work, specifically taking faceoffs in too many situations, it detracts from his overall game, especially his offense.

Here’s the thing—winning faceoffs in the NHL is hard, physical work. And the two “centers” who follow Toews on the depth chart (Nick Schmaltz and Artem Anisimov) aren’t very good at it. So is killing penalties.

These were two things Kruger did a lot of from 2013-2015, so Toews didn’t have to—or not as much.

So if (and again, at this point, it’s a big “if”), Kruger is physically good enough this year to resume that role, in some form, there could be a subtle, yet important ripple effect for the entire Hawk team.

Or just some cap hit to absorb as a part of the cost of losing Marian Hossa’s cap hit. There was some speculation yesterday that the move was a cap clearing precursor to another deal—which I heard later in the afternoon had added urgency to some discussions I first reported a couple of weeks ago between the Hawks and Canadiens around Max Pacioretty.

Having reported on rumors for 9 years now, I can tell you that many, many more conversations happen than actual deals—and those big, seismic moves are exceedingly rare. So yesterday’s deal may end up being what it is. For better, worse or just moving some money around.

All I have for now. Follow @jaeckel and comment below.

The post What the Hossa trade really means appeared first on The Rink.

Chicago sent the remaining three years of Marian Hossa‘s contract, forward Vinnie Hinostroza, and defenseman Jordan Oesterle and a 2019 3rd round pick to the Arizona Coyotes for Marcus Kruger, MacKenzie Entwistle, Jordan Maletta, defenseman Andrew Campbell and a fifth-round pick in 2019.

Hossa has been all but retired since it was announced that he was suffering for years from a painful skin condition.  The Blackhawks were able to use his $5.25 million cap hit against long term injured reserved last season.  The team only paid Hossa $1 million in actual dollars.

Vinnie Hinostroza was drafted the Blackhawks in the 6th round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, and signed with the team after finishing his 2014-15 season for Notre Dame.  He finally came into his own last season amassing 25 points (7G, 18A) with the Blackhawks, after leading the Rockford Icehogs in scoring early on.

Jordan Oesterle was signed as a free agent last summer after playing in the Edmonton system.  In a bit of a breakout year, Oesterle put up 15 points (5G, 10A) in 55 games for the Blackhawks.  He became expendable with the flurry of young defensemen in the system signed to entry level deals this spring.

Coming back to the Blackhawks is a familiar face, in Marcus Kruger.  Kruger was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights last summer for future considerations and then flipped to the Carolina Hurricanes shortly after.  The Hurricanes traded Kruger to the Coyotes in may after a very disappointing season that led Kruger to play in the AHL towards the end of the season.

Also, coming to the Blackhawks are prospects MacKenzie Entwistle, Jordan Maletta, and Andrew Campbell.

Entwistle is an 18 year-old 6’3″ 175 lbs right wing drafted in 2017 by Arizona in the 3rd round of the NHL Entry Draft. This last season he put up 38 points in 49 games for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL.

Jordan Meletta is a 23 year-old 6’3″ 216 lbs center that played all of his pro career with the Cleveland Monsters and Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. He will probaby be assigned to the Rockford Icehogs.

Andrew Campbell is a 30 year-old 6’4” 205 lbs AHL veteran defenseman that will likely take the spot of the departed Cody Franson, Adam Clendening and Viktor Svedberg.

The post BREAKING: Blackhawks Trade Hossa/Hinostroza/Oesterle to Arizona appeared first on The Rink.

Introducing Bill “Wiz” Placzek, the newest writer at The-Rink.com, and our prospect/draft expert. Bill will be providing more and more coverage leading up to the draft. But for now, here’s his take on the Blackhawks’ personnel moves of the last several months—and looking forward. 

My personal disappointment prior to last year’s NHL draft in Chicago was the news the day before of the departure of Nik Hjalmarsson, and Artemi Panarin.

My shock wasn’t that the team again felt forced into a cap corner, and made these moves, as much as what they decided to take in return.

As a Blackhawk fan, it was a stark reset.

I wanted to be angry—and when arriving at the United Center door and starting conversations with the fans around, I felt even worse, because almost all were of the opinion that Brandon Saad was a better player than Panarin; that Saad’s history with his former team and his style was just as important as Panarin’s contributions.

Sure, I understood these were moves in reaction to a tight cap, but was surprised that most saw the Columbus deal as a winner for Chicago, especially because the Hawks got an up and coming goaltender in Forsberg—besides Saad.

And I honestly thought that one deal was made based on their familiarity with Saad, and that Arizona’s GM John Chaka was the only GM willing to send a young defenseman that was signed long term back in the Hammer deal. No Cap space to pay Panarin and the comfort of a still developing young defenseman limited to a reasonable acap number led to the start of the soft rebuild.

I have read fan comments the entire year about the sudden decline of the Hawks core, especially two players who are still the team’s best two defenders, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, and how the youth of the league was rapidly skating rings around the Blackhawk forward contingent.

The 2017-18 season officially closed the playoff window, they said, and even making an appearance couldn’t lead to success, as the roster depth had declined to a point where Coach Quenneville had no choice but to play new players.

Window closed and the management quietly started a reboot.

In my humble opinion, Panarin was the only reason the window stayed open up to the 2015-2017 seasons.

It was the add of the Breadman that provided an impact player who was able to mesh with Kane and maintain the ability to score and change outcomes the entire two seasons he was a Blackhawk.

Sure, they knew already that Patrick Sharp’s deal had to be discarded, and that as much as Andrew Shaw was their heart and will, they probably got the best years of his battle torn body.

And I, for one, really want to know why Trevor Daley was unable to play for Quenneville, but moreover why the decision was made so quickly to not end up being on the hook for they rest of his contract.

But losing Saad and Shaw and the oft-injured Sharp still cut deep into the roster and roles they provided.

So, last summer’s moves, including the “retirement” of Marian Hossa, with a remaining albatross cap hit (that the league slapped on them), should not have taken us all off guard.

The soft rebuild was on the way from game one.

It didn’t quite work out, because although there was some encouraging on the job training by the farm system’s defenders and the free agent signing of Jordan Oesterle, these players were still not savvy enough to do what the veteran-laden defensive corps in the past had done: quickly move pucks out in transition so that defensive zone time would stay comparable to the past team’s.

To me, that was the gist of it; the season began as one where management was willing to allow the young forwards the time and experience necessary to become better all around NHLers, and even philosophically bite the bullet on deficits, as long as the additions could play fast on the attack.

(Granted, Q expects his forwards to be strong on the puck even more so the bigger a forward is, and also expects constant backside pressure from all forwards or you sit—just as Anthony Duclair did the other night.)

But the long possessions in their own defensive zone caused more losses of confidence than the entire team could handle. And that’s ignoring the loss of any semblance of NHL goaltending.

I am going to take a stab at what the organization and coaching staff was thinking from the beginning of the season.

Now let’s have a go at projecting what the long and short range plan to right the SS Blackhawk, when and if they have an NHL goaltender to anchor on.

1) Should he stay or should he goal?

“Anton Forsberg is young and his best years are still ahead of him…. that he would learn quickly to be a strong backup.” Unfortunately, in my opinion, it hasn’t happened. Even in the early OT games where we heard of his tenacity, he simply gave up goals he shouldn’t have. This continued through his tenure as starter and it is only recently that I feel there is starting to be better feel to his game.

I believe they will continue to view him as their second tier goalie, due to his age, and upside, until they finally lose patience and feel they have to secure someone who has a better chance of handling duties. Just like it is rare to trade for a first pair defender, it is rare to see a quality goaltender prospect bartered—I believe Tukka Rask was the last one when the Maple Leafs sent him to the Bruins. (Toronto management had deemed Justin Pogge their potential goaltender of the future, thereby rendering Rask expendable. GULP!)

So, that in itself explains my reasoning on why he stays on the roster.

2) Should they stay or should they go?

Don’t expect big fat contracts to any of these youngsters except for Nick Schmaltz and Alex DeBrincat, and they will be pressured to take what is offered, no matter what they think they can become. My reasoning is the organization wants them to feel wanted, so won’t simply try and force “just business” RFA deals on them, but the Hawks GM cannot commit to high percentage of cap deals and will try and get these two players and their representation to agree to long manageable money, unless Schmaltz has a break-out year next year, or if in the next two years, DeBrincat not only scores 20 goals but shows that his on-ice impact exceeds third line status, no matter which line he plays on.

The salary decision on Ryan Hartman is aided by this season’s reduced goal and point totals, so his agent is not going to be able to get him an overpay.

And quite frankly, the Hawks are in a good position to control the dollar figures on all these players and Vince Hinostroza, and Tomas Jurco (cough), and for that matter, defenders Erik Gustafsson this summer, and Carl Dahlström, next summer. (It is clear Dahlström is viewed as sixth defender and cap safety)

Oesterle is a different matter, as he may seek to leave if he succeeds in the Blackhawk framework.

So much of the re-signing process is dependent upon whether the players feel gratitude that they were given opportunities, and want to stay and build something.

I think there will be little room for reward deals, because being a non-playoff team is also a strong bargaining chip for management to use against forwards seeking deals of high dollar and term.

3) Trades: Who should stay and who should go?

As the possibility of making the playoffs slipped by, I remarked that the first thing Chicago will do is try to recoup the 2nd and 4th round draft picks that were traded, because from all indications this is a stronger draft class than usual.

You have to wonder if the Michal Kempny trade to the Capitals for a low 3rd rounder was more necessitated by his frustration with the logjam on defense and resulting lack of chances or that the Hawks don’t see him as a long term solution.

Maybe a trickier decision is whether they need to launch Jan Rutta, who can go anywhere, if he doesn’t like the numbers and opportunities the Hawks can bring. You have to think that the Hawks would love a hometown discount, based on the positive play we saw from him for a long stretch this season. Does Stan Bowman know where all parties stand? If he does, maybe he goes shopping for a pick by that route.

I have been barraged by calls from friends, convinced that the soft rebuild will definitely include trading Artem Anisimov, who has a ten team list clause that kicks in 7/1, which I am certain he would waive and/or amend if he doesn’t feel wanted, and include more than ten teams if teams want him for the next three upcoming seasons.

Personally, I don’t think you subtract him, because while you are attempting to develop a young forward unit, you need that big center to play against the big centers that line the Central and West Divisions. Is he a luxury at 4.55 Million? I think not. I guess a lot would depend upon what the offer is. As reported here on the-Rink.com, Columbus inquired but was told by the Hawks they were not interested, but maybe that was because the offer wasn’t appealing enough?

As stated, Keith and Seabrook are still their best backliners, and today I heard that the Blackhawks might not be done trading and may be working on a deal that shakes the defensive core.

Does that mean Keith agrees to go to Toronto and be the left side glue they are rumored to be sniffing around for?

The friendship between Winnipeg’s Kevin Cheveldayoff and the Blackhawks organization might make things easily candid, and Chevy really isn’t going to have roster room for the next four years of first round picks, because he won’t have the cap space to pay them, and he is going to start having sleepless nights if he doesn’t bolster his roster with a bona fide Cup experienced forward, and maybe even defender. Word has it that as well as Jack Roslovic and Kyle Conner have played, the Jets feel that now is the time to make moves that bring their locker rooms strong leadership and more than depth to the current group. Certainly three players in forwards Adam Lowry, Brandon Tanev and defenseman Jacob Trouba may get healthy enough to dance in the post season, but they are going to have more players than they can sign to big deals, so they are in a position to make a mutually beneficial deal for both teams.

And just how much salary will the Hawks eat on any deals?

I am thinking they will try to subtract, while bolstering their future, and whether it comes in the form of a young Jet, or Toronto picks, the Blackhawks are not going to be shy about talking about just about every guy on this roster.

The post Analysis: Anatomy of a Soft Rebuild appeared first on The Rink.

The Blackhawks headed to the desert on Monday night to play the Arizona Coyotes. The Hawks had not won a game in the month of February, and held a three percent chance of making the playoffs entering the game. Playing on the road against a bottom-feeding Arizona team presented a great opportunity for the Hawks to start trending in the right direction.

The Coyotes on the other hand entered Monday night’s game 1-4 in the month of February, and last place in the entire NHL with 36 points. Their lineup also featured former Blackhawks Niklas Hjalmarsson and Richard Panik, who was playing in his first game against the Blackhawks since being traded to Anthony Duclair.

These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Anthony Duclair
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – Alex DeBrincat
Vinnie Hinostroza – David Kampf – Tomas Jurco

Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook
Carl Dahlstrom – Connor Murphy

Anton Forsberg

For those of you who decided to skip the eight o’clock start Monday night, you didn’t miss much. Less than two minutes into the game, the Coyotes put themselves on the board, and never looked back. At the blue line, defenseman Jakob Chychrun fired a slap shot that was redirected right past Anton Forsberg by Max Domi for his fourth goal of the season. This goal was the start of what would be a very long night for the Blackhawks, who looked slow and disinterested for most of the night.

The Blackhawks had the edge in shots through the first ten minutes of the game, but the Coyotes definitely had the edge in chances, which led to the Coyotes second goal of the game.

One of the many negative trends this season has been the Blackhawks turnovers in their own zone.  That story line continued when Jordan Oesterle coughed up the puck behind his own net. Clayton Keller took the puck and centered it to Derek Stepan who fired a backhand shot from point blank range that was stopped by Forsberg.  Oesterle compounded his mistake by not getting back to the front of the net, allowing the space for Keller to grab the rebound and put it past Forsberg, who had no chance of making the save. Not even ten minutes into the game, against by far the worst team, and the Blackhawks were already down 2-0.

To their credit, the Hawks seemed to settle down a bit after the Keller goal. They drew a penalty with 7:21 left in the period, and despite failing to score, they didn’t look totally incompetent in the process. Sadly, with this team all good things must come to an end, and with five seconds left in the power play, Anthony Duclair was sent to the box for boarding.

After a successful penalty kill, and a largely mediocre finish to the first period, the Blackhawks headed to the dressing room down 2-0, but the shots were tied 10-10.

The second period started with a little life from the visitors. The Hawks had a nice chance early in the period on a one timer by Nick Schmaltz. The play was set up by a beautiful pass from Patrick Kane, but shut down by former Blackhawk netminder Anti Raanta.

Soon after, one of the few Blackhawks to show any life last night, Tommy Wingels, even tried to get the team going physically. Wingels leveled Niklas Hjalmarrson behind the Coyote net and was jumped by two Arizona players, drawing a penalty in the process. Although Wingels and Chychrun were given coincidental roughing penalties, Domi was given the third roughing minor, sending the Blackhawks to a much need power play.

After a lousy first minute, the unit led by Jonathan Toews was able to cash in, cutting the Coyotes lead in half. Toews fed a pass off the boards to Alex DeBrincat who used a subtle pick by Anthony Duclair to find the space to put a quick wrist shot past Raanta. Another key to the goal was a good screen by Lance Bouma, who was surprisingly added to the power play, and made the best of his opportunity.

The power play goal was DeBrincat’s 20th of the season, making him the second rookie in the NHL to score 20 or more goals.

For those of you looking to read about more positives in the game, you should just stop right here. After the DeBrincat goal, the Blackhawks packed it in for the rest of the night. But for those of you looking to reignite your anger from last night, please, continue reading.

Within a minute after the goal, the Hawks found themselves back on the power play after an Arizona delay of game penalty. Unfortunately, as this team loves to do, they squandered yet another opportunity to score on the man advantage. Instead, they allowed the Coyotes to build off their penalty killing momentum, by adding a third goal, this time by Alex Goligoski.

I am not sure how to describe how soft a goal this was. Goligoski was sitting along the boards to Forsberg’s right, nearly at the goal line, and fired a half-hearted wrist shot that somehow found its way past Forsberg.

Atrocious?

Awful?

Ugly?

Embarrassing?

Let’s go with all the above.  Coach Joel Quenneville immediately sent the infamous Jeff Glass to the ice to save the day, but it only got worse from there.

Just to prove how much they did not care, the Blackhawks committed a too many men penalty and quickly gave Glass his introduction to the party. About 30 seconds into the penalty kill, Christian Fischer took a slap shot from the point that was saved by Glass and found its way under Brent Seabrook who was standing in the crease. Instead of immediately clearing the puck out of the crease as he should have, it seemed Seabrook tried to stick handle out of the blue paint. This gave Coyotes winger Tobias Rieder the opportunity to fly in and poke the puck through Seabrook’s legs and into the Hawk net. This was the second egregious turnover by a defenseman in his own zone that led to a Coyotes goal.

But don’t worry, it gets better.

In the third period, the Coyotes were able to add two more goals before the final horn. The first was on a shot-pass by Goligoski that was tipped in by former Flyer Nick Cousins for his tenth goal of the season.

The second goal came with less than five minutes left on yet another embarrassing play. In his first NHL game, Carl Dahlstrom found himself in no-man’s-land, opening a hole for Zac Rinaldo to chip a pass to Christian Dvorak who finished the break away with his ninth goal of the year.

After a late and unsuccessful power play, the torture was finally over. The final was 6-1, extending the Blackhawks losing streak to six games. The shot total was largely to the advantage of the Blackhawks, 38-22, but that was the only thing they accomplished in a tremendously disappointing game.

Pluses

• Alex DeBrincat has been one of the Hawks few bright spots this year. If you would have told me before the season that DeBrincat would have 20 goals in mid-February, I would have said you were crazy. But, with almost two months left, there is a chance he gets close to 30 goals, and maybe even reaches that total if he stays hot. DeBrincat isn’t someone you build around, but he is definitely a top-six player who you can build a playoff contender with. He competes every night, is a decent passer, and has a borderline elite shot. I am very pleasantly surprised with what I have seen from the youngster this season, and was one of the few Blackhawks who showed any heart last night.
• Speaking of heart, Tommy Wingels and Lance Bouma continue to show what this team is missing most. Despite lacking the skill needed to be top-nine players, Quenneville can count on those two to play every shift like it’s their last, blocking shots, finishing checks, and contributing offensively when they can. It is obvious that Bouma saw some power play time for that reason alone, because the Brandon Saad’s of this team continue to show they are content with starting their summer early. Regardless of what happens this off season, the Hawks need to add more players with a compete level matching what Bouma and Wingels give on a nightly basis.

Minuses

• Minuses….huh, let me think…. How about everything except Bouma, Wingels, and DeBrincat! This team is in the middle of a six-game losing streak, and have now been beaten by the worst team in the NHL by five goals. Both Glass and Forsberg looked horrible, giving up six goals on only 22 SHOTS! But, don’t think Crawford is your savior. The lineup on defense has been a revolving door other than Duncan Keith, and continue to make bad decisions in their own zone. This was evident last night by the two goals given up because of defensive lapses by Seabrook and Oesterle. And don’t think Keith isn’t a problem either, he is a -11 and hasn’t score a goal this entire season. Which brings me to my next point; It doesn’t matter how many goals they give up on a nightly basis, because they can’t score! Toews has 36 points, Saad has 24 points, and Artem Anisimov has 21 points. Just to give those stats some perspective, that is a combined 81 points in 158 games. For those of you who don’t want to do the math, that comes out to .51 points per game. So, half a point a game for three players who combine to make 21 million dollars. That reality just makes me sick, and should have all Blackhawk fans calling for major changes, because what is happening isn’t just a slump. Last night’s game against Arizona showed the entire NHL what is wrong with this Blackhawks team, and that is darn near everything.

The post Recap: Blackhawks at Coyotes 6-1 Loss appeared first on The Rink.

9:00PM Eastern/8:00 Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: NBCSCH

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Arizona:
Antti Raanta (9-14-6 | 2.64 GAA | 0.916 SV% | 0 SO)

Chicago:
Anton Forsberg (5-9-3 | 2.95 GAA | 0.91 SV% | 0 SO)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Arizona

Perlini – Stepan – Keller
Rinaldo – Domi – Rieder
Panik – Dvorak – Fischer
Martinook – Richardson – Cousins

Ekman-Larsson – Demers
Chychrun – Hjalmarsson
Connauton – Goligoski

Chicago

Saad – Toews – Duclair
Schmaltz – Anisimov – Kane
Bouma – Wingels – Debrincat
Hinostroza – Kampf – Jurco

Keith – Oesterle
Gustafsson – Seabrook
Dahlstrom – Murphy

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:
Arizona 16.6% (26th)
Chicago 15.4% (29th)

Penalty kill:
Arizona 78.7% (21st)
Chicago 82.6% (9th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5):
Arizona 48% (23rd)
Chicago 53.3% (3rd)

Faceoffs:
Arizona 47.9% (26th)
Chicago 49.3% (18th)

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks try to stop their 5 game losing streak against a team that used to be a “gimme” win. Times have changed, and the Blackhawks have no “gimme” wins. They are sinking quickly, and seem to have no direction. As it stands today, the Blackhawks have a better chance of winning the NHL Draft Lottery (5.4% according to Tankathon) than they do of making the playoffs (2.5% according to Sports Club Stats)

The Coyotes boast some high end young talent, but have not been able to turn that raw talent into success on the ice. They head into this game with a paltry 1-3-1 record in the month of February, which includes a 4-3 OT win over the same Minnesota Wild that the Blackhawks were shutout by Saturday night.

The Blackhawks go back to Anton Forsberg in net, after the “Jeff Glass Experience” once again failed to yield success.

Expect a recap early in the AM

Join the game thread below for real-time conversation on the action with JJ, Gatekeeper and the rest of the RinkRats.

The post Preview & Game Thread: Blackhawks-Coyotes appeared first on The Rink.

The ‘positive’ spin on this deal was provided last night by analyst Bob Mackenzie on NBCSN’s between periods coverage of the Hawks-Wild game: Stan Bowman is looking to make his roster faster and younger with several deals he’s made over the last couple of years.

OK, and I was the guy beating the same drum last summer about the Niklas Hjalmarsson-Connor Murphy and Artemi Panarin-Brandon Saad deals.

Another way to look at these deals: reduced cap hit, or at least, in the case of Saad, longer term for the same money (Panarin is going to get a giant deal from someone next summer).

But there’s a separate pattern here that goes back further—and that’s Bowman trading for former first or second round picks of other teams, “talented,” but underachieving players and hoping that they’ll turn it around in Chicago.

Exhibit A: David Rundblad, who, when he came to Chicago at age 23, was in his fourth organization.

Exhibit B: Panik (Chicago was his third organization by age 24)

Exhibit C: Tomas Jurco

Exhibit D: Duclair, the Hawks are his third organization

You can argue Bowman is 1-for 3 in these deals, but that’s assuming Panik was a hit. Yet, he just got dealt, along with his $2.8 million per year salary, for Duclair. Jurco and Rundblad were acquired for draft picks—neither has done squat in Chicago. Rundblad and Panik are gone.

An argument can be made this is relatively low-cost experimentation around the edges of the roster. Sort of like a $10 a day lottery ticket habit for most of us. Meh.

And without question, the latest trade saves the Hawks fairly significantly: $1.6 million in annualized cap hit this year.

But it also raises a question

Is the time, energy, roster and cap space spent experimenting on and waiting for guys who’ve worn out their welcomes—in sometimes more than one organization—worth it?

Rundblad was given several “opportunities” to succeed—and more than many felt he deserved. Jurco was recently called up from Rockford over the likes of Matthew Highmore. There may have been/may be good hockey reasons for these moves. But it also makes one wonder if Bowman doesn’t over-index on making these “experiments” work—somehow.

But, it’s all up to Anthony Duclair now to take the ball and run with it on a team that, at least for the time being, is in contention for a playoff spot. Rumor has it, he wanted out of Arizona and the powers that be in the desert wanted him out as a result.

We’ll discuss this and other issues on the RinkCast tonight. Weigh in below on this page with your thoughts.

Follow: @jaeckel

The post Analysis: File Duclair Deal Under “Rundblad” appeared first on The Rink.

Ryan Hartman sat for his second consecutive game, while Cody Franson missed his first game with an injury. This meant that Vince Hinostroza played his second game of the year, and Jordan Oesterle played for the first time in, well, virtually forever.

These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Alex DeBrincat
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – Vince Hinostroza – Richard Panik
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – John Hayden

Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook
Gustav Forsling – Jan Rutta

Momentum opened in favor of the Blackhawks, but their powerplay quickly derailed all of that. Rookie Alex Debrincat had a prime chance to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead with a gaping net staring back at him but shot the puck right into Arizona goalie Scott Wedgewood, to keep the game scoreless.

Debrincat later also figured in some action, this time negative, when he turned over a puck at the Coyotes blue line after running into the back of a teammate rather than dumping the puck into the zone. Arizona, being who they are, were not able to capitalize on the chance, though.

Other than a few terrible turnovers, most notably one by Tommy Wingels, there was not much more action for the remainder of the first period. Shots on net did favor the Blackhawks pretty convincingly, at 13-9, which is honestly right about what the totals should be versus this level of opponent.

In the middle period, the Yotes came out with a little more swagger, which led to an early shot advantage and, eventually, a powerplay. Their powerplay mustered up a little pressure, and even a goalpost, but the Coyotes were still not able to open the scoring.
Not to be outdone, the Blackhawks came out and stunk up the joint once again on their second powerplay of the game, in the final minutes of the second period. This all resulted in another mediocre period against a seemingly inferior team, especially since the Hawks were out shot 10-7.

Both teams came out in the third period looking to take a lead. First, the Coyotes caught the Blackhawks running around in their own zone, and were denied by Corey Crawford, who had his goal stick awkwardly stick in his leg pads.

Then it was the Blackhawks turn to put pressure on their opponent. Richard Panik had a great back door one timer that the Arizona goaltender stopped, and then followed up with a nice save on Vince Hinostroza’s rebound try.

The Blackhawks finally took a 1-0 lead just over seven minutes into the third period. Tommy Wingels atoned for his earlier turnover and scored on a nice backhand feed from #BigJohnStudd Hayden, which finally gave the home crowd something to cheer about. More good news on this goal was that Jordan Oesterle earned the second assist on the play.

That Blackhawks lead would not last more than a few minutes when Arizona’s Anthony Duclair tied the game. Duclair just out muscled Jan Rutta for position and redirected an Alex Goligoski pass from the corner past Corey Crawford.

The flood gates seemed to have opened as just under a minute after the Duclair game tying goal, Artem Anisimov took a Patrick Kane feed and snapped a shot top shelf, over Wedgwood’s blocker, to take the lead back for good.

The Blackhawks were not done there, though. A minute and forty seconds after Anisimov gave the Blackhawks a lead, once again, Nick Schmaltz took another great Patrick Kane feed and one timed the puck past the Coyotes goalie to add some insurance for his own goaltender.

That was all the Blackhawks would need and they were able to pull off a 3-1 win. Two wins, neither convincing, against teams they should beat most nights. Still a lot of work to be done.

Pluses

• First star of the game, Corey Crawford, has not missed a beat since coming back from injury. He made 31 saves, and had little-to-no chance on the goal he gave up.
• Patrick Kane made himself very noticeable with two critical assists. One on the game winning goal, and another on the insurance goal.
• The Hawks actually looked pretty good at the faceoff dots. Toews, Hinostroza, and Wingels were all 50% or greater, which had the team total at 53%
• Duncan Keith was back to leading the team in time on ice, but “Goose” Forsling was right behind him.
• John Hayden made the most of his team low 10:06, getting his assist on the Wingels goal.

Minuses

• We will take the win, but the powerplay was pretty rancid against a very average Coyotes penalty kill.
• It was nice to see Nick Schmaltz finally shoot the puck, and score, but he is still passing up far too many solid opportunities for fancy, low percentage passes.

The post Recap: Blackhawks vs Coyotes 3-1 win appeared first on The Rink.

The pickings get perhaps easier tonight, as the Blackhawks host Arizona, who are on the 2nd game of a road back-to-back, losing 1-0 last night in Columbus.

Arizona Coyotes (7-17-4) at Chicago Blackhawks (12-11-5)

6:00 PM Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: WGN/Fox Sports Arizona

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Arizona:

Antti Raanta (4-6-2, 2.68 GAA, .919 save%)

Chicago:

Corey Crawford (12-7-0, 2.27 GAA, .930 save%)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Arizona

Keller-Stepan-Rieder

Domi-Dvorak-Fischer

Perlini-Strome-Duclair

Martinook-Richardson-Rinaldo

Ekman Larsson-Demers

Chychrun-Goligoski

Capobianco-Schenn

Chicago

Saad-Toews-DeBrincat

Schmaltz-Anisimov-Kane

Sharp-Hinostroza-Panik

Bouma-Wingels-Hayden

Keith-Murphy

Forsling-Rutta

Oesterle-Seabrook

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:

Arizona 16.8% (25^th)

Chicago 15.8% (29^th)

Penalty kill:

Arizona 81.4% (14^th)

Chicago 83.3% (5^th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5)

Arizona 47.0% (28^th)

Chicago 52.4% (7^th)

Faceoffs:

Arizona 47.8% (26^th)

Chicago 48.7% (25^th)

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks get a double dose of what they needed, following up Friday’s home game against the Sabres with another home matchup against struggling Arizona. This is the second game of a road back-to-back for the Coyotes, having lost 1-0 in Columbus last night, a game I had the opportunity to see first hand.

The Coyotes, especially goalie Antti Raanta, played fairly well against a good team. The former Hawk netminder gave up an early marker to Josh Anderson, who was left wide open, and roofed one over Raanta’s left shoulder. Otherwise, the Coyotes pretty much locked it down and matched the Blue Jackets overall.

There are differing reports as to whether Raanta or Scott Wedgewood will start in net tonight in Chicago.

The Hawks enter tonight’s game a little banged up; there was some question whether Lance Bouma and Cody Franson would play. It appears Bouma will and Franson won’t.

The Hawks need to use a game like this, not only to add two points and bolster their playoff hopes, but also to continue to develop any confidence and and consistency arising from their last outing against Buffalo.

We’ll recap tonight or tomorrow AM.

Follow: @jaeckel

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Watching Jonathan Toews offer his customary fist-bumps and pats on the back to teammates last night as he does after every Hawk win, my thought was, after time passes, a 3-2 OT win looks just like a 7-1 domination. It’s 2 points.

The truth is, final scores can be deceiving, The Blackhawks had to scratch and claw to get to overtime and they ended the game on a bouncy Gustav Forsling shot with 5 seconds left in 3-on-3. Yet, they fairly dominated all phases of the game, putting 43 shots on Buffalo goalie Robin Lehner in regulation alone, and another 8 in OT.

Lehner was outstanding—the Hawks were very good for the most part, against a bad team. More on that in a second.

The Hawk power play was, ummm, better last night.

Alex DeBrincat notched the Hawks first goal on the man-advantage, doing what he does best—launching a quick wrister through a screen, with his lightning quick release. That goal tied the score at 1, but the tie didn’t last long, as Buffalo came back and extended the lead to 2-1.

The Hawks manufactured a good amount of shots on 4 power plays. The puck and player movement was nothing special, yet again, but they did make Lehner work, and got one goal.

A late shortie pushes it to OT

Tommy Wingels tied the score for the Hawks late in the third period on a short-handed chance, absorbing abuse in front of the Buffalo net. Wingels has shown a willingness to engage and go to the hard areas all season, and he was noticeable all night last night for the Hawks.

it was a sloppy but exciting OT, featuring a Jack Eichel penalty shot, earned when Gustav Forsling held the Buffalo superstar. Corey Crawford then stopped a tentative Eichel, and the teams were back to 3-on-3.

Forsling wins it

it appeared the game was going to the Stoopid Gary Bettman Gimmick Known As The Shootout, but the Hawks decided to play to the horn. Forsling, who was also outstanding all night and continues to improve virtually game by game, took a shot from just inside the blueline through a partial screen and beat the hard-luck Lehner for the game winner—and the extra point.

It’s really hard to gauge any “improvement” in the Hawks off this win. It was a game they should have won, if not dominated, on home ice and after some rest, against a bad team.

It wasn’t easy, however, mostly due to Lehner’s heroics. The effort was there all night, a power play goal, a shorthanded tally, and a win. What’s not to like?

OK. But it was Buffalo, and the next game is tomorrow night at home versus the Sabres of the Western Conference, the Arizona Coyotes. So these are games, especially with Corey Crawford back in net and looking none the worse for wear, that the Hawks should win.

For one night anyway, mission accomplished, take the points and move on.

Of further note

The long awaited season debut of Vince Hinostroza finally happened last night—and as I suggested on the RinkCast, Ryan Hartman sat. Did it make a difference? Well, Hinostroza didn’t take any dumb penalties. But other than that, no.

My guess is, Hartman is fairly deep in the doghouse and will sit for a while. But we’ll see. The historically cryptic personnel decisions of Joel Quenneville have become even harder to predict this year.

We’ll preview the Coyotes game tomorrow.

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Who remembers the three-dimensional chess game on Star Trek? I mean, on the old school, buff William Shatner Star Trek?

But I digress, the point is, too often we hockey fans evaluate trades and other personnel moves in a very limited context. More like one move in a one-dimensional chess game—or checkers—when the team was clearly thinking several moves ahead.

One example: I’ve already engaged one of the many thousands of “interwebs hockey experts” with regard to the Artemi Panarin–Brandon Saad trade.

Said expert proclaimed on a podcast that the Hawks got “taken to the cleaners” in the deal. When I asked him why, he said well, Panarin has more years left in his career and scores more.

So after I informed him that Panarin is actually a year older than Saad, and—at that time—had not scored as much as Saad with his new team, I also considered talking about the longer term salary cap implications of the moves, for both clubs. And then decided this guy wasn’t really interested in anything but “pointz” and 140 characters (at that time anyway) was never going to be enough to get through the meat in his head.

Save money + get younger = a rebuild (of sorts)

My roundabout point though is this: not nearly enough consideration is given in the Saad and Niklas Hjalmarsson trades of this past summer around the cap implications of both deals. Not only did the Hawks shave a few hundred thousand bucks off their cap commitment for this season—but they also averted their next “Cap-a-geddon” in the summer of 2019, when both Panarin and Hjalmarsson were due new deals, likely at significantly greater annual value for both players.

Put another way, the Hawks were not going to be able to keep either player (don’t kid yourself). Stan Bowman saw an opportunity to get cheaper and younger now. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets (especially) and the Coyotes will have to figure out how to keep those players two summers from now.

And if you do a trade off between what the 26-year old Scott Darling ended up getting on the open market and what the 24 year old Anton Forsberg makes, you can start to see a pattern emerging.

No one should have ever expected Connor Murphy to replace Hjalmarsson. Bowman said it himself the night of the draft.

It can be argued however, that Murphy replaced Trevor van Riemsdyk as the right-handed, swing defenseman who occupies something in the 4-5 range on the depth chart. And in that regard, is appearing more and more to be an upgrade.

You still have sort of a hole where Hjalmarsson was—but that’s where younger, less expensive players like Gustav Forsling and Jan Rutta (both with a decent amount of pro experience in Europe and/or North America)  are being given every opportunity to succeed (or fail some nights). It’s not perfect in terms of winning hockey like a juggernaut right now. It does seem to be all about the future.

Rolling the dice on young talent

Meanwhile, the organization seemed to commit in training camp to keeping arguably their top forward and defense prospects of the last couple of years, Alex DeBrincat and Forsling, in Chicago for the season.

It’s too early, in my opinion, to say that’s paid off. But both players have progressed fairly dramatically after rough starts.

This wasn’t like the “youth movement” of 2016, that saw 5 rookies, some with zero pro experience, on the opening night roster, often plugged into roles they weren’t suited for. Which is perhaps why, though some are now clamoring for it nearly 24/7, we haven’t seen Vince Hinostroza or Matthew Highmore in Chicago yet this season.

We may yet (and likely will) see Hinostroza, but my hunch is that will be due to injury, to a forward whose role Hinostroza can reasonably approximate.

The point is, it seems the Hawks are being a bit more patient, deliberate and judicious about young players than they were in 2015-16.

Where the team tried last year to maintain it’s core and then fill in with kids just out of Bantam (because that was all they could afford), this year they made big moves to pare back the core, brought in more talent (at both the AHL and NHL levels)—and gave themselves some cap room to do more meaningful re-engineering going forward.

What about this year?

While all the moves I’ve just discussed seem to be more of an investment in the future, there also clearly is not a total tear down underway either.

If you see, say, a Duncan Keith auctioned off to the highest bidder next summer, that’s a tear down move.

No, to the contrary, Bowman went out over the summer and also signed a few bargain basement veterans for his lower lines and pairings—Cody “Don’t call me Franzen” Franson, Patrick, Sharp, Tommy Wingels, Lance Bouma. Again, many lamented that these veterans would “get in the way of Vinnie.”

But those moves were meant to acquire the right kinds of players for those bottom 6 roles—not shoehorning a kid with more of a top 6 style game into a bottom 6 role (as the team tried to do—and failed with—in 2016). And it seems to be paying off in terms of a vastly improved fourth line (at minimum) this year.

So stepping back, what does it mean?

It means we’re in the midst, right now, of what you might call Phase 1 of the Great Hawk Rebuild we all knew was eventually coming—a “soft rebuild.”

I’d also be completely remiss if I failed to mention that the team is also without future Hall of Famer Marian Hossa. In all likelihood, we’ve seen the last of Big Hoss in a Hawk sweater. And like Hjalmarsson, Darling and even Panarin, Hossa’s absence has created opportunity for younger, lesser paid players, not to mention some more cap flexibility for this season through LTIR salary reduction.

What about Q?

A valid question that’s out there is how well (or if) Joel Quenneville will handle a full rebuild—or is that the time the team goes to more of a patient, “teacher” type of coach.

I don’t think, as we’ve said many times on the RinkCast, that’s happening this year.

And after this year, like so many things (it appears right now), that would depend on how the rest of this season goes—does the “soft” rebuild defy expectations and conventional wisdom and vault the Hawks back into Cup contention this year or next? And although the team is playing much better of late, even making the playoffs is not guaranteed for this year’s team. The rest of the league has gotten better the last couple of years.

Or does it produce middling results in terms of wins or losses (especially in the playoffs—if the Hawks even make it), leading to the next, more severe phase of the rebuild?

All for now,

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3 key contributors from the 2016-17 Blackhawks are gone—none of them named Panarin—and the impact is perhaps more dramatic than might be immediately evident.

In an interview at the 2017 NHL Draft held in Chicago, Hawk GM Stan Bowman was quick to caution that the new players acquired in a flurry of moves this summer would not “replace” those who had been recently dealt, not least of which being winger Artemi Panarin.

Although I had heard and reported leading up to the landmark trade with Columbus that the Hawks were actually shopping Panarin around, many found it hard to believe—until it happened.

But while the attention (and anguish) of the fanbase was focused on that particular trade, there were three other moves of the summer and the early season (I guess, in the case of Marian Hossa going on LTIR) that seem to be having a larger, more negative effect on the team thus far.

Certainly the trade of Niklas Hjalmarsson to Arizona did not go unnoticed, either. But that move may be having a more pronounced effect on the club than swapping out Panarin for Brandon Saad.

It’s not just about goal and point totals

Too often, fans assess a player’s value based solely on his points, or perhaps a grudging look at his +/- or Corsi. The truth is, hockey, winning hockey, is more complicated and subtle than that.

So the gist of this article is just that: the Hawks desperately miss three former players who contributed both obviously and subtly to their success since 2011 and before: Hjalmarsson, Hossa, and Marcus Kruger.

“Dat bum Krooooo-ger?” some may exclaim, immediately after projecting milk out of their noses from their morning bowl of Froot Loops.

Yes, dat bum.

It’s not hard to convince anyone of the value of Hossa and Hjalmarsson (not just scoring, but backchecking, blocking shots, playing consistently smart positional hockey, and therefore helping execute clean breakouts and initiate push up the ice).

But Kruger contributed a great deal when he was on the ice in terms of transitioning the team from the defensive zone (where his shifts almost always started) to the offensive zone (where a surprisingly high amount of his shifts ended).

Think about that. Especially vis a vis this Hawk team, which can never seem to get out of its own end—allowing opponents to continue an onslaught of shots on Corey Crawford and Anton Forsberg.

The other numbers don’t lie

Once known as the model for puck possession teams in the NHL, this Hawk team, more often than not at the end of 60 minutes, finds itself underwater in shots.

But one could argue this Hawk team—the miserable power play aside—has a lot of offensive firepower upfront: Kane, Toews, Saad, Panik, Schmaltz, and now the rapidly emerging Alex DeBrincat.

The issue begins, and too often stays, in the Hawks’ end, where the team really struggles to clear pucks and initiate transition up the ice. And its not just because the Hawks have 4-5 defenders on the roster with less than 3 years’ NHL experience (another legitimate issue), it also ladders back to wings and centers not being properly positioned and/or aware.

These are the subtleties where players like Hossa, Hjalmarsson and Kruger consistently excelled.

Another key statistic which points to a weakness down the middle: faceoffs. Being used albeit more situationally in the dot this year in Carolina, Kruger is winning nearly 53% of his draws. Again, although Kruger’s faceoff numbers fell off after a 2016 wrist injury, the ability to win key defensive zone draws now falls more squarely on Toews because the other options aren’t very good. Although Artem Anisimov is at an unusually high 49% this year, Nick Schmaltz is below 40%, which is likely why Tanner Kero (46%) is back in the lineup of late, and Schmaltz has been moved out to wing.

Structure, consistency, nuts and bolts—the backbone of effective hockey

It’s not glamorous. it doesn’t always show up on the scoresheet—but it has an effect on the scoreboard.

And the Hawks are left with few choices—get better in these critical areas with the players they have (and I would argue that can only be achieved through going to consistent lines and pairings and drilling incessantly—fundamental coaching), or add 1-2 players either from Rockford (unlikely—these are areas where Vince Hinostroza, for example, really struggled last year when with the Hawks), or through trade.

All for now.

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