Promising young netminder Collin Delia got the start in net for the Hawks, facing storied vet Henrik “The King” Lundqvist for the Rangers.

The Hawks lines and pairings were as follows:

Brandon Saad–Jonathan Toews–Dominik Kahun

Artem Anisimov–Dylan Strome–Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat–David Kampf–Drake Caggiula

John Hayden–Marcus Kruger–Brendan Perlini

Duncan Keith–Erik Gustafsson

Henri Jokiharju–Brent Seabrook

Carl Dahlstrom–Connor Murphy

FIRST PERIOD

The Hawks got off to a good start in the first, generating some good chances off a fast transition game. And, in fact, they led in shots for the period 12-9. Sure enough, after a Cody McLeod minor for high-sticking at 3:49, Brandon Saad found the twine off a rebound of a Brent Seabrook shot, Saad’s 14^th goal of the season. 1-0 Chicago.

Just past the 13 minute mark, the Hawks had a promising rush, with Erik Gustafsson the late man coming in to the zone. You can fault Gustafsson for taking his time to line up the perfect shot, thinking he was wide open in the slot, but after taking a huge wind-up, Gustafsson found his stick tied up deftly by a Ranger defender, nullifying the chance and toppling both players to the ice. Unfortunately, Ranger forward Filip Chytil scooped up the puck and motored up ice (while Gustafsson lingered slightly to complain to the ref in the Rangers zone—when he should have just hightailed back), beating Henri Jokiharju wide and then roofing one in close on Delia. 1-1.

About four minutes later, the Hawks got caught a bit flat-footed on a Ranger rush, with most of the defense out of position, while 2 Ranger forwards crashed the net. Mats Zuccarello finished it, giving the Rangers the lead at 17:38. 2-1 New York.

That was how the period would end.

SECOND PERIOD

The Hawks dodged an early bullet that might have been difficult to overcome—when what appeared to be a Mika Zibanejad goal was ruled offside on a very close call, keeping the score at 2-1.

However, at 13:09, after an ill-advised Saad cross-ice pass turned into a Ranger odd-man break, Chris Kreider beat Delia, giving the Rangers a two-goal cushion. 3-1.

The Rangers basically dominated in shots in this period, at one point outnumbering Chicago 11-3. The final tally for the period was 12-9 Rangers, evening the shots up for the game 21-21.

THIRD PERIOD

After a Jesper Fast tripping penalty at just 19 seconds into the period, Alex Debrincat buried a one-timer through a Dylan Strome screen on the ensuing power play. The goal, DeBrincat’s 24^th, came at 1:40. 3-2 Rangers.

The Hawks later killed off a penalty to Chris Kunitz, taken at 12:46.

Although the Chicago ostensibly should have been in comeback mode, they barely generated any further pressure in the period, before pulling Delia at about 18:20.

The Hawks came very close to beating Lundqvist with 44 seconds left on a goalmouth scrum, but to no avail.

Zibanejad put it away for New York, however, after picking off a Patrick Kane pass and hitting the empty net at 19:42. 4-2 Rangers.

The Hawks had one late consolation: a David Kampf goal at 19:58. A day late a dollar short and another Hawk loss, 4-3 final, putting the team’s record at 16-24-9—worst in the NHL.

THE GOOD

Hard to find much—a few players sort of stood out. Only the fourth line of Kunitz, Kampf and Marcus Kruger was even for the night. Drake Caggiula was noticeable for his speed and pushback. DeBrincat and Saad have both been hot of late.

THE BAD

The Hawks were outshot yet again, giving up 33 to 27 taken. We can’t stress enough how important it will be for GM Stan Bowman to address this nightly disparity either at the trade deadline or in the offseason.

THE UGLY

After a short-lived energetic start to the game, the Hawks seemed to settle into a lackadaisical funk. The bench was dead. There was no “response” to McLeod’s big hits. This is a team that seems to be at the post office right now in a lost season, mailing it in the rest of the way.

That’s all I have. Please comment below.

The post Recap: Blackhawks fall to the Rangers in New York, 4-3 appeared first on The Rink.

And away we go, rumor season is definitely kicking in to a higher (anyway) gear:

BROADLY

It appears the Hawks are following the Anthony Duclair-Richard Panik model in more than one set of trade discussions: a value for value deal where each GM hopes a change of scenery/coaching/role will help the player they are acquiring. A couple of these deals appear to potentially include Connor Murphy, who one source described to me last night as “struggling” (from the team’s perspective).

Over the last 72 hours, I have heard about the Hawks having several discussions with three teams, about multiple players. Across the board:

OTTAWA

One potential Murphy deal I heard about was with the Senators, possibly involving the Hawks acquiring C Zack Smith (two separate sources).

Before everyone goes off the rails, breaking down a Smith-Murphy deal, a couple of caveats. I was told by one source, the Hawks and Sens are talking about a lot of players right now, and Smith is only one.

At -25 for the year, Zack Smith is not the sexiest acquisition. But none of the names I’m hearing are. It’s more about potentially upgrading a spot in the lineup. Smith does a couple of things consistently well: grind and win faceoffs. Which the Hawks probably need more of, especially faceoff wins.

Speaking of Hawk trade discussions no one will get too terribly excited about . . .

THE RANGERS

Another potential destination for Murphy, with the possible return of defenseman Brendan Smith. I was told “no deal is imminent, but there have been discussions.”

FINALLY, MONTREAL

No news there from my last report. But the teams have been talking about numerous players.

THE COMMON THREAD?

There may be more discussions, and kinds of discussions, going on with more teams, but the ones I’ve heard about seem to be following a very specific pattern: Eastern Conference teams who, like the Hawks, have underperformed and may be looking for a chemistry change at the deadline.

That said, none of these teams are driven right now by the urgency of playoff needs, and some of these conversations—I was told—may not lead anywhere right now, but could resume at the end of the season.

What do you think, discuss below (remember, I’m just the messenger).

Follow @jaeckel

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The Rangers were coming in fresh off their Winter Classic overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres on January 1st. The Blackhawks, on the other hand, were on the heels of their 4-3 overtime loss to the Flames on New Years Eve.

Jeff Glass made his 3rd straight starts since being called up from Rockford, while Richard Panik, Jan Rutta, and Michal Kempny all sat for the Blackhawks.

These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Vince Hinostroza
Ryan Hartman – Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – David Kampf – Alex DeBrincat
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – John Hayden

Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook
Gustav Forsling – Cody Franson

Both goalies faces solid scoring chances, just seconds into the game, but both were up to the task. Following the opening flurry, the period settled in slightly but defense was few and far between. The Blue Shirts were the first to try their hand at the power play about halfway through the period, thanks to a Jonathan Toews slashing penalty but the Blackhawks weathered the storm. Toews took another penalty just a few minutes later, with some sloppy stick play, but the best the Rangers were able to manage was rattling a shot off the post.

With just under four minutes remaining in the opening period, the Blackhawks first line finally drew blood. Jonathan Toews picked up a puck off the end boards and dumped a blind backhand pass in to the crease. Vince Hinostroza was crashing the crease and tucked the puck between the outstretched legs of the Rangers goaltender.

That Blackhawks lead only lasted a couple of minutes, because the Rangers’ Nick Holden tied the game with just under two minutes until the intermission. Holden had all day to tee up a shot after taking a drop pass from Paul Carey and used Duncan Keith as a screen. Glass picked up the shot late, actually too late, and the Rangers had a goal on their fifth shot of the game. The Blackhawks, however, led in shots by a wide margin in the first period, 14-6.

Both teams were off and running for the beginning of the second period. There was end to end action for two straight minutes and there were several good scoring chances to go along with that action, but the goalies both stood tall.

With nine minutes spent in the middle period, Nick Schmaltz looked like he was shot out of a cannon, taking a tape to tape pass from Patrick Kane and blowing around Brady Skjei. Schmaltz went in one-on-one with Henrik Lundqvist but Lundqvist made the stop. Rangers defenseman Marc Staal rushed to save the rebound but pushed the puck into his own net, with the help of a little “love nudge” from Ryan Hartman.

Once again, the Blackhawks only held the lead for a couple of minutes and they had no one to blame but themselves. After taking two penalties, the Rangers found themselves with a generous 5-on-3 advantage. With the Hawks disadvantage, Mika Zibanejad was left all alone on the back door and fired a perfect one timer over a helpless Jeff Glass, once again tying the game.

This is how the teams went into the second intermission, with the Blackhawks leading in shots pretty handily once again, 12-8. They were in prime position to win this game.

Less than three minutes into the third period, an unlikely name surface in the goal column; Patrick Sharp. Alex Debrincat and David Kampf broke the puck out of their own end, and Kampf fed Sharp, on the rush, in the left circle. Sharp snapped a perfectly placed shot over Lunqvist’s glove to give the Blackhawks the lead, once again.

This time, though, the Blackhawks held the lead and even bolstered that lead with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane empty net goals. The Jeff Glass Cinderella story continues.

Pluses

• Being an aging goalie named Jeff, myself, I respect Jeff Glass’ unconventional style. He is not pretty out there and he does some things that younger goalies would be forced to change, but he gets the job done. If you are going to blame Glass for the second Rangers goal, because of the bad delay-of-game penalty, I could point out a half-dozen other chances where he bailed the Blackhawks out, so give it a rest. He is not the next Tim Thomas, but he is playing just fine.
• It looks like Nick Schmaltz is finally back on the track he was when he got injured in October. Since then, he has only been effective at the wing.  He showed speed and play making ability from the pivot for the first time in a long time.
• Speaking of looking good, Vince Hinostroza seems to have kicked the Jonathan Toews line in the butt.  This was one of their best games this season.
• The Blackhawks won 53% of their faceoffs.  Another promising sign.

Minuses

• This Blackhawks power play is absolutely befuddling. If they fail to make the playoffs, you can point directly at the powerplay.
• They had a good game, but the Sharp/Kampf/Debrincat line was the only one under water in possession.
• Gustav Forsling did not have the best return to the lineup. He seemed to be fumbling the puck often, and gave up a blatant break-a-way to Jimmy Vesey late in the second period.
• If you’re going to take 6 penalties, don’t expect to win many games.  The Hawks managed to dominate in 5-on-5 play, so they got away with their sloppy penalties.

The post Recap: Blackhawks at NY Rangers 5-2 Win appeared first on The Rink.

Join JJ, Gatekeeper, and the rest of the RinkRats tonight on the message hread at the bottom of this page—as we discuss all the action from tonight’s Hawks-Rangers game in real time. 

And if you’re not registered, it’s the perfect time to sign up, quick and easy!

The post Blackhawks-Rangers Game Thread appeared first on The Rink.

Chicago Blackhawks (18-14-6) at New York Rangers (21-13-5)

8PM Eastern/7 Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: NBC Sports

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Chicago:

Jeff Glass (1-0-1, 3.47 GAA, .917 SV%)

Edmonton:

Henrik Lundqvist (18-9-4, 2.56 GAA, .922 SV%)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Chicago

Saad-Toews-Hinostroza

Hartman-Schmaltz-Kane

Sharp-Kampf-DeBrincat

Bouma-Wingels-Hayden

Keith-Oesterle

Forsling-Franson

Murphy-Seabrook

New York

Miller-Zibanejad-Zuccarello

Grabner-Hayes-Nash

Vesey-Desharnais-Buchnevich

Carey-Nieves-Fast

McDonagh-Holden

Smith-Shattenkirk

Staal-Skjei

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:

Chicago 15% (29^th)

New York 19% (15th)

Penalty kill:

Chicago 80.8% (19^th)

New York 84% (5th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5):

Chicago 52.8% (5^th)

New York 46.9% (29th)

Faceoffs:

Chicago 48.6% (23rd)

New York 50.3% (16th)

SUMMARY:

Another game, another configuration of the deck chairs for the Hawk coaching staff. Gustav Forsling in, MOAR VINNY Hinostroza up, Michal Kempny and Richard Panik, likely out. 32 year old rookie Jeff Glass gets another start in net.

Yawn.

It is, however, yet another game where 1, if not 2 points are vital to the Hawks’ playoff hopes. The Hawks beat the Rangers at the UC earlier this year.

We’ll recap tonight or tomorrow AM.

Follow: @jaeckel

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After 20 games, and coming off a huge road win against the Penguins, what have we learned about the re-engineered, younger, less proven 2017-18 Blackhawks? 

The mood in Blackhawk Nation this morning can likely best be described as “cautious, but jaded optimism.” This team—this year’s team—has teased us before with periods of brilliance, followed by stretches of inexplicably bad play, and the taste of two first round exits (after successful regular seasons) from the playoffs hasn’t faded.

You want to trust what’s you’ve seen the last two outings against good Eastern Conference teams. But you are wary of the next one—versus arguably the league’s best team, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

If you just look at the numbers and the trends, you can say that the Hawks were carried through the first 1/4 of the season by outstanding goaltending. Of late, Corey Crawford‘s stellar play has been complemented by Artem Anisimov arguably playing the best hockey of his career. Anisimov has not only reclaimed his second line center job, he’s become the Hawks most reliable scorer and net-front presence. As a result, thel ast couple of games, the hawks have also started to score on the power play—which had previously been about as common as Halley’s Comet.

Another important factor: the recent emergence of Gustav Forsling and Alex DeBrincat. Not only have both reduced their mistakes—which at one point were a real, possession-killing problem—but both have stepped up and contributed in their roles as scorers and playing over 200 feet. It’s way too early to say either has fully “arrived>” It’s likely there will be more mistakes. But both seem to now belong, and Forsling especially seems to be improving dramatically under the tutelage of assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson, himself a Swede (like Forsling) and longtime NHL defenseman.

For now, former camp PTO Cody Franson (who Hawk broadcasters still seem to have confused with former Detroit forward Johan Franzen) looks like a relatively stable fixture alongside Duncan Keith. And the much-maligned Connor Murphy has had a couple of decent outings on his off side, playing with Brent Seabrook.

The Jonathan Toews line seems a bit snakebit of late in terms of scoring, but still seems to be putting a lot of pressure on opponents, while the Anisimov, Patrick Kane (who has also been quiet lately), Nick Schmaltz line is getting some points. A two-line threat—something the last couple of Hawk teams weren’t.

As a result, the shot totals of games have tilted back toward Chicago’s favor of late.

All positive signs. Cause for jubilation? No.

There are still nightly clown car acts as the Hawks try to get out of their own end, missed coverages, still some ill-advised pinches without back-rotation to cover, creating odd-man rushes for opponents.

And although he’s had brilliant periods and games, we’re still not entirely sure how much new backup goalie Anton Forsberg can be relied upon, should Crawford go down with injury.

But the trends of late are positive and suggest improvement form the complementary pieces—like Anisimov, Forsling, DeBrincat and others—not just Crawford or Kane loading the team on his back for a night or two.

We’ll have a full recap of last night’s game later this morning—AND a new RinkCast posting later tonight, with special guests Pappy and Zo from Sports Mockery/the 312 podcast.

All for now.

Follow @jaeckel

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Regardless, the Rangers came into the United Center on a six game winning streak, which could easily have the making of a Blackhawks beating, but it turned out the other way around.

Here were the starting lines:

Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Richard Panik
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – Tommy Wingels – Alex DeBrincat
Lance Bouma – Ryan Hartman – John Hayden

Duncan Keith – Cody Franson
Gustav Forsling – Jan Rutta
Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook

The game began with power plays for each team that couldn’t generate more than a whisper in the goaltender’s ears, but half way through the first period the Rangers took a 1-0 lead. The Blackhawks lost a faceoff deep in their own end and the puck worked its way around the net. Mika Zibanejad was able to sneak in behind Jan Rutta while Gustav Forsling was late getting back to the front of the net, leaving Zibanejad wide open. Chris Kreider slipped a Tommy Wingels check behind the net and saucered a nice little backhand pass over Jan Rutta’s stick. The pass landed right on the tape of Mika Zibanjad and he beat a helpless Corey Crawford high to the glove side.

It looked very much like this could be a long night for Blackhawks fans as they then proceeded to attempt to shoot themselves in the foot by handing the Rangers a four-minute powerplay on a sloppy John Hayden high stick. They were able to fortunately kill off the double minor without incident. Thanks to their hot goaltender, Corey Crawford, the Blackhawks were able to salvage the rest of the period and go into the intermission only down 1-0. Thanks to their powerplays, the Rangers led the shot totals 11-9, which was pretty reasonable considering the Rangers had the 3rd best powerplay in the league coming in.

As the second period began, the Blackhawks resumed their generous turnovers early on, but Corey Crawford continued to keep his team in the game long enough for them to actually show up and participate. By “participate” I mean they actually out shot the Rangers 16-8 and were able to literally squeak out a game tying goal.  Alex “El Gato” Debrincat, tied the game on a really fluky long shot that Henrik Lundqvist originally stopped, but plopped out behind him like a quarter out of a soda machine and rolled into the net. The Blackhawks will certainly take it.

The Debrincat goal late in the second period must have woken up the Blackhawks, for a period at least, because they came out in the third and scored three quick goals in a matter of 2:45. Artem Anisimov had two of the those three goals, while John “#BigJohnStudd” Hayden had the sandwich goal just 46 seconds after the first Anisimov goal. The Rangers attempted to make a furious comeback after Lundqvist was yanked in favor of former Chicago Wolves legend Ondrej Pavelec. They actually cut the lead down to just one goal after Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash both scored, but that was as close as the blue shirts would get. Artem Anisimov completed the hat trick, biting his former team in the behind, late in the period on a nice feed from Nick Schmaltz.  Jonathan Toews put the exclamation point on this game with and empty net goal, sending the Rangers away with a 6-3 loss.

Pluses

• Alex Debrincat had his third straight noticeable game getting his fourth goal in that stretch.
  
• Artem Anisimov continued his recent hot play with three third period goals in the “dirty areas“. That is nine goals on the season for the ArtyParty.
  
• Cody Franson had 2 assists and was very noticeable on the power play. This guy just keeps giving Joel Quenneville reasons to dress him every night.
• The Blackhawks not only out shot the Rangers 43-28, but they strangely out HIT them 25-23, as well.  While we’re looking at superlatives, the Blackhawks also won 51% of their faceoffs.
• Nick Schmaltz had a terrible first period but rebounded to tally 3 assists.

Minuses

• Jeremy Roenick and Mike Milbury absolutely roasted the Blackhawks in the first intermission and It looks like it may have worked.
• Patrick Sharp had his chances and still wasn’t able to get his first goal since forever ago.
• The only Hawks players under water in possession were Toews, Wingels, and Richard Panik.
• Sorry if I don’t drink the kool-aid after just two decent periods, but I attribute this game more to the Rangers having an off night rather than the Blackhawks magically figuring out how to play hockey.  I need more than two consecutive periods of decent NHL hockey.  We have all been subject to this fallacy far too many times.

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After 20 minutes of last night’s game, just when you were ready to write off the season, send Nick Schmaltz to the minors, and start the rebuild, the “good” Hawks came out and tantalized yet again.

They’ve done this before—in the first 4-5 periods of the season, where they looked like the ’87 Oilers—and for a few games a couple of weeks ago. Then they slide right back into lackadaisical, mistake prone, Godawful hockey.

Some were calling last night’s game the big “turnaround” that the Hawks needed (and all the “experts” knew was coming).

Well, stick in the mud that I generally am, I’m not going there yet. But I am encouraged.

As I said over the summer, I was a fan of most of the moves Stan Bowman made in terms of altering the team’s cap situation, and adding speed and size to the lineup. But I also said the early part of the season, at minimum, would be rough. it has been.

Here’s what I’m liking:

Scoring balance

When the Hawks score, when, they are getting production fairly evenly across the top two lines. These lines have essentially coalesced as Brandon Saad-Jonathan Toews-Richard Panik (35 points) and Schmaltz-Artem Anisiov-Patrick Kane (39 points).

Granted, it’s been awhile since the Toews line has really lit up the scoresheet, but last night, they were all over the Rangers for long periods and generating a lot of chances.

Add in some recent production from Alex DeBrincat and you have  a team—when it’s taking care of business in its own end and getting up the ice with purpose and speed—that presents matchup problems for opposing teams, moreso than the last couple of Hawk teams, that relied too heavily on one line (Artemi Panarin-Anisimov-Kane) for offense.

Anisimov

A career high 49.5% on faceoffs, making things happen around the net and in front of goalies, and helping provide stability and structure up and down the ice. He’s gone from being the enigmatic and overpaid third line center to being the true second line center—pushing the truly enigmatic Schmaltz back out to wing.

Gustav Forsling

For whatever reason, the Rangers either chose not to or just couldn’t forecheck the Hawks as hard as some teams have—and I suspect some will. So until Forsling passes those tests in terms of his decision-making, I am waiting to join that parade.

Still, last night, his decisions and movement were purposeful, precise and effective—protecting the house and getting the puck up the ice quickly.

As the NBC Sports commentators said last night, and has been said here, the Hawks have a lot of new faces and young players. Absent player moves, likely from outside the organization, the answer then lies in getting more consistency in execution from the players they have. Last night, rolling essentially the same lines as the last few games, they started getting it.

All for now. Gate will post a more detailed recap of the game later this AM.

Follow @jaeckel

The post Blackhawks-Rangers: The ‘Other Team’ Showed Up appeared first on The Rink.

New York Rangers (9-7-2) at Chicago Blackhawks (8-8-2)

8PM Eastern/7PM Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: NBC Sports

PROJECTED GOALIES:

New York:

Henrik Lundqvist (8-4-2, 2.92 GAA, .905 save%)

Chicago:

Corey Crawford (7-7-0, 2.21 GAA, .932 save%)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

New York

Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich

Nash-Hayes-Zuccarello

Vesey-Desharnais-Miller

Grabner-Nieves-Fast

McDonagh-Holden

Skjei-Shattenkirk

Staal-Kampfer

Chicago

Saad-Toews-Panik

Schmaltz-Anisimov-Kane

Sharp-Wingels -DeBrincat

Bouma-Kero-Hartman

Keith-Franson

Murphy-Seabrook

Forsling-Rutta

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power Play:

New York 25.8% (3rd)

Chicago 14.3% (28^th)

Penalty Kill:

New York 81.4% (12^th)

Chicago 83.6% (10th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5)

New York 48.3% (23rd)

Chicago 51.0% (11^th)

Faceoffs:

New York 50.9% (12^th)

Chicago 48.2% (24th)

SUMMARY:

Broken record time: the Blackhawks need to play well tonight. Just play well, and hope that stellar goaltender Corey Crawford can then carry them to a much-needed two points.

Coming off a deflating 7-5 home loss to New Jersey, where Chicago blew a 4-1 lead, one encouraging note for the Hawks is their lines and pairings haven’t been shuffled too terribly much. While the usual voices are clamoring for Alex DeBrincat to be moved back into the top 6, they forget that when there, the latest anointed one didn’t do much—it was only after moving out of the top 6 a few games ago, that DeBrincat started putting pucks into nets actually occupied by goalies.

Wisely, Joel Quenneville isn’t terribly disrupting what appears to be some offensive continuity (at least) for his team.

Where the coaching staff and the players must improve dramatically is on the defensive side of the puck, up and down the ice, but especially in their own end.

Look for a recap tonight or early tomorrow.

Follow @jaeckel

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