After a great showing against the Florida Panthers, Head Coach Dave Hakstol gave Chris Driedger his second start in a row. Former Sabres defenseman Will Borgen played in his second Kraken game against his former team. The #RevengeEffects were in play, as Borgen assisted on Mason Appleton’s late second period goal for the former Sabre’s first career point.

borgen revenge game pic.twitter.com/Xy300Fhbh2

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 30, 2021

On the momentum of a big third period in Florida, the Kraken came out in the first period against the Sabres and opened an early 3–0 lead. Shots were almost even, with the Kraken holding a slim 12–11 advantage. The Kraken offense came from defenseman Carson Soucy (shorthanded at 5:47), Brandon Tanev (also shorthanded at 14:40) and Jared McCann with just under a minute remaining in the period.

The second period is where things opened up and defense was thrown out the window. The teams traded goals throughout the period, with big rookie Brett Murray netting his first career goal two minutes into the middle frame. McCann scored his second of the night five minutes later to expand the Kraken lead back to three goals.

Veteran Jeff Skinner scored his seventh goal of the season for the Sabres with under three minutes left in the period and, as mentioned previously, Appleton scored his first as a Kraken less than a minute later, which wrapped up an action-filled, 26-shot (14–12) period. Heading into the third period up 5–2, the visitors were sitting in a good position to come away with a victory.

An Appleton a day keeps the Sabres at bay pic.twitter.com/Ve7WmO6VlP

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 30, 2021

The wildness did not end with the second period, though.

Skinner scored his second goal of the game on a terrible turnover by Jamie Oleksiak just 37 seconds after the third period opening face-off to cut the Kraken lead to 5–3, which held for almost 15 minutes. Seattle’s Jaden Schwartz scored his fifth goal of the season at the 13:44 mark to re-establish the three-goal margin.

Buffalo’s 2019 first-round draft pick, Dylan Cozens, scored his sixth of the season with a minute and a half remaining in regulation to, once again, cut the lead down to two goals, but Appleton closed out the game a minute later with an empty-net goal.

give some fist bumps to the boys pic.twitter.com/3FfneMGJzu

— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) November 30, 2021

Anchor points

With his team jumping out to a comfortable lead, Driedger had the opportunity to breathe a bit. He weathered an 11-shot first period and did well to keep the Sabres from getting any closer than two goals. Two third-period goals on only six shots was the point of concern in this game. He definitely wants the Skinner power play goal back as well: Driedger overplayed the original shot and was badly out of position when Skinner banked the puck off his skates.

In most other games, four power plays against and none for would be a big issue, but the Kraken were able to hold the Sabres to only one power play goal. Seattle still sits in the creamy middle of the league at 16th on the penalty kill, while their power play has climbed to 18th overall with their recent hot streak on the man advantage.

Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had a really rough game. He was directly responsible for both Kraken shorthanded goals, which his team never recovered from. He was also on the ice for three more even strength goals. Needless to say, Dahlin was memorable for the wrong reasons in a game where he tallied his 100th career assist.

Appleton adding to the offense is a good sign for Kraken fans. It took him 10 games to get started, so this was hopefully a sign of things to come.

Kraken leading goal scorer Jordan Eberle left the game with a lower-body injury after playing only 7:21.

The possession and analytics metrics were fairly even, which is odd in a game where one team tallied seven goals. If Buffalo could get a save in the first period, this game could very well have had a much different outcome.

5-on-5 Corsi (total shot attempts): 52%–48%
5-on-5 Fenwick (unblocked shot attempts): 51%–49%
5-on-5 high-danger chances for: 55%–45%
5-on-5 expected goals for: 51%–49%
Face-off percentage: 53%–47%

With their fourth win in their last five games, the Kraken take today off and take a short trip to Detroit to face another rebuilding team in the Detroit Red Wings. The puck drop is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PST.

The post RECAP: Kraken rack up seven goals in win over Buffalo appeared first on The Rink.

Botterill will join the organization as an Assistant General Manager and Maciver will set into the role of Director of Player Personel.

Botterill worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins during a 10-year stretch in which the team won Stanley Cups in 2009, 2016 and 2017. In 2017 he took the job of General Manager with the Buffalo Sabres but was fired in June of 2020 after the team failed to deliver on expectations following the drafting of center Jack Eichel second overall in 2015 and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin first overall in 2018.

Maciver spent the last 14 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, who also won three Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015. Maciver was demoted within the Chicago organization when Danny Wirtz took over for team president John McDonough, in April of 2020.

Kraken General Manager Ron Francis is clearly looking to add people with extensive pasts working in winning organizations to the Seattle culture for a big 2021.

The post Kraken add Botterill and Maciver to front office appeared first on The Rink.

But clearly, Chicago Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman will have options afforded by this high pick. As always, the outcome will depend on which door he chooses. That is what we will discuss here.

The fact is, Bowman not only “lucked out” in getting the third overall pick in the draft lottery last month—he also got a ton of added pressure. It is easier for a GM to slide out from under the responsibility of a missed 18^th overall selection (Mark McNeill) than it is at a pick position where Jonathan Toews was selected.

Another fact: this is a pick, if Bowman handles it properly, that could not only accelerate the Hawks’ rebuild, but could have a positive and significant impact on the franchise for the next decade or more.

So here, dear readers, are all the options (as we see them today):

BEST AVAILABLE ATHLETE

This was a draft strategy coined by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1970s. Gil Brandt and Co., did not just draft the best available defensive tackle because his team couldn’t stop the run the previous year. The Cowboys always thought two or three years out. And there is a strong argument for this philosophy in the NHL.

Sure, more and more, because of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, salary cap, more and more former European pros coming to North America and improvement in NCAA hockey, players now tend appear more often in the NHL the year after they are drafted. Still, overall, most players are a mere 17 years old when drafted and even some of the best typically require development in junior, college and/or the minors before debuting in the NHL. Sometimes, young players rushed to the NHL can be ruined by high expectations, followed by early struggles on bad teams.

All that said, let’s follow the conventional wisdom that Jack Hughes and Kappo Kaako are off the board when the Hawks go on the clock. Who, then, is the best available athlete?

Again, we will not presume to tell you that. We are not NHL scouts. And we put far more credence in those opinions than “YouTubes” and mock drafts put out by people who get their information from…YouTubes and internet-based mock drafts.

What we can say is this: there does not appear to be any position on the Hawks, except perhaps left wing (Alex DeBrincat, Brandon Saad), that you can say with any certainty is “set,” right now, or, more importantly, three to four years from now.

And for the record, our opinion is, the Hawks should be looking for the highest potential impact player at No. 3 this year—regardless of position—with one important caveat (that we will get to later).

The Hawks need elite young prospects all over the ice. Some may disagree and point to a defense pipeline that includes Adam Boqvist, Ian Mitchell and Nicolas Beaudin, all of whom are good-to-very-good prospects. However, until proven otherwise, all of these players are small and have documented defensive deficiencies that raise some valid questions as to where and exactly how they project in the NHL.

Aside from Henri Jokiharju, who is perhaps the most well-rounded defensive prospect (because that is really what he still is), the Hawks do not have a legitimate high-end defense prospect who plays a two-way game. Jokiharju, at this point appears to be a top-four defenseman in the future. But, where in the top four? Probably not an elite, No. 1 defenseman.

There is one defenseman, Bowen Byram of the Vancouver Giants (WHL), who scouts say stands head and shoulders above the rest in this draft class. At 6-foot-1, 195 pounds, he is more Jokiharju-sized than the smaller Boqvist (for example), skates exceptionally, can defend in space, shoots and passes with aplomb, has off the charts hockey sense and a nasty streak to boot.

So if the Hawks braintrust sees Byram as the best available athlete and a future elite player at No. 3, slam dunk. He is the pick.

While Bowman now appears to have stolen Dylan Strome from Arizona last season, and Jonathan Toews had a solid rebound season, Toews is now north of 30, the Hawks are still weak overall on faceoffs and—especially in the playoffs—you can never have enough quality centers.

From 3–8 in this draft, center is well-represented. Take your pick from Alex Turcotte, Dylan Cozens, Kirby Dach, Payton Krebs or Trevor Zegras. We will not try to fake our way through telling you which should be “the guy” at No. 3. Again, that is up to the Hawks, and that would also be assuming that any of the above are better players than say Byram or Vasili Podkolzin.

Easy for us to say.

Seriously though, Podkolzin, the enigmatic Russian right wing has perhaps “fallen” in the eyes of “internet hockey experts,” but it is hard to imagine serious hockey people dismissing his obvious set of talents and disposition: fast, über-competitive, physical, a great shot (you miss Panarin? This guy could potentially solve that) and defensively responsible.

We hesitate to project 17-year-olds, but watching him on tape in the top Russian junior league, it is hard not to see elements of Panarin and another great current NHLer from Russia, Vladimir Tarasenko.

Sure, there are potential transfer issues from Russia. Sure, he did not flash gaudy offensive numbers in a recent international tournament. Important considerations, but relative blips on the bigger radar picture. Let scouts figure it out based on a much greater set of metrics and time spent watching the player, talking to coaches, etc.

The bigger point is this, it appears that the Hawks have four or five (minimally) viable choices at No. 3 from whom to take the best available athlete—assuming they feel that player is clearly better than who they might take at pick 6, 7 or later.

Which leads to what, for some fans, might be a less comfortable scenario.

TRADING DOWN

“What? Why would you do that? You lucked out and got the third overall pick.”

Here is why. Two words: Cam Barker.

2004 was a two-player draft, perhaps not unlike this one. After Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, there was a clear drop off to the next player who most, but not all, thought was Cam Barker of the Red Deer Rebels in the WHL. The Hawks held that pick, took Barker and the rest is history.

I wanted the Hawks to take Andrew Ladd instead, who was picked fourth by Carolina, and ironically, ended up hoisting the Cup with the Hawks in 2010—while Barker did not. But, the point is, sometimes in a two-player draft, your scouting might not see much difference in the quality of the player you would take at No. 3 than the one you could get at No. 7 or 8.

Perhaps, the grade you have on all the players left on the board are good to very good, but not elite future NHLers. But, as so often happens in all major sports’ drafts, another GM may have someone targeted that they want at No. 3—and they want him enough to give up a lot to move up and take him.

Here is a purely hypothetical scenario:

On draft night, Hughes and Kaako go first and second as expected. At No. 3, the Hawks are leaning toward taking Turcotte—a sturdy, skilled all-around center prospect—but they do not necessarily grade him much higher than Cozens or Krebs. And they grade none of those players as future, true elite players (a la McDavid, Crosby, Toews).

Thus, the Hawks know if they trade down a few slots, they will very likely get one of those comparable players.

Enter the Buffalo Sabres, picking seventh. Or, perhaps new Edmonton GM—and noted Russophile—Ken Holland, who might absolutely knock the door down to grab Podkolzin at No. 3. Edmonton picks eighth, where the Hawks would still be positioned to snag a future quality NHL center.

But, of course, Holland would need to further sweeten the pot for Chicago. Perhaps quite a bit.

Again, it depends on how much the other team’s GM wants that player at No. 3—how much would they give up?

Could the Hawks not only get a really good center at 7 or 8 who can be a difference maker for another decade, but also, for example, fill a glaring need on the blueline as well?

We can debate whether the Hawks could pry an Adam Larsson or an Evan Bouchard out of Holland in return for a five-slot swap to get a player he loves.

Likely not. But you never know.

The point is, if GMs come to Bowman with those kinds of offers—unless he is thoroughly convinced his guy at No. 3 is “can’t miss” elite— then he is dumb not to at least listen and evaluate.

WHERE IT COULD ALL GO WRONG

Broken record time: Cam Barker.

Say the Hawks hold the No. 3 pick, even though there is (hypothetically) a drop off from 1–2 to 3–7, and take, say, Turcotte.

Let’s even say Turcotte ends up being a better player than Barker, more along the lines of, say, Matt Duchene (a pretty good pro comparable for Turcotte). Duchene has become a nice player. But in the history of the NHL, is he ever going be mentioned in the same breath with Toews? No.

Or, let’s say, Turcotte, like another high first round, former USNTDP player, Jack Skille, ends up significantly underperforming in the NHL. Would that happen? Probably not.

But, over and over, time has a way of defying our initial expectations. Typically, everyone feels good about the pick the morning after the first round, when it is all sunshine and roses, but often not so much three or four years out.

And that is when the second guessing starts, or someone saying: “they should have traded down.”

In the end, no one knows right now—and no one can predict the future. But, this is why NHL scouts are paid to go to places like Nisku, Alberta, in January to watch hockey players, talk to coaches, etc., and you hope yours are as good as or better than anyone else’s…and that your GM has the judgement and courage to, when presented with good data, do the right thing for the franchise—not just temporarily placate the masses.

Please comment below.

The post ANALYSIS: The blessing (and the curse) of the third overall draft pick appeared first on The Rink.

The Hawks lines and pairings were:

Saad-Toews-Kane

DeBrincat-Schmaltz-Hayden

Jurco-Anisimov-Highmore

Sharp-Kampf-Hinostroza

Keith-Rutta

Gustafsson-Seabrook

Oesterle-Murphy

First period.

The teams traded chances for much of the frame, with neither finding the net until late.

Buffalo finally broke a scoreless tie, with a Benoit Pouliot tally at 1:50. As a full play, the goal illustrated several ongoing issues with the Hawks of late.

First, David Kampf cleanly lost a defensive zone faceoff to Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly is an elite faceoff man, so you can’t be too hard on Kampf here. But the play also underscores the importance of defensive zone draws in terms of shot suppression and keeping pucks out of your net.

Prior to the faceoff in question, Buffalo had been maintaining long and dominant offensive zone pressure—as they did leading up to this score. And eventually, the Hawks lost their coverage responsibilities.

JF Berube was forced to make a fairly tough, post to post save—which made it hard for him to avoid giving up a fat rebound in front—that was buried by Pouliot. Still, Berube is a lot like former Hawk netminder Jocelyn Thibault—small, quick, athletic, and a bit of a rebound machine.

Second period.

The Hawks outshot the home team 16-6 in this period.

At the end of a long 4-on-4, Chicago borrowed a page from the Sabres. Maintaining offensive zone pressure after a persistent forecheck, the Hawks spread the Sabres out through puck and player movement, and Patrick Kane found a pinching Jordan Oesterle on a bang-bang play right in front of Chad Johnson. 1-1 at 11:04.

But as is so often the case with this year’s Hawk club, almost immediately, another of GM Stan Bowman’s prized possessions, Tomas “6 Weeks” Jurco took a really stupid and lazy stick penalty in the Sabres’ zone, which led to a Sabres power play goal at 8:53. 2-1 Buffalo.

At 5:45, the worm turned for Good Old 6 Weeks—coming in on the right wing, he took a shot from the circle that rebounded off Buffalo goalie Chad Johnson’s pad, into the skates of Sabre defender Rasmus Ristolainen, and back into the Sabres’ net. 2-2. That was how the period ended.

Third Period.

The Hawks continued to capitalize on tenacious three-zone play, with Jonathan Toews batting in a rebound of his own shot, that began with a 2-1 initiated at center ice. 3-2 Chicago, just :20 in.

At 2:17 of the third, two Buffalo players got in front of Berube—and behind Connor Murphy and Jordan Oesterle (another ongoing problem)— with Nicolas Baptiste deflecting a shot past the Hawks netminder. 3-3.

With Brent Seabrook in the penalty box, a lost defensive zone faceoff (to O’Reilly, by Toews this time), led to Baptiste’s second goal, again after the Buffalo forward got immediately behind Connor Murphy and Oesterle for a high quality chance in close. 4-3 Buffalo with just over 2 minutes left in regulation.

With under a minute left and Berube pulled, Nick Schmaltz tried a dumb, overly cute stickhandling move just inside the Buffalo blueline, leading to an easy shot from center ice by Sam Reinhart, effectively ending the game at 5-3.

The Good.

Overall, the team had a lot of jump and played better than it did on Thursday, versus Winnipeg. No one Hawk really seemed to stand out except perhaps Kane, whose effort has been consistent pretty much all season. His linemates, Brandon Saad and Toews, were also effective at times.

The Bad.

Don’t let Jurco’s “redeeming” goal fool you. It was flukish, and he remains a low- or negative-impact player.

The Ugly.

Defensive zone coverage and one-on-one puck and positioning battles down low continue to be a challenge for Connor Murphy, Oesterle and Erik Gustafsson, generally.  A good question for Joel Quennevile would be whether these players are actually being coached to not engage with opposing forwards going directly to the front of the Hawk net after winning a faceoff. If they are being instructed to recognize and then seal those players off, some rear ends should be stapled to the bench or on the next bus to Rockford. Because it is a rebound and deflection buffet for opponents, right in front of Berube or Anton Forsberg, every night.

Schmaltz’ play at the end of the game should be reserved for a scrimmage at Johnny’s Ice House, not in the last minute of a road game.

Summary

It’s unfortunate the Hawks had to fall apart at the end of this game, because there were some positives for the beleaguered team. While WGN announcers Pat Foley and Steve Konroyd lamented Brandon’ Saad’s recent scoring numbers, Saad was channeling his inner Marian Hossa most of the game and creating a lot of opportunities by defending aggressively up and down the ice. In fact, much of the team seemed to get that memo, leading to a 37-shot attack for the visitors.

The Achilles Heels of this team remain Keystone Kop defensive zone coverage, coupled with a lack of tenacity from Hawk defensemen, a lack of defensive zone faceoff wins (Toews and Artem Anisimov were 46% overall in the dot, David Kampf and Schmaltz, 33% and 18%—no, that’s not typo—respectively), and untimely penalties.

And it doesn’t get any easier tomorrow, when the Blues come calling at the UC. We’ll have a preview in the AM.

Until then, share your joy below.

Follow: @jaeckel

The post Recap: Sabres Down Blackhawks, 5-3 appeared first on The Rink.

12:00PM Central
RADIO: WGN 720
TV: WGN, MSGB

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Chicago:
Jean-Francois Berube (2-3-0 W-L | 3.47 GAA | 0.904 SV% | 0 SO)

Buffalo:
Chad Johnson (7-11-3 W-L | 3.33 GAA | 0.894 SV% | 0 SO)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Chicago:
BRANDON SAAD – JONATHAN TOEWs – PATRICK KANE
ALEX DEBRINCAT – NICK SCHMALTZ – JOHN HAYDEN
PATRICK SHARP – DAVID KAMPF – VINCE HINOSTROZA
TOMAS JURCO – ARTEM ANISIMOV – MATTHEW HIGHMORE

DUNCAN KEITH – CONNOR MURPHY
ERIK GUSTAFSSON – BRENT SEABROOK
JORDAN OESTERLE – JAN RUTTA

Buffalo:
SCOTT WILSON – RYAN O’REILLY – SAM REINHART
ZEMGUS GIRGENSONS – JACK EICHEL – JASON POMINVILLE
BENOIT POULIOT – EVAN RODRIGUES – NICK BAPTISTE
JORDAN NOLAN – JOHAN LARSSON – JUSTIN BAILEY

MARCO SCANDELLA – RASMUS RISTOLAINEN
BRENDAN GUHLE – CASEY NELSON
NATHAN BEAULIEU – VIKTOR ANTIPIN

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power Play:
Chicago 15.7% (28th)
Buffalo 17.4% (24th)

Penalty Kill:
Chicago 80.8% (14th)
Buffalo 79.0% (21st)

Corsi FOR % (5-on-5):
Chicago 52.83% (4th)
Buffalo 46.96% (29th)

Faceoffs:
Chicago 49.8% (17th)
Buffalo 51.7% (6th)

SUMMARY:

The Blackhawks are in the middle of a “three games in four day” stretch of games. To be honest, the trip did not start off well at all. That said, Buffalo is a team that they should beat almost every time, but this year has been the opposite of normal. JF Berube has been the slightly better goalie and he gets the start after Anton Forsberg’s rough start in Winnipeg.

This game could be entitled “The race for the bottom” with both teams out of the playoff race, yet hot in a race for more draft lottery balls. With eleven more Blackhawks games to go, a loss would not be the worst thing in the world.

Join our discussion below.

Follow me on Twitter @PuckinHostile

The post Chicago Blackhawks at Buffalo Sabres Preview & Game Thread 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

The post Preview: Coyotes at Blackhawks appeared first on The Rink.

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.

Follow @jaeckel

The post Recap: Blackhawks Nip Sabres In OT appeared first on The Rink.

Buffalo Sabres (7-17-4) at Chicago Blackhawks (12-11-5)

8:30 PM Eastern/7:30 PM Central

RADIO: WGN 720

TV: MSG Buffalo/NBC Sports Chicago

PROJECTED GOALIES:

Buffalo:

Robin Lehner (6-12-2, 2.93 GAA, .906 save%)

Chicago:

Corey Crawford (11-7-1, 2.29 GAA  .930 save%)

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS:

Buffalo

Kane-Eichel-Pominville

Nolan-Larsson-Reinhart

Pouliot-O’Reilly-Fasching

Wilson-Rodrigues-Okposo

Scandella-Ristolainen

McCabe-Bogosian

Gorges-Antipin

Chicago

Hartman-Toews-Hayden

Saad-Anisimov-Kane

Bouma-Hartman-DeBrincat

Sharp-Wingels-Hinostroza

Keith-Franson

Murphy-Seabrook

Forsling-Rutta

STATISTICAL COMPARISONS:

Power play:

Buffalo 11.2% (30^th)

Chicago 15.5% (29^th)

Penalty kill:

Buffalo 80.5% (15^th)

Chicago 83.8% (5^th)

Corsi For % (5-on-5)

Buffalo 48.7% (20^th)

Chicago 51.7% (9^th)

Faceoffs:

Buffalo 51.2% (10^th)

Chicago 48.7% (25^th)

SUMMARY:

Instead of the cavalry coming over the hill to save the Hawks, it’s an opponent that maybe the Rockford Ice Hogs could beat: the Buffalo Sabres. This is a team that is by all metrics worse than Chicago, including even the power play, where they’re not only worse, but much worse.

This is a game the Blackhawks should win, and an opponent they need to face right now. All that said, the Hawks would make a huge mistake by not coming out and executing horn to horn.

Trade rumors have started to heat up of late—especially around the Sabres and enigmatic left wing Evander Kane. I heard over the summer the Hawks had quietly explored the possibility of bringing in Kane and then shelved it.

Whether the Hawks want to make a “bold” move for this year (or not), or whether they should, is debatable. And setting aside Kane’s off-ice reputation, on the ice, he would check a lot of boxes for the Hawks: a legitimate top 6 left winger who can score goals, and plays a hard, heavy style. He was also, I was told, identified by “the other Kane” as a guy he’d like to play with for the above reasons. Take it for what it’s worth, because right now, I’m not sure even the Hawks know how they want to proceed leading up to the trade deadline.

Corey Crawford gets the late nod in net. Vince Hinostroza makes his “long awaited” season debut tonight—no word yet on who he replaces.

We’ll recap as always, after the game or in the AM.

Follow: @jaeckel

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