38 Games Later: The Blackhawks thus far

[Crazy Bacon Legs]

38 Games Later: The Blackhawks thus far

Our story so far...

38 games into the season, the Chicago Blackhawks sit just 3 points out of a playoff spot. Play has been inconsistent to say the least; after a shaky start trading wins and losses, the wheels fell off. Young centre Artem Anisimov, who was plugging along at a point per game, was injured for over a month. Immediately after, #2 defenseman Keith Ballard went down for 6 weeks. Then, all hell broke loose, with the team dropping 8 games straight. One win, and then back to 6 straight losses. Lines were juggled, positions were swapped, and every result was viewed with a blind panic. Something was rotten in the city of Chicago, and it was not easy to tell where the smell came from.

Morale plummeted, and on-ice performance suffered. Any time there was a nomination to be made for player of the week, it was left to me to lamely praise the one player on the team who was a plus that week. Goaltending was abysmal, with starting goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov sitting with a save percentage below .900 most of the season. Even when the team played well, it would inevitably end with another one-goal loss. Any time a player put in a multi-point performance, the Vatican was put on notice that a bona fide miracle had occurred. Not much was going right.

A trade with the Wild shook things up, sending underachieving centre Derek Roy out while bringing in some youthful talent in Michael Grabner and prospect Mikkel Boedker. Kristian Huselius was acquired in an attempt to up the offence. The team settled into a win-one-lose-one pattern, followed by a lose-two-win-two and then a couple more losses. Morale continued to plummet. Bryzgalov was benched for three games, and backup Yann Danis stunned everyone by putting up a 1.62 GAA and a 0.951 SV% in three starts. Then he let in 7 goals the next game. Perhaps it is not wise to pin your hopes on a 67 OV goalie after all.

Now, after 38 games, the trigger was pulled again, bringing in franchise centre Joe Thornton and offensive blueliner John-Michael Liles. With any hope, the chemistry fairy will make a late-night call, sprinkle magic fairy chemicals on their lips, and make Zach Parise and Joe Thornton click. A 6-4 stretch prior to this deal may be decent, but .500 hockey will not get any team to the playoffs. That feeling... what is that? Could it be hope? Perhaps, but only time will tell.

Negatives:

Ilya Bryzgalov. I will say that three times to hammer it home. He's been brutal. A .901 SV% and a 3.07 GAA just won't do it for an 83OV goaltender making league maximum. I could understand if he got no help out front, but many recent games have resulted in fewer than 20 shots against while still letting in 3-4 goals. Jerk.

Goals against - Here's something you won't hear often: Chicago leads the league in one stat. Unfortunately, that stat is goals against. Too many bad goals means a lot of heartbreaking losses. (As of this writing, I see that the Caps now have more goals against than the Hawks. Congrats!)

Plus/Minus - It goes hand in hand with the whole "we get scored on a lot" thing, but there is exactly one player who is a plus player as a Blackhawks player: Artem Anisimov. Given that he was injured for most of the season, it is likely he would not be in that category had he been healthy. Then again, the slide started after a red-hot Anisimov was injured, so it gets a bit chicken and eggy. Technically, Byron Bitz is a +1, but he played one game. Even strength goals against seriously need to be brought down.

Positives:

Rookies - Erik Karlsson, Jeff Skinner, and to a lesser extent John Carlson and Michael Grabner have all had very strong rookie seasons playing for the Blackhawks. Skinner and Karlsson are both making a strong case for rookie of the year, with Karlsson winning POW honors once, as well as the most recent POM award. Skinner has been left out on occasion simply because Karlsson has put up similar stats from the blueline. Add to that the fact that Karlsson, Skinner and Carlson are under contract at a tiny cap hit for two more years following this one (and Grabner one more) and the future looks bright. That's quite a core to build around.

Special teams - The Blackhawks have done very well on special teams, sitting at 7th in the league in both categories. Admittedly, the scoring on the powerplay makes the +/- situation more ugly, given that we get a disproportionate number of goals for on the PP and goals against even strength. Still, this is one area where we are not utterly and completely failing every game.

Zach Parise - Zach Parise is having a great season despite the team's poor performance. As of this writing, he sits in the top 10 in league scoring, and it is anticipated that him and Jumbo Joe may really put up some numbers. It's a rare game that Parise doesn't chip in offensively, and without him many of those game would have looked even worse than they were. He was also named "best dressed CPHL player" in a GQ poll.

Outlook:

For now, it's a matter of staying the course and seeing how recent moves work out. Three points is a lot of room to make up when you've played more games thus far than your opponents, but it is doable. The future looks solid, and there is a lot to build on in the ECHL and AHL. The farm team currently sits on top of the standings in the AHL, with several players putting up excellent rookie and sophmore seasons.

It's up to the players now. We either charge ahead, or crash against the wall and fall to oblivion. But we will not go quietly. Steve Downie will make sure of that.

So, at least there is hope. As long as we have hope, we can wake up in the morning, lace up our skates, and keep trying. And if our players keep failing, at least they have beds filled with cash to comfort them at night.

[JiriHrdina]

Nice write up!

[mbeauchamp76]

Good stuff