California Uber Alles, Another Lost Season, Dare To Dream?

Programming note: I'll be leaving for a trip on Wednesday night that was planned long before I decided to start this cry for help. So there will be no newsletter Friday or next Monday. And Thursday's will probably only be setting up the game in Dallas without any notes on Wednesday's game against the Wings. Now that we've got that settled, we've got two Hawks wins to discuss, and yet another Bears season that has ended up in the toilet before the Halloween decorations are down.

Sector 1901 - California Uber Alles

The Hawks came out of Southern California with all four points. It's not exactly a long term plan to give up as much as the Hawks did and have each goalie on the roster bail them out. But it sure feels better to watch them win than it does to watch them lose that kind of game, so we'll take what we can get, especially after the San Jose loss. We've got a host of bullets, so let's get through them.

• The Hawks will make a lot of "showing heart" and "digging deep" to get their two wins against the Kings and Ducks after whatever it was they put out there against San Jose. Certainly coming from behind twice against the Kings shows...something. Sure, they didn't quit as it were, though that seems like the bare minimum, and now they have more on the roster to at least make the occasional thing happen. Structurally though...it's still not great. Both the Kings and Ducks had over 60 percent of the Corsi and expected goals at evens.
• And it certainly didn't look like it would even go that well against the Kings. The day started out fine enough with Luke Richardson proving that at least I'm not blind by scratching T.J. Brodie and replacing him with Isaak Phillips. That should be the ultimate insult, but Brodie has been just that bad.
• There was certainly another rant brewing within my skull during the first period when the Hawks had to pause their first and only sustained possession in the offensive zone of the frame to watch Nick Foligno get in a useless fight. It was so inspirational the Hawks managed another four shots in the second period. Is recognition of such a thing too much to ask?
• It was also worrying that in that 2nd period, Luke Richardson hit the blender on all of his lines and pairings. Richardson had just changed the lines before the game, moving Donato up to the top line and dropping Teuvo down as well as the insertion of Phillips. When a coach gives that all of 25 minutes, it doesn't look so much like trying to get a team going so much as just throwing shit at the wall. Coming off that loss to San Jose, it felt like the water was rising on Luke awfully quickly.
• The Hawks power play was helpless against the Kings PK, which isn't even that good, as the Kings were happy to pressure the Hawks all over the zone and neutral zone. The Hawks simply can't move the puck quick enough, or have enough players confident enough to make a guy miss and open things up. Thankfully, the Ducks are far more accommodating.
• He made up for it on Sunday night, if one does math that way, but Isaak's Phillips's performance on the Kings second goal is why he'll never win a place in my heart:

https://players.brightcove.net/6415718365001/EXtG1xJ7H_default/index.html?videoId=6364129723112

He gives up the line easily, and then is slow to attack Turcotte along the wall, or even chooses to do so in the first place, when he could have just stayed home, as Turcotte was facing the boards and on his backhand. Phillips's slow amble over there not only opened up a passing lane but then a shooting lane for Laferriere. Also didn't help that the whole thing started with a turnover at the other line from Tyler Bertuzzi that was totally avoidable. It's the kind of thing you'd chalk up to a teaching moment for a young d-man, but this is his fourth pro season.

• But give credit to Luke and the boys, who in the 3rd period made it a directive to get the puck between the Kings' 1-2-2, usually by having the puck-carrier pass across his body/direction, around the first forechecker, or having a forward loop through the middle, and between the two Kings wingers. Foligno's goal is an excellent example.

Now, it helps that Foligno came off the bench and the Kings lost him a little to make the pass from Nolan Allan easier, but getting past the first forward and in-between the next two is exactly what LA doesn't want an attacking team to do. Sure, it helps that both Darcy Kuemper and Joel Edmundson lost the feeling in their extremities to let Foligno through, but this is how you create those opportunities for bad players to be bad players in your favor.

• Lukas Reichel did it with his skating:

https://players.brightcove.net/6415718365001/EXtG1xJ7H_default/index.html?videoId=6364130523112

Getting inside that second forward means the retreating backchecker has to go to Reichel instead of covering the middle of the ice, and the d-man has to as well. It leaves the slot open for Smith. Yes, it's a little passive from the Kings, but this is the kind of thing a team sees when they're down in the 3rd and how to break it.

• Things weren't all that much better in Anaheim, but the power play made that a little easier to swallow. Seth Jones was rewarded with the Hawks third goal and second on the power play after a nifty keep-in, but the real key was Ryan Donato's calmness with a bouncing puck. It's not part of the goal replay on the site, but after Jones keeps it in several players swipe at the puck before it lands on Donato's stick in the slot. Most times you'd see a player just paddle the superball toward the net, but Donato took a breath, settled it, and then recycled it calmly to Reichel on the left half-wall so the Hawks could set up again. These things tend to come from players that are feeling as confident as Donato is at the moment.
• On the good side of the veteran leadership scale, Taylor Hall was outstanding on Sunday night. The 60% Corsi-share and 80% xG-share are good indicators, but it's always a treat when Hall is using his speed and instincts in the defensive zone. There was a play with about 16 minutes left where Vlasic was pressuring a Ducks forward who was coming out of the corner and up the left wall with the puck. A lot of times the high forward is worried about coming down the wall to pressure because it can open up a pass to the middle if the point-man on that side wants to move into the slot. But Hall is fast enough to close that off before that pass can be made, which he did, and sent the Hawks the other way. That sort of high-pressure defending from both Vlasic and Hall is the kind of thing you'd want to see the Hawks do from here on out, when they can at least.
• On the bad side, Patrick Maroon got in a completely useless fight with the Ducks dead and buried at 3-0 that could only serve to wake them up if it served anything at all. Secondly, during the second period with the Hawks putting Anaheim under pressure, not only did Maroon lazily coast back to the bench for a change but he got in the way of the two Hawks trying to generate something near the line! Get your aged ass off the ice when your teammates are putting pressure in the offensive zone so the next guy can out there and add to it.
• I know Arvid Soderblom got sick earlier in the season, but sure would have been nice to have gotten him another start or two. He'll probably get one in the back-to-back in the middle of the week, but would assume he's off to Rockford after that when Laurent Brossoit is healthy. Perhaps it'll be all the same if Soderblom can dominate for 35 starts or so in Rockford. Or get a smattering of starts in the NHL whenever Mrazek gets hurt or traded. But these two starts sure have looked promising.
• Some notes on the broadcast. Someone tell CHSN that it's not longer the Czech Republic, but Czechia now.
• I'm sure CHSN thinks it's pulled some kind of coup by getting Frank Seravalli on the broadcast, but remember that this is the same dope who wrote that Johnny Gaudreau was gifting the Jackets another top three pick this year. During the second intermission he called out Connor Bedard for not getting to the net and or not being greasy enough, as if the Hawks want the most creative player they've had in a decade trying to play Tyler Bertuzzi's game.
• Did it look weirdly dark at Honda Center on Sunday? Is that the arena lighting or how CHSN does it?

Seems like enough for now. Onwards.

Sons of Lemuel - How Many All-Timers Will It Take?

The Bears make me irrationally angry, and I doubt I can add to all the layers of what every fan is feeling as another season has arrived in the ditch, never to escape, and we embark on yet another fucking journey of hoping the coach gets fired-initial optimism of a new coach hire-initial optimism about the draft-deluding ourselves when camp begins next July. But this should mean that Matt Eberflus never made it back on the plane:

How many all-time blunders does it take? There's the three epic collapses from last season, and now these two weeks in a row. And that leaves out all the other cock-ups in between that weren't on the historically epic side of the scale. The Bears were unprepared and uncaring, and how could there be a bigger indictment of a coaching staff?

They simply can't waste the last half of Caleb Williams's rookie year like this, and yet they're going to, where he can only develop bad habits (eyes dropping at the rush, impulsive throws, learning the wrong reads, etc.) that will take time to undo. The Bears shouldn't have to completely start over come 2025, and yet you can bet they'll make sure they have to.

Anyone hired by the McCaskeys, or hired by someone who was hired by the McCaskeys, is a moron until proven otherwise, and I was wrong to stray from that tenet for even a heartbeat. That will remain true even if the Bears hire Ben Johnson this coming January. Won't get fooled again.

Let England Shake - Dare To Dare To Dream?

Just as a reminder, this is where I'll do a quick Premier League thoughts section, usually on Mondays.

• Manchester City may be the ultimate "show me the body" enterprise in all of sports. We've seen them not be quite at their best for a first part of a season, only to routinely win 17 of 18 or something in the season's second half as they hold off Arsenal or Liverpool or just run away from everyone. So whatever happened this weekend or in the weeks preceding it are still likely to be rendered immaterial come May.
  
  Still, in their loss to Bournemouth, it doesn't feel like a totally vintage City side would allow Cherries centerback Marcos Senesi to complete 12 of 16 long balls to launch counterattacks. It doesn't feel like City would usually let Justing Kluivert to not be dispossessed once over 90 minutes, or to allow Antoine Semenyo to complete six of of his seven dribbles. Or to create only 0.18 xG in the first half
  
  It was remarkably easy, at least in the first half, for Bournemouth to play through City at speed. Three of their five clean sheets this season have come against Bratislava, Southampton, and Sparta Prague.
  
  Again, this will almost certainly look stupid come the spring. But at the moment, something is definitely off.
• Arsenal are also a bit iffy at the moment, looking pretty toothless against Newcastle. St. James' Park isn't a place where they traditionally play well, few do, but Saturday morning was more ham-handed than usual.
  
  Arsenal are so concentrated on dropping both Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz between the opponents' midfield and defense that there's barely any threat in behind. Saka didn't receive one long ball from the defense, in the fashion that he punished Liverpool the week before. Yes, Newcastle were more conservative, but they also weren't made to think about it. Seeing as how Tino Livramento was eating Gabriel Martinelli's lunch on Arsenal's left for most of the game, Arsenal didn't have much of an outlet to get to the Newcastle box. Their one shot on target in the second half where they trailed is pretty hard proof of that. It's hard to create consistent chances when everything is crammed into one section of the field. Trossard isn't getting in behind. Havertz doesn't either. Saka seems to not want to. It's more than just not having Martin Ødegaard.

Please share in every fashion. They're gonna take my thumbs! Which makes it weird I'm not charging for a few weeks still, but that's just how I roll.