Focus On The Wrong Thing

It was a weekend where the wrong things were focused on, but there were some positives. We'll run through it all.

Sector 1901 - Focus On The Wrong Thing

For a team that's going nowhere, they got to be center of the hockey world for a night. We'll get to everything around Alex Ovechkin tying and breaking the career goals-record this weekend, but we'll start with the Hawks.

During Friday's broadcast, there was a lot of chatter/propaganda about the Hawks youth leading the way. There was even more in The Athletic about Frank Nazar somehow having "made it," with 21 points in 47 games. It is true that Nazar maybe had his best game in Washington. Oliver Moore certainly looked as good as he has since joining the team. The defense was...well, it's interesting. They make some plays that definitely make you lean in, but they also fuck up. The latter has a lot to do with the coaching, and we'll get to that, too.

The main problem is that Connor Bedard kinda looked like shit, at least in Washington. What he did against the Penguins is a little hard to take at face value given that the Penguins have definitely turned off for the season.

It's important to be fair to Bedard. With Nazar and Moore both playing center, and Jason Dickinson hurt, there really isn't anyone to cushion those two rookies. So Bedard has to. He started less than a third of his shifts against the Caps in the offensive zone. That went up to two-thirds against the Penguins. Nazar took the dungeon shifts on Sunday. That could be his future role. Again, we'll get to that.

Still, it's hard to watch Nazar, and Moore on Friday, and see the menace and purpose they're skating with, and then watch Bedard...meander. I still want to be fair to Bedard. He's playing in his 75th game in a season for the first time, while the two kids are still in their first spin around the league and have that excitement to go with them. They're not carrying two years of being the worst team in the league, either. It's clearly getting to Bedard.

I should throw in more caveats. Bedard is going to finish with around 65 points at 19. That's a very good mark. Patrick Kane had 70 in his second season, though 70 points in 2009 probably equals 75-80 in 2025. It's hardly a disaster.

And yet...if this guy is going to be center of the Hawks universe for the next two decades, and that assuredly is the plan, he can't be a Joy Division song on skates. There was a shift in the second period on Friday where he definitely was dogging it back to his own end. This wasn't some dead-end game between two teams trying to get to tee times, either. There was a palpable charge in that building, one that a good portion of the Hawks roster responded to. Their most important player didn't.

Whatever his fatigue level or depression, a 19-year-old shouldn't be "over it" in the NHL. Yeah, he's got the wrong linemates. Yeah, he's the face of a franchise that can't get out its own way, and that's a burden. But watch Nazar with the puck and how much purpose there is to his movements. Then watch Bedard and how there doesn't seem to be any. Nazar makes statements with the puck, even if it's sometimes the wrong one. Bedard asks questions.

But hey, at least he had six shots in the two games. That's something.

It was hard to not have a good chuckle that heading into the 3rd, with the Hawks leading, Darren Pang (and there is a lot more about him to come) was telling us that Anders Sorensen was stressing that the Hawks have to start closing out games. As if they lead games that much in the 3rd, but either way. Pang hadn't finished that sentence for more than three seconds before Patrick Maroon was taking a lazy, dumbass penalty and then Bedard was taking one shortly after that to set the stage for Ovechkin. Isn't that two portions of the leadership on this team?

There isn't much that goes on with this team that matters if we're still figuring out what's going on with Bedard. How to get the most out of him, where he's at, and such. Before the Hawks do anything, they need to sort out his #1 center game. That doesn't mean his 200-foot game. It means his scoring game. They can't sort out the whole lineup until they do that.

Does that mean starting next year, Nazar is going to have to take more defensive zone shifts? Yes, probably. However it goes, what's most important for the next coach is lighting a fire under Bedard. If that means telling him to ignore his defensive zone, fine. If it means telling him to stop being a mope, that's cool. If it means being more of a mope, sure! Just something. It says a lot about the Hawks that their 19-year-old cornerstone is already getting a 1,000 yard stare.

Because the whole thing is DOA if Bedard can be so easily thrown off his game.

-Ok, we'll finish off the Ovechkin stuff. Let's start with the good. On Sunday, I thought TNT and Kenny Albert did a wonderful job of covering the record-breaking goal. Specifically, I though ESPN's camera work was excellent, as after Ovechkin scored the camera actually panned out instead of in. We could see Ovechkin dive in celebration, while his teammates poured off the bench, and the crowd losing it:

It's the whole moment, a tableau, a snapshot of history. It's really well done. Albert lets the moment play, telling us Oveckin scored, the record's broken, and that's it. It's television, we can see what's going on. Don't need it spoon-fed to us.

Which is in great opposition to how Pang handled Friday night, and dragged Rick Ball with him. My sense was the Ball just wanted the moment to play out similarly to how Albert did, but Pang wouldn't let him.

Darren Pang, how you feel about the moment (Brad Pitt Moneyball voice) DOES. NOT. MATTER. You are not the story. Ovechkin is. We don't care about what an honor you think it is to be there. That's for an interview weeks later or during your career retrospective (which I assume Maroon will be authoring). Just shut the fuck up and let us watch.

He couldn't do it. Pang can never do it. There is no air he doesn't feel the need to fill, including somehow trying to link Bedard's penalty that set the goal up and being a #1 pick as some sort of torch-passing while Ovechkin tied Gretzky? What? Even I couldn't figure it out and I wallow in the nonsensical. Pang was chewing scenery in a show he hadn't even been cast in. Just watch. It's not that hard.

-Anyway, I should do some positive. Nazar had a great weekend, and while he's got a long way to go, he's using his speed to open things up for himself. He showed some finish in both games, which was a brief concern. Not any more. As mentioned above, he's skating and carrying the puck with menace. Two or three times against the Caps, he beat a defenseman to the outside when it didn't look like he had the angle to do so. After that, Nazar's goal springs from the gravity he had created with his previous surges into the zone:

That doesn't mean there haven't been some hiccups. He got dominated possession-wise against the Penguins. At this point, we can just push that to the side for the rest of the season. We want to see plays that can be built on, and we've got them.

-I harp on gap a lot, but here's why:

This is Artyom Levshunov breaking up a 3-on-2 before it even hits the blue line, which resulted in a chance for the Hawks going the other way. I'm sure this is exactly the opposite of how the Hawks are coached, because of how often they simply surrender their line when the numbers are even. They have the capability, especially now when all six d-men they're icing are so mobile (yes, Connor Murphy is mobile for the type of player he is). This is an example of Levshunov's superior instincts, that I'm sure the Hawks will do their best to destroy. They simply can't, because these are the plays that make Levshunov special, what could make the Hawks blue line special. They should be able to do this off of all three pairs, if they'd just grow a pair.

-Another coaching aspect I hope the new guy addresses is how the Hawks defend behind their net. For Ovechkin's first goal on Friday, Vlasic has him covered to the side of the net. He then leaves him, LEAVES ALEX OVECHKIN, to chase Dylan Strome behind the net, even though Strome can easily see him coming. Strome is no threat from there, Ovechkin hasn't backed away to leave Strome a lane to circle to the front of the net. There is no need to go back there.

But I want to absolve Vlasic of some of the blame, because this is something the Hawks have been doing all season under both coaches. They love to jump at guys behind the net and leave the slot open. That's fine if the puck-carrier has his back turned or is fumbling with the puck. It isn't when he's facing the whole zone and can make any pass. He can't score from there, as Olczyk would say. This is something the next coach is going to have to undo in all his d-men.

-Last coaching aspect I want to get to, and that's how Sorensen doesn't seem to have any idea how to maximize the speed the forwards now have as well. Landon Slaggert was able to manufacture a breakaway in the 1st period against the Pens after a simple bank off the glass in the defensive zone and into the neutral. That was the last time the Hawks tried it. There should be way more off the glass, high flips to cause races that the Hawks can win now. Get in space with speed, because this team can't forecheck its way into chances. Get behind defenses and forechecks against quickly.

Anyway, that's enough of that...