Hawks Gameday: We Like To Be Here When We Can, That's The Way We Like It

Setting up the Hawks home tilt with the Ducks, some thoughts on even more nonsensical lines, and ending with USMNT conclusions after their game with Jamaica.

Sector 1901 - Hawks Gameday: We Like To Be Here When We Can

Anaheim Ducks Lineup

Killorn - Carlsson - Strome

Terry - Zegras - Vatrano

Gauthier - Lundestrom - Leason

Johnston - Harkins - McGinn

Mintyukov - Gudas

LaCombe - Zellweger

Dumoulin - Helleson

Gibson

What You Need To Know: This will definitely be a game where Ben Pope from the Sun-Times will be gleefully posting crowd/empty seat shots from the pressbox and remarking on the attendance. Ducks and Hawks on a Tuesday night? Catch the fever! It's consumption!

The Hawks will kick off a home-heavy portion of the schedule (six of the next nine on Madison) against a fellow remedial class attendee. The Ducks are only slightly ahead of the Hawks in the overall standings, with 16 points from 17 games instead of the 13 out of 18 the Westside Hockey Club has gathered. They're also a bit beat up, as Mason McTavish, Cam Fowler, and Fabby Robbri or Rabby Fobbri or whatever the fuck his name is will all miss out tonight with various ailments. If Fabbri matters at all, it's clear the team sucks.

The Ducks had lost four of six, including that one a couple weeks ago to the Hawks at The Pond. But they've risen up to whack the Wings 6-4 in their last home game, and then put one on the Stars in Dallas last night by the count of 4-2. The Ducks have a similar scoring problem as the Hawks, ranking 29th in goal per game overall and ranking 28th in GF/60 at evens. But they go about it a little differently than the Hawks. They're actually creating pretty well, given their standing in both the league and rebuild, as they rank 10th in xGF/60. They just can't hit a bull in the ass with a banjo, shooting just 7 percent at 5-on-5 and just short of 9 percent on the power play. If those numbers ever even out they'll start collecting points at a quicker rate. The Hawks had better hope their triumph in Texas last night wasn't a harbinger of a market correction arriving already.

Cutter Gauthier is probably the poster boy for this, as he's shooting 2.6 percent so far this season. He's averaging 1.07 individual xG per game, which is about where Bedard is now, so he's leading the line for those due a market correction. And wouldn't you know it, he scored last night.

How many points the Ducks could pick up if the puck starts meeting twine at a more reasonable rate is up for question because they remain a woeful defensive team. They're last in the chances they give up, teams can get whatever they want in the middle of their d-zone, and if Lukas Dostal wasn't sacrificing every eye of newt he can find they'd be giving up four or five a night. Luckily for the Hawks he started last night, so they'll be getting John Gibson tonight. Though Gibson has been known to be tough to break down on occasion, too.

Perhaps more worrying for the Ducks, though some of it has to do with their bad luck, is that none of their young pillars are lighting it up. Carlsson is a point every other game. Zegras has four points total. McTavish is hurt. All their metrics suck eggs. Still very early, but these three are going to have to do a lot the rest of the season to make anyone feel they've taken a step forward. Boy, that sounds familiar. It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock n' roll, kids.

Player To Watch - Connor Bedard

Ok, cheating a bit, but A. the Ducks aren't all that interesting and B. there are just more important matters at hand here. Bedard has obviously struggled of late, and according to practice yesterday is getting punted to wing for tonight's game. If it's a bid to get him to relax and lessen his workload for a little bit, that's fine. There's no point in worrying about too much else if Bedard is only not scoring but not even getting chances or shots. And he hasn't the past few games. It was harrowing how little he was noticeable against Vancouver.

However, every time Bedard shifts to wing, and he did for a couple short stints last season, our breath starts to shorten. Make no mistake, if Bedard eventually is moved to wing full-time, the calculus on the entire rebuild changes. Only one team, arguably, has won a Cup with a winger as its best player in the past...decade? 20 years? And that winger just happens to be the greatest scorer of all-time. That team also had Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeni Kuznetsov at full tilt. Do the Hawks have either of those anywhere in the organization right now?

If the Hawks have to go searching for a true #1 center that can anchor the team again, they could be searching forever. That's how you end up as the Sabres or the Senators or gasp...the Wings. And the 2025 draft, even if the Hawks sink to a top three pick again, doesn't really project to provide a franchise linchpin in the middle. Quite simply, Bedard has to work at center.

For tonight, fine. Let him just worry about getting open, getting to shooting spaces, and firing away. Let him not have to think about anything in his defensive end other than covering a point instead of when to spring on puck-carriers and when to stick to his spot/man. Try and get him some confidence and swagger again. Do it again on Thursday if needed, if only to avoid Sasha Barkov or Sam Bennett eating his heart while it's still beating.

But it can only be a short-term thing. Otherwise Kyle Davidson is going to get another excuse to put this whole thing off another two or three years. And our cholesterol isn't going to let us get to the end of that.

The Kickmen - The USMNT Does Some Stuff

Gets a little easier to judge the USMNT under Mauricio Pochettino when they aren't playing on a cow patch, as they did in Kingston on Thursday. Though it's not clear that St. Louis as a whole rises too much above that. But they can put a decent field together at City Park.

The US blitzed what was probably only a semi-interested Jamaica side in the Nations League, 4-2. But being able to string some passes together at pace saw the US have some passages of play that were about as gorgeous as anything they've managed in recent memory.

The tactic that will draw the most attention was Poch inverting Antonee Robinson from left-back and into midfield when the US had possession. With Jonny Cardoso injured, Tyler Adams still not around, and Tanner Tessman basically the only deep-lying midfielder lying around, Poch got into problem solving mode. While Weston McKennie was listed as Tessman's partner in midfield, flipping Robinson there allowed McKennie to push forward and roam which is his strength. That's how you get gorgeous assists like this:

Robinson wasn't the prototypical inverted fullback either, as normally they just act as a #6 and shield the defense. Perhaps sensing a bunkered in Jamaica side, and thinking Robinson's normal marauding from left-back would be covered, making those runs from the center of midfield made Robinson hard to pick up when he did end up in his normal wide-left attacking spots. Forthwith:

The first two images were in the build-up to shots on goal, and the last was Robinson dribbling with the ball through the middle that eventually led to Tim Weah's thunderbastard.

Another wrinkle was that when Robinson split out wide, either Joe Scally or Yunus Musah would tuck in from the other side to partner Tessman. The rotations between McKennie, Pulisic, Weah, Musah, and Robinson were dizzying.

Is it a long term ploy? Hard to know. Against Jamaica it'll work. Does it work in 18 months when the World Cup starts? Different animal altogether. It's not something Robinson is asked to do at Fulham, and he did look a little awkward at times trying to hit passes or collect them from spots on the field he's rarely in. But again, those runs from deep certainly had Jamaica flummoxed. Odds are we'll see it again.

Tessman was probably the real winner of this window, leading the race now to partner Adams in deep midfield if Poch sticks with the 3-2-5 set-up when attacking and defending in a 4-4-2/4-2-3-1. Tessman completed 73 of his 74 passes on the night, and they weren't all sideways or short. He connected on five of six long-balls and had 17 passes into the box.

Whether's there's room for all of Tessman, Adams, McKennie, Musah, and Weah in a midfield...well, that's Poch's problem. But options are never a bad thing. And even less of them will fit if Poch is going to continue to invert a fullback into midfield with the ball. But it's certainly another arrow in the quiver.

Feel free to send this to your friends or repots on Bluesky and such. Word of warning, we'll probably slap a price tag come December 2nd. Nice, even Monday on that one. Still free for a couple weeks though!