Hawks Weekend: Visiting Peggy And Ed
Sector 1901 - Hawks Weekend: Visiting Peggy And Ed
At the moment, I want to keep this a Mon-Fri happening. So when the Hawks have two games on the weekend we'll just set them up at the same time. Then we'll do a comprehensive, bullet-filled sum-up come Monday morning. At least that's how we'll start, and based on any psychotic episodes that crop up we'll make changes if need be.
Hawks vs. Jets
Info: 7pm Central
TV: CHSN (if you can find it)
Jets Lineup
Connor - Scheifele - Vilardi
Ehlers - Namestnikov - Perfetti
Appleton - Lowry - Neiderreiter
Iafalo - Kupari - Barron
Morrissey - DeMelo
Samberg - Pionk
Fleury - Miller
Hellebuyck
What You Need To Know: Not only will the Hawks be walking into another lion's den of a team's home opener, just how it works this time of year, but they'll be playing a Jets team full of piss and vinegar after kicking eight different kinds of shit out of the Oilers on Wednesday night, 6-0. The Jets finished just three points out of winning the Central last year, mostly behind the superlative goaltending of Connor Hellebuyck. Not only did Helles Belles put up a .921 save-percentage but he led the league with 33 goals saved above expected, which was 11 better than the next guy on the list. But the Jets aren't the Rangers, where a goalie and a power play covers up the fact that they weren't a very good even-strength team. In fact, the Jets power play is pretty cheeks, not creating a lot nor shooting all that well. Winnipeg was top-10 last season in both Corsi and xG-percentage at 5-on-5.
The power play weakness is where having a bunch of second-line talent instead of genuine first-line talent hurts them. Mark Scheifele has the billing of a #1 center, but he hasn't eclipsed 80 points since 2019. He doesn't dominate possession nor create a ton for either himself or his teammates, at least not at the level of the league's top-tier centers. He would be one of the league's best #2 centers, but the Jets don't have anyone to slot him down to that.
But, combined with Lowry and Namestnikov, it give the Jets depth in that none of those centers are below a #3 level and all can be #2. And they still rock metric-darling wingers like Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Nino Neiderreiter. Cole Perfetti is trending in that direction. Even if the Jets lack a truly sharp end, they play fast and smart and there isn't really a let up with any of their lines. If the thunder don't get ya then the lightning will...
Josh Morrissey is starting to get the Drew Doughty treatment, where his own fanbase wails loud enough and long enough proclaiming that he should get Norris consideration every season that the rest of the hockey public just relents to get them to shut up. Morrissey is good, he's a plus puck-mover and is good enough at his own line to stifle most attacks. Much like Scheifele, is he up to the Grade A d-men in the league? Probably a half-step below. But again, the Jets rock depth on their blue line. Dylan Samberg is evolving into a nifty defenseman who is very skilled at getting his team out of their zone. Haydn Fluery is actually a sneaky weapon on the third-pairing as he's one of the best in the league at carrying the puck out of the d-zone. The D may not be all that flashy but they get the puck up the forwards quickly and without a fuss. Work all that out and an opponent still has to beat maybe the best goalie in the league.
Player To Watch - Nikolaj Ehlers: We're going to start banging this drum now. Ehlers is a free agent at the end of this year, the Jets are rarely a cap team, and if Kyle Davidson really wants to provide Connor Bedard with a winger who can spring his offense to a different level, it's Ehlers. He's a offense-generating unicorn, given that he can do it off the rush or on the forecheck, and he has great vision combined with a nose for the open spots to score himself. He's not one or the other. Yes, Ehlers has never produced more than a second-liner, but he's also never played with anyone like Bedard. And fuck, if the consolation prize is that he plays with Nazar or Moore to give them a blanky in the beginnings of their NHL careers, that's great too! Ehlers is one of the smartest players in the league, and next year when Taylor Hall isn't going to be around and you'd like to think some more flotsam will follow him out the door, there will be a hole at on the second line at the very least. And it's not going to be filled with Ryan Goddamn Greene.
Hawks vs. Oilers (Saturday)
Info: 9pm Central
TV: CHSN, HNIC for those in the hinterlands
Oilers Lineup
Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Skinner - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
Podkolzin - Ryan - Perry
Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Emberson
Kulak - Dermott
Skinner (?)
What You Need To Know: As if this opening trip wasn't bad enough for the Hawks, not only do they open the home portion of the Utah Johnnies and Jets schedule, but they'll officially be the Oilers get-right game now. The Oil got clobbered in their season opener by the Jets, giving up a touchdown without reply on home ice. Stuart Skinner got pulled, as he managed just eight saves vs. five goals against. One would think Kris Knoblauch would roll him out there again against the far less challenging Hawks to try and restore some confidence. Or maybe the Oilers are just taking October off again like they did last year, which is what landed Knoblauch in the job in the first place.
There's a lot of big talk about the Oilers this year, specifically them replicating the Panthers in losing the Final one year and then winning it the next. And certainly with the two big guns up top anything is possible. The difference is there's far more quality in the West than there is in the East, and even what's left in the East might be fading (Canes, Leafs, Bruins, Rangers are all probably gonna be no better than just as they were and likely worse).
Second, this Oilers roster still has gaping holes. The goalie situation is hardly settled, no matter how much they delude themselves into thinking Skinner can keep it together (Mrazek trade target alert!). Second, the defense is still thin. Yes, great top pairing, but Darnell Nurse remains a mess. He can't blame Cody Ceci being his partner this year, and they lost Philip Broberg to an offer-sheet from St. Louis. Broberg could cover up some of Nurse's issues by being one of the most aggressive defenders in the league and keeping teams from getting into the Edmonton zone at all. Which erased the possibility that Nurse could fuck up royally.
Thirdly, the Oilers took a couple leaps on second-line wingers in Jeff Skinner and Victor Arvidsson. Arvidsson's issue is just health, as he basically missed all of last year. Two years ago he still put up 26 goals and was an annoying piss to play against for a far less explosive Kings team. Still, he missed 76 games last season thanks to a back injury, and backiotomies aren't exactly ideal for hockey players.
Skinner is playing on his first team that's worth a shit. This dude has been around forever and has never played a playoff game. He will this year, but we'll find out if all the goals he's scored, and it's 357 (!) of them, were just empty calories or not. If both of these guys prove to be good, and Evander Kane can cobble enough body parts together to get on the ice without punching a woman again, the Oilers might have the most forward depth they've had when attacking the spring.
Player To Watch - Darnell Nurse: As mentioned above, Nurse remains one of the biggest mysteries in the NHL. Back in my SCH/CI days, my comrades and I must've come up with 300 trade scenarios to get him to the Hawks, such was our salivating at his tools. And those are still there. Nurse is a plus skater at 6-4, and not just a plus-skater for 6-4. There is a nastiness to his game, or there can be. He has a good eye for a first pass.
And yet it's never come together. Maybe it's a 10-cent brain, maybe it's the weight of expectations, maybe it's a cavalcade of fuckwits who have been his partners, maybe it's all of it, but Nurse can look Brodie-like far too many nights. Dumb turnovers and penalties, positioning that would usually only come with hallucinogens, and sometimes a lack of authority which should never happen with a guy this big and this mobile. It looked for all the world once that he was going to be a more mobile Chris Pronger. Now Oilers fans would settle for just not throwing their beer at the TV during a Nurse shift.
