I Used To Be Disgusted, Now...Just More Disgusted

We're going over an eventful Hawks weekend, at least off the ice.

Sector 1901 - I Used To Be Disgusted, Now...Just More Disgusted

You know things are going well when the GM feels the need to have a midseason confab with season ticket holders. I was a season ticket holder for nine seasons, and let me tell ya, Stan Bowman never came calling (and really, thank God for that). Those renewals must not be rolling in, huh?

Anyway, let's start with the big news from Friday night, that being Kyle From Chicago and the Hawks got to play Crewman #6 in Colorado's and Carolina's Galaxy Quest. In case you didn't see, the Hawks sent Taylor Hall and half of the remaining money on Mikko Rantanen's contract to Carolina for a 3rd round pick that used to be theirs originally anyway.

What the Davidson apologists want everyone to know is that had the Hawks simply dealt Hall, either now or at the deadline, they probably wouldn't have done much better than a 3rd round pick. Which very well may be true, though if they were getting a 3rd rounder a month before the deadline, who knows how it might have improved with anything resembling competition for his services.

But that's not the point here. This was the biggest trade in the NHL in quite some time. Rantanen is the best player to move midseason since Jack Eichel, and might even be better. This kind of mega-deal doesn't happen without the Hawks facilitating it. Their contribution was key for the Canes, and Carolina probably doesn't do this straight up.

Now sure, maybe the the Avs and Canes could have found another team to act as courier for half of Rantanen's contract, but that's the game. There's always another team who can make the deal a team wants to make. That doesn't mean a GM should simply surrender to a 3rd round pick tossed to them like a miserly tip at the blackjack table.

The Hawks' role in this was crucial. Rantanen is a team-turning kind of acquisition for the Canes. It's the caliber of player they quite simply haven't had. Maybe he's the difference to them winning a game beyond the second round for once. Which means Kyle From Chicago could have played some hardball here, and gotten a second round pick? A third and a live body? Something? The return is simply plain, and plain is why the Hawks are in this mess. For the crucial role the Hawks played here, they could have held out for more, things we might actually notice.

-There seems to be a rush from the Hawks media to defend Kyle From Chicago. I don't know where it springs from. Perhaps because he's more pleasant to deal with than Bowman, I have no idea. But the only grade that anyone can give Davidson at this point is an incomplete, and that's if they want to be charitable.

To review, Davidson has put one player that is foundational on the team, and that's the one that fell into his lap in Connor Bedard. Alex Vlasic was not his pick, remember. And there's a wealth of lottery tickets beyond that.

Let's review those lottery tickets, with at least what we know. If Bedard is not a prospect anymore, (he's not), the Hawks second most important prospect (behind Levshunov) is being stuck in Rockford for no reason and is getting passed on the depth chart by Ethan Del Mastro and Louis Crevier, apparently (Korchinksi). The third-most important prospect has already been jettisoned from center to wing and has eight points in 20 games (Nazar, though he's ramping up of late and we'll get to that). The fourth-most important prospect has been the most ineffectual forward on the US WJC team two years running (Moore).

That doesn't mean that any or all of these guys won't be effective, or even star, NHL players. They may be. No one knows. But these aren't really anything most other teams don't have somewhere.

There also seems to be this perception that Hall and other forwards have to be moved off the roster not just because of what they'll return but to clear room for the likes of Moore and Ryan Greene at the end of they year. This is recoculous for a couple reasons.

One, the college season doesn't end until April, at least for schools like BU and Minnesota who would expect to play in the NCAA tournament. That's well after the deadline when the Hawks can carry as many players as they'd like, seeing as how they don't have any cap problems to worry about.

Second, the Hawks made a huge stink before the season about how none of their kids were just going to walk into the team. They'd all have to earn it. But Miller and Greene and whoever else can stroll on in, huh? Ok, whatever.

There's also something in the bloodstream about the Hawks having too many prospects. I've seen it suggested in a couple places. Can you have enough? Especially with how much we don't know? Let's play the Hawks game for a second. Remember when they were flush with Keith, Seabrook, Toews, Bolland, Byfuglien, Brouwer, and a couple others in 2006 and 2007? Did that stop them from trading for Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp? Let's hoist them on their own petard!

At this point, it's important to once again stress that the GM who just acquired maybe the premier power forward in the league and ended up with more cap space than before the trade and also played Kyle From Chicago like a fucking cello, Eric Tulsky, interviewed with the Hawks during the process that they once again chose to just hire the guy who was standing there.

There is lots of noise, probably generated by Kyle From Chicago himself, that the Hawks are going to make a serious push to sign a top-ticket free agent next summer, be it Rantanen or Marner or Ehlers who or whoever. That's great, but the Hawks one advantage--that they can overpay and basically pay the max if they so choose--gets mostly wiped out with the leap the cap is going to take. More teams than before are going to have the room to make a big splash, or at least the maneuverability to, and they won't be carrying the stench of three-straight abysmal seasons and the appearance of being an Oregon Trail's trek from respectability, much less contending.

To reiterate, all of this could change with a big closing kick from Nazar, a call-up for Korchinski, the high draft pick that's coming moving straight to the NHL roster, and a big signing or two. But Kyle From Chicago has to pull all of that off, while still being the guy who thought Maroon, Brodie, and Martinez would help.

-Now we get to on the ice. The Hawks had 34 shots for the weekend. Which would be good...if they played one game. Sadly, they played two. These were the 7th and 8th game in the last nine that the Hawks have generated 25 shots or less in regulation. It's craptacular.

The problems for them being unable to generate any offense are multifold. One, as we've reviewed over and over, the Hawks d-men outside of Jones cannot get a half-step on any onrushing forward to make a pass out of the zone. Vlasic can get the step, but he doesn't really have the skill (and don't look now, but he's sort of plateaued this season). They don't want to just ice the puck, though they probably should more often. They don't have the time for high chips and flips to at least let their forwards compete for loose change in the neutral zone.

There's more to add to it. Though Anders Sorensen wanted everyone to know how aggressive the Hawks D would be under him, that doesn't seem to apply when the Hawks don't have the puck. They give up their blue line so easily. The only Hawk d-man who is above-average in cutting off the blue line is Crevier, and credit to him. It's easy to get into the zone against the Hawks, and it's easier to pin them in.

On top of that, they don't have many puck-carriers, either in defense or at forward. Here's who's above average in carrying the puck into the offensive zone, according to AllThreeZones.com: Bedard (duh), Nazar (good), Hall (gone), Smith (hurt or dead we're not sure), Reichel (helpless with everything that comes after that).

Which means the Hawks have to dump the puck in most times, but they're also a shit-ass forechecking team. The only two forwards the Hawks have who measure as above average in recovering dump-ins are Joey Anderson (in Rockford) and Jason Dickinson. Basically, the Hawks can't force their way in, and they basically surrender the puck when they have to chase it. Not a great combination.

And even when they go grab a lead and are trying to protect it--as we saw against Tampa, and Carolina, and Nashville--that passivity at their line gets them bombarded. Here's a sample:

That's with just under five minutes to go, and believe me it's hardly the only example. Even when teams dump it against the Hawks they're usually doing it from right inside a blue line they simply waltzed over.

Compare that with the Lighting on Friday:

This is where, sadly, Sorensen is kind of in a corner. The Hawks want to play fast and aggressive. But they can't really with the immobility they have on defense in spots (and the Lightning relentlessly attacked Martinez all night). But they also love to bleat about how their all their young d is "a good skater for their size." Then play like it and have them step up.

Luke Richardson went away from this, and the Hawks decided that it made no sense to play in a fashion that they will have to eschew in the near future anyway. But now they're playing in a way they can't, and basically getting their brains beaten in. Is that better? I honestly do not have an answer for that, and I don't think they do either.

A couple quick hits and we'll get out of here.

• Crevier and now Del Mastro, at least in two games, have shown a willingness to be more aggressive defensively and try and cause turnovers at their line. At this point, I'm not sure what it is Nolan Allan does well, and he might get passed by these two.
• Frank Nazar ran the show in the 3rd period against the Wild on Sunday, score effects an admitted factor. But he and Bedard cannot continue to run sub-40 percent metrics and expect to get to continue together. Still, it's the most noticeable he's been and it has to start somewhere.
• When a team has put in an utterly dogshit performance and is 2-0 down, there are probably better things a CAPTAIN can do then take a lazy holding penalty and then earn himself another minor for yapping at the ref. Launch this fuckin' guy to the moon.
• Maybe there's something I missed, and I'll correct myself if I did, but the past two games Caley Chelios has been adorned in a Hawks sweatshirt during pregame and intermission. Caley is not supposed to be a fan. She's supposed to be a professional analyst, at least in theory. Everything CHISM does is an insult to a fan's intelligence.
• This is probably too cynical, and I really don't want to write about societal stuff in relation to sports too much in this newsletter. I'm tired, and when I get in the weeds in this stuff these days it's pretty easy for me to spiral out. But I did want to mention an aspect of Hockey Fights Cancer night. I know, mostly, its heart is in the right place. And for those kids that got to be on the ice during the anthem, I'm sure it was the thrill of a lifetime. That's all great.
  
  But when Darren Pang is imploring people to get checked regularly...well, yes Darren, that would be lovely. But there's a whole host of obstacles that keeps a whole host of people from being able to access any kind of preventative care. Is Hockey Fights Cancer addressing that? When we have a night of people imploring for a discovery of a cure, during a week when we've seen funding for medical research slashed or outright stopped nationwide and as we know all kinds of drugs are about to skyrocket in price...I don't know, man, it just made for some really awkward viewing is all.

Anyway, we're over 2,000 words here, so we'll save other stuff for tomorrow. Can't keep you here all day!