Karma's A Bitch, My New Enemy

Wrapping up the Hawks loss in Calgary and then somehow surviving the USMNT game with my eyeballs intact.

Sector 1901 - Karma's A Bitch

The narratives coming out of Saturday night's win in Edmonton was how that was proof the Hawks were a big boy team now and could get wins against a tough team like Edmonton (though maybe the October version Oilers don't qualify for that label). The reality was that they got a night against Calvin Pickard and his charitable style of goaltending, while mostly being on the back foot and getting bailed out by Petr Mrazek.

That came around the other way in a hurry, as the Hawks carried most of the play--without being all that dynamic, admittedly--against the Flames but didn't score enough, as Dustin Wolf isn't Pickard. They say this sort of thing evens out over a season, which almost certainly isn't true, but the Hawks will leave Alberta completely balanced in that regard. Shit happens.

Bullets!

• Our Bedard shot-counter was certainly delighted, as The Boy King registered seven shots on goal. That's more like it! Though he did turn one down on a 2-on-1 trying to force a pass to Nick Foligno, which honestly should be the kind of thing that gets him sent down to Rockford.
• When Flames coach Ryan Huska could get the matchups he wanted, it was Mikael Backlund sent out there against Bedard. That didn't go particularly well for Bedard, with a 31-Corsi share while on the ice against the Flames captain. But when he was able to find a different line out against him, he feasted, including running up a 77-share against Nazem Kadri. Bedard isn't the first center to find Backlund a tough nut to crack, so we can forgive it.
• We know teams that just aren't all that deep are going to have a rocky second power play unit, but it was just a little too illustrative that on the Hawks first power play, Alex Vlasic ended up with the puck and with time in the slot...and he ended up firing a pass off the sidewall to no one. It wasn't quite the Andrew Ladd dump-in-on-a-shootout but in the same family. Maybe best to just start running PP1 out there for 90 seconds or more. Vlasic is going to get a nosebleed next time.
• Wyatt Kaiser ended up having a good game (57.7 Corsi, 51.1 xG), but the Flames were definitely targeting him on rushes. Three or four times the Flames made a point of going outside of him with speed, and every time it ended up a shot on net. That happens when there's tape on a player.
• Connor Murphy has looked a little sluggish and panicky with the puck of late, but at least he can send any 19-year-old trying to hit him right into the dirt. Though it would help if he didn't do the same to his own goalie for the Flames first goal. Though Mrazek was definitely swimming, too.
• It appears that CHSN has already given up on the vertical scorebug and went with a more traditional horizontal one. Oh well. For the 18 people who can see CHSN, their coverage is fine but it doesn't feel like anything new. Watching the Devils broadcast earlier in the evening, they were happy to boost some new-age stats whenever they could. Maybe most fans don't care that Dougie Hamilton is a top-five player in the stretch passes category or Jack Hughes is the best forward in the league at carrying the puck into the attacking zone, but at least it's new and different. There's nothing about that with the Hawks coverage. But then maybe they should just worry about making sure anyone can see their mid-ass coverage first.
• Mrazek certainly wasn't a problem, but after his plus performance against the Jets, would it have been the worst idea to give Arvid Soberblom another start against a pretty punchless Flames team? Just to give him more confidence before packing it up down I-90? It's nitpicking I know but hey, development is still the name of the game here.
• This seems to be an already continuing theme in postgame comments after losses:

I don't know who was talking about moral victories, but they certainly perceive someone was. This is clearly something they want out there, even though it doesn't really mean anything. There didn't seem to be any moral victories last year either, at least not when Foligno was calling the press over to air out a bunch of kids who might not ever be in the NHL again.

Anyway, Sharks up next in the home opener. Without Macklin Celebrini. Should be whiffleball, and not even moral victory whiffleball.

The Kickmen - My New Enemy

Getting old means you start seeing more and more cycles. In one of Gregg Berhalter's first games as manger of the USMNT, they played a friendly against Mexico. Berhalter was insistent that the US play their way out of the back and through the Mexico press. Except they weren't talented enough to do so, and it was a complete disaster, and the Yanks got their ass handed to them 3-0.

In Mauricio Pochettino's second game as manager, the US attempted to play their way through the Mexican press. Complete disaster would be a touch strong, but it wasn't that far off, and they lost 2-0 while the ball bounced off of them all over the field as if the mob had outfitted their shoes.

Now, there are caveats between the two. One, Poch was working with a definite B-team, if not C-team, instead of anything like a first choice outfit. Only Antonee Robinson is guaranteed to start the next game that matters of the 11 who were on the field. Two, the field conditions in Guadalajara were abysmal, looking like something the Chicago Park District might cook up. Trying to string together any passes was a challenge, which is why Mexico mostly didn't bother and just opted to punt it over the US's mid-block.

That said, it was still a hard watch, spending time witnessing Gianluca Busio or Josh Sargent or Brenden Aaronson (more on him next) thrash about at the ball and then lose possession and then do it all again with a grizzly bear-like touch. See if Poch waits to see what it looks like when he's got something more resembling the A-team.

• I spent a lot of time counting the minutes I had to watch Jordan Morris in a national team jersey and lamenting how I'd never get those minutes and hours back. I think Aaronson has taken the torch now that Morris has been put out to pasture, national team-wise. What hurts is when he was on the Union, I really liked Aaronson and thought he was something the US didn't have at the time, a creative #10. But he's proven to be a player who can only run around a lot, get knocked over, and then give away the ball with at least two extra (and bad) touches. How this stick-figure is surviving in the Championship is a Bermuda Triangle-level mystery.
• I'm not sure the exact point of having Tim Ream start when he won't be around for the World Cup. And if he is, something has probably gone horribly wrong. Sure, maybe the thought was he could be a steadying presence for what Poch wants to do. Yeah, well...

• I can't help but do a what-if scenario for Miles Robinson. Had he not blown out his achilles right before the World Cup, he probably starts every game there, gets a move to Europe and likely a Top-5 league, makes a shit ton of money. And now it's whatever this is.
• I'm still intrigued by Poch's first tactic of playing 3-4-2-1 with the ball and 4-4-2 without it. It's more creative than anything we've seen anyone else try with the national team. It seems perfectly designed for Pulisic and Reyna (for the four minutes he's healthy), getting them off the wings and more in the middle to link with the holding midfielders while not having to pivot the whole team around them. We may not find out how well it works until the summer of 2026, though.

All right, that's enough.