Let's Get Down To Brass Tacks, How Much For The Ape?

After an unquestionably successful road trip, it's time to get to what's real about the Hawks and what isn't. I can't remember the actual intro to "Real World."

If you'll allow me to channel Kevin Bacon from "A Few Good Men," which is the third pop culture reference I've made before even getting to a second sentence of this which means I'm probably out of ideas, here are the facts about the Hawks, and they are indisputable.

They took over half the points on offer on the longest roadtrip of the season. They have the third most regulation wins in the league. They are exponentially more fun to watch than they have been in three or four years. Their wins on the trip and their season has been driven by their two tentpoles, Connor Bedard and Spencer Knight, the two most important players going forward. They are both playing at a level that makes up for a lot of things the Hawks don't have. Their metrics are improved from last season. The Hawks beat the Canucks and Wings, which will always be life affirming. These are the facts, and they are indisputable.

What is also close to indisputable is that the Hawks aren't a good team. They are certainly percentage-surfing, with the league's best save-percentage, one of its best shooting-percentage, and the league's best PDO. Spencer Knight may be really good for a long time. He's not going to hold a .926 all season, nor a .933 at even-strength. Tyler Bertuzzi will not shoot 28 percent all season. Neither will Andre Burakovsky (or Bur-a-KOW-ski, as Darren Pang seems intent on proving that he's from Portage Park). Things are breaking the Hawks way so far, which is perfectly acceptable to enjoy. You should!

If you've been here for any amount of time, I'm far more focused on process than results. The results matter in spots, for sure. Bedard's stats matter, because they measure finish, which is the biggest skill he's supposed to lead the world in. But the Hawks process on the trip was...well, rotten would be too strong. But it's far from perfect.

It's funny that the Hawks best games on the trip, metrics-wise were in Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Seattle, all the games they lost (in OT, in Edmonton's case). Their three worst were in Vancouver, Calgary, and Detroit, all of their wins, and Knight and Soderblom got them out of some really dicey efforts in Vancouver and Detroit. Hockey be like that, sometimes.

But even that doesn't tell the whole story. The Hawks gave up over 60 attempts to the Wings yesterday, but it didn't feel like Slaughterhouse 5 or anything like it.

While there's a big spread of Detroit shots, it's a spread. It's not nearly as intense around the net as it was in Vancouver or even Calgary. If the idea was to allow shots but just to allow them on the perimeter, Jeff Blashill could consider that box checked on Sunday. That doesn't mean it was throughout the trip, but small steps is what this season is really about.

But there's still too much passivity in the Hawks game. Which can get a little frustrating, because they do flash what, I think, the ultimate goal of this 1-1-3 neutral zone look is supposed to be, We saw it on the very first shift against Detroit, which led to the power play that Bedard opened the scoring on.

Bertuzzi is "locked" in the "3", but sniffs out this cross-ice pass, jumps it, and forces Dylan Larkin into a tripping penalty when he beats him to the puck. I think this is generally the idea of what Blashill wants. The play is forced one side, and whoever is on that side of the "3" can be aggressive with plenty of cover behind him and in the middle when any pass is attempted to their man.

It just doesn't happen that much. Far more often, the Hawks just escort a puck carrier into their zone with possession as the entire backline just keeps backing up. It doesn't feel like the Hawks are causing mistakes or turnovers, where they can get out on the rush. That's where they're still be far more dangerous.

But then...it's all working? The Hawks are 17th in the league in xGF/60, which is probably the height of what anyone could expect for them. So maybe they don't need to get out on the rush more. They're winning games. Bedard is scoring. Maybe it's easier for the Hawks to get into their defensive zone structure this way.

We also don't know what Blashill's exact charge was this season. It could be that he was told, or did the telling, that first and foremost, the Hawks had to shore things up in their own zone. That nothing mattered until they were actually defensively competent, which they haven't been. That seemed to be what Luke Richardson was doing at the start of last season, but didn't get right.

Are the Hawks and Blashill getting it right? Well, they're getting goaltending that must make Richardson turn over every piece of furniture in his house, wherever he is. They ranks 24th in xGA/60, which again, is probably the hilt of what could be expected. It just seems like it puts a young Hawks defense on their heels a lot, which their goalie is bailing them out of. But hey, even that builds confidence for everyone.

-Speaking of that young defense, I was wondering if it was just an oddity that Evander Kane, Matthew Coronato, and Larkin piled up some pretty obscene shot totals against the Hawks (10, 11, 7, respectively). It may be, but all three saw most of their time against Alex Vlasic. The first two, it was Sam Rinzel as his partner. Larkin mostly saw Vlasic and Levshunov.

It's probably just growing pains, but one wonders if Rinzel isn't playing himself to a brief stint west on I-90. He's lost the QB job on the top power play unit to Levshunov, and suddenly that unit is scoring. Levshunov has started eating into his time with Alex Vlasic on a top pairing, though with the seven d-man look it's hard to really define pairs. Rinzel will get some time lower on the depth chart to see if that doesn't jumpstart his game, but we've seen this character arc before.

-But look, I don't want the overall theme of this to be that this is all a house of cards. Sunday in Detroit, the Hawks showed up with one line, thanks to Frank Nazar being out. They had to play with basically one line for the last two periods in Calgary. But that one line had Connor Bedard on it, which is all that mattered. Yes, he's leading the league in scoring, which is always fun to read. But he's dragging a very flawed team to wins on his own, which is more satisfying. Those of us who sat through Tuomo Ruutu-Martin St. Pierre-Martin Havlat know this feeling, though this isn't quite that desperate. He's electro-shocked Tyler Bertuzzi into probably the best hockey of his career. Look at the ravenous work that led to Teravainen's goal, where Bertuzzi chases down three different Wings to jostle the puck loose.

It's ok to win games with special teams. It's ok to beat teams like the Flames who just don't have the punch to capitalize on having more chances. God knows the Hawks lost more than enough games like that previously. If the plan, for right now, is just to spread opponents' attempts to the outside, let's see if they can do that more often. Maybe it's all building, and once they get their positioning and assignments down, then they can start to play more on instinct and on their toes.

It's certainly a preferable platform to find out from.