Mr. Saturday Night Special
The Hawks make a splash on Hockey Night In Canada.
There were two special things about Saturday night's win over Toronto at the United Center. Or at least things that are worth commenting on. One, I can't remember the last time I sat around all day on a Saturday and genuinely looked forward to planning my Saturday night around a Hawks game. Ordered a pizza, made sure the fridge was stocked, etc. Sure, it helped that it was Toronto, and a 6pm start to boot, and I was just as excited about watching the creaking, leaking, a stinking ship that is the Leafs right now (and they didn't disappoint!). But that's where the Hawks are now, that fans aren't admitting to a huge gap in their life if they cop to having the desire and the availability to dedicate a window to watching them.
Second, the metrics on the game suggest the Hawks were lucky to win, were getting smothered for most of it, and it was another Spencer Knight tour-de-fuck you that got them another RW and two points (42% Corsi, 33% xG). But did it really feel like that? There were certainly stretches when the Leafs had most of the puck, and Knight made some saves, but overall? The Hawks seemed less stressed for most of it than it felt like they were just hanging on. Some of that is the absolute lack of teeth that the Leafs have without Auston Matthews. But few would have walked out of the UC on Saturday and thought the Hawks pulled some magic trick.
Obviously, in the future, we'd like the numbers to match the vibes. But the vibes are enough for now. Look what the vibes on the other side, wearing blue and white, is doing to that team. They do matter.
-To steal a line I've used before, this won't be known as THE Artyom Levshunov game, but it's "A" Artyom Levshunov game. While Sam Rinzel has tumbled down the lineup and into the pressbox (no, you can't really tumble "down" into the pressbox, but just go with it), that has been cushioned by Levshunov gobbling up the opportunity and minutes that he has left. Levshunov led the Hawks in 5-on-5 ice-time for the first time this season, and he earned that.
His assist for the opening goal is the kind of vision and spice that only he can provide right now, as long as Rinzel is still trying to remember all his lines and Korchinski is still biding his time in Rockford.
He also had a shift in the second where he was leading an odd-man rush, fell down, rushed back to break up a Leafs breakaway, and then got back up the ice to join another odd-man rush. It was absolutely the most Levshunov shift ever, and let's hope there are many more, just because they are so fun. He certainly makes things happen.
But most importantly, when Levshunov is feeling himself in the offensive zone and on the rush, he feels himself defensively. We see the guy jumping the play before the lines, cutting guys off along the boards with his size, and making a sure but decisive first pass.
-I am not convinced that Frank Nazar was anywhere close to fully healthy. His skating didn't have quite the edge it normally does, and he looked pedestrian at times. If Nazar doesn't have that extra burst, he's kind of just a small center. Or so I thought, and then...
I don't know what a Philippe Myers is, and I don't care. That chip past a Leaf d-man and then win the race was something the Hawks finally got to more of in the 3rd period. Why it took them so long to figure out that the Leafs blue line can't move and sucks with the puck on their stick, I don't know, but at least they got there. Moore scorched McCabe on a similar play, and the winning goal came when the Hawks bothered the Leafs on the retrieval repeatedly until they just flung a puck up the boards. The Hawks retrieve it, dump it in, and then Colton Dach...COLTON DACH...easily beats McCabe to the puck, outworks John Tavares with ease to get the puck back to the point. This Leafs thing, man...
Anyway, back to Nazar, who not only beats Myers to the puck but shoulders him to protect it and open up the lane to get the pass to Teravainen, who then undresses the massively overrated Morgan Rielly. Even if Nazar isn't 100 percent, he'll make something happen.
-Connor Bedard isn't a good defensive player. But at least he's showing that he's getting on the road to being one, even if he doesn't complete the journey. But late in the 3rd, he did make a play with his unique skillset to get the Hawks out of trouble.
On the backhand, under pressure, one pass and the Hawks are not just out of their zone, but out with possession and speed. Bedard isn't going to outmuscle and force his way out of jams behind his net too often. But if he can use those plus-plus hands and his newfound greater agility and turning radius to dodge, duck, dip, and dodge his way into making plays like this down low in his own end, he can maybe be the total center the Hawks so desperately want him to be.
-Let's do a word on the Leafs here. During the second intermission on the HNIC feed, during the normal "Headlines" segment. Elliotte Friedman reported that the Leafs aren't interested in trading futures to help this team, i.e. Easton Cowan or Cowan Easton or whatever the fuck his name is won't be going anywhere. They want to make a "hockey" trade. meaning trading from a strength they have to bolster a weakness.
What, pray tell, would be that strength? A bevy of slow-footed, dim-witted defensemen that are increasingly moot in today's game? A raft of third-line forwards beyond Matthews, Knies, and Nylander? No one's taking John Tavares, kids, and he's not going to go. One of their two goalies? One's not playing well and one just came back from a personal leave.
I won't say they're cooked, but let's say that the oven is definitely preheated.