Our First Hawks Observations, It's Good When The Bears Win, and MLB's Race To The Middle

Sector 1901 - Our First Hawks Observations

I know. Here I am doing a Hawks-centric newsletter, and they've played three preseason games, and it's only after the third one that I can say I've watched anything. But this was the first one where I didn't have something scheduled way before I decided to throw my sanity and stability into the garbage disposal by writing this little ditty. And I also wasn't the one who put the first three only on the website where I couldn't get a replay. So, here we are.

There isn't much to glean from preseason hockey anyway, other than Drew Doughty's ankles no longer work! But it's something, so let's run through some bullets, which I think is how we'll do postgame stuff throughout the season, at least to start. Like I've said a few times, we'll figure this out as we go. It's a breathing thing.

• I don't want to start with another Korchinski rant (don't worry, we'll get there), so let's focus on Phil Kurashev. Kurashev played center last night, between Taylor Hall and whatever it is Ilya Mikheyev does for a living. This is the kind of thing the Hawks should be trying more often. Especially if they're so determined to keep Frank Nazar off the NHL roster to start the season. The Hawks have no long-term solutions at center. It's not even clear that Connor Bedard can stick in the middle for years to come. We'll find out this year. Jason Dickinson and Andreas Anathasiou down the middle doesn't tell us anything about when this team matters again, so it's worth seeing what Kurashev can do there.

Of course, the issue is that Kurashev has been a woeful defensive player for most of his career, and wingers who are bad at defense don't tend to become centers who are good at it. Which means he can really only be tried as a #2 center for now. Does he really have the skill for that? The vision? It's worth finding out, though the likelihood is very low. But I'll rejoice in that the Hawks are doing literally anything with regards to their future on the top roster.

• Ok, to Korch. Anybody is allowed to correct me via Twitter or email, but I don't ever remember Korch playing on the right side last year. Why he's being tried there in camp I have no idea, though it went fine. He certainly was the calmest with the puck of all the d-men and didn't look out of place. It's not going to save him or anything, it's just frustrating to be reminded of his quality and then this horseshit plan for him.
• Somehow I had gotten the idea that Mikheyev was fast. But he isn't. He's almost leaden-footed. So not only can he not score nor is he terribly bright, but he's also slow. This has every chance of being an Alex Nylander-level of a waste of time.
• That said, Hall-Kurashev-Mikheyev was far and away the best line by the metrics, if that sort of thing matters in September. Certainly worth playing Hall and Kurashev together more in this preseason.
• Isaak Phillips remains a boob, but I'll say that I would like Nolan Allan to get a look at some point in the season, even if he'll only be a third pairing guy. Decent mobility FOR A GUY HIS SIZE (this is a constant mantra for Hawks defensive prospects) and has good hands. His partner Ethan Del Mastro is almost certainly never going to be anything, but Allan is worth a look. His minutes in Rockford are going to get kneecapped anyway so Kyle can enact his grand vision. So let's give him limited minutes at the NHL level so we don't have to watch TJ Brodie. Ever.
• I would wager a little money that Pat Maroon doesn't make it past Thanksgiving. He can't get there. It's quite possible he never could, but he could at least see "there" before.

I think that's it for now. Full report after Tuesday's game which I can watch on my TV! Maybe it'll even get some run on the podcast. We never know.

Sons Of Lemuel - It's Better When They Win

The biggest fear of this Bears season, for me, was that they would improve just enough while Matt Eberflus still proved to be a moron. Say, getting to nine or 10 wins or so but having a couple they biff because their head coach only has elevator music playing in his headset.

Yesterday's win is probably a perfect microcosm of such a scenario. Yeah, the Bears won. Yeah, there were real signs of improvement from the offense, with a pretty damn mature performance from Caleb Williams and some wrinkles both in formation, motion, and playcalling. There were big boy throws mixed with smart checkdowns. The defense continued to be stout. All good!

The Bears were also incredibly undisciplined, with 74 penalties against them, or at least that's how it felt. Well coached teams don't take pre-snap penalties. The Bears took a million. They still couldn't quite put it to bed with a four-minute drill. This was all after a week where it felt like the players and staff were at odds, and their vets might have started laying the groundwork to lever the coaches out come the end of the season (bit of a stretch but hardly out of the realm). It didn't feel like the tightest ship all week or on Sunday.

But it's the NFL, it only happens once a week, and it's not like the Bears have won enough in the past where I'm going to get picky about how they get a victory. The rest of the week is just a little easier to take on after a Bears win. They're all good, they should be enjoyed, and a good majority of the NFL gets most of their wins in some of the dumbest ways possible. That's what happens when 23-25 teams are all the same.

So drink it in. They're still rare enough to be considered a treasure. Especially around here.

There'll be plenty of time to do a denouement on both the Cubs and Sox, but for today I'll just stick with baseball in general. I know that MLB decided a while ago to trade September for October. They made it official with the expansion of the playoffs--that pennant races were dead, and the drama was all moved to the postseason.

Still, there is something off that the only drama in September comes from the league's most mediocre. The division races with good teams don't really matter because we know the second-place team in that scenario is making the playoffs anyway.

Last year, it was the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Reds trying to Rocksteady and Bebop their way into an accidental success and false hope. Nobody cleared 84 wins, a mere stubbed toe from the definition of middling. It was a drunken turtle race.

This year it was down to Atlanta, the Mets, and the Diamondbacks again. Both the Queens 9 and Desert Snakes have been woeful the last week or longer, and yet were saved by the ever-lowering floor that is demanded by baseball now. Atlanta is missing perhaps their three best players and barely got it together in time to be in position to claim a playoff spot with today's makeup doubleheader. And that's the kicker, MLB may get its playoff spots decided by a doubleheader no one wants anything to do with and the team that wins the first game is just as likely to chuck the second to save everyone for Game 1. How fitting, a baseball season ending with two barely upright teams playing games they'd rather not. They'll both be impersonating the White Sox, essentially.

That's September now. Not a month of furious races between good to great teams to claim what few spots there are to chase history, but a three-legged race through mud. Where we tune in to see which team can keep their heads above "suck."

What theater.

Let England Shake

Back at Deadspin I used to do a weekly wrap of the Premier League. I really enjoyed doing so and will try it here again. We'll cut it down to three bullets instead of five and keep them short this time and go from there.

• My favorite stat of the week is the Leicester surrendered 4.62 xG to Arsenal on Saturday. But hey, they are a newly-promoted team on the road against one of the five best teams in Europe.

Manchester United gave up 4.59 at home to Spurs.

• Not sure what Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler's plan was on Saturday against Chelsea, other than maybe to see if Chelsea were just going to fuck up enough. That was a decent bet a while ago but Enzo Maresca has been able to carry on the wave that Mauricio Pochettino started last spring. Brighton played a suicidally high line without pressuring the ball at all. The only thing one need to know is that besides scoring four goals in the 1st half, Cole Palmer was allowed to go 6-for-7 on long balls, and Enzo Fernandez went 4-for-5. They had all day to just send someone in behind Brighton's defense, and that's why the Seagulls end up getting pretty well pilloried.
• Yes, I'm feeling my oats about my Reds on top of the league, while being reserved as best I can. The only warning light on the dash though is that since the opening weekend, Liverpool haven't created a goal out of slick possession or passing movements. Their two goals against Brentford were off two counterattacks. All three against United were so. Same goes for the three goals against Bournemouth, with Saturday's win coming off a set-piece and a penalty.

It's good that they still have the lethal counter in the holster, and Arsenal aren't turning down their set-piece goals either. But Liverpool have only seen one team that was deadset on being in a low block and denying space and making sure those lightning quick counters weren't on offer. That was Nottingham Forest, and we know how that went. We'll see how they pass a few more of those tests before we figure out what exactly they are.

A hearty thank you to all of you who still felt compelled to tip or send some scratch my way, even though it is not necessary yet. Truly humbled. As always, please share and forward and tweet out all that good stuff so we can get this in front of as many eyes as possible. Remind everyone as well that it is free for a while. We're all free...for a while.