Same Direction, Blasty Ain't So Blasty
Going over yet another lost weekend for the Hawks and previewing tonight's tilt with Cal and Gary.
Sector 1901 - Same Direction
It's one thing to lose a game like Saturday night's against Edmonton. The Hawks are just going to get outclassed some evenings, and the Oilers are one of the league's best teams. Even if it is sobering that a team like Edmonton doesn't really have to get out of third gear to erase a two-goal deficit and kind of waltz to a win from there. That's just where the Hawks are right now.
It's another to just get stuffed by a wonky outfit like the Wings, who despite how hot they are at the moment, still just aren't very good. And the nature of that hot streak for Detroit should raise even more questions about the Hawks, which we'll get to.
In total, it just doesn't feel like anything is moving in the right direction, and there are coaching and roster decisions that are actively moving the team backwards. And backwards is exactly what fans were promised wouldn't happen this season.
And we're only halfway through it.
Anyway, let's get through this part together.
Coaching matters in this league. We can't make any judgements about how Kyle Davidson sees his future coach and philosophy until he makes a permanent hire in the offseason (though one gets the suspicion that the front office wants Anders Sorensen to give them any excuse to hire him full-time. Y'know, because as per organizational policy, SORENSEN IS JUST STADNING THERE ALREADY). It is also not clear that A. Todd McCllelan would have wanted to take an interim tag (he signed for multiple years with Detroit) nor B. that the Hawks would have benefitted from playing the sufferball (sufferpuck?) that he has installed with the Wings. They're just in a different spot where they do need to collect points no matter the method. The Hawks aren't.
Still, it doesn't make for pleasant viewing for anyone that the Hawks make a coaching change and things don't appear to have gotten any better (though more confusing), and the Wings make a coaching change and the results pivot immediately. And sometimes it looks like Sorensen is sinking back into conservative and overly-defensive play anyway.
There was an opportunity here to make some changes and steps forward after the coaching change. It's feeling like either of those are as far away as they ever were under Luke Richardson. Which makes anyone wonder if this hasn't been a complete waste of a season. Which isn't acceptable. The Hawks wasted a season to get Bedard. Was last season really worth anything?
The buttons being pushed aren't working. As for Sorensen himself, it's getting rather obvious that whatever message he is trying to get through to players simply isn't being received. Phil Kurashev responded to his recents scratches and benching with...this. Wyatt Kaiser looked completely panicked with the puck after his recent booting from the lineup, which only got him booted from the lineup again on Saturday with Sorensen claiming, "He needs to be calm with the puck." Well, he was for the whole season, then got scratched and demoted seemingly over one turnover, and now the coach is surprised he's playing frantically?
As for Kurashev, he was never the 50+ point player that he was last year, simply because someone had to be on that team. But that doesn't mean he should be washing himself out of the league. It's the same pattern that Lukas Reichel took, where he at least flashed having some use at this level, and then regressed horribly.
Doesn't exactly give a fan a lot of faith that the Hawks can develop the talent they claim to have in abundance in the system. Not every prospect is a generational talent. And if anyone wanted to argue that Connor Bedard is merely where he was last year, that wouldn't be ridiculous at all.
What are these guys missing? Were they just not that good to begin with? The organization's future probably doesn't hinge on Kurashev or Riechel or Kaiser, but it's foreboding.
As for Kaiser, this is just a fight that Sorensen seemingly wanted to pick for the fun of it. He was the Hawks' second best d-man behind Vlasic all season and then the coach and Davidson just decided to start fucking with this kid. What's at the other end of this? Tanking his trade value?
Also, ask yourself this. Brandon Hagel, did you really think there was a 30-goal scorer and Team Canada member in there when he was a Hawk? Sure, being surrounded by far superior talent in Tampa makes a difference, but Davidson extracted two nothing players, and basically Oliver Moore (looking to have an iffy future as a NHL top-sixer) and Sacha Boisvert. That's with Hagel making nothing at the time, thus there being no more valuable kind of deadline pickup. Food for thought.
It's not just about the scratches or demotions either. Sorensen and Hawks apologists will gleefully point to the two goals Teuvo Teravainen had against the Oilers and proof that his switching to a third/checking line with Jason Dickinson was the right move. But he and Frank Nazar were really starting to develop something, and then it was just taken away. The scant points a checking line might provide certainly aren't nearly as important as getting Nazar acclimated to this level. It's exactly why Teravainen was brought here in the first place. This isn't the mark of a cohesive plan to develop the players that are going to matter when the Hawks matter again. This is just monkey shit hurled at a wall.
Also, Bedard's best numbers come with Teuvo. Is no one is the double secret analytic department the Hawks love to talk about but never show pointing this out to anyone?
Same goes for Taylor Hall. Look, it's quite clear that Hall just isn't the same after his knee surgery, along with all the miles on the odometer. But he's not doing anyone any good by being punted down to the 4th line to stare at whatever Maroon has decided he feels like doing on that particular night. Be it upping his trade value (if that's still a hope), or providing some puck-carrying for young kids on the top two lines, those are still on the table. Believe me, whatever it is they think Ilya Mikheyev is doing on Bedard's line, Hall can still do with greater skill. If the plan is to pump-and-dump Hall, then the Hawks haven't shown they know how to pump. In fact, all Davidson has done is prove he can dump, if you'll pardon the expression.
It's bewildering the veterans Sorensen (and Davidson, by extension) feels like he has to cater to and the ones he doesn't. Hall at least can play at NHL speed, for the most part.
As for Kaiser and Kurashev, they've spent multiple seasons in the NHL now, or at least parts of them. They certainly have enough experience to furrow a brow when they see T.J. Brodie or Pat Maroon or even Foligno fuck up and yet there are no repercussions. Yet they make one or two mistakes and it's pressbox popcorn for them. All this from a coach that has less time in the league than they do and doesn't seem to be commanding a lot of anything from the team. Maybe it's not a huge shock that Sorensen's punishments aren't drawing a whole lot of reactions from the players on the receiving end of them. Even more curious from Kaiser who played for Sorensen before in Rockford. Maybe the players sense that either they or Sorensen or both aren't long for this town, so why crack open the box of fucks to give?
Everyone covers for Foligno. Why is this guy out when the Hawks pull the goalie? They have net-front presence with both Donato and Bertuzzi. He's too slow to win too many board battles, and he's not gifted in any other way. And yet against Detroit the broadcast was happy to highlight CAPTAIN playing goalie while ignoring that he only had to do so because he flung the puck to no one on a regroup. And you can bet the cameras caught him breaking his stick on the bench, which he for sure wasn't doing for the sake of those cameras or anything. This guy has been the captain or de facto captain for the worst team in the league two years running. And he doesn't seem nearly as vocal in the press when he's not beating up on guys on their way out of the league. Wonder why.
Sorensen's style doesn't work for this roster. There was a lot of big talk when Anders strolled in here about playing more up-tempo, getting the D involved, trying to create more. Well, since taking over Sorensen's charges have been held under 25 shots for a game nine times, including the last three, out of 17 games.
That's not all his fault. The Hawks best puck-mover is in Rockford. Another possible one in Seth Jones couldn't make it any clearer he's doing the Michael Anthony, "Where do i plug in and where's my check?" routine. But he's not helping himself by keeping a mobile d-man like Kaiser, who is not totally bereft of puck skills, either off the ice completely or having an existential crisis when he is suited up.
There isn't any answer here, and with Kyle Davidson seemingly in WITSEC we'll never get an answer as to what this roster was pointed to do. Was it supposed to play conservatively under Richardson and just try and suck the events out of games and hopefully get a bounce? If so, why was Richardson fired? And if Davidson did want the Hawks to have more get-up-and-go, why aren't the players who can make that closer to reality here? Again, none of this feels like there's a cohesive plan. A team can't bust down Detroit's 1-1-3 with no puck-movers.
Again, it wouldn't make any sense for the Hawks to play some sort of 1-1-3 or 1-3-1 and try to strangle their way to points that won't matter. That's not how they're going to play in the future...right? Considering the amount of zip they allegedly have coming on the blue line next year (Levshunov, Korchinski, likely Rinzel too if they're honest with themselves and not just going to artificially stuff him in Rockford just to say they did), it would be nonsensical to not play on the front foot and even be totally yaha time.
Then why was this roster built this way?
None of these questions are going to make any Hawks fan feel good, however may are even left that ask these questions. The least Davidson could do is bring Korch up, and Levshunov not too far behind him, and give Sorensen more tools to play the way the Hawks are going to going forward. So what if they give up five a night? They already are. At least it would be building something. This is just killing time until the lottery. Again. And it shouldn't matter if they have to tell Brodie and Martinez to do one to fit everyone in.
Anyway, we've got another game to set up. They're coming thick and fast, aren't they?
Calgary Flames Lineup
Huberdeau - Kadri - Pospisil
Coleman - Backlund - Coronato
Pelletier - Sherangovich - Kuzmenko
Lomberg - Rooney - Duehr
Bahl - Andersson
Hanley - Weegar
Bean - Pachal
Wolf/Vladar
What You Need To Know: The stardust that the Flames came sprinkled in during the early portion of the season seems to be wearing off, especially on the health front. Anthony Mantha is out for the season, and Connor Zary--who had threaded the needle on being extremely annoying to play against while also being able to score--are out of the top six (though they think Zary's injury isn't as serious as it could have been). The Flames have also been in-between record-wise for a month now, being unable to win or lose more than two in a row after losing four in a row at the end of November. Their wishy washy ways have seen them drop just below the cutline for the wildcard spots.
The Flames main problem, especially with Zary and Mantha on the shelf, is they just don't score a lot. They have four players with 10 goals or more (even the fucking Hawks can top that). Jonathan Huberdeau is their leading scorer, and he's the only one with more than 30 points (even the fucking Hawks can top that). They're 27th in goals-for per game, and 23rd in xGF per 60 at even-strength. It's just a pop-gun offense.
Part of their problem is that there isn't a lot of vibrance from the back end. There isn't a premier puck-mover back there, aside from maybe Mackenzie Weegar. And Weegar does it through passing instead of his feet. In fact, the whole Flames blue line wants to pass their way out of trouble. Though they do the one thing we wish the Hawks would do more, and that's attempt to stone the attacking team at the blue line instead of allowing dump-ins or carry-ins and turn the play around as quickly as possible. It's not a slow blue line, even if it doesn't have any game-breakers. It's just not fleet-footed. The Hawks could certainly do this more often with how mobile their defensive corps can be (especially if they sent Brodie to a farm upstate).
The Flames can get in trouble when the puck is put behind their defense, as they're just not all that good at retrieving and escaping. You saw that when the Hawks nearly stormed back on them right before Christmas.
Keeping the Flames in it has been Dustin Wolf, who has a .916 and a very respectable saves over expected mark. Dan Vladar hasn't been nearly as good, which explains why he accounts for over half the Flames losses. Wolf might still be too young to be given a heavy workload, and teams really try to not do that anymore with any goalie much less a rookie. It depends on what the aims are for the Flames this year. If they do want to make a serious run at the playoffs, they may have to ride Wolf pretty damn hard and see if he can hold up.
Though the Hawks aren't a great forechecking team, even though they play like they think they are, they can get pucks deep tonight and wait for mistakes and turnovers. The Flames defense wants teams to try and carry it against them, as they're pretty skilled at breaking it up and turning around right then and there. That's where the Hawks could get in trouble.
