The Quick And The Dead, We're Now In The Hiding Phase

Back in the country and somewhat settled in. Quick programming note, and I don't want to make a whole thing of this, but all my social media for public consumption will be at BlueSky. Still the same tag, @felsgate. So there you go. Let's hop to it!

Sector 1901 - The Quick And The Dead

Rewatched the Wild game from Sunday, and we'll do some bullets about it as usual. But the overriding feel from watching it, and catching a good portion of the Wings game from the airport, is that against two teams that aren't Cup contenders, the Hawks still look so slow. Yeah, I know the Wild's start suggests they could be Cup contenders, but this is still the Wild we're talking about. They're coached by John Hynes, for fuck's sake.

The Wild especially were happy to ring the puck around in the offensive zone, both on dump-ins and during cycles, because they were positive that weakside Hawks winger would just not beat whoever they needed to to the puck. They would consistently win that race. Same goes for the Wild defensive zone, where the Wild were happy to ring the puck around to the weakside, and the Wild were confident their weakside winger would beat the Hawks third forward or a pinching d-man to the puck. It's how you end up with that third period.

Still, the Hawks did put forth a good 40 minutes, even if it was a tad uneventful. But being able to barely survive a drowning in the 3rd period to then get to the coin-flip that is overtime and then acting smug about it, that feels more like the "moral victory" that they keep screaming they don't care about than the losses where they've put together a good 60 minutes and their lack of talent keeps them from one or two points. But hey, I'm just some dope.

Anywho...

The Wild are one of many teams that when they have to turn up the volume on the Hawks, the Hawks are going to struggle to keep them from peppering whatever goalie is in net that night. And it's the fucking Wild! But that doesn't mean the Hawks didn't get too passive for the last stanza, when a one-goal lead isn't something you can sit on for a whole 20 minutes. Maybe Luke Richardson just doesn't view this roster as one where he can do anything else other than hang on. But that begs the question of when are the Hawks going to play the style that they're going to play when they're serious again no matter the results? Or is this it? For example (and I apologize for the graphics on the screen, as I haven't figured out how to screenshot off of Fubo without it):

The Hawks have equal numbers here, fighting for the puck in the corner. This is early in the 3rd when the Hawks should still be playing as if the game is tied. You can't see the d-men in the shot, but they would have needed a really wide shot to find them because...

They're still not in the shot two seconds later. They're not pinning the Wild deep, they're worried about anyone getting behind them. Which is too cautious this early in the period and for a team that can't wait to tell us who mobile their blue line is.

Another example, and this is right before Minnesota's tying goal:

The Wild turn it over in the Hawks zone, Anderson makes a good pass to Teravainen and Vlasic joins the rush to get a 3-on-2. Instead of staying wide to maybe set up a 2-on-1, or really driving to try and split the two Minny defenders, Teuvo just kind of wanders to the center dot, doesn't even allow Anderson to drive the center lane to open things up, and then dumps the puck into the corner and Vlasic has to peel off. Sure, when protecting a 3rd period lead a team wants to pick its spots, but this is a spot! This is a chance to get a second goal and get a regulation win. Teuvo has his issues this season and maybe this was just his call. But the way the Hawks have played in most 3rd periods, this feels like a team-wide affliction.

Bedard is starting to worry a just a few people of late. We'll do a deep dive on him tomorrow, but he is going to have to make one adjustment. Before the season, Bedard talked openly of trying to get to the middle of the ice with the puck entering the offensive zone more often, and in fact as often as possible. It's a good strategy as it does open things up for the most part. One problem when you make that a tentpole of your game though:

The first image is at even-strength, and when Bedard was confronted with this double-team in the middle he weakly dumped the puck past it but not past the d-man behind it, which turned the puck up the ice quickly and led to a doofus Foligno shift in the d-zone that ended with a Foligno penalty. The second in on a Hawks power play where they could have extended the lead, and similar results. This doesn't mean that Bedard should now ignore getting to the middle, but he'll need to clock that's where teams are expecting him to go.

Not the best night for The Boy King, as he went wild man for the Wild goal (KAROOOOOGA!):

You can understand the thinking, as Bedard maybe thinks he can blitz Kaprizov covering an unfamiliar point spot and cause a turnover, and that it's best to maybe not give the Wild's best player time. But it would be better for Bedard to hold his ground here, front Kaprizov and see if he can beat Mrazek from 70 feet or whatever this is instead of opening up the entire middle of the defense which Kaprizov is going to find. Bedard just lets Boldy mosey to the slot here. Sure, Kurashev could just leave Bogosian alone at the point to cover the middle, because we know Bogosian isn't going to do anything. But Bedard put him in a spot to make a choice when he didn't have to. Don't open alleys for Kaprizov.

Reichel has worked himself onto the first power play unit, and I'm not sure why. He's not a great chance creator, nor finisher, nor good a puck-retrieval, nor playing the role of Annette Frontpresence. The one thing he would be useful for is getting into the zone with speed, but Taylor Hall does that and can do some of the other stuff, too.

Matt Boldy, 12th overall pick, played two years at a major college program. Played a month at the AHL level in his first pro season, has been up ever since. I bring this up for no reason at all.

During the second period Foligno attempted a spinorama and I nearly choked on my omelet.

Cool, that's enough for now. We'll study Bedard a little harder tomorrow.

Sons of Lemuel - Even A Week Off Isn't A Week Off

Before I left for my trip to the Old Empire, I rejoiced at the thought of not having to watch the Bears for a week. Which is stunning, because their bye week was only three weeks ago. When that arrived, I was actually disappointed to not have the Bears to watch, which is how most of us were feeling as they headed into the break off three straight wins, two of which were in dominant fashion.

We've watched Bears seasons fall apart before, too many times to count. But do you remember one doing so in such quick fashion? The 2011 campaign where Jay Cutler broke his thumb with them at 7-2 and they didn't bother to win another game comes to mind, but at least that had a mitigating circumstance. Come to think of it, most of that came with a guy named Caleb at quarterback. Hmmm...

I could only check the score on Sunday, during some free time from dinner with friends and such. But even that was enough to send me into a rage that I had to swallow down so as not to have to explain to my oblivious companions. I'm lucky I didn't pop a blood vessel in my eye.

This might be the biggest mess in recent Bears history, and I know the enormity of that statement. I feel like I say "...and I know the enormity of that statement" or similar a lot this season about the Bears, which is a testament to both how big of a cock-up 2024 has been and the mountain of shit the Bears have constructed during our lifetimes.

When the defense rebelled against Marc Trestman, as least they were showing loyalty, though perhaps overheated and misplaced, to Lovie Smith, who consistently had them a upper-level unit. They'd been to a Super Bowl and an NFC Championship game. And with the way the Bears structured that whole thing, they essentially put the players in charge.

This time, this is a roster full of young players who have known nothing else, or players from teams where they didn't have it much better, and yet they're openly calling for firings in the press. Who really has pedigree on this team? But they do want to win, and they know enough to know that this staff isn't going to provide that. Maybe they can take their cues from Kevin Byard and T.J. Edwards or D.J. Moore. They might not come from legacy set-ups elsewhere but at least know what competence looks like. You don't even need that to know this isn't competence.

Of course, as is Bears GM tradition, Ryan Poles is now nowhere to be found. Perhaps because the tide has turned against him for not firing this dope after last season when he should have. Kevin Warren can't be found either, because if he was the throbbing brain he definitely wants everyone to think he is, he would have made Poles fire Eberflus last January or launched both of them. But then, Warren is still back to formula on his main task, which is getting a new stadium. Never doubt the Bears ability to find an exec who runs for the bunker when things get tough.

Sure, they fired Shane Waldron, but there's no expectation things will get much better. They need to take a good portion of things out of Caleb Williams's hands. They thought he was capable of taking on the full responsibilities of a NFL offense, and maybe he would have been under the right coaches. But this isn't really a NFL offense, and the Bears didn't show him the right way. And now he's seeing ghosts, as all Bears QBs eventually do.

They'll start over again in January, but this is the Bears, so Trace Armstrong will make the hires, and we'll do all of this again in November '25.