They Hold No Quarter

The Hawks didn't bother on Saturday, so we'll just do the three-quarter report.

There isn't much to glean from Saturday night's non-effort. The Hawks looked like a team that had Friday night off in Vegas, which is an interesting choice for a team making a big deal about its new set of leaders and a coach going rogue over instituting his personal "winning mentality."

I could talk about how Levshunov actually looked good in both ends, but not until they were down four goals and it didn't matter. I could point out that Louis Crevier cost the Hawks two goals, but they weren't bothering anyway. I could point out that it's another sub-25 shot effort, but those are piling up and you're used to it.

So let's do something else. It's a tad late, but the Hawks have passed the three-quarters stage, they're at the quarter pole, so let's do a status report.

The big story right now is that their coach has either gone rogue in chasing points that don't matter, or their GM and coach are in lockstep about chasing points that don't matter. Neither is encouraging. The Athletic had a story about why Andrew Mangiapane is getting more minutes than Nick Lardis, which has too many bullheaded quotes from Blashill to feel comfortable.

“The majority of the players, if not all the players in the room, are going to be with us next season and beyond...What we’re trying to do is build our individual game and our team game so we can grow during these 18 games. And I talked to these guys about this after the trade deadline, how important and meaningful these games are for us to grow. For that, it doesn’t matter what the age says on their birth certificates. All those guys are important, (and) that we continue to grow them.”

No, no, no. Andrew Mangiapane's game does not matter as much as Nick Lardis's right now, even if Mangiapane's is actually a better NHL game in the long run. Look, as I've said a few times, I don't know that Nick Lardis is going to be a NHL contributor. What I do know is that it's worth investigating, especially for a team that couldn't score at a Lincoln Park bar with an espresso martini machine and a 10lb bag of coke. And yet he's being drilled as a 4th liner, which he's even less equipped to be than a top-sixer. This is when try to find out. In fact, they've largely wasted the window to find out, because we know the back half of March and especially April are basically meaningless.

“We want to develop (young) guys, and some of that is opportunity. But you’ve got to remember, in my opinion, we’re developing a lot of players on our team. I would put at the foremost of that the guys at the top of the lineup. We’re developing Connor Bedard, developing Frank Nazar into learning how to play that type of winning hockey that you have to play. In order to do that, you have to be competitive in the games you’re in and learn how to win those games. That’s why we’re putting guys in spots where we think they can be the most successful. I don’t know who we would put in (Mangiapane’s) spot necessarily, but I think it’s important we develop Mango into helping us win games, because we would love to not have to go through this learning process at the beginning of the year. We’d like to do it now.”

Doing a great job developing Nazar, dingus.

Just being competitive in these games for the sake of being competitive doesn't tell you anything. It's not developing anything. Being competitive in these games with kids that will be part of this in the future is what's meaningful. Or not being competitive is too, because then you know that they're not up to the task. You have to find out. Leaning on the Mangiapanes and Grzelycks of the world doesn't give you the right data.

More worrying than all of that is this is a coach who has the Hawks now, officially, playing sufferpuck to try and accumulate points that won't matter. If it's not a straight-out trap, it's certainly in the neighborhood. Do you know when this team last had 30 shots in a game? January 22nd. They've had 30+ shots in just three games in 2026.

They don't get out on the rush. They don't cause turnovers in the offensive zone. They play just to restrict odd-man rushes against. It's horrible to watch, and it's not going to win any team anything that matters. It's built to get limited teams points that disappear into the ether as soon as they're over. This is how you max out as a first-round exit three years in the future. Valhalla, here we come.

So is this what Kyle Davidson wants? Is this what he hired Blashill for? Is this how he saw his roster being developed? This is exactly what happened in Detroit that got Blashill fired there. And the Wings still haven't really extricated themselves from it. So either the coach has gone rogue against the GM's plans, or the entire organization's plan is fixated on things that don't matter. Or there is no plan.

Let's pivot a bit. On the surface, the Hawks have already matched last season's point total. They're two away from last season's regulation wins total, and with 16 games left, they'll likely move past that, too. So to anyone just giving it a once-over, that's going to look like progress. Maybe it is progress. Maybe I'm the one who's being obtuse.

And yet the underlyings don't match. Their xGA from last year to this one is almost exactly the same (2.79 from 2.82). The offense is slightly better (2.22 vs. 2.07). They give up a skosh less scoring chances (29.9 last season to 28.6). They generate the same fraction of scoring chances more. The 10 to 15-point improvement that's apparently on its way is not backed up by the numbers. It's basically a Knight and Bedard hot streak when the leaves were changing.

Since Halloween, they're 20-26-9. That's a 73-point pace. Whatever rate they're ahead of that is due to an October where they shot 13 percent. In that context, this isn't a team that's moving forward. Not at an acceptable rate, at least.

But they'll be able to sell that they are. And most everyone will buy it. The surface numbers say so. And when it flattens out next year, it'll just be due to the new leadership set in the dressing room or some other such shit. But hey, that'll sell the tickets.