You Gotta See Where You've Been To Know Where You're Going, Ruffin' It

You Gotta See Where You've Been To Know Where You're Going, Ruffin' It

We're wrapping up the Hawks first home win of the year, and then getting you set up for the home game on Saturday night, high and dry.

Sector 1901 - You Gotta See Where You Been To See Where You're Going

However we may think the Hawks are going about this stage of their rebuild or arc or progress, or whatever business-type buzzword the Hawks themselves might use, it's comforting to look at a team that's definitely farther back in theirs. There aren't that many of them, after all. The Sharks are definitely in the pits. Will Smith and eventually Macklin Celebrini will give the Bay Area faithful something to watch all season, but the rest of it looks like something you'd dig out of your ear. Let's wrap it up and move on...

  • There was a particular menace to Connor Bedard's skating last night. Not that he's been aimless, but sometimes you got the impression he was looking for spaces instead of creating them, holding back a half-step to try to make the right play, or waiting just a half-second too long. None of that against the Sharks. Sure, San Jose doesn't have anyone they can throw at him, and even if they did Luke Richardson would have had the ability to get Bedard away from that person. Cody Ceci and Jake Wallman on defense were the chosen victims on Thursday.

But that malice meant that everything Bedard did was pointed toward the other net, or intended to ripping up space in the Sharks' defensive coverage, or to get a Shark to make a wrong step. This looked like a player who knew he was the best player in the building, which he was. Instead of looking where he was going or what he wanted, Bedard played as if he knew what was next. He had the Sharks backing up all night, which only gave him more space to play with. With that malice comes swagger, which is how you get that no-look assist. Eat your heart out, Bobby Firmino (there's one guy who will get this).

  • A case in point, with about seven minutes gone in the second period, Bedard popped a ring-around in the Hawks zone from the right half-boards to the middle of the ice that landed right on Alex Vlasic's tape in the slot, which started the Hawks the other way. It's the kind of pass in the d-zone that would give most coaches the agita, but it's also the leeway you allow a player as skilled as Bedard to use his generational skills to do stuff to get you out of trouble that few can do. It resulted in two chances for Bedard at the other end on two separate rushes, though he didn't score. It's the kind of intent that will turn Bedard into a Hart candidate one day very soon.
  • It's also heartening to see him get to play with a teammate who thinks the game on his level and style, that being Teuvo Teravainen. Bedard's no-look to Teuvo and the ensuing one-time pass to Foligno for a power play goal is the kind of thing only players who see the game a certain way can produce. Teuvo might not have the career numbers associated with this kind of ethereal plane playmaking, but we all remember from his first stint here that Teuvo sees lanes that is only visible to the chosen few.
  • That's the Jan Rutta we remember:

How many different directions did he attempt to go there? Seven?

  • Once again, Nolan Allan should get a longer look. Even though he's been the extra d-man when everyone's healthy, Richardson sees enough here that when he does draw in to replace an injured Alec Martinez he's getting the dungeon shifts (33 percent offensive zone starts) with Connor Murphy. So is he a d-man who can't be trusted to be anything more than the #7? Or is the one who can take the defensive assignments? He always seems to make the right play. That's still what this season is about, right?
  • Let's get out of here by making fun of another Sharks d-man, and throw in Alex Wennberg while we're at it. Look at the effort here from Cody Ceci and Wennberg that allowed Jason Dickinson to back dat ass up into the crease and score:

It wasn't exactly a secret where Dickinson was going, and yet Wennberg simply waited for him? And that was after Joey Anderson completely horsed Ceci behind the net.

It's disappointing that no one seems to be taking responsibility for this balls-up, which if all of the Hawks organization will recall is the kind of thing that landed them in serious hot water previously. The buck has to stop somewhere with someone admitting they simply didn't calibrate how people consume television right now, how cable and streaming companies are shying away from RSNs, and how the RSN model is rotting from the head anyway. Once again faced with a problem that fans are upset about, the Hawks are pointing fingers instead of thumbs. And they can't blame the last guys in charge on this one, which apparently is their only play.

Anyway, that's that. Let's get Saturday night set up.

Buffalo Sabres Lineup

Peterka - Thompson - Tuch

Benson - Cozens - Quinn

Zucker - McLeod - Greenway

Malenstyn - Krebs - Lafferty

Dahlin - Jokiharju

Byram - Power

Samuelsson - Clifton

Luukkonen

What You Need To Know: We would sound pretty silly if we said we wished the Hawks were more like the Sabres, or at least more at the stage the Sabres are at in their rebuild. That takes time, of course. The Sabres roll into the UC with seven first-round picks in the lineup, and a couple of those are via trade, and the Hawks hope to do that, maybe as soon as next year when Korchinski, Nazar, Levshunov, maybe Moore join the big boy lineup.

It sounds silly because as far ahead as the Sabres might be in their arc, they haven't really done anything yet. This isn't a team that's been to the playoffs since before Oasis broke up the last time, and has only come close once, which was two years ago. That's taking longer than we'd like the Hawks' turnaround to take, though the Hawks are getting there anyway.

It would also help if the Sabres could pick a path. Two years ago, under Don Granato, they basically Smash TV'd their way to 91 points, scoring 296 goals but giving up 300. So last year, the Sabres focused on shaping up in their own zone and not being the fireworks factory every time they rolled into town. And it worked, as they gave up 56 less goals, but also scored 50 less too. It only resulted in 84 points, farther from the playoffs than they were the year previous. This was cutting off a nose to spite a face.

The Sabres responded by firing Granato and...re-hiring Lindy Ruff? That's not exactly committing to the defensive end of the ice, and Lindy is known for loosing every arrow in the quiver and whenever asked about anything about his own zone just laughing maniacally. So which do the Sabres want to do? Are they back to where they were two seasons ago?

It's been a wonky start, as the Sabres started the year by losing two games to Ruff's former team, the Devils, in Prague. They came home and paddled the Kings up and down the ice in their hope opener, but got goalie'd and Anze Kopitar rolled back the years for a hat trick. They smashed the defending champs at home, then blew multiple leads in Pittsburgh to lose in overtime. Last night they were getting turned over in Columbus. The metrics look great, but it feels like the Sabres are back to turning every game into a barbed-wire exploding deathmatch.

And yet one couldn't help but look at all this offensive talent and think, "Well, why wouldn't you just go whole hog and fire everything?" Tage Thompson is a unique weapon at 6-6 and able to stick-handle through and sliver of space. JJ Peterka is highly advanced at finding spaces to get off shots and chances. Dylan Cozens is a power-center. Zach Benson will fire from everywhere. Alex Tuch has been a pain in the ass for everyone for a long while now.

Supporting this is that the Sabres have two young D-men in Owen Power and Rasmus Dahlin that are some of the best at breaking a team out of the defensive zone and up the ice. Neither is shy about joining the rush either. This team is built be set to the soundtrack of "Jesus Built My Hotrod."

The problem is that Power and Dahlin haven't really shown an ability to stonewall teams at the Sabres' blue line or in the d-zone. They're some of the easiest defensemen to enter the zone against, and they get attacked relentlessly. Henri Jokiharju can't clean up Dahlin's messes. Bowen Bryam is still kind of an enigma (more on him in a bit).

But Lindy Ruff is here, and his solution will be to just not be in the defensive zone much. "Third man high" is a joke to the Sabres, so look for all three forecheckers to go hair-on-fire. The d-men will press up behind them, even beyond the opposing blue line. The Sabres want to squeeze, cause chaos, dance in the open spaces provided by all that. Whatever it might be, it's fun as hell.

Player To Watch - Bowen Byram

It feels like forever ago, and it was five years, when we were hoping the Hawks would take Byram with the pick that eventually was wasted on Kirby Dach. Thing is, Byram has only flashed being the better option briefly in the ensuing years, either because of health, wonky usage, or failure to grab what opportunities he did get in Colorado by the horns.

It seemed like Byram was in the sweetheart spot, a second pairing behind Cale Makar where he would get more than enough bum-slaying looks and be a second puck-driver for the Avs. It's never really happened, as Byram's metrics dragged behind the rest of the Avalanche. It's not that Byram was bad, it was just hard to identify what he was doing at anything more than an average level. Being in and out of the lineup constantly thanks to concussion problems and other injuries certainly didn't help him find a rhythm.

The Avs gave up, and decided their #2 center hole was more important to fix than their second pairing, and swapped out Byram for Casey Mittelstadt. And it hasn't really gotten any better. Byram has been straight up bad so far this season, with metrics underwater and way behind those of his teammates. Owen Power is a weird partner to have, as his expertise is passing out of the zone, but he is a creaky and rusted screen door when it comes to keeping teams out of it in the first place. Is Byram really built to be a free safety for a get-up-and-go-guy? So far it doesn't look like it.

But that's what the Sabres need, given that Jokiharju can't put out Dahlin's fires, and if Byram can't do the same for Power's, the Sabres are going to remain way too easy to create and score against.

Basically, we can't be trusted with draft picks. Shocking, we know.

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