Here Come the Hawks

October 17, 2019

The Chicago Blackhawks opened their season with the same advertising slogan they have used in the past few years. “One Goal” was a reference to winning the Stanley Cup. This season the Hawks one goal should be to make the post season. This won’t be easy considering they play in the same division as the Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues.

The Hawks offense returns mostly intact from last year. Hall-of-Famers Patrick Kane and Jonathon Toews are still in their prime. Youngsters Alex Debrincat and Dylan Strome ae budding stars who can score goals. Andrew Shaw returns to round out the second line and there are a myriad of options to be the third winger with Kane and Debrincat. In a perfect world, it would be nice to see first round draft pick, 18-year old Kirby Dach, be that person.

The most pleasant surprise of the young season is the play of the third line. Brandon Saad, David Kampf and newcomer Dominik Kabalik have had many scoring chances and have scored some goals. More important is that they are excellent forecheckers and they also take pressure off the defense with puck possession. Led by Saad, they move the puck into the offensive zone which is a better scheme than the dump and run.

Last year’s defense was one of the worst in the NHL. Hawks General Manager Stan Bowman made some trades to correct this problem. The first defensive pairing is the Hawks best defenseman, Connor Murphy with their worst defenseman, Eric Gustafson. However, Gustafson can move the puck up ice and is an integral part of the power play. He has to improve his defense.  Former Carolina Panthers 28-year old veteran Calvin de Haan is paired with Duncan Keith. While Keith may not be the player he was two years ago, he’s still pretty good. He is still able to move the puck out of the Hawks zone.The third unit has former Pittsburgh Penguin, 22-year old Olli Maatta, with Walter Brennan a.k.a. Brent Seabrook. Seabrook is no better than a seventh defenseman or a healthy scratch. He has been an albatross for the last three years. I don’t understand why he hasn’t been replaced by top prospect Adam Boqvist.  The Hawks also added Vezina Cup finalist, goalie Robin Lehner. With Corey Crawford, this could be the best goalie tandem in hockey.

 The Hawks lost their first game in Prague, 4-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers.  They came home and traded goals with the San Jose Sharks. Unfortunately, the Sharks got the last goal to beat the Hawks, 5-4. Therefore, the improved defense let in 9 goals in two games. Problems resurfaced from early last season: horrendous penalty killing, losing puck possession time and not being able to clear the puck out of their zone. The next game, with Lehner in goal, the Hawks blew a 2-0 lead and lost in overtime 3-2. In what was reminiscent of the playoff run last year, the Hawks beat the high scoring Edmonton Oilers 3-1. The Oilers got their lone goal on a 6-on 4 power play with less than two minutes to play. This was one of the best games I’ve seen in years. The Hawks have now given up only 3 goals in the last 6 periods. This is a formula for success.