Blackhawks Rejuvination

 

February 19, 2021

The Blackhawks started the season 0-4. They had given up 5 goals in each game. They were getting no offensive production. I was sure this was going to be a lost season and I was ready to place the blame on President Stan Bowman, who is the top decision maker. Lo and behold, the rebuild seems to be working. The Hawks are now on a roll. They are tied for first place and the prospects Bowman acquired are young and improving.

The biggest turn around has come on defense. They had 4 returning defensemen from last year. Connor Murphy, Calvin de Hann, and Duncan Keith who at age 37 is still pretty good. They brought up Adam Boqvist, who is only 20 years old. They have added Ian Mitchell (age 22), Nicholas Beudin (age 21) and Nikiita Zadarov (age 25). This group not only plays good defense, they are capable of skating the puck up the ice and getting involved in the offense. They also settled on rookie Kevin Lankinen as their goalie. He has been nothing short of spectacular. 

The season ending injury to Kirby Dach and the mysterious ailment of Jonathon Toews has put a cramp in the Blackhawks’ offense.  For this team to have continued success they have to score more. One positive is that they have one of the topped ranked power plays. Patrick Kane is still one of the best players in the NHL. After a down year Alex DeBrincat, has regained his scoring touch, leading the team in goals. Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik are also capable of adding some offense.  The Hawks do have a group of young offensive players, who are starting to play really well. They should get even better as the season moves along. Players you should get to know are Brandon Hagel (age 22), Philipp Kurashev (age 21) Pius Suter (age 24) and Lucas Wallmark (age 25).

As you see, I am stressing the youth movement. All these young players have the potential to be stars or at the least be very good players. The future looks bright and if all continues to go well, the Blackhawks will be playing in the playoffs again.

A Not So Super Bowl

 

·         February 8, 2020

The NFL deserves a lot of credit for navigating through the coronavirus pandemic. Although there were some hiccups along the way, all teams completed a 16 game season. I’m not a proponent of expanding the playoffs. However, it was fun to have the opportunity to watch 6 playoff games in two days. It’s too bad the season ended with a thud. It what was supposed to be the game for the ages, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pummeled the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9.

Tom Brady may be the greatest quarterback of all time. Last year Tampa Bay didn’t make the playoffs. Brady led them to the Super Bowl, ending the season with 8 consecutive victories. Brady was named the game’s MVP. I thought the award should have been gone to the defense. They held the league’s most prolific offense to three measly field goals.  Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes probably had the worst game of his career, running for his life most of the game.

The Chiefs made tons of mistakes helping the Bucs win handily. Even Andy Reed, considered one the best coaches, contributed to the Chiefs woes. With a little under two minutes left in the first half, the Chiefs kicked a field goal to close the gap. With the Bucs being satisfied to run the clock out, Reed was calling time outs. The intent was to get the ball back and try to score again before halftime.  Even if they forced a punt, their struggling offense would have gotten the ball deep in their own territory with 42 seconds and no time outs. He compounded this mistake calling time out on third down with the Bucs needing two yards for a first down, which Brady easily converted. The Bucs moved the ball to the one yard line after consecutive pass interference penalties. They easily scored, putting the game out of reach. The Chiefs’ offense is predicated on taking shots downfield. With Mahomes being chased all over the field not getting the time he needed. Reed should have switched to getting passes out quickly and running the ball more often.

Brady was pretty good when he had to be. However, he was not as good as the Chiefs defense was bad. The Chiefs were committing penalties left and right prolonging Buccaneer drives. Aside from a stupid 15 yard penalty after the play, it seems the Chiefs were committed to several holding penalties in the secondary for automatic first downs, one negating an interception. On a third and five they lined up off-sides giving the Bucs a first down. After downing a punt at the Bucs 30 yard line, a holding penalty forced the Chiefs to punt again. The punt was shanked and the Bucs got the ball at the Chiefs’ 40 yard line. 

The only reason to watch until the end was for the commercials. Though none of these will make next year’s best Super Bowl commercials special, I must admit I liked the Jimmy Johns ads with Brad Garrett of “Everybody Loves Raymond” fame.

One more thing… 

Baseball owners made a proposal to the players to play 154 games, starting the season April 28. This is in hopes of fans returning to the park creating revenue. The players rejected the proposal wanting to play a whole season with training in February. Great, exhibition games in virus hot spots Florida and Arizona. What are they thinking?