2013-14 NHL thread

[Galway Eagle]

Way to shove it down STL's throat in the end! We may not have had the most dominant regular season but we are still THE power in the west

[ChicosBailBonds]

Way to shove it down STL's throat in the end! We may not have had the most dominant regular season but we are still THE power in the west

Uhm, let's see how the next few weeks go.  St. Louis came into the series playing awful hockey.  They lost their last 6 regular season games and 7 of 9.  Total collapse.

Chicago is very good, but so are a lot of teams out west, especially if they are healthy.  Lots of hockey left.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Uhm, let's see how the next few weeks go.  St. Louis came into the series playing awful hockey.  They lost their last 6 regular season games and 7 of 9.  Total collapse.

Chicago is very good, but so are a lot of teams out west, especially if they are healthy.  Lots of hockey left.

Name one team with a more talented roster.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Name one team with a more talented roster.

I think they have a ton of talent, they have holes just like anyone. Comes down to hot goalie, how healthy, etc.  Right now, Ducks (my Ducks) massive injuries all in the last 6 games...really sucks, but that's the way it goes.  I like San Jose's club, Colorado is explosive....Kings normally have a great defense and that finally showed up last night.

I'm merely saying the Blues didn't exactly come in hot, they were horrible the last 3 weeks of the season. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

That was fun

[Jay Bee]

Hoping the Wild can still... pull it out.

Really rough game to lose last night. Back home tomorrow.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Hoping the Wild can still... pull it out.

Really rough game to lose last night. Back home tomorrow.

Yeah, that was a big one. I saw you guys were winning 3-2 and thought you had it.

Tonight, Ducks losing 4-2 with 2:30 left.  Pull the goalie and score twice in 2 minutes, including one with about 30 seconds left.  Then in OT they hit the post, we come down a minute later and score.  Game of inches.

[RushmoreAcademy]

Hawks had a rough time with Colorado during the regular season.  Should be an interesting second round match up if the Avs get by the Wild.

[Galway Eagle]

Uhm, let's see how the next few weeks go.  St. Louis came into the series playing awful hockey.  They lost their last 6 regular season games and 7 of 9.  Total collapse.

Chicago is very good, but so are a lot of teams out west, especially if they are healthy.  Lots of hockey left.

I'm in complete agreement with you about St. Louis they choked away that 1 seed.  But the fact is the Hawks are THE team in the west.  Gimme any team in the nhl that's done better in 6 years than them the only team on that level is the bruins.  

But I'm not exactly signing them to a cup but I do feel good about a conference finals appearance after seeing the wild Avs series.

[LloydMooresLegs]

I think they have a ton of talent, they have holes just like anyone. Comes down to hot goalie, how healthy, etc. 
I'm merely saying the Blues didn't exactly come in hot, they were horrible the last 3 weeks of the season. 

Agreed on the Blues late season collapse, the role of injuries and that getting through the rest of the West will be a real challenge.  Disagree on the Hawks having "holes."  Really a well-balanced and deep team.  They can play puck control; have enough size (Bickel, Seabrook, Bollig) and feistiness (Shaw, Toews) to counter efforts to take them out of their puck-control, highly skilled game; maybe the best defensemen depth in the league; two of the top two-way forwards in the league (Toews and Hossa).  Plus a very good goaltender.  No holes.  (And I didn't mention Kane or Sharp--ther, now I did).

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Agreed on the Blues late season collapse, the role of injuries and that getting through the rest of the West will be a real challenge.  Disagree on the Hawks having "holes."  Really a well-balanced and deep team.  They can play puck control; have enough size (Bickel, Seabrook, Bollig) and feistiness (Shaw, Toews) to counter efforts to take them out of their puck-control, highly skilled game; maybe the best defensemen depth in the league; two of the top two-way forwards in the league (Toews and Hossa).  Plus a very good goaltender.  No holes.  (And I didn't mention Kane or Sharp--ther, now I did).

Meh, I wouldnt lose any sleep of Q happened to bench Bollig for Morrin the rest of the playoffs.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Agreed on the Blues late season collapse, the role of injuries and that getting through the rest of the West will be a real challenge.  Disagree on the Hawks having "holes."  Really a well-balanced and deep team.  They can play puck control; have enough size (Bickel, Seabrook, Bollig) and feistiness (Shaw, Toews) to counter efforts to take them out of their puck-control, highly skilled game; maybe the best defensemen depth in the league; two of the top two-way forwards in the league (Toews and Hossa).  Plus a very good goaltender.  No holes.  (And I didn't mention Kane or Sharp--ther, now I did).

Every team has holes, it is to what degree.

[🏀]

Blackhawks biggest obstacle will be their penalties.

The STL series will be the most difficult series for them until the Cup.

[LloydMooresLegs]

Every team has holes, it is to what degree.

.  What holes?


And on the Bollig comment- agreed, until he is needed

[MDMU04]

.  What holes?

The Blackhawks biggest problem going forward through these playoffs is the limited ice time that Q is willing to give his 4th line. You can (and should) lean heavily on your top 6 during the playoffs, but as the high intensity minutes pile up it becomes important to be able to roll out 4 lines with some reliability.

The parade to the penalty box must also stop. The suspect penalty kill was a revelation in this series, and was likely the deciding factor. But you simply cannot allow another period like the second in game six to happen without consequences.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

The Blackhawks biggest problem going forward through these playoffs is the limited ice time that Q is willing to give his 4th line. You can (and should) lean heavily on your top 6 during the playoffs, but as the high intensity minutes pile up it becomes important to be able to roll out 4 lines with some reliability.

The parade to the penalty box must also stop. The suspect penalty kill was a revelation in this series, and was likely the deciding factor. But you simply cannot allow another period like the second in game six to happen without consequences.

Depth is a non issue. Versteeg will be back in the lineup after being sent a message and HOPEFULLY, Morrin ore Regin will take the place of Bollig next series because the Avs and Wild are no where near as physical as the Blues.

[ChicosBailBonds]

.  What holes?


And on the Bollig comment- agreed, until he is needed

Perhaps weaknesses is a better word.  If a team didn't have any holes, they would win every game.   I would say at times it is Handzus, Kruger, Bollig.  Handzus had 6 points in his last 36 games, as an example.  Crawford will be interesting to watch since he only played about 2/3 of the schedule this year. 

Trust me, I'm not ripping on them.  They are the champs and a very good team, I just don't believe any team is without chinks in the armor...everyone has them.

[MDMU04]

Depth is a non issue. Versteeg will be back in the lineup after being sent a message and HOPEFULLY, Morrin ore Regin will take the place of Bollig next series because the Avs and Wild are no where near as physical as the Blues.

If your 4th liners are playing 5 minutes or less per game in the opening round of the playoffs, depth is an issue. It's a small one, but it exists.  It probably existed by necessity since the Hawks found themselves in an early series hole and were without one of their top 4 D. Not an ideal place to roll your bottom six out on the ice with regularity. It could change next series but is something to keep an eye on.

Versteeg played his way to the press box and has not been the same player he was in his first stint with the team. In his defense, the Blues style of play does not suit what he does well since they force play to the outside and deploy a heavy forecheck. They take away all of the space that he loves to do whatever he tries to do with it, and winning board battles has never been his strength.

Versteeg's game may hold up better in the next round as there will probably be more room to operate and the pace of play will be much faster. But I'm not counting on it.

And as far as Morin goes, I agree with you that he should see some time on the ice. But there was a reason why Nordstrom was called up to play yesterday and Morin wasn't. I just don't know what it can be other than that Q doesn't feel comfortable with him in the lineup right now.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Perhaps weaknesses is a better word.  If a team didn't have any holes, they would win every game.   I would say at times it is Handzus, Kruger, Bollig.  Handzus had 6 points in his last 36 games, as an example.  Crawford will be interesting to watch since he only played about 2/3 of the schedule this year. 

Trust me, I'm not ripping on them.  They are the champs and a very good team, I just don't believe any team is without chinks in the armor...everyone has them.

Bollig I absolutely agree with you but that because Q is stubborn and refuses to bench him. Absolutely love what Kruger brings to the Hawks, one of my favorite players and extremely underrated.

[MDMU04]

Perhaps weaknesses is a better word.  If a team didn't have any holes, they would win every game.   I would say at times it is Handzus, Kruger, Bollig.  Handzus had 6 points in his last 36 games, as an example.  Crawford will be interesting to watch since he only played about 2/3 of the schedule this year. 

Trust me, I'm not ripping on them.  They are the champs and a very good team, I just don't believe any team is without chinks in the armor...everyone has them.

Ideally, the Hawks lines would look something like this:

Bickell - Toews - Hossa/Kane
Sharp - Smith - Kane/Hossa
Saad - Kruger - Shaw
Morin - Regin - Versteeg

The problem is that Handzus is extremely valuable on the most important special teams unit in the playoffs so he has to be in the lineup. He is so slow that you can't play him on the top two lines and cannot hold up with the minutes needed to play on the 3rd line. So you stash him on the 4th line and absorb the minutes elsewhere.

Zus is not counted on to score, and the Hawks don't need him to. They were leading the NHL in goals for most of the season until 19 & 88 went down. Kruger centers the checking line and is another asset on the PK. I have no idea what Bollig brings to the table, but Q loves him and I trust him to use the players he has better than me.

[Sheriff]

Every team has holes, it is to what degree.

Agreed.  However, at this point in the season, that weakness cannot be your netminder.  Crawford is a significant asset and his play is offsetting the penalty issues.

[barfolomew]

The Blackhawks biggest problem going forward through these playoffs is the limited ice time that Q is willing to give his 4th line. You can (and should) lean heavily on your top 6 during the playoffs, but as the high intensity minutes pile up it becomes important to be able to roll out 4 lines with some reliability.

The parade to the penalty box must also stop. The suspect penalty kill was a revelation in this series, and was likely the deciding factor. But you simply cannot allow another period like the second in game six to happen without consequences.

I disagree about the ice time for the 4th line.
Those guys need to be your PK or PP specialists. The time to roll 4 lines was the regular season -- something Q couldn't bring himself to do for some reason, especially the last few weeks before the playoffs.
Zus is the in the role John Madden held in 2010. Q loves him some veteran killers.

I'm just hoping for 7 games out of the Avs-Wild series. Triple OT would be fine, too.

[LloydMooresLegs]

Perhaps weaknesses is a better word.  If a team didn't have any holes, they would win every game.   I would say at times it is Handzus, Kruger, Bollig.  Handzus had 6 points in his last 36 games, as an example.  Crawford will be interesting to watch since he only played about 2/3 of the schedule this year. 

Trust me, I'm not ripping on them.  They are the champs and a very good team, I just don't believe any team is without chinks in the armor...everyone has them.

May have been a matter of terminolgy, then.  Of course they have weaknesses and/or eareas in which they could be better (every area, frankly).  Though I am surprised that you would look to how many points Handzus had in a given span, when his primary and quite important contribution is on the kill.  I know they are not a perfect team.  As you say, there is no such thing.

[MDMU04]

I disagree about the ice time for the 4th line.
Those guys need to be your PK or PP specialists. The time to roll 4 lines was the regular season --

I'm not arguing for the 4th line taking regular shifts throughout the game. They just need to be able to be reliably thrown out there to spell the top forwards and not get pinned in their own end or take penalties. At this point, Q has shown enough trust in his 4th line to throw them out there as a unit for as little as 2 minutes for the entire game. That's about three shifts.

4th liners are great to use to spell some of your top forwards when they may need some extra rest. So if you have forwards that don't typically kill penalties, you can throw them out for a shift or two after to spell your penalty killers.

Handzus is a PK specialist so you can't really put him out with Bollig or the other dressed 4th line wing to rest him. Kruger kills penalties too, so he can't center them either. And you're not going to break up your top two lines to skate Bollig and Nordstrom on Smith or Toews wing. So the only solution is keep throwing the regular lines out there and hope they're not too gassed to take another penalty or be a quarter step slow getting to a loose puck.

It might not make a difference every game. But it will eventually make a difference. Look at the minutes for the end of the roster in 2010 and 2013. Guys were still used sparingly, but even then they typically had around 10 minutes per game.

I also don't think too many teams stash away power play specialists on the 4th line.

[MUsoxfan]

San Jose should no longer be listed in the regular season standings since they're really good at turning invisible