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What I learned on my Florida vacation

March 28, 2017, 1:06 PM ET [168 Comments]
John Jaeckel
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT




Unfortunately, I didn't get a vacation. But the Hawks did, if you can call getting one point in two games and outscored 11-4 a "vacation."

I'm just one observer, but I saw a couple of issues that led to this mini-swoon. The first is, the Hawks, as a team, look tired.

Road trips late in the season can be like that, and the Hawks are coming off a long stretch of regular hockey, not to mention still playing "chemistry set" with the likes of Tomas Jurco and John Hayden.

Another factor is that the Hawks, with all the new faces, played structurally poor hockey on this trip, with the exception of the first periods, and really struggled to generate transition out of their end and up the ice.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper was smart enough to see that last night and unleashed the hounds, jumping all the Hawks' cute horizontal puck movement around their blue line and the neutral zone, creating turnovers and scoring chances. Jonathan Drouin and a handful of Lightning players quite literally skated circles around the Hawk defense for much of the second period.

And even in the third period, where the intrepid CSN broadcast team kept trumpeting a shot disparity that tilted toward the Hawks, it clearly appeared the Hawks were playing for OT.

So as far as fatigue goes, I wouldn't worry too much about it. The Hawks, with the exception of Artem Anisimov, seem fairly healthy and ready—as much as any other team.

As far as the new faces, sloppiness and necessary fine-tuning to the Hawks' structure, gaps, and transition, Joel Quenneville needs to get the right players on the ice and lock the technique down. Soon.

Because you can pretty much guarantee the Penguins, who have the horses to pull it off, will pursue the same strategy the Lighting and the Panthers did, with similar results. The Hawks have surged into first place and likely home ice through the playoffs, but you don't want to go all "Minnesota Wild" psychologically at this critical stage of the regular season and back into the playoffs while playing poorly overall.

The "they'll be fine" mantra may reassure some, but the schizoid nature of this team all season long indicates that's something you can't necessarily count on when the competition gets tougher in 3 weeks or so.

Hopefully Q will give Ryan Hartman a reprieve from the doghouse soon—the Hawks can use his energy right now.

I'll have a Pens preview tomorrow.



JJ
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