Follow @jaeckel


It’s almost become laughably predictable.

When the Hawks lose, it must be because that troglodyte Quennevile can’t see how amazing Teuvo Teravainen is and scratched him. Then when the Hawks lose and Teravainen is in the lineup, it’s because “Bickell and Versteeg” are terrible.

And if Dan Carcillo is in the lineup on the rare occasion, God Help You, Q.

The truth is, it doesn’t matter. None of these guys are the problem because all of these guys are the problem.

The Hawks lost again last night, 4-1 to Philadelphia, a team that the Great Chicago Blackhawks should be able to beat. Carcillo and Andrew Desjardins played and Bickell and Teravainen didn’t.

And the hue and cry on Twitter and the blogs, from a lot of people who haven’t played much hockey, much less coached it, is ear splitting. To 11.

“Quenneville only got those 750 wins because he got to coach a buncha great Hawk teams.”

As though some tattooed wannabe supporting a bar stool in Wrigleyville could’ve done the same. Good Lord.

Carcillo got in a meaningless fight. Operative term: meaningless, one way or the other. Apparently, though, the fight started because Carcillo may have embellished a high-sticking call that led to the lone Hawk goal. Hmmm.

But that’s conjecture (sort of). These are facts:

The Hawks outshot their opponent (35-33) last night for the first time in quite a while.

They gave the puck away 8 times. 2 by Desjardins, none by Carcillo.

The other night in Carolina, they gave the puck away 12 times. One of those by Teravainen. 2 by Bickell.

Teravainen, by the way, in terms of the ratio of giveaways to takeaways, is the worst of the Hawk forwards, followed by Brad Richards, the only two Hawk forwards who are underwater in that puck possession statistic.

So if you want to scream about coughing the puck up in your end last night, you can’t really blame that on Q’s lineup shuffle.

The truth is, the Hawks put a fair amount of quality chances on Steve Mason last night and he made some big saves. Tip your cap, recognize that you’re at the end of a pretty long road trip playing back to back, and move on.

The truth is, without Patrick Kane, the Hawks are a one line team, pretty much Jonathan Toews and whoever he’s playing with. Oh, and they have a fourth line that generates chances, thanks largely to Marcus Kruger, who far too many fans are ready to jettison this summer in favor of some Ice Hog FanBoy Favorite Du Jour.

The problem remains that in the absence of Kane, Quenneville needs to find the right combination of (properly motivated) wings to play with his de facto second and third line centers, Richards and Antoine Vermette.

Hasn’t happened yet.

Anyone having a huge problem sitting Bickell in favor Carcillo or Desjardins or a re-animated Moose Vasko right now is missing the point. Quite frankly, maybe seeing Dan Carcillo in the lineup instead of himself is just the kick in the pants Bickell needs to get it going.

You want Teravainen and his 7 points in 25 games in there? OK, I’m game. His skill and craftiness is undeniable, but he will need to be with linemates who can create space for him and/or finish. Because he can’t do those things (very much) right now for himself.

Maybe another answer is to sit (or demote) Richards (3 for 12 in the dot last night) and let Kruger play with Hossa and Sharp for example, while Toews gets Saad and Teravainen going.

I don’t have all the answers. But I’m not a likely Hall of Fame hockey coach. And he seems to be struggling to find the right rearrangement of the deck chairs he has right now.

All for now,


JJ

Join the Discussion: » 357 Comments » Post New Comment

» Thanks and Farewell

» Where do we go from here?

» Preds at Hawks Breakdown

» "All Teams Have Flaws"

» The Games You Should Win