John Jaeckel: Grading Stanley

I love LA.. LOL Wait to hear that about 3 or 4 times tomorrow night..

GREAT blog, JJ. A fantastic read as always, and you really hit the nail on the head--I couldn't agree with you more.

I won't tag along with Edzo because the whole body of Crawford's work has to be taken into account. In regulation he wasn't much worse than Smith, actually in Game 1 I thought he outplayed Smith but....

This is a point that I pound away at, and JJ has chimed in on in the past.

When the going gets tough and the games are tightly checked where is the Hawks scoring?

When Q. had them tighten it up when Toews was hurt late in the season the defense improved but....

From Feb.1 on the Hawks only scored an avg of 2 goals per game in regulation.
In the playoffs once again 12 goals in sx games.

So either Crawford needed to be Glenn Hall like in the playoffs, or the system of play employed had to generate more scoring.

From today:
On the Blackhawks - "Optimistically Speaking" - http://bit.ly/WMAGsa on Fox Chicago

On Twitter@AlCimaglia

A GM's job is to improve the team and put it in the best possible position to win every year. Stan Bowman simply has failed at doing that. His over all grade is an "F". He took over a Stanley Cup winner and yes he was forced to tear it down but since then he has been simply miserable at his job. Not one move since 2010 has improved this team in the slightest bit. In my book, he gets a D. I hold off on an "F" becasue that would mean he is as bad as Jay Feaster or Bob Pulford and its hard to be that incompetent.

Really all you can do is laugh at this. It is kind of hilarious to me that that is how they handle their PR. Behaving in such a manner doesn't instill any confidence it just causes people to not take you seriously and eventually future messages: true / half-true / untrue are all tuned out.

Could present a problem 2 years down the line if certain players aren't retained, walk for zip or are traded away in desperation.

I am reminded of: You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: "We gotta play it one day at a time."

A GM's job is to improve the team and put it in the best possible position to win every year. Stan Bowman simply has failed at doing that. His over all grade is an "F". He took over a Stanley Cup winner and yes he was forced to tear it down but since then he has been simply miserable at his job. Not one move since 2010 has improved this team in the slightest bit. In my book, he gets a D. I hold off on an "F" becasue that would mean he is as bad as Jay Feaster or Bob Pulford and its hard to be that incompetent.
- furso27

Impossible!
But StanBo has proved us otherwise. As a GM what it all comes down to is icing the best possible team, and the 'Hawks haven't come close to doing so with him at the helm. For all the hype that the front office has with these prospects, they should be able to trade them for a 2C or net upgrade because surely one of the 29 other teams in the league find them appealing as well. Right? Right???

John Jaeckel: Grading Stanley
- John Jaeckel

Very passionate and well written blog JJ! Every point is extremely accurate. My question for you is this, why not give Pirri a shot? And why is rocky not taking care of the nonsense that is plaguing this organization?

A GM's job is to improve the team and put it in the best possible position to win every year. Stan Bowman simply has failed at doing that. His over all grade is an "F". He took over a Stanley Cup winner and yes he was forced to tear it down but since then he has been simply miserable at his job. Not one move since 2010 has improved this team in the slightest bit. In my book, he gets a D. I hold off on an "F" becasue that would mean he is as bad as Jay Feaster or Bob Pulford and its hard to be that incompetent.
- furso27

Regardless of tearing down or building up, if there is any truth to other teams not wanting to deal with the Hawks... At all... That presents a massive problem.

Great blog JJ!


Status quo should not be accepted, but with this club, I think its more a culture based on arrogance then anything. Even reading the sun times today and reading that Rocky said"we shouldn't have to apologize to the fans" is a joke. (And how many times have we heard that "250 people have been added to our season ticket list?!?") The frustrating part is Rocky is the head of the organization and he allows "McCub" to meddle in hockey affairs when he has no business doing so. If this continues to be allowed, we will be wishing and waiting for another cup for quite sometime!

Regardless of tearing down or building up, if there is any truth to other teams not wanting to deal with the Hawks... At all... That presents a massive problem.
- fattybeef

I totally agree. It doesn't help that he whines about every five minutes, either.

Regardless of tearing down or building up, if there is any truth to other teams not wanting to deal with the Hawks... At all... That presents a massive problem.
- fattybeef

This!!!

One Goal my ass!How is it perceived by the players I wonder?Every year management of late has cap space left over.Please........Is this what Rocky calls going for it.Lets tell our players we want to win,and then do nothing to help them.That will get it done,after all the fans buy it.

I won't tag along with Edzo because the whole body of Crawford's work has to be taken into account. In regulation he wasn't much worse than Smith, actually in Game 1 I thought he outplayed Smith but....

This is a point that I pound away at, and JJ has chimed in on in the past.

When the going gets tough and the games are tightly checked where is the Hawks scoring?

When Q. had them tighten it up when Toews was hurt late in the season the defense improved but....

From Feb.1 on the Hawks only scored an avg of 2 goals per game in regulation.
In the playoffs once again 12 goals in sx games.

So either Crawford needed to be Glenn Hall like in the playoffs, or the system of play employed had to generate more scoring.

From today:
On the Blackhawks - "Optimistically Speaking" - http://bit.ly/WMAGsa on Fox Chicago

On Twitter@AlCimaglia
- Al

While I don't think Crawford is a guy you can win the Cup with, and no doubt Smith is a lot better goalie, I didn't think he played a huge role in Phoenix winning the round. All series their team D kept the Hawks out of the dangerous areas. Like you said, I am really worried how easily a good D can contain these All-star forwards who make up this great core. I do think we have some solid support guys coming in Shaw, Saad, T.T., Danault and others. But in a cap world can we really invest so much money in a core that gets shut down so easily?

Per Craig Custance, Toews not at practice. Saad centering the top line. Anyone know what's up?

The problem with Crawford, is that the team in front of him does not have the confidence to leave him exposed, so they essentially cannot play the way the Hawks were built to play. A little thing like confidence, or lack of it, just leads to one issue after another, and it just keeps going and going. Then you basically couple that with the fact that if Seabrook and Keith are not on the ice, you also have the D-men not inspiring confidence in the forwards to play their game. The Hawks simply played a different game when Niemi was the 'tender, as he had the ability to steal a game here and there, and to come up with big save when it was called for.

Not saying anything we all here do not know already, but the Hawks need to upgrade in net, and also draft or trade for a young blue chip goalie to have in the system. No offence to Teuvo Teravainen, but I will say that Andrey Vasilevskiy would have been the better choice.

As for Stan Bowman, he made his bed when he dealt away all the Hawks size, grit and leadership right after the Hawks won the Cup. How you could let a guy go with the size and unique skill set that Buffer had, was simply amazing. He set the tone in most of the playoff series for the Hawks. Vancouver had no answer for him, and he put Pronger on notice in the Cup finals the year they won. Same with Ladd. The guy just has heart and leadership qualities in spades, as well as size, and the Hawks just let him walk away. At the expense of maybe a Sharp and Hjalmarsson, the Hawks could have kept Buffer and Ladd, as well as Niemi. Just saying....and i do realize how hard it was to manage the cap mess they were in right after the Cup.

Plyrs99

Per Craig Custance, Toews not at practice. Saad centering the top line. Anyone know what's up?
- golfbard

Coaching staff hung over and didn't care after a night of getting pounded at Richards smoking cigarettes, drinking Shirley Temples and ripping shots of acai berry vodka while the 72 year old bartender who obviously has a stogie in the corner of his mouth shakes his head at kids these days.

Probs maintenance day. May have picked up a bruise or tweaked something.

Toews is in LA. Not skating. Q will update after practice per Dan Rosen.

Coaching staff hung over and didn't care after a night of getting pounded at Richards smoking cigarettes, drinking Shirley Temples and ripping shots of acai berry vodka while the 72 year old bartender who obviously has a stogie in the corner of his mouth shakes his head at kids these days.

Probs maintenance day. May have picked up a bruise or tweaked something.
- fattybeef

Or the flu.

Hey JJ!!!

Awesome read!! Wish there was more of this around!! This is something that can hopefully open some eyes of Hawks fans that buy all the poop about how 'great' this team is....Nad just so you know Teravainen just turned 18 on September 11...he'll be 19 later this year

Per Craig Custance, Toews not at practice. Saad centering the top line. Anyone know what's up?
- golfbard

If Saad isn't practicing with a specific line (ie instead of filling in for Toews) I would guess he's not playing tomorrow.

JJ, any more specifics about that deal with the eastern conference team?

Forget judging Bowman.


Judge Rocky Wirtz. He's at the top. He's letting everything that we don't like happen. He's the boss.


Judge big fat "hey, I put the team on tv... give me standing ovations" Rocky Wirtz.

Toews is in LA. Not skating. Q will update after practice per Dan Rosen.
- golfbard

At least if he got on an airplane it probably means not a concussion.

I'm not going to argue that they don't have some weaknesses and needs, but the Blackhawks finished 2011-2012 with 101 points, despite the fact that they lost 9 CONSECUTIVE GAMES in January. How in the hell could they have possibly OVER-achieved? Any "good luck" run they had in that stretch was easily balanced out by the fact that they also earned 1 point out of 18 during that awful few weeks.

The reality is that the Blackhawks were a solid, mid-tier playoff team last season and let in two awful OT goals to get knocked out by a crappy, lucky and well-coached Phoenix team that benefited from a weak division to get home ice in round 1. They weren't terrible, they weren't anything special.....they just didn't get the job done in the playoffs. We'll see what happens this year. Should be a whirlwind, at least.