Last night's 3-1 Blackhawk victory provided a measure of reassurance to fans and perhaps the team itself with regard to the ability to score, much less on more than one line.
Marian Hossa, Artem Anisimov and Artemi Panarin, 3 of the 4 usual suspects, found the twine. Scott Darling was very solid, in his lumbering bear, more scrappy than stylistic, way. The Hawks even got a power play goal while not giving up any.
Going back to the usual suspects, while watching the game, I was struck with a thought—a question—as to why Joel Quenneville hasn't tried to spread the offense out over two lines through basic math.
With Jonathan Toews, you really have 5 members of a top 6 worked out, while the team continues to cast about for a solution at one of the left wings. No big news there.
Without him, you have 4 pieces: Hossa, Panarin, Anisimov, and Patrick Kane.
So why wouldn't you divide that in two, say complementing Ansimov and Kane with Ryan Hartman, and flanking, say, Marcus Kruger with Panarin and Hossa?
I mean, Kane and Anisimov have chemistry. Panarin and Hossa have had it at times this year.
That would seem to be more balanced than what Q has been doing, which is keeping the AK72 line together and spotting Hossa with various linemates up and down the roster.
The logic seems to be that AK72 can overwhelm an opponent to the tune of a goal or two a night, and Hossa can squeeze a bit more offense out of the remainder of the skaters.
Is it working? It did last night at least.
And it also seems to be testament to how good Hossa still is, nearing his 38th birthday. Hossa is noticeable every shift, and seems to have fully embraced his new role, doing what he has to do to either light the lamp himself or set up some of the team's lesser lights. It really does feel like Q is relying heavily on his elder skatesman (because I'm not sure we can still call Michal Rozsival a "skater") to drive the team's secondary scoring in a variety of situations.
It's been a weird season thus far, as even the most die-hard optimists are now conceding that this team has some flaws.
Sure, there's good news in that virtually all of the rookies incorporated into the roster this year seem to have some NHL role/utility, with the possible exception (at this point) of Nick Schmaltz. Ryan Hartman, especially, and not surprisingly as the most experienced of the bunch, seems to be most established in a consistently valuable capacity.
The other side of that coin is, although it should also not be too surprising, none of those players has stepped up and established themselves as top 6/top 4 players either. So the Hawks are still left where they were last year. A team heavily reliant on a smaller core of superstars, but not necessarily a team with strong playoff depth and matchup favorability.
Meanwhile, they're continuing—one way or the other—to rack up enough points to maintain lofty position in the standings, albeit prior to the halfway mark of the season.
So you keep wondering, how long can they keep this up without some answer(s) emerging to the problem area(s) of the roster.
Meanwhile, the team hopes also for the return(s) of Brent Seabrook (likely soon), Corey Crawford (in a couple more weeks), and Jonathan Toews (who knows).
Because that will, at least, restore Quenneville a bit more flexibility in line-making, while perhaps the front office considers some way to add a missing piece or fashion a solution in house.
I'll preview the Hawks Tuesday night visit to Madison Square Garden tomorrow.
JJ
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