Last night’s game was everything you’d hope for in a regular season NHL game: end-to-end action for 60 minutes, lots of great individual plays, terrific goaltending for both clubs.
Unfortunately, the game had to be settled by Gary Bettman’s Ongoing Carnival Sideshow known as the shootout, and even worse for Hawk fans, the Red Wings got the extra point.
While Corey Crawford continues to be red hot, the Hawks are having trouble scoring goals. Clearly Joel Quenneville and staff are struggling to find the right combinations and minute allocations. Andrew Shaw played under 13 minutes last night, Bryan Bickell under 11.
Which leads me to . . .
RUMORS
Over the last couple of years, I have been fortunate to develop a source out of Canada (you know who you are and thank you as always) who provides me with very good, and in-depth information about trade discussions, often originating from other teams the Hawks are talking to.
I got a boatload of information from this source this morning—some of which has been independently confirmed by sources close to the Hawks.
According to this source:
- Shaw is being shopped by the Hawks, who are trying to leverage him in a deal for defensive help - Whether the Hawks are shopping him or not, teams are inquiring about Patrick Sharp. Florida and Tampa are said to be hot for Sharp, and Florida may be dangling Jonathan Huberdeau (although one would assume such a deal would have to involve other assets as well, for cap reasons alone) - As first reported here, the Hawks have talked to Ottawa about Patrick Wiercioch, however the Sens are said to asking for Philip Danault and/or a pick, not Shaw
More as I have it,
JJ
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