There are often two sides to things. And this morning that applies to last night's 3-2 OT win versus the Devils in New Jersey.
Positive: the Hawks won Negative: they had to come from behind again, after a slow start, and forced OT with the goalie pulled and a man advantage
Positive: the Hawks broke .500 for the first time this year Mitigating factor: they probably should be over .500 considering their schedule thus far
Negative: they were outshot in regulation again last night Mitigating factor: they were an "improved" 3 for 4 killing penalties Positive: the new top 6 worked out very well
The coaching staff didn't appear to get much out of the new top line of Richard Panik, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane—while the new second line of Marian Hossa, Artem Anisimov and Artemi Panarin, dominated the scoresheet.
A deeper look shows Hossa and Panik leading the team in CF% (Corsi For as a percentage of the total of Corsi For and Against), followed by Toews, Anisimov and Panarin and Kane over 50%.
All taken together, the Hawks kept the Devils best defenders occupied and drove possession on their top 2 lines. Interestingly, Tyler Motte was the only other Hawk forward to hit 50%. So while in theory and in practice (in one pretty good road game) the Hawks have two very effective, balanced scoring lines, the bottom two lines were . . . meh.
But while the lower lines didn't score and had mostly underwater Corsi for the night, they didn't kill the Hawks either. And that may be in part because Corey Crawford was near brilliant yet again.
So, following the script of the season thus far, we have mixed results to look at, but a pretty nice road win to build on going in to Sunday night's contest at the UC versus the Kings.
About those lower lines.
Nick Schmaltz played 8:37 total. Interestingly, over a quarter of that time was on the power play, often manning a point. So if we back his power play time out of his total TOI, Schmaltz played just about :20 more than Jordin Tootoo did. In other words, not much.
What we can take from this is that the coaching staff is either grooming Schmaltz to be the next Andy Delmore, or evidence is mounting that Schmaltz is undergoing a sort of tryout/audition that will likely end when Andrew Desjardins returns to the ice. It's hard to say for sure, and I have not heard anything specifically, but it seems like the Hawks are trying Schmaltz in various situations to see what he can do. But they are not really relying on him for much, if anything, 5-on-5.
One last note, I was told yesterday, the Hawks were considering a waiver claim on Teemu Pulkkinen before changing their minds. I am not sure what the rationale was behind that.
More as I hear it and look for a Kings preview tomorrow AM,
JJ
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