I hope they keep Lankinen around. He shouldn't cost much and won't bring back much in return. I'm just not sold that the team will have another goalie ready to step in.
- breadbag

I’d like to see Lankinen stick around, but I’m not sold on him being a true #1. Lankinen could be the back-up or maybe the 1B goalie at most.

See the defensive system they play? Looks the same as the Hawks amateur coach doesn’t it? Difference like you said are better defensively aware forwards, and defenseman that don’t have boulders as hands.
- LAHawk

Plenty of teams have their Dmen chase guys around the Dzone these days as Dmen get smaller and faster. IMO gotta have the right personnel for that and the Hawks D aren't/weren't exactly fleet of foot the past few yrs..... And yea, a lot of reads are needed to play that system too or it looks like a fire drill as all Hawk fans know.

LA's pure speed allows the puck to be pressured, Hawk's haven't had that.

Plenty of teams have their Dmen chase guys around the Dzone these days as Dmen get smaller and faster. IMO gotta have the right personnel for that and the Hawks D aren't/weren't exactly fleet of foot the past few yrs..... And yea, a lot of reads are needed to play that system too or it looks like a fire drill as all Hawk fans know.

LA's pure speed allows the puck to be pressured, Hawk's haven't had that.
- Mr Ricochet

I agree, although Matta as we know is not fleet of foot.

Strome - 6 of 9 on the draw tonight?

Does it seem like the Hawks have no set pairings. It seems very random. I can’t believe that is easy for the dmen or forwards. (Not good for the team exiting the zone.)

Sometimes the Hawks dmen just float. McCabe on the 2nd goal. But Seth Jones does it a lot also. If we do not have possession of the puck we can’t leave the front of the net.

Does it seem like the Hawks have no set pairings. It seems very random. I can’t believe that is easy for the dmen or forwards. (Not good for the team exiting the zone.)
- Ztra

Well when you play Jones 1/2 the game

King shortened his bench in the last 8 minutes. Playing the 4th line more.

I wonder if Toews is hurt. Lafferty is taking some draws.

Strome - 6 of 9 on the draw tonight?
- DarthKane

14 of 20 Saturday.

I'm inclined to believe the Hawks are meaningless to the Wirtz'. What family that is so successful in numerous business' would have a sexual predator roaming the organIzation for a few yrs and not know it, have competing "factions" switch the organIzational plan back and forth each yr, missing the playoffs 5 straight yrs doing so, drain almost the whole pipeline of talent and then EXTEND and PROMOTE the guy who oversaw it all.

Indeed.........
- Mr Ricochet

The Avs are a really good regular season team

Nice effort by the Blackhawks

No disappointment here as the better team won again but agree with Dots, nice effort by the Hawks.

Some observations-

Had the Hawks capitalized on some early chances, it might have been closer. Hawks played well enough not to get blown out but the skill level difference was apparent with the Hawks generating most of the pressure off of point shots, crowding the net and a few Colorado mistakes. Against a lesser team and I think we'd have had two points here.

Again, Dach didn't look great. He stickhandles himself into worse positions and again, his passing was off. I'm curious of the metrics line of Dach, Kubalik and Kurashev line. I think one of them needs to be replaced on the line with a proven scorer for it to work although the effort is there with Kurashev.

Fleury looked good again.

Lafferty did decently on his line but if he had just a little more skill, the Toews passes in the first would have connected.

Fourth line played their role with physicality, effort and decent forecheck.

Watching the two teams go head to head demonstrates the difference in skill levels. If the Hawks can add one or two higher skill players or Kubalik/Dach snap out of their funk, we'll have a team that wins more games.

No disappointment here as the better team won again but agree with Dots, nice effort by the Hawks.

Some observations-

Had the Hawks capitalized on some early chances, it might have been closer. Hawks played well enough not to get blown out but the skill level difference was apparent with the Hawks generating most of the pressure off of point shots, crowding the net and a few Colorado mistakes. Against a lesser team and I think we'd have had two points here.

Again, Dach didn't look great. He stickhandles himself into worse positions and again, his passing was off. I'm curious of the metrics line of Dach, Kubalik and Kurashev line. I think one of them needs to be replaced on the line with a proven scorer for it to work although the effort is there with Kurashev.

Fleury looked good again.

Lafferty did decently on his line but if he had just a little more skill, the Toews passes in the first would have connected.

Fourth line played their role with physicality, effort and decent forecheck.

Watching the two teams go head to head demonstrates the difference in skill levels. If the Hawks can add one or two higher skill players or Kubalik/Dach snap out of their funk, we'll have a team that wins more games.
- Popsghostly

Borgstrom and Lafferty need to switch places. Although I like Lafferty, he needs to be on the fourth line, Borgstrom has more skill.

Dach and Kubalik noticeably invisible....Dach a wasted draft choice....Neve wins board battles, not a good shooter, no juice to skating and yeah worst face off percentage in NHL.....Wasted draft choice.

Strome - 6 of 9 on the draw tonight?
- DarthKane

Strome tries very hard...Improved his faceoff.. I'll take Strome any day over the wasted draft choice in Dach...Send him to AHL....

New blog! A summary of the Blackhawks stronger performance led by a razor-focused Marc-Andre Fleury but still wasn't enough in a 2-0 shutout at the hands of the Avalanche and Pavel Francouz.

https://bit.ly/3fUKMKg