Blackhawks 2019-2020 - A New Window

[jersey cubs fan]

Welp, the march to the lottery resulted in the Blackhawks making their way into the lottery.

 

They've retooled a little bit, apparently fixed up the defense some, but will most likely not be a contender this season. The window needs to be replaced. But maybe they flirt with a playoff spot this year. Who knows.

 

They're 0-2 in the preseason so far and regular season starts in 2 weeks.

[biittner77]

That assessment sounds about right.

 

The 0-2 start can, at least in part, be attributed to the Hawks playing a lot of younger guys in those games. There's reason for guarded optimism for this season. I'm going to have to be sold on why they brought Shaw back. Ollie Maata and Nylander have something to prove. I think at least one of Kubalik and Kurashev will prove to be a really useful player. They got rid of the dead weight that was John Hayden. They should have a little more depth at Center and on defense.

[BigbadB]

This team definitely loves bringing guys back. Versteeg, Saad, Kruger, Shaw.....

[biittner77]

This team definitely loves bringing guys back. Versteeg, Saad, Kruger, Shaw.....

 

Versteeg has already been sent to Rockford where he'll tutor the younger guys. Kruger was part of the price of unloading Hossa's contract. Surprisingly, Shaw isn't the worst player ever. He might actually be a useful player this season and I have never really thought much of Shaw. I love Saad so there's that.

 

A lot of the season comes down to de Haan. He could be the other half of the shut down pairing that the Hawks so desperately needed last year and didn't have.

[UMFan83]

This team definitely loves bringing guys back. Versteeg, Saad, Kruger, Shaw.....

 

Versteeg has already been sent to Rockford where he'll tutor the younger guys. Kruger was part of the price of unloading Hossa's contract. Surprisingly, Shaw isn't the worst player ever. He might actually be a useful player this season and I have never really thought much of Shaw. I love Saad so there's that.

 

A lot of the season comes down to de Haan. He could be the other half of the shut down pairing that the Hawks so desperately needed last year and didn't have.

 

Have their 2nd and 3rd pairings gotten any better though? I'm guessing no because any pairing involving Seabrook at this stage is going to suck. Love the dude for what he did from 08-16 but he's just horsefeathering bad now.

[BigbadB]

This team definitely loves bringing guys back. Versteeg, Saad, Kruger, Shaw.....

 

Versteeg has already been sent to Rockford where he'll tutor the younger guys. Kruger was part of the price of unloading Hossa's contract. Surprisingly, Shaw isn't the worst player ever. He might actually be a useful player this season and I have never really thought much of Shaw. I love Saad so there's that.

 

A lot of the season comes down to de Haan. He could be the other half of the shut down pairing that the Hawks so desperately needed last year and didn't have.

 

Have their 2nd and 3rd pairings gotten any better though? I'm guessing no because any pairing involving Seabrook at this stage is going to suck. Love the dude for what he did from 08-16 but he's just horsefeathering bad now.

How many years does he have left on his contract?

[jersey cubs fan]

 

Versteeg has already been sent to Rockford where he'll tutor the younger guys. Kruger was part of the price of unloading Hossa's contract. Surprisingly, Shaw isn't the worst player ever. He might actually be a useful player this season and I have never really thought much of Shaw. I love Saad so there's that.

 

A lot of the season comes down to de Haan. He could be the other half of the shut down pairing that the Hawks so desperately needed last year and didn't have.

 

Have their 2nd and 3rd pairings gotten any better though? I'm guessing no because any pairing involving Seabrook at this stage is going to suck. Love the dude for what he did from 08-16 but he's just horsefeathering bad now.

How many years does he have left on his contract?

4 more after this upcoming season. 5 in total! 7 of 8 being awful! Joy!

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Everyone knew that contract would be awful, too. From day one.

[17 Seconds]

they'll make the playoffs with decent goaltending

[biittner77]

 

Have their 2nd and 3rd pairings gotten any better though? I'm guessing no because any pairing involving Seabrook at this stage is going to suck. Love the dude for what he did from 08-16 but he's just horsefeathering bad now.

How many years does he have left on his contract?

4 more after this upcoming season. 5 in total! 7 of 8 being awful! Joy!

 

I'm surprised we're not seeing any of the "He's in the best shape of his life" type articles that usually accompany this level of under-performance. I guess they're going with "Maata will resurrect him"

[jersey cubs fan]

How many years does he have left on his contract?

4 more after this upcoming season. 5 in total! 7 of 8 being awful! Joy!

 

I'm surprised we're not seeing any of the "He's in the best shape of his life" type articles that usually accompany this level of under-performance. I guess they're going with "Maata will resurrect him"

Not quite that, but "the best Brent Seabrook he can be" is kind of close

[biittner77]

Have their 2nd and 3rd pairings gotten any better though? I'm guessing no because any pairing involving Seabrook at this stage is going to suck. Love the dude for what he did from 08-16 but he's just horsefeathering bad now.

 

I think they will. de Haan - Murphy should be an effective shut down pairing

Keith- Gus will bring some offense

Seabrook- Maata may never make it out of their own end but at least they won't have to be out there as much.

 

Last year, they had Forsling who was terrible, Dahlstrom who was inconsistent at best and Koekkuk who is a 7th D man at best.

 

Once again, the guy that *might* be their best defenseman (Boqvist) will start the season in Rockford but at least the organization doesn't hate him like they did Jokiharu. I understand that Boqvist has a lot to learn on the defensive side of things but he could learn that in the NHL if the Hawks were willing to just not play Seabrook very much, something they just won't do because of his salary and because of what he's done for the team in the past.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

The Blackhawks' forwards are ranked 18th, FWIW. That's just the forwards. Presumably the defense is ranked even lower? 18th equates to just missing the playoffs, which is more or less what is expected of this team.

 

[jersey cubs fan]

[UMFan83]

 

Seems like a good deal

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't quite understand NHL contracts. I saw blackhawks writers comparing a potential debrincat contract to somebody who recently signed 3 years with an average around 5.9m.

 

Bowman has done a terrible job with extensions, overpaying darn near everybody.

[biittner77]

I don't quite understand NHL contracts. I saw blackhawks writers comparing a potential debrincat contract to somebody who recently signed 3 years with an average around 5.9m.

 

Bowman has done a terrible job with extensions, overpaying darn near everybody.

 

Seabrook aside, he overpays guys by about $500 K which doesn't seem bad until you add up all 10 guys that have that same overpay rate and realize that $10 million could but a pretty good FA.

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't quite understand NHL contracts. I saw blackhawks writers comparing a potential debrincat contract to somebody who recently signed 3 years with an average around 5.9m.

 

Bowman has done a terrible job with extensions, overpaying darn near everybody.

 

Seabrook aside, he overpays guys by about $500 K which doesn't seem bad until you add up all 10 guys that have that same overpay rate and realize that $10 million could but a pretty good FA.

Seabrook and what's his name with the hot streak in the playoff, Bickell?, are the big outliers but yeah, it seems like a big problem is an unwillingness to let some guys walk. In a salary cap world you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, and Bowman does not seem to have a great grasp on that. Anyway, I hate salary cap worlds since the Blackhawks are raking in the cash and can more than afford all these guys, but it's only the cap causing problems.

[jersey cubs fan]

https://deadspin.com/31-guys-31-teams-your-2019-20-nhl-season-preview-1838016865

Chicago Blackhawks

Last Season: As long as Patrick Kane is alive and healthy, the Blackhawks will be interesting. But even a career-high 110 points wasn’t enough to get his team to the playoffs last season, as Chicago finished 10th in the West with 84 points. Forward is absolutely not a problem position for the Hawks. Beyond Kane they still had major contributions from Alex DeBrincat (41 goals in his second season) and Jonathan Toews (a career-high 35). It was the defense that proved frustrating, giving up the most shots of any team besides Ottawa. Without a healthy, reliable goalie to bail them out—Corey Crawford had concussion trouble and wasn’t effective when he could get on the ice—Chicago was helpless. It felt like a massive overreaction to fire Joel Quenneville, especially so early in the season, but the Blackhawks haven’t looked well for a couple of years now.

 

This Season: Andrew Shaw is back from Montreal, if you’re feeling nostalgic for the good ol’ days. A couple of defenders have arrived to do damage control: Olli Maatta from the Penguins and Calvin de Haan from the Hurricanes. And Robin Lehner is joining the team in net to try and prove that his outstanding 2018-19 for the Islanders wasn’t a fluke. He and Crawford will battle it out for the starting gig, and their combined success or failure could be the difference between playoffs and irrelevance. Six points was the gap between the Blackhawks and the eighth-seeded Avalanche last season, and even if the Hawks’ defense hasn’t been fixed, a reliable presence in net would be of great help.

 

Who’s a guy? Finding effective defenseman pairings should be priority number one for the Blackhawks, but in the forward unit, one guy who’s spent the past few seasons bubbling under the top lines, perhaps waiting to break out as a first-tier contributor, is Brandon Saad. The 26-year-old winger, who had the unfortunate burden of headlining the return for Artemi Panarin in 2017, is a 20-ish goal scorer who has flashes of brilliant stickwork and tricky skating littering his highlight reel. It’s hard to imagine him doing anything in 2019-20 that would supplant the status of Kane, Toews, and DeBrincat, but he was a clear offensive plus when he was on the ice, and if he works hard to ... ah, you know what? Let’s just watch DeBrincat slide tackle his goalie in warm-ups last year:

 

[jersey cubs fan]

It's game day.

 

 

[UMFan83]

This is going to be like putting on a Friday 1:20 Cubs game on the office TV. Can't wait.

[UMFan83]

6 minutes in and already the first awful turnover by a blue liner directly leads to a goal.

[jersey cubs fan]

The Hawks scored 3 goals!

 

They gave up 4 goals though, so it pretty much went about as expected.

[UMFan83]

Just 1 of 82 but the Hawks didn't look great to me today. Offense was ok, they had some good chances and scored 3 goals but the defense was same old crap.

[biittner77]

Just 1 of 82 but the Hawks didn't look great to me today. Offense was ok, they had some good chances and scored 3 goals but the defense was same old crap.

 

Murphy and De Haan are their 2 best defenders and neither of them played. I'm hopeful that the defense will get better when they don't have to play Koekkuk or however he spells his name. They're stuck playing 1 7th defenseman (Seabrook) having to play 3 against the Flyers was never likely to end well.