brinoch

Looked really good today. Strong on offense and defense. The weakness came at the end with subs -- not very worrying. Bedoya needs to execute those crosses and passes. He's getting into space and making good decisions, but they are just off coming in. Both teams were careful not to go in too hard, as well, being cautious of injury. I thought that probably benefited Nigeria -- Dempsey pulled out of a drive on the keeper. Likewise, Jones and Beckerman had a couple of chances they didn't go down for which led to runs/corners.

Smart. If he's killing it there for two or three weeks he can always go to Kane Cnty. When Boise comes out to play Keizer or Hillsboro, I'm definitely going to go.

Teuvo is positionally sound, and correctly creates outlets and openings when the puck has been won by the D or wingers. His problem defensively is his strength -- can he win puck battles, check in the slot, lift sticks, and battles below the line? That's a pretty darn big part of being a center defensively. Ability to do that stuff is pretty much what makes the difference between a C and a W. I'm not saying he's going to suck. I'm just saying that I've seen a lot of guys get hyped in the offseason and then have a lot of trouble breaking into Q's lineup on a regular basis, and it wouldn't shock me if this guy had the same problem next year. He did all those things well for Jokerit, it's just getting stronger for the NHL. Look at Kruger -- he had much the same trajectory.

Teuvo is positionally sound, and correctly creates outlets and openings when the puck has been won by the D or wingers. His problem defensively is his strength -- can he win puck battles, check in the slot, lift sticks, and battles below the line?

Versteeg's hit is $4.4M split 50/50 between the Panthers and Hawks. So, the Hawks are on the hook for a $2.2M cap hit each of the next two years.

That's not totally true. Teuvo is very defensively responsible, and in his short time with the Hawks, he demonstrated that. Still, if you think he's too small or light, put him with defensively responsible wingers, then -- like Hossa, who is among the best defensive wingers in the NHL. Alternatively, if you think Teuvo needs a year of seasoning in the AHL, get someone on an expiring contract. Or sign someone and trade them away after a season. It is true that in some respects, Kane acts like a C on offense when he carries the puck -- but he really doesn't on defense. Kane needs a good C with him, as we saw this year. Saad-Toews-Kane Sharp-Teuvo-Hossa Bickell-Kruger-Shaw Morin-Regin-Smith Done and done. Notice who is gone? Handzus, Versteeg, and Bollig. All are totally unnecessary for this team. Crawford is fine. I like him and think he's worth the money. He wasn't the problem against LA. The problem was that we didn't/couldn't roll four lines and LA is a great team. And that's deficit is directly attributable to the above three, and Q's weirdness regarding Morin/Regin and some younger players. Structuring the team so that there are 4 strong lines is absolutely necessary -- both years we won the Cup, that's what set the Hawks apart. Likewise, pairing puck-moving defensemen with stay-at-home defensemen is also crucial.

Coached by Marco Van Basten, no less. Forgot all about that. Now fully on board with staying in Holland. Seconded.

it will always kind of ruin the replayability of clip for me. such a classic hossa celebration too. That whole sequence was so amazing with the five-minute PK and Sopel and Madden blocking every shot. When the Kane scored with 30 seconds left to tie, and then Hossa won it coming out of the box, I knew the Hawks were going to win the Cup.

Loved that. Especially beating them on home ice.

I'll see your Byfuglien with a Hossa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC8-PTTee0

Yes. This.

Nice. Handzus doesn't recover and a goal is scored.

Clear. The. Zone.

That was gorgeous.

That's all on the defense.

I'm in Denver on business, so I had the opportunity to go to the game. It was awesome. Oh, and the Avs and Wild fans were all taunting each other before (and after) about who gets to lose to the Blackhawks.

Roy's been pulling the goalie early all year, apparently. Colorado's won two games in this series in OT after tying the game on empty-net rallies, so it's working. There's a great paper that was written a few years back which investigated this question... and concluded that Roy and the aggressive early pull is the right one. Similar to NFL coaches and going for it on 4th down, NHL coaches are too conservative with pulling the goalie.

In the Playoffs, it isn't unusual for the top six to cancel each other out via match-ups and top D-men. So, if you don't have a strong bottom six and a solid goalie, it's hard to win. That's one of the reasons the Hawks won 2 Cups in 4 years; they roll four lines and have had very good goalie play. Pittsburgh's problem is they have a crappy bottom six and a terrible goalie. But, the other reality is that Pittsburgh has really dominated puck possession against Columbus, and puck possession drives wins. Malkin and Crosby look to be bit sheltered in zone starts, but that makes sense, given how much Pittsburgh drives possession: http://www.extraskater.com/team/pittsburgh-penguins/2013p#player-usage-chart. For comparison sake, look at the Blackhawks: http://www.extraskater.com/team/chicago-blackhawks/2013p, and the Blues http://www.extraskater.com/team/st-louis-blues/2013p.The Blues are much better team than Columbus right now (maybe not in the future though). And you can see how even this series was. Toews is a beast. Kane is ridiculous. Sharp and Hossa were completed negated by Handzus. Versteeg hasn't been awful, but wasn't good. Bollig is terrible. Oduya and Hjalmarsson drew the toughest assignments. Brookbank did a credible job of filling in for Seabrook. Nick Leddy is doing a great job (and I think you'll see him paired with Hjalmarsson next year; Oduya will likely be traded. And Roszival/Brookbank will work to break in another young d-man). The Hawks would have been better served going with Regin or Morin and sitting Bollig (and Handzus). The optimal lines are probably, at this point: 29-19-88 10-28-81 (I don't love Ben Smith here... but he's earned a shot, and with Pirri traded...) 20-16-65 11-12-23 Quenneville won't bring in Regin and Morin, though, since he needs the Handzus security blanket. But Handzus has been terrible this year, and a net drag. The two worst players on the ice against St. Louis were Handzus and Bollig. Switching up the lines allows Q to roll four lines, which was integral to success in the Cup years.

Thought the Hawks deserved to lose, and advanced stats bear that out. But they should have won game 2. Fair enough. That evens out. Blues were better in game 1. Hawks need to stop going into a shell.

Need to keep Morin in the line-up, too.

Don't get me wrong, this is about praising Darlington Nagbe rather than criticizing Yedlin. If you set up a formation that isolates your best defender against one of the strengths of a team like the Timbers (Quick left flank advance via Nagbe, Valeri, and Harrington), well, you probably aren't doing your job correctly. Yedlin did get beat several times, but when you're on an island, that's going to happen. I don't know what the hell Anibaba was doing; he's pretty much directly responsible for Chara's second (not closing down) and Urruti's goal (turnover). On the Timbers side... I don't know what to say about Zemanski and Papparatto. Terrible.

Portland also hit a crossbar (with Yedlin knocking it out on the way in) and a post -- amazing game. I thought Nagbe really had Yedlin in the first half, but he was consistently left on an island. The formation shift gave him support and allowed him to get forward more as well. Really a great match-up between two really strong players in MLS. I can't wait until Nagbe is eligible for the USMNT at the end of next year.

Yeah, I was just coming here to post about it. Hideous. Ugh.

Yes. And if Teuvo gives you a better chance at the Cup, you play him. My guess is that adding Teuvo this year is like adding Kane or Toews was back when they were rookies. He is that good.

Teuvo is coming. http://t.co/m7RsIZA8Hu