John Jaeckel: Loss in Columbus exposes flaws again

Keeping a game close with limited effort and trying to rally late just isn't working anymore. It didn't work for large stretches last year. I would rather see a solid effort for 60 minutes win or lose. If they only want to play important games there may not be any important games to play.

John Jaeckel: Loss in Columbus exposes flaws again
- John Jaeckel

Great....Hawks lost to a really bad team. They play my team next. Guess who is going to feel the pain of the Hawks loss last night and their game of redemption.

Did we watch the same game?

Chicago looked sluggish out of the gate & Columbus seriously out played them in the 1st period. Gave up 2 power play goals, 1 in the 1st & 1 early in the 2nd & Columbus went into a shut down mode. The penalty kill is still struggling. If your #1 penalty killer goes 2-9, 18.2% in the face off circle that's a problem.

Chicago seriously outplayed Columbus in the 2nd & 3rd but Bobrovsky played great.

5 rookies dressed last night. That's 25% of your roster. It's going to take far more than 5 games to develop chemistry with a roster that is often dressing 6 rookies & numerous other players that either weren't here last season or barely played. Give it 15 to 25 games. Some where in there it should start to gel together.

The roster is a bit of a mess currently. With no cap space & no way out of it, with out moving a core piece, what you see is what you get. Signing Toews & Kane to matching 10.4 deals has seriously hand cuffed Chicago's resources. In today's cap world both are overapid by almost 2 mil each.

I only got to see the 2nd period last night and the last couple of minutes of the game.

Saw the highlight of Toews going to the net and Motte following up. More of this please, watching the 2nd period Toews barely possessing the puck, less of this please, in essence ineffective if Panik or Motte are going to carry possession, the wasting of Toews talent shift after shift drives me crazy. At times the puck in the 2nd period was on his blade for maybe 2 or 3 seconds tops or not at all.

At times they dominated on the cycle with no SOG to their credit. Bobo is one of the reasons they want to change the padding rules, anything that hit his chest disappeared into the uni and saw a couple of pucks that bounced off his shoulder pads that would of been goals as well.

Does Hawks management realize this could be a learning/retool type of year? If not then what? And if the Hawks continue to struggle? The PK is down right brutal. Go back to 2009 when Savard goy yanked very early in the year. If this team stumbles to a very rough start, do we see a HC change? As crazy as it sounds, its easier to swap Q out with say a Dineen then it is to trade a core guy with a big salary.

The story the other day about Toews and his comments about chemistry and the revolving door at wing. With so many guys playing poorly, has Q been tuned out? If Q cant hit the right buttons? If he cant motivate them? This team is still a damn talented team with all star players.

Every HC has a shelf life. Maybe Q's has finally arrived here. Maybe the blender has worn these guys out. Dont know....

We knew going into the season that Crow wad going to have to stand on his head, and win a lot of games 1-0, 2-1. The problem is that it's hard to win 2-1 when you give up 2 PP goals a night. It's getting to the point where someone needs to start worrying about their job.

Does Hawks management realize this could be a learning/retool type of year? If not then what? And if the Hawks continue to struggle? The PK is down right brutal. Go back to 2009 when Savard goy yanked very early in the year. If this team stumbles to a very rough start, do we see a HC change? As crazy as it sounds, its easier to swap Q out with say a Dineen then it is to trade a core guy with a big salary.

The story the other day about Toews and his comments about chemistry and the revolving door at wing. With so many guys playing poorly, has Q been tuned out? If Q cant hit the right buttons? If he cant motivate them? This team is still a damn talented team with all star players.

Every HC has a shelf life. Maybe Q's has finally arrived here. Maybe the blender has worn these guys out. Dont know....
- z1990z

With the revolving door of players that Kane has played with never stopped him from succeeding.

I think Toews's problem is he's living in the past. Plays like Hossa and Saad are his line mates. Until Toews realizes he's the one that has to make the adjustment and be the center piece of his line the struggles will continue. He took a step in the right direction yesterday.

After 5 games last year 2-3 same this year

Noticed Crawford now has white pads on the road and black at home . Is this normal? as I would have thought pads would need to be broken in and identical.

His rebound control was brutal last night and hence the question.

Defensive structure and Penalty kill really stick right now. until those change the Hawks will continue to be what they are. A team spinning its wheels that looks to be one outside looking in.

After 5 games last year 2-3 same this year

Noticed Crawford now has white pads on the road and black on the road. Is this normal? as I would have thought pads would need to be broken in and identical.

His rebound control was brutal last night and hence the question.
- Colbyboy

And really only the 1st game in St Louis where they were outplayed and lucky to be only down a goal was the one truly bad game so far this season of the whopping 5 games they've played.

They lost on special teams last night but played well 5 on 5.

Should be a different story tonight. Hawks are a clearly superior team even with their early season issues.

John Jaeckel: Loss in Columbus exposes flaws again
- John Jaeckel

Serious Cup contender - uh, don't think so from what I've seen so far from this group. Making the playoffs might be an admirable achievement.

Have Anisimov and Panarin returned to the homeland and not told anybody?

Lotto pick June 2017! How deep is that draft next June? Anyone? ......not the worst thing in the world, other cup winners have dealt with the same situations and came out alright.

Does Hawks management realize this could be a learning/retool type of year? If not then what? And if the Hawks continue to struggle? The PK is down right brutal. Go back to 2009 when Savard goy yanked very early in the year. If this team stumbles to a very rough start, do we see a HC change? As crazy as it sounds, its easier to swap Q out with say a Dineen then it is to trade a core guy with a big salary.

The story the other day about Toews and his comments about chemistry and the revolving door at wing. With so many guys playing poorly, has Q been tuned out? If Q cant hit the right buttons? If he cant motivate them? This team is still a damn talented team with all star players.

Every HC has a shelf life. Maybe Q's has finally arrived here. Maybe the blender has worn these guys out. Dont know....
- z1990z

I'm starting to think there might be some truth to this.

Didn't see game or much of any so far .who has been the principal players on the PK . THough this was one Krugs strong points. It will be a major achievement if this team makes post season . Not trying to sound all doom and gloom it was bound to happen at some point. At this point they just don't have the depth and no options to improve. They will be playing a quick young team on the way up tonight . Should be interesting

I'm starting to think there might be some truth to this.
- garacat

I think the coach is fine. For every contract Tallon got vilified for, look at Bowmans stupid trades and contracts, the latest one AA, seeing Saad last nite, how dumb is that move along with most of his other ones. We could have 10 lotto picks, he'll screw them up too! He's the one that should be on the hot seat, not Q! JMO!

Same record as last year at this time 2/3 . Not really a time to start throwing kids under the bus ,but why not . The lines were a mess last night ,being short one forward sure help that . The PK is a disaster ,and PP not much better . To bad Frosling decided to pinch in just as Schmaltz dug the puck out and got it back to the point ,absolutely Schmaltz fault .Not to young kids trying hard for a big play and just not on the same page for a moment . Otherwise from what I seen last night ,the HAWKS had a terrible start do to the blender being on from the beginning .But even with the mess of line changes they managed to put in a solid effort against a desperate team with a very good goalie .They dominate large parts of the game from the 2nd on .Still not good enough .oh well they will try again tonight as we are 1/2 way to the BIG move date .

If there is any truth to this 10 game audition plan , and I am somewhat skeptical .I believe it will be the coaching staff that will see the shake up, and for good reason PP PK and line assignments have been a disaster to start .

I do Believe the PK will get better ,missing Hoss last night Desi for the start does not help the PK .And I am NOT SAYING DESI is a savor, but he is very good on the PK with Kruger . But I do believe Q must run more practices at least to start to get everyone up to speed .I still believe this team as presently constructed can be a force in the spring .. GO HAWKS !!!!!!

They are superior than the Leafs but the scary thing is that TOR is really fast, have a solid looking PP and get a ton of shots.

This could be a bad recipe the way the Hawks are plaYong.

Plus they're coming off of a game last night.

Just wondering, in the past week I've been getting, congrats you are a winner or my smartphone is so many% damaged you should download blah blah blah, and it only pops up while I'm on hockey buzz, this happening to anyone else?

Point made in the blog, "kids" no more to blame than vets.

The two most egregious, to my eye, sitting above the action at center ice—able to see all the ice—and able to see things either not shown or not discussed on tv by guys hired, paid by and accountable to the team, were Anisimov and Schmaltz. A vet and a kid.

So if you think I saw a different game than you did, I can only ask, were you there? If you had been, you might have seen what I saw. They did not handle the forecheck well, breakouts were a mess, Crawford great in the crease but a real adventure outside of it, missed one-timers, horrible defensive zone coverage that allowed the GWG.

If you disagree with my assessment of Schmaltz, go and look at the tape of the Karlsson goal, which in the end, decided the game. And like I said, it's not that he lacks talent. It's just that he lacks the maturity and confidence to be effective in the NHL right now.

Not disputing that Kruger was awful in the dot, otherwise, he was the Hawks' second best center and pretty effective up and down the ice.

I actually thought Motte was OK, the goal was a pretty easy tap in off a sweet rebound, and I don't think he is a top 6 player. Panik and Forsling were very good. Kempny was shaky at times.

Point made in the blog, "kids" no more to blame than vets.

The two most egregious, to my eye, sitting above the action at center ice—able to see all the ice—and able to see things either not shown or not discussed on tv by guys hired, paid by and accountable to the team, were Anisimov and Schmaltz. A vet and a kid.

So if you think I saw a different game than you did, I can only ask, were you there? If you had been, you might have seen what I saw. They did not handle the forecheck well, breakouts were a mess, Crawford great in the crease but a real adventure outside of it, missed one-timers, horrible defensive zone coverage that allowed the GWG.

If you disagree with my assessment of Schmaltz, go and look at the tape of the Karlsson goal, which in the end, decided the game. And like I said, it's not that he lacks talent. It's just that he lacks the maturity and confidence to be effective in the NHL right now.

Not disputing that Kruger was awful in the dot, otherwise, he was the Hawks' second best center and pretty effective up and down the ice.

I actually thought Motte was OK, the goal was a pretty easy tap in off a sweet rebound, and I don't think he is a top 6 player. Panik and Forsling were very good. Kempny was shaky at times.
- John Jaeckel

The #8 was very visible doing nothing on the 3rd goal. But that's what you get shoving a young, undeveloped kid onto an NHL roster without any pro hockey experience. The center position in the NHL is tough to learn and demands a great deal of effort, hustle and smarts, especially behind your own blue line.

Schmaltz looks like he can play in the offensive zone but don't expect Patrice Bergereon or Anzi Kopitar out of this kid yet.

Just took another look at that game winner ,don't blame the two defenseman in front of the net for covering the same guy .

I think the coach is fine. For every contract Tallon got vilified for, look at Bowmans stupid trades and contracts, the latest one AA, seeing Saad last nite, how dumb is that move along with most of his other ones. We could have 10 lotto picks, he'll screw them up too! He's the one that should be on the hot seat, not Q! JMO!
- wonthecup10

Oh I agree. Its more then a HC issue here. But those contracts are on the books and Stan is still the GM. Winning = picking low every year. And we have dumped 1st rounders in trades trying to win Cups. With the One Goal motto still in full effect, dont expect Hawks brass to do nothing if we start 3-10'ish or similar. A bad start that extends past 10 games along with very poor play from your stars will = the job of one HC, Q. Especially with Dineen on the bench as an AC.

Just off the top of my head off the PK

Win more face offs

Stay in the shooting lanes, Moose does a very good job of this

If the shot gets through, defenseman need to be aware of where the forwards stick is and take it away immediately if they don't know where the puck is, really struggling at this right now to many second chance goals being given up in the last couple of games.

It would be nice if CC can absorb a few more of these shots on net, maybe he needs to borrow Bobo's parachute jersey