For D? Maybe Hugh Jackman......
- mohel

That depends on who I'm getting. Wolverine or Peter Allen...not that there's anything wrong with that.

For all the sturm und drang (look it up) here, it’s overall been a positive year.

This year’s team is better than last year’s, which was better than the previous year
Lots of very young forwards have gotten time and development at the NHL level
A few of the young D have gotten their feet wet, and shown some promise
An at least average NHL goalie and average NHL backup goalie have been identified

For next year, add a summer of growth and development of this year’s young players, add a euro signing, a free agent or 2, a healthy and rested Toews, a healthy Dach, another kid or 2 from Rockford (Entwistle) and the Blackhawks will be poised to take another step. Still don’t expect them to contend for the playoffs next year, but the trend is up. 2022-23, maybe is the year.

Getting smoked by TB at this point is not unexpected. TB can overwhelm many NHL teams.
- scottak

Agreed on all counts. Honest question, though. Does the coach get any credit at all for these developments?

I wonder if Lank's confidence is shaken, because he made some uncharacteristicly bad plays with the puck? He's our future number one, but has hit a slump his past few games. Team in front doesn't help too much either letting players go to the blue all alone.

I just think like all the excitement in Colin Delia's first few games, he is reverting to what he is. An average NHL goalie. Nothing wrong with that, especially at his salary, but look at the Predators games. Hawks lost a few of those because they were outgoaltended plain and simple.

Vaselevsky had probably one of his worst games of the year. But how many breakaways did he stop? Kane had at least 3 grade A opportunities that he stopped.

Goaltending is 50 percent of the game — unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100 percent.

It doesn’t matter how much talent you think you have up and down your roster, if you don’t get the goaltending, nothing else matters.
- LAHawk

Only thing I wanted to see this year was improvement and a budding level of consistency night in and night out from some key building blocks. Long road ahead for that to rev up to where management feels the "window to win" is back open. I don't about all of you, but my expectations for this year were relatively low. They exceeded them by hanging around playoff contention far longer than I ever imagined. Put that mainly on an absolute rocket of PP to start the season.


As far as Dach goes.......I don't get writing a guy off after 1+ year of his career. His playoff presence was extremely noticeable and he excelled. He goes to play in the WJC, breaks his wrist, and this year has been off.....did he rush back from an injury? No idea, but I'll give him a pass and hope next year we see the kid who was using his size/strength in the playoffs.

Everyone last year was ready to launch ABD into the sun......glad nobody here is sniffing hockey ops

Maybe not quite count him “out” (as he often is), but they best not be counting on him to be “the man”, and his frequent injuries have to factor in to contract considerations, no matter how good he is when healthy.
- Ogilthorpe2

Agreed.....he reminds me of Kane in some ways.....WHat Boqvist needs to do is learn how to avoid the hits has Kane mostly has for a large portion of his career to stay healthy. Also time for 27 to add some muscle to his frame to withstand getting hit. I said it earlier, but if he can't avoid hits on D I wouldn't mind seeing the Hawks try him out at wing. Otherwise, the book of playing physical on 27 will be written in stone until 27 figures out how to withstand said hits and/or avoid them without turning the puck over.

Yep. Neither the fight nor his formidable, imposing presence seemed to deter them. Think it was Cernak he went to lay a hit on in retaliation to something and he just sort of bounced off.

I'm hoping Stan just cuts his losses on Z from the Saad trade and gets another pick in the draft.
- HawkintheD

This.

Just want to highlight this point you've made twice this morning. Team defense. Especially without Toews, the top forward lines play poor defense. They are light on real 200' forwards.
- mohel

Agreed but were also last year. Last year they were bailed out by 2, proven #1 goalies....a luxury few had and Hawks sure as hell didn't have this year. You keep giving up prime chances shift after shift 5 on 5 and the puck will end up in the back of your net very quickly......add in lack of 200 ft fowards on top of aging veteran d men, young kids, or a frankenstein who couldn't complete a 5 ft pass to save his life....and you have the 2020-21 Hawks defensive scheme in a nut shell......would love to know if they have stats showing how many shifts a team gives up where a team plants itself in your defensive zone for 30, 60, or even 90 seconds......this is far too common as of late for the Hawks.

Why would someone be a Hawk fan? The moron owner put Stan in charge of Hockey Ops. Then moron Stan hires and re-ups the moron JC. There's no hope for the organization; one of the worst-run in all of sports.
- mohel

Ah the good old goalpost moving arguement

For all the sturm und drang (look it up) here, it’s overall been a positive year.

This year’s team is better than last year’s, which was better than the previous year
Lots of very young forwards have gotten time and development at the NHL level
A few of the young D have gotten their feet wet, and shown some promise
An at least average NHL goalie and average NHL backup goalie have been identified

For next year, add a summer of growth and development of this year’s young players, add a euro signing, a free agent or 2, a healthy and rested Toews, a healthy Dach, another kid or 2 from Rockford (Entwistle) and the Blackhawks will be poised to take another step. Still don’t expect them to contend for the playoffs next year, but the trend is up. 2022-23, maybe is the year.

Getting smoked by TB at this point is not unexpected. TB can overwhelm many NHL teams.
- scottak

I wouldn't be surprised if Bowman signs another euro free agent. He can find a way to subtract from the current 50 or nearly 50. I expect that one euro unless they strongly really see potential in someone else. I mean maybe a descent player but has a lot of grit? Then a second euro maybe .....but there is a limit......because McLaughlin is a CENTER and as Theo has said would be a worthy sign.

An additional reason why I question how hard Bowman goes after any free agent sign, is the ceiling on the player. Another 2L or 3L or delopmental dman whom needs at minimum a half season AHL? We have plenty of forwards who presently are 2L/3L and or a boatload more whom likely establish themselves in the same category

From Kurashev, Suter and arguably if you put Hinostroza and Kubalik as 2L/3L it is a hard call to add someone else at this spot when Hagel Connelly and Toews are locks. Now Connelly could be drafted and Toews exact return is a mystery. But they cannot slide to L1 permanently. And Entwhistle + Slavin is what we want on line 4 with Kampf.

Barret and Hardman are close and may show in the AHL they are ready. As well there are others whom could step up. Darkhorse some time next season: McCormick

I do agree with your expectation that the youngsters will keep improving and represent better players from this past year of development. I just broke it down farther and examined your premise farther.

Agreed on all counts. Honest question, though. Does the coach get any credit at all for these developments?
- mohel

It’s impossible to tell. You can’t do a double blind test to evaluate JC vs another coach.

My issue with JC is that he’s never succeeded, at any level, other than 1 year in Mora. And as I posted yesterday, this will be JC’s 7th season, out of 8, where his team will be in the bottom half of the league in GAA. Hawks are currently 21st (before last night).

If you employed a salesperson, and they missed their quota 7 of 8 years, would you continue to employ them?

It’s impossible to tell. You can’t do a double blind test to evaluate JC vs another coach.

My issue with JC is that he’s never succeeded, at any level, other than 1 year in Mora. And as I posted yesterday, this will be JC’s 7th season, out of 8, where his team will be in the bottom half of the league in GAA. Hawks are currently 21st (before last night).

If you employed a salesperson, and they missed their quota 7 of 8 years, would you continue to employ them?
- scottak

When the team has better talent then I take your point more seriously. It is a valid point however since Colliton is under contract I foresee Stan's guy won't get called out too much until better results with better talent comes to the forefront

Agreed but were also last year. Last year they were bailed out by 2, proven #1 goalies....a luxury few had and Hawks sure as hell didn't have this year. You keep giving up prime chances shift after shift 5 on 5 and the puck will end up in the back of your net very quickly......add in lack of 200 ft fowards on top of aging veteran d men, young kids, or a frankenstein who couldn't complete a 5 ft pass to save his life....and you have the 2020-21 Hawks defensive scheme in a nut shell......would love to know if they have stats showing how many shifts a team gives up where a team plants itself in your defensive zone for 30, 60, or even 90 seconds......this is far too common as of late for the Hawks.
- SteveRain

Drives me a bit nuts. I don't know how many times I see them get the puck within five feet of the blue line and can't complete one more pass or skate it safely out. Is it passing, forward support, some of both? To your point maybe it's recency bias but seems to be happening a lot lately.

Frankly, a lot of the rookies this season just hit the wall. With a compressed schedule and seeing the same 7 teams over and over it was a difficult season. I think you saw that after game 30 or so most of the young guys started to see their production tail off. Suter, Kurashev, Mitchell, Hagel, Boqvist, etc. All of them had a string of games where they were just not great. I think it bodes well for those who did get some extended time in the NHL, it shows them the level of talent, strength and speed and maybe more importantly the level of compete they will need to stick in a regular rotation in the NHL. It definitively should be an indicator as to what they need to work on in the off season.
- TheTrob

Well said.....a legit longer summer for these younger kids to build up strength and endurance will pay off huge....

Drives me a bit nuts. I don't know how many times I see them get the puck within five feet of the blue line and can't complete one more pass or skate it safely out. Is it passing, forward support, some of both? To your point maybe it's recency bias but seems to be happening a lot lately.
- HawkintheD

I don't know if there is one magical answer to this, but as the season has gotten to the last "sprint" per se, we have seen teams like Nashville just make a mockery of the Hawks coverage. Relentless pressure and chance after chance.

Again, could be a combination of a lot things but a condensed schedule with veterans in the twilight of their careers, and rookies who aren't built to physically handle a long NHL season has surely propelled this in a bad way.

Think Paul Goodman is still their guy, but he has a tall task getting some of these kids in better condition for next fall to avoid this.....

Agreed but were also last year. Last year they were bailed out by 2, proven #1 goalies....a luxury few had and Hawks sure as hell didn't have this year. You keep giving up prime chances shift after shift 5 on 5 and the puck will end up in the back of your net very quickly......add in lack of 200 ft fowards on top of aging veteran d men, young kids, or a frankenstein who couldn't complete a 5 ft pass to save his life....and you have the 2020-21 Hawks defensive scheme in a nut shell......would love to know if they have stats showing how many shifts a team gives up where a team plants itself in your defensive zone for 30, 60, or even 90 seconds......this is far too common as of late for the Hawks.
- SteveRain

Here is where I vacillate on the Hawks D and whether it is a symptom of a flawed defensive system overall, a lack of quality defensemen, both or neither.
Ask the following questions: 1) If the Hawks were to play a "normal" defensive system would they be better? Would this benefit the veteran Dmen who have played more traditional D systems most of their careers, at the very least making their D less prone to mistakes? 2) Understanding that the future lies in the hands of the young D, are they capable of executing JC's defensive system or would they be better served in a more traditional system? 3) If the general assumption is that the Hawks have nice organizational depth in young defensemen but no clear #1 dman is that enough moving forward, point being, if you can ice a team of 6 #2-3 defensemen is that strong enough to not really have a #1?

IMO the Hawks core of D-men look promising, and in many ways are better than expected. I think Boqvist showed vast improvements in his d-zone play, while starting to flash his offensive prowess. I think Beaudin and Mitchell both showed the promise that makes them at least 2nd pairing d-men. I think Kalynuk surprised at both ends and jumped past some of the others, though it is a limited number of games, so possibly a product of fresh legs vs. others who have hit that late season wall.

In terms of JC's system, I think other teams have proved it works, but you obviously need the right personnel to pull it off, and a strong enough goalie to bail you out when there are mistakes in coverage or breakdowns.

Agreed on all counts. Honest question, though. Does the coach get any credit at all for these developments?
- mohel

ZERO! The coach only gets criticism unless of course the BOD likes him in which case he gets credit. So Gallant gets the credit for anything good the hawks did this season.

It’s impossible to tell. You can’t do a double blind test to evaluate JC vs another coach.

My issue with JC is that he’s never succeeded, at any level, other than 1 year in Mora. And as I posted yesterday, this will be JC’s 7th season, out of 8, where his team will be in the bottom half of the league in GAA. Hawks are currently 21st (before last night).

If you employed a salesperson, and they missed their quota 7 of 8 years, would you continue to employ them?
- scottak

So what was JC's "quota" this year? How bad did he miss it?

It’s impossible to tell. You can’t do a double blind test to evaluate JC vs another coach.

My issue with JC is that he’s never succeeded, at any level, other than 1 year in Mora. And as I posted yesterday, this will be JC’s 7th season, out of 8, where his team will be in the bottom half of the league in GAA. Hawks are currently 21st (before last night).

If you employed a salesperson, and they missed their quota 7 of 8 years, would you continue to employ them?
- scottak

Seems to me that your earlier post listed successes with him as coach.

Seems odd to say a team has improved each year the coach has been here, while also saying the coach sucks.

When the team has better talent then I take your point more seriously. It is a valid point however since Colliton is under contract I foresee Stan's guy won't get called out too much until better results with better talent comes to the forefront
- jhawk59

I think with any coach, the "firing point" comes when management comes to the belief that the talent they have provided the coach is not performing at the level they are expecting. So with JC, when Bowman, et. al. determine that the results don't match the expectations he will be gone.

I think with any coach, the "firing point" comes when management comes to the belief that the talent they have provided the coach is not performing at the level they are expecting. So with JC, when Bowman, et. al. determine that the results don't match the expectations he will be gone.
- TheTrob

Exactly, fi the Hawks were trying to make the playoffs. they would of kept Janmark and Soderberg and probably added a veteran D and a forward, they had the cap space. Instead they sold.

Seems to me that your earlier post listed successes with him as coach.

Seems odd to say a team has improved each year the coach has been here, while also saying the coach sucks.
- mohel

You’re inferring that. Just because JC is HC, that doesn’t make him completely responsible for their development. There are other coaches and players responsible. Kane stays out on the ice long after the coaches are gone, working on things with other players. Remember Keith talking to young D during camp?

And you didn’t answer my question. Would you employ someone who failed 7 of 8 years?

You’re inferring that. Just because JC is HC, that doesn’t make him completely responsible for their development. There are other coaches and players responsible. Kane stays out on the ice long after the coaches are gone, working on things with other players. Remember Keith talking to young D during camp?

And you didn’t answer my question. Would you employ someone who failed 7 of 8 years?
- scottak

Again, what were his "quota's". Or are they your quota's that he failed?

Here is where I vacillate on the Hawks D and whether it is a symptom of a flawed defensive system overall, a lack of quality defensemen, both or neither.
Ask the following questions: 1) If the Hawks were to play a "normal" defensive system would they be better? Would this benefit the veteran Dmen who have played more traditional D systems most of their careers, at the very least making their D less prone to mistakes? 2) Understanding that the future lies in the hands of the young D, are they capable of executing JC's defensive system or would they be better served in a more traditional system? 3) If the general assumption is that the Hawks have nice organizational depth in young defensemen but no clear #1 dman is that enough moving forward, point being, if you can ice a team of 6 #2-3 defensemen is that strong enough to not really have a #1?

IMO the Hawks core of D-men look promising, and in many ways are better than expected. I think Boqvist showed vast improvements in his d-zone play, while starting to flash his offensive prowess. I think Beaudin and Mitchell both showed the promise that makes them at least 2nd pairing d-men. I think Kalynuk surprised at both ends and jumped past some of the others, though it is a limited number of games, so possibly a product of fresh legs vs. others who have hit that late season wall.

In terms of JC's system, I think other teams have proved it works, but you obviously need the right personnel to pull it off, and a strong enough goalie to bail you out when there are mistakes in coverage or breakdowns.
- TheTrob

Agreed...I just feel 16 and 44 are done....period. I don't think 16 could have flourished in Qs system. Colorado sold high on him and are reaping the rewards with Saad adding depth.

Agreed...I just feel 16 and 44 are done....period. I don't think 16 could have flourished in Qs system. Colorado sold high on him and are reaping the rewards with Saad adding depth.
- SteveRain

I agree it was a bad trade, but he had to get rid of that contract for cap reasons before he knew Toews would be on LTIR all year. Also, he was trying to trade Saad, since last deadline, and it appears (only speculating), that Z was as good as he would get. Who knows if Stan could of held onto him this year what he could of gotten for him at the TDL (if anything), and then he would of walked at the end of the year for nothing (which is basically what he got for Z, I get it)

You’re inferring that. Just because JC is HC, that doesn’t make him completely responsible for their development. There are other coaches and players responsible. Kane stays out on the ice long after the coaches are gone, working on things with other players. Remember Keith talking to young D during camp?

And you didn’t answer my question. Would you employ someone who failed 7 of 8 years?
- scottak

Honest question....do you feel the Hawks have a playoff quality roster as constructed even prior to the deadline?

Some guys flourish getting information from player to player. I am sure when Bowman met with the core he spoke on this and to your point....2 of the most prized veterans have taken guys under their wing and helped them....

When the Hawks reach the 2007-08 watermark where they are on the verge of being a playoff team, young guys have ironed out the kinks, etc.......then we can look at JC with more of a black/white contrast......Remember, we saw in the previous regime that following a near miss in 07-08 and then followed by a slow start led to the firing of a coach and the hiring of a proven coach who started their run.....

IMO...hawks aren't near 2007-08 level yet.

Agreed. Don't count him out but he is listed at 179lbs. I doubt he is north of 165lbs. He looks like a teenager (and was one until this year) and he really isn't adept at avoiding hits like Keith and Kane were/are. He gets pushed off balance a lot.

This is what happens when you play a 20 year old kid against grown men (albeit some of the injuries are just bad luck).

Sure he is getting nice experience but he could've stayed in JRs and worked on adding strength.

Guys like Kalynuk and Mitchell spent multiple seasons in college and in a college strength and conditioning program. Those extra few years make a difference from a physical development standpoint.
- bhawks2241

Some here think the problem is the system...