There has been a lot of over reaction to the struggles of the Blackhawks so far this season. The bandwagon jumpers I have no interest in talking to you. Don't comment telling me they should have never traded Buff or let Niemi walk. Tough choices had to made: should they have traded Brouwer or Bolland and kept Buff or Ladd? maybe. how about letting Hammer walk instead of Niemi? a case could be made but maybe you should look up how he is playing in San Jose. So let me try to clear up what the real problems are and maybe a couple ways they can fix some things.
First has been the huge turnover of a roster that had been together for a while. What made the Hawks great was how well they played together and the depth they hade. Almost all of the Stanley Cup winning team had come through the ranks with the Hawks or had spent a few seasons there. Therefore there is going to be a feeling out time and fans need to be patient and let the team gel. A reason they haven't improved on the team chemistry is due to reason number two.
What is reason reason number two? Injuries. They lost Brian Campbell early in the preseason which caused the defensive pairing to be mixed up as well as the power play and penalty kill. Just when they were getting Soup back they lost the very hot Marian Hossa and the struggling Dave Bolland. Hossa had 11 points in 11 games which was second only to Patrick Sharp, who now has 16 points in 15 games. Like I said Bolland has been struggling but is a key member to the defense of the team. Bolland is second to only Capt Toews on the penalty kill. Dave has 3 points in the 12 games he has played in. All 3 of these players are huge losses on offense and defense but then take in the special untis they play on as well. Hard to get chemistry when such key players are out.
The third problem I see is something that wouldn't be as big of an issue if not for the first two problems and that is the amount of games they have already played. 15 games is the most of any NHL team, in second place is the struggling New Jersey Devils (14) who won on their visit to the UC on Wednesday. Most teams have played about 12 games but some teams (St. Louis & Detroit) in the Hawks division have already played 10 while Boston has only played 9 games. All these games hurt with practice time which in turn makes it hard to get team chemistry and try things out to overcome lack of depth and injuries.
The fourth reason is something I didn't really wanna use or bring up because looking at the number it isn't so clear but I feel Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews need to step up. Looking at the numbers you may ask what I'm talking about but if you have been watching the games you would agree. Kane has 4 goals and 8 assists while Toews has 3 goals and 7 assists. So Kane has 12 points just a few behind a very hot Patrick Sharp who was playing with an equally hot Marian Hossa while Toews has 10. This shows what high expections we have for these two young superstars. I have one problem with each of these guys. First Patrick Kane needs to shoot, he is 5th on the team on shots on goal behind Sharp, Keith, Toews and Skille. Last season he was second only to Sharp on his way to a 30 goal season. With Toews he needs to be the player he can be. To me he has a had a lot of problems with the puck so far. I'm not sure if he is pressing or guys are just gunning for him but he needs to be the player he has been the past few seasons if Hawks have any chance of repeating.
So how do we fix these problems?
Injuries? All we can do is wait. Hopefully within the next week everyone will be back and healthy.
Depth/Chemistry and Schedule? Everyone being healthy will help with this and at some point the amount of early games will lead to more days off and more time to practice and work on a few things. Also bringing up their most talented player from Rockford could help. Nick Leddy started the season up here before being sent down and Jeremy Morin, who many thought should have made the team, has just been called up.
Kane/Toews? Kane is easy to fix, stop looking to pass so much and fire that puck at the net. You are not a center, you are a scorer. Toews is a bigger issue because I'm not sure how to fix it. Maybe he has put too much pressure on himself. I think the Capt is smart enough to fix this problem and get himself back on track.
Besides all these nice patient approaches I do have a couple lines changes that would be made.
Hossa-Sharp-Morin (knock Kopecky far far down)
Kane-Toews-Stalberg
Brouwer(if he isn't careful he will be a healthy scratch soon)-Bolland-Kopecky(this is where he belongs)
Skille-Pisani/Dowell-Bickell
Defense I'm mostly ok with Hendry, Scott and Cullimore being the 6th guy
Keith-Seabrook
Soup-Hammer
Boyton-?
I have other thoughts but we will see how the weekend goes a back to back with Atlanta and the Oilers then a couple days before they take on Phoenix Wednesday.
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