High on the 'Hawks Round II: Keys to Victory

With the series opening Thursday night in Vancouver, let’s take a look at what the Chicago Blackhawks need to focus on to survive the second round. This series with the Canucks will be similar to the series with Calgary, but with a higher emphasis on special teams and goaltending. So far in this year’s playoffs the Blackhawks’ special teams have been fantastic. The power play is clicking at 29% (7/24) which is second only to Washington for the best in the league, whereas the ‘Hawks penalty killing is also second best in the league with an 89% (16/18) kill rate. The interesting part on the PK side is that Vancouver is the only team better than the ‘Hawks so far having allowed only 1 goal to the dismal St. Louis power play in round 1. In the first round the Blackhawks moved the puck very effectively on the power play and we saw more mobility along the points than in the regular season. Moving the puck from a low cycle up top and through the box the ‘Hawks do not need to change a thing… If they continue to do as they have against Calgary they will be just fine. Even though the penalty kill for the ‘Hawks was excellent in round one there is a little concern with some of the soft zone coverage gaps. This area is where Iginla scored from on the PP in game 4, and is the exact same area that Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin likes to operate out of. This space between the Chicago left defenseman and the left wing will need more attention than was given in the first round, given that Vancouver is more dangerous from this area. A good shot blocking forward can sag into this strong side zone to take away the dangerous pass but also has be quick enough to recover into a shot blocking formation should the puck move back up top. Adam Burish and Patrick Sharp both have done this very well in certain situations this season.
Goaltending is also an area of interest in this series with Nikolai Khabibulin opposing arguably the best there is in Roberto Luongo. The Blackhawks will enter the second round the highest scoring team in the playoffs with 21 goals for to this point, where they will face the team with the least goals allowed with 5. Luongo carries with him a sparkling 1.15 GAA and a save percentage of .962 that is good enough for the number one spot in both categories. Khabibulin on the other hand, after struggling in games 3 and 4 in Calgary, returned to the Saddledome to stop 43 shots in the series clinching game improving his stats to a GAA of 2.52 and a save percentage of .914 and maintained a GAA of 1.00 in his last 2 games. Even though Luongo’s numbers may be a little suspect from the easy series against the Blues, we still give the edge in goaltending to Vancouver.
A large key for success also lies in the play of the ‘Hawks 2nd and 3rd lines. The lines of Havlat-Bolland-Ladd and Versteeg-Pahlsson-Byfuglien need to keep their play consistent if the Blackhawks hope to advance. All it takes in the playoffs is for one line to have an off night and it can cost you a game. The Blackhawks saw this firsthand in games 3 and 4 in Calgary. In game 3 the Versteeg-Pahlsson-Byfuglien line was a combined -11 in a 4-2 loss. In game 4 the Havlat-Bolland-Ladd line was a combined -10 in a 6-4 loss. Toews and Kane will do what they do, the same can be said for Burish and Eager, but the meat and potatoes of the Chicago lineup, will face the toughest checking challenges and must stay focused game in and game out. One line being on the ice for nearly every goal against in one game is inexcusable at any level…much less in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
THIS AND THAT
• Give the Kid a Break….. Lately I’ve heard people getting down on Patrick Kane…. “He’s too soft” “he’s not doing anything out there”….etc. All Kane has done so far is score 2 goals and 2 assists and be +/- 0 (even) in 6 games… as long as he’s finishing his chances around the net he’s doing his part, which he has to this point.
• So far the ‘Hawks are the 3rd least penalized team in the playoffs with 18 shorthanded situations… I know they only played 4 games but can anyone tell me how Boston, in a fight-filled-ugly series with Montreal only managed to be short-handed 8 times?
• I wonder if we can make it through an entire series without Alex Burrows pulling anyone’s hair.

High on the 'Hawks Round II: Sizing up Vancouver

So the first round went pretty much as everyone expected…outside of Maggie the Makak, and bald bombshell Pierre McGuire who predicted that the Flames would walk all over Chicago in the first round. All in all one can’t blame Maggie, after all she is just a monkey. Anyway we’re not here to take shots so let’s look ahead to the second leg of the Blackhawks conquest across western Canada.
Round two pits the Hawks against the Vancouver Canucks, who easily swept the 6th seeded St. Louis Blues, who may have been the worst team to qualify for the playoffs this year. Give credit to Luongo and the Vancouver defense for holding the Blues to 5 goals for in 4 games, but honestly, there was no contest in this series. The Blackhawks will prove to be a much more worthy adversary in round two. Vancouver is a team that is similar to Calgary in some areas, mainly along the blue line where the average height is slightly over 6’3. The Canucks’ defense, like Calgary is big, and not as mobile as the Chicago d-corps. Vancouver is a team that, like the Flames can also have trouble producing offensively in 5-on-5 situations, but that’s where the similarities end. Unlike the Flames, the Canucks have a dangerous power play unit for two simple reasons: Henrik, and Daniel Sedin. They’ve been called the “Sedin sisters,” the “Olson twins,” Don Cherry even refers to them as the “Bobsy Twins,” but the fact of the matter is that on the power play and 4 on 4 situations these kids are nasty. Unlike round one foe Jarome Iginla, who the ‘Hawks successfully checked nearly all series; the Sedins are much more slippery and creative with time and space. Oh yea, the Canucks also have the best goaltender in the league in Roberto Luongo. Luongo is much bigger than Miikka Kiprusoff, and is more of a shot blocking goaltender than a reactionary shot saver like Kiprusoff. This means that Luongo will cough up the occasional juicy rebound, which sometimes seems to be the only way to get a puck behind him. The Blackhawks will need to get lots of traffic in front of the net to dig for loose pucks and rebounds, as well as to get into Luongo’s head…which can be done. Luongo has a tendency, which unfortunately has become increasingly popular league wide, to embellish minor contact with him in and around the goal crease. He will dive, flop and complain to officials to try and manufacture power plays for his team. Sometimes penalties do result, but if Chicago can get the Canucks’ goaltender to worry more about players interfering with him than stopping the puck, in the long run it could bode well for the ‘Hawks. Other than the Sedins and Luongo, the Canucks are a faster skating team than Calgary. Chicago’s team speed is still better, but the Canucks will skate better than what the ‘Hawks have seen in the playoffs thus far. Up next…we’ll focus on the keys to continued success for Chicago.

High on the Hawks

The “Roar” is loud… but so is the whining. The first three games of the Western Conference quarterfinal have put fans of both the Blackhawks and the Flames on an emotional roller coaster. The Flames score first in both games on the road only to see the Hawks come roaring back to win. The Hawks score first in the Saddledome and the Flames rattle off four unanswered goals, in a “welcome to Canada” slap in the face fashioned victory. Aside from the statistical similarities in the series so far we have seen plenty of extra-curricular activity after whistles, especially near either goal crease. While the battle hardened Flames fans are more than used to seeing this type of in your face playoff hockey, Blackhawks fans may need a refresher course.
Let’s think back, way back to 1988… A young Mike Keenan walks through the doors of the Chicago Stadium having literally dominated the Patrick Division for three of the four years he spent behind the bench of the Philadelphia Flyers. In his first season with the Hawks he takes a team who finished the regular season in fourth place in the Norris Division (27-41-12 66pts.) all the way to the Campbell Conference Finals. How? By playing the same brand of smash-mouth, blood and guts hockey that took the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1984-‘85 and 1986-’87. The Mid 1980’s and 1990’s saw some great hockey teams: Brian Propp and the Flyers, Jeremy Roenick and the Blackhawks, Mark Messier and the Rangers, Brett Hull and the Blues, all of which have one thing in common… “Iron Mike” Keenan.
Fast forward to 2009…. The Flames are taking liberties with the smaller, younger, faster Chicago Blackhawks’ players. Hmmm, I for one am not surprised, although ask around you will loudly hear that the Hawks fans don’t appreciate that big meany Dion Phaneuf rubbing his bear paw in little Patrick Kane’s beardless face after every whistle. I may not whine and cry about it like many others, and as a Hawks fan I don’t like seeing them be bullied, but this is what they wanted. Playoff hockey…“One Goal.” This is classic Mike Keenan, he has done it everywhere he has coached and he has had success in his career. He is definitely playing by his “they can’t call everything” type philosophy. The NHL has said that they are going to crack down on the extra-curricular activity after whistles by penalizing players who start altercations. Apparently the officials in the Chicago-Calgary series have not gotten the memo. So we can all whine and cry about it or we can throw out our pacifiers, grab a hard hat and go to work… I don’t know about you but I am not ready for baseball yet.