Yet another in the “Toews Weird Face” photo series

Why or how did the ‘Hawks get to this point? Not to make excuses but it seems to be an epidemic across the league, but why? To many games in a compact schedule perhaps? Maybe, but I hardly think so. As I posted during the game thread I can’t recall any ’Hawks team going through this type of goal-scoring drought which has reached to 7 out of 9 scoring 1 goal or less.

- Don’t understand the booing of Campbell either. It’s like the ‘Hawks fans booing Havlat as both left their respective clubs due to lack of salary cap space. It wasn’t his fault that Regier matched Edmonton’s ridiculous offer on Vanek at $7M for 7 years or the departure of Briere. Don’t understand that one bit.

-Campbell should be on the PP at every opportunity. If Torchetti is the guy running the PP then he should be removed of his duties immediately. How else can anyone explain how a team this loaded with offensive capabilities be that enept on the man advantage.
Furthermore, why is Byfuglien and Brouwer out on the PP together? Should they not be on seperate units considering they do the exact same thing offensively. Ditto with Barker and Campbell. Continuously putting Sharp on the point on the PP is basically tempting fate with it eventually leading to a SHGA.

-Kopecky on the top line FML! Q you can’t be serious with that one? Take one of those smelling salts the players pass around and sniff it in because that just made my fucking blood boil. The guy shouldn’t even be playing let alone on the top line.

“We’re not happy with our production,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’re winning some tight games, but we should be scoring more. The offence will be there, it’s just a matter of maybe moving (players) around so that it clicks.” TSN.ca

What kind of line combinations are we going to see on Sunday against the Lightning? Or do I want to know after watching Kopecky being placed on the top line? This should be interesting.

“…we here at SCH have an uncanny ability to call someone out only to have them play the game of their career.”

Still can’t believe they didn’t score in the first period. I wonder how frustrated the boys are getting. Dominating teams and still not scoring—it just doesn’t seem fair. And Patrick Kane has to be seething over not hitting the net in a long time. He kept trying for the highlight score tonight, and almost pulled it off.

I’m not panicking yet—but, it really sucks when the Hawks lose.

Also,

Patrick Lalime, but I’m too lazy to find a picture. So imagine one.

Isn’t that the story of his life? Poor guy.

Falls out of boat…misses water.

Film at 11.

Especially the return of 08-09 Brouwer, he had two ridiculous chances that went horribly bad once the puck hit his tape.

Madden’s attempt on the breakaway was weak sauce, I know that’s not what we pay him for, but if you can’t make a decent move, at least fire a good hard low shot and hope for a rebound.

Versteeg has been pretty frustrating lately. He’s been solid on special teams, (he’s got 3 PP goals, 2 shorties, and 1 4on4 overtime winner), but he only has 3-5on5 goals this year. I know Q mixed up the lines in the second, but Versteeg has been with Toews and Hossa for a couple games and I haven’t noticed him much. When your skating with a couple of puck-winning, two way skilled horses like Toews and Hossa, you need to start denting the twine, cherry pick for all I care, Toews and Hossa are good enough back-checkers to cover up for you. Hopefully Versteeg gets it going, he really has been given a great opportunity to skate with our 2 best all around forwards.

As I was on a flight back from Vegas, but I noticed that Tim Sassone is already freaking out about the lack of scoring. He’s also hinting that the Hawks should go out and get a number 2 center, stating that there were lots of scouts in attendance, and Barks is rumored to be available.

A bit early for the “sky is falling” routine, eh?

I’m not worried. I figure Hi, I’m Bob LeDonne’s got this.

yet we made him look like a god….this is fuckin sad. I don’t know what the fuck this team is doing or trying to do but its pissin me off. All these games we lost, we should have won in this month. I’m tried of seeing them circle the fuckin puck around the net, cute but its getting old and teams are figuring us out. Most of all I’m tired of shot from the side of the net. Great teams find ways to score from the front of the net….Im sorry but this team is nowhere close to being a Detroit kind of team. I love Hossa but, Im starting to wonder of those days when we didn’t have him and we were scoring like crazy.

Sabres fans booed Campbell because he was traded only after refusing to play for a reasonable price. Everyone knew that someone out there would overpay tremendously for him, but Campbell put on his sad face and made it seem like he COULDN’T stay in Buffalo. Poor guy. Not physically capable of playing hockey for less then 7 million a year. If Campbell would have been willing to play for 5 million a year (what he’s actually worth) he’d still be in Buffalo. Honestly, I wouldn’t boo him, because I don’t care that much, but that’s why some do. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll take the rook who has 2 more goals and the same number of points as Soupy, in a game less time.

Also, I’m going to have to disagree that the Hawks were the better team, and not just because they lost. At times yes, at one point the Hawks outshot the Sabres 15-2, but then at one point the Sabres outshot the Hawks 18-6. Momentum shifted and the Sabres took advantage when they needed to. Neither team dominated the whole game, neither team was “the better team”.

In 678 jaunty words, you pretty much got it all. Bravo!

1. Shot quality. For all the pucks on net the last couple games, the Hawks have not made a shot on a par w/ Higgins’ the other night. Having said that, they HAVE run into silly goaltending going back to Ellis now, for sure. While it’s frustrating to outplay a team and get zip again, this karma will even out.

2. How many minutes have the Hakws been down 2 goals this year (aside from the Calgary game, and we all knw how that ended)? Maybe 10? Anyone sense a controlled fury, the kind of 3rd period Detroit would throw on the Hawks as recently as last year, after getting down 2? The Sabres oughtta recognize a rectal horseshoe when they see one.

We all saw this coming. Coming off the win streak, we knew there was bound to be a drop in offensive production. Its the way sports work; teams go through hot and cold streaks. Let’s not panic, or worse, blame it on Hossa ruining chemistry. We’re going to rebound and if all these pucks are put on net, they’re going to go in. To quote Gabe from Behind the Net,

Shot volume is much more a function of a team’s ability, and a much better predictor of future performance than goal-scoring metrics – in other words, there is basically no such thing as a team that shoots efficiently, just teams that get a lot of shots on goal…or not.

How many times is the opposing goalie going to stand on his head to show the Hawks a tough night?

RELAX! Before y’all go off on me about my lack of hockey intelligence, let me make a simple point: since Hossa’s start, teams in their own zone have been collapsing to their net a lot more, and the Hawks have “played” with the puck a LOT more than before. I went back and looked at games before Hossa, and then at the games since. It looks like (this is not a scientific study, mind you) the Hawks tend to wait more now for the “perfect” shot to open up. Earlier, they were still cycling a lot and keeping the puck in the offensive zone for long periods, but they were shooting it more from close in and then getting the rebound and cycling again. Now it seems that more of their shots are from the points and a lot of the possession time is cycling—with no shots coming.

Teams know to clog up the neutral zone against us, and now it looks like their clogging up everything below the dots too. We already had Kane, Toews and Versteeg who can stickhandle in a phone booth, and with Hossa joining them teams are simply taking away the net. There were a TON of deflected shots the last couple of games. It’s amazing we had as many shots on goal as we did.

Of course, all of this is when it’s 5-on-5. The powerplay opens it up a lot, but for some reason we have no idea how to score there any more.

The Los Angeles Kings lead the Western Conference in points with 45. Mind you the ‘Hawks have 4 games in hand but c’mon L.A.? Good for them, not so good for San Jose who’ve fallen off the map since the ‘Slaughter at the Tank’ 2 weeks ago against the ‘Hawks 7-2. Guess that leadership by comittee thing isn’t working out too well these days?