Yay! It’s my turn to take a spin on our new feature! A day delayed because of last night’s…unpleasantness, but here nonetheless. Let’s see what I think!
The Terrifying Lows
Marty Turco – Sadly, I think I have to start here. Only one start in this week, and he was put in front of a firing squad as the rest of his teammates were off picking flowers and debating the place of love in the world, and whether it exists at all, instead of taking the body and getting sticks. Turco is probably going to be stapled to the bench for another stint here, I can’t imagine we’d see him much before next Wednesday’s game against Punk Ass Nashville. For some reason, the Hawks just panic when Turco is in net. Maybe it’s because Crawford’s positional IQ is so high they just always know where he’s going to be and play accordingly, I don’t know. But I can only go by what I see, and I see a team that just panics when Turco is between the pipes.
Joel Quenneville – Dear Q, when you have only 10 forwards to start with, you can’t bench one or two to make a point. Yes, Stalberg and Skille may have biffed in their own zone last night, but so did everyone. You had four forwards who broke 20 minutes last night at altitude. On top of that, how many more crack the whip bullets can you go to now? There comes a point where that stops working, and the mileage you have to cover to get to that are getting lower and lower. You also seem to be engaging in some sort of pissing contest with your GM. We’ve got bigger fish to fry now. Stop eviscerating our young players confidence, stop bemoaning that you don’t have last year’s depth, and move the fuck on.
Tomas Kopecky – I don’t know what it is he does. Do you?
Niklas Hjalmarsson – Skating and playing like he just has or is just about to shit himself.
The Dizzying Highs
Troy Brouwer – I was always a little curious as to why Brouwer received a ton of crap from fans in the early season. He’s been asked to do everything. He’s been a checker for some of the season, and then asked to be a smasher, and then a scorer, and then rotated through them all again. And there he sits with 8 goals and 10 assists having played on all four lines. Yes, it would be nice if he could be physical and score all at the same time, but we’ll get to that.
Jake Dowell – Anyone else notice that Brouwer and Bickell were much better with Dowell centering them than the Black Hole that’s been Dave Bolland this year? Why is Dowell up here only this year? Why did anyone think Colin Fraser was a better player? +7? On an even par with Jonathan Toews as a penalty killer? More than we could have ever expected.
Corey Crawford – San Jose was his best game as a Hawks and it’s too bad he couldn’t nab a second point. He nearly pulled the Hawks ass out of a sling last night with some big saves. We can only hope the last two goals he gave up don’t shatter his confidence that had been beaming before.
The Creamy Middles
Jonathan Toews – Six points in the four games since Patrick Kane bit it. We asked Tazer to bring that maniacal side with all the injuries, and he has. He has ugly stats for last night too, but he can’t play his and Seabrook’s position at the same time (though he might try). We’ll need this the rest of the year, but I think we’ll get it.