Okay, it's been a day. I've had a bit of time to cool off and digest everything about this season.
I had several problems with this season, but I'm going to try narrowing this post to just two, coaching and management.
The Athletic has an interesting article that was released in the last day or so about what the Hawks did wrong systematically. It's an interesting read and it points out multiple ways where the Hawks were less than efficient defensively. Reading it points out about of the flaws in Q's system and it's the biggest reason I'm mad about him staying on for next season.
Now if we're lucky, he'll have read the article, and watched how other teams with similar, but much more successful setups (like Tampa) play while he has all this free time until September. But I'm not counting on it. He has a history of stubbornness, and unless he's scared shitless of losing his Benny's endorsement position as head coach, I can't imagine he'll make many changes.
The other issue, like I said, is management. Q failed this season. But he didn't have much to work with, particularly on the back end.
Keith's play dropped once we were on the outside looking in, but he still played like a top pairing defensemen (who just sucks at scoring). Murphy and Rutta had lots of hills and valleys, and basically evened out to being #4s IMO. Seabrook, Gustafsson, and Oesterle are nothing more than a bunch of #6 defensemen.
That's one top 3 defensmen, a couple meh level guys, and a few too many liabilities. That's not anywhere close to being good enough. It's unacceptable for a team that wanted to win to have that type of defensive core.
But I understand why Bowman did it, at least to an extent. We were tight against the cap. We couldn't afford to have guys better that what we had.
But the 18/19 season should be different. That excuse of being tight up against the cap doesn't work anymore. I don't care that we re-signed Gustafsson for a million plus, nor do I care that Oesterle is still here. Neither of those guys should draw into a lineup that already has Seabrook weighing the group down. These guys won't just magically improve to being worth a damn defensively. At most, keep one of Oesterle/Gustafsson as a #7. Waive the other one.
This team needs Forsling to play like he did in November and sustain it for a whole season. It's asking a lot, but he's bound to continue to improve the more experience he gets (provided he can be healthy).
But that's just one guy. Unless the Hawks get Dahlin (fingers crossed), we need at least one other guy who can be not completely terrible out there. There are two guys available in free agency in John Moore and Calvin De Haan. De Haan might be a challenge to get, but Moore is a Chicagoland native, we have a clear advantage in being able to sign him.
This team will continue to suck next year unless Q makes smart adjustments to his system AND Bowman makes damn sure that our defensive core doesn't contain a bunch of liabilities on the back end. And for their sake, I hope they do fix their shit, because otherwise they'll each have a GDT dedicated to them next year. And it'll be savage as f***.
