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Post-Game Talk: Hawks easily handle Devils, 5-2

hisgirlfriday

hisgirlfriday

Moderator
Jun 9, 2013
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Just put on the last 2 minutes of the Blues-Calgary game to see Calgary force OT with 5 secs left in regulation. Hope they can relegate them to just 1 loser point.
 
Pepe Silvia

Pepe Silvia

Registered User
Jan 2, 2012
8,915
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Chicago
clydesdale line said:
Total domination at the dot. Versteeg is getting better and better every game it seems.
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The turnaround from Florida to Chicago has been amazing. And a cap hit of only $2.2m. What a find by Bowman.

Would have been nice to see Sharp get the hat trick. He's been a beast on breakaways/shootouts this year. Kane could have had a hat trick as well.
 
Marina

Marina

Registered User
Mar 26, 2013
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Florida
Pretty much dominated that game. Wish Sharp hadn't missed that last shot though. I would be pretty shocked if he didn't make Team Canada this year.
 
zac

zac

Registered User
Apr 29, 2009
8,484
42
Marina said:
Pretty much dominated that game. Wish Sharp hadn't missed that last shot though. I would be pretty shocked if he didn't make Team Canada this year.
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No pretty much about it. 5-2 and it shouldn't have even been that close, 1 goal given up at the most and 1-2 more we should have had. We skated well, passed well, and defended well. Good game all the way around.

He makes some mistakes, but I really like Kostka as our 6th dman. Unless Roszival plays better down the stretch, I'd really like him to be our "full time" 6th dman.
 
zac

zac

Registered User
Apr 29, 2009
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TwistedWrister90 said:
The turnaround from Florida to Chicago has been amazing. And a cap hit of only $2.2m. What a find by Bowman.

Would have been nice to see Sharp get the hat trick. He's been a beast on breakaways/shootouts this year. Kane could have had a hat trick as well.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a dumb trade in that it really wasn't necessary and wasn't filling a team need. Now? Versteeg has far exceeded my expectations and is proving to be a solid pick up. His effort, which was my biggest "fear", hasn't been questionable at all.
 
IU Hawks fan

IU Hawks fan

They call me IU
Dec 30, 2008
28,649
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NW Burbs
zac said:
I thought it was a dumb trade in that it really wasn't necessary and wasn't filling a team need. Now? Versteeg has far exceeded my expectations and is proving to be a solid pick up. His effort, which was my biggest "fear", hasn't been questionable at all.
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That's 1 thing that's great about hockey. You can always improve because you get to play 4 of every FWD position and 3 of each D position each game. So it's less what do you 'need' and more where can we improve we just 'want'. So while 2C might be seen as a need, increased depth is always better than just not increasing depth.

That said, I don't know how you could've ever called it a 'dumb trade'. If you have any understanding of the pipeline you'd know that Olsen and Hayes were just never gonna cut it here.
 

CPHawksFan

That's Hockey Baby!!
Jun 17, 2011
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Crown Point, IN
zac said:
I thought it was a dumb trade in that it really wasn't necessary and wasn't filling a team need. Now? Versteeg has far exceeded my expectations and is proving to be a solid pick up. His effort, which was my biggest "fear", hasn't been questionable at all.
Click to expand...

He still floats from time to time, but I've been really impressed by his passing and vision...he finds open shooters and I like the chemistry he and Kane have established.
 
zac

zac

Registered User
Apr 29, 2009
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IU Hawks fan said:
That's 1 thing that's great about hockey. You can always improve because you get to play 4 of every FWD position and 3 of each D position each game. So it's less what do you 'need' and more where can we improve we just 'want'. So while 2C might be seen as a need, increased depth is always better than just not increasing depth.

That said, I don't know how you could've ever called it a 'dumb trade'. If you have any understanding of the pipeline you'd know that Olsen and Hayes were just never gonna cut it here.
Click to expand...

It was dumb if you thought Versteeg still wasn't 100% (me), was playing with questionable effort (me), and thought we had players that could provide comparative value for a fraction of the salary. With the amount of young players we have in our stable that are NHL ready, and in some cases, should be receiving playing time as it is I didn't think it was a great trade at the time.

I didn't think it was bad, just not very helpful. So far, Stan is looking very good on this one.
 
zac

zac

Registered User
Apr 29, 2009
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CPHawksFan said:
He still floats from time to time, but I've been really impressed by his passing and vision...he finds open shooters and I like the chemistry he and Kane have established.
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He works very well with Kane, that much is certain.
 

CertainAffinity*

Guest
http://www.extraskater.com/game/2013-12-23-devils-blackhawks

This game was domination all right, but that 4th line continues to be an issue and simply does not seem good enough to be a legit shutdown line. Kruger is trying his best, bless his heart, but he can only do so much strapped with a promising rookie and a complete slug.

The Hawks as a team controlled possession for roughly 70% of the game. The Bollig line got crushed, AGAIN, and only had the puck 40% of the time. And it wasn't even against the top line on the Devils (which, of course, isn't exactly a widowmaker of a top line when you consider the other top lines around the league).

There are two options here as far as I can tell:

1) The top line, which obliterates every team in possession, starts taking some share of the shut-down duty, particularly against the top-end teams. This would basically be akin to how the Hawks play Toews in the playoffs, using him to nullify the other guys' best players and hopefully score while doing so... only he wouldn't be doing it every single game, or even every single shift every game.

For the record, this is pretty much what happened tonight. Q sent out the Toews line against the Jagr/Zajac line and they were completely neutralized.

2) Lineup changes. Move Kruger up to the third line center position and turn that into a shutdown line of Saad/Kruger/Bickell. Move Shaw down to the 4th line to play with Smith and Bollig and use the 4th line in a traditional energy-line role. Shaw would still get minutes on the PP.
 
rtr1105

rtr1105

1995 • 2000 • 2003
Jan 26, 2013
1,371
18
New Jersey, USA
Devils fan here. Just wanted to congratulate you guys on the win. It definitely looks like we could be seeing a Stanley Cup repeat this year.

Another kind of random thing I noticed is that Nick Leddy really flies under the radar. He impressed me tonight. I noticed him make some nice breakout passes and his goal was pretty nice too.
 
Chris Hansen

Chris Hansen

THESE LEGS ARE FRESH
Aug 17, 2007
10,535
0
Smith and Kruger are more than fine. It's Bollig who drags that line down, and pretty damn far at that. He needed to be off of it before the season even started.

For what it's worth, though, fourth lines always get out-possessed. It's not really a great metric to judge their effectiveness by.
 

Nothingman*

Guest
Chris Hansen said:
Smith and Kruger are more than fine. It's Bollig who drags that line down, and pretty damn far at that. He needed to be off of it before the season even started.

For what it's worth, though, fourth lines always get out-possessed. It's not really a great metric to judge their effectiveness by.
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This is true. But for some reason Q loves him. Morin or my gas grill is better in his slot on the 4th line.
 
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