Appetite for Destruction

Table of Contents

• Weekly News
• Game Recaps
• Sick Bay
• Week Ahead

Welcome back to another week of Blackhawks news. It's been a dark one so let's rip the bandaid off and get right into it.

Weekly News

The Hawks made history this week by setting a new record of 20 straight consecutive road losses. They did so by getting shutout in 4 of their last 6 games. I detail this amazing story in the Game Recaps below.

Connor Murphy was officially placed on Injured Reserve (IR) with a groin injury on Jan. 22. That same day we also found out that the Blackhawks would not be getting a rep at the All-Star game for the first time in franchise history.

I'm ok with that. Sure it hurts ratings because the Hawks would draw a lot of viewers. But I doubt that a lot of people would be tuning in anyway to see Jason Dickinson. Dickinson has had a good season, but he's no All-Star. Not that the title of All-Star means much anyway.

Petr Mrazek resigned for 2 years with a 4.25mil Average Annual Value (AAV). Yes, it's an overpay again. But that's the point.

Mrazek is having a good season, and he could be traded for something at the deadline. But Kyle Davidson already has draft capital and having a decent goalie in net lets the prospect goalies develop.

I'm good with the signing.

Samuel Savoie was taken off of the Injured Reserved list. He broke his femur way back in the pre-season. Savoie is an interesting prospect because beat writers like making comparisons of him to Andrew Shaw.

Speaking of beat writers, check out this story on why the Hawks should keep Joey Anderson. Bleak season, huh?

Wyatt Kaiser was placed in concussion protocol on Jan. 27 while playing with Rockford. In the 15 games he's had with the Ice Hogs he has 3 points.

Let's get into this week's games. I'm sure you're dying to catch up on how the Hawks did.

Spoiler. They lost all four games.

Game Recaps

Stats are from Natural Stat Trick. Link for a glossary of terms.

Hawks @ Canucks 1/22
Hawks lose 2-0
Hawks SOG - 31 Canucks SOG - 29
Hawks PP - 0/5 Canucks PP - 0/3

The Canucks are good.

Remember when there was a rivalry between these two? That was fun, wasn't it?

Despite the Canucks looking solid out there, the Blackhawks were able to hold their own for most of the night. They had some close chances that should have gone in. But Thatcher Demko wouldn't allow it.

The only scoring came from the Canucks as Demko notched his 5th shutout of the season.

Pious Suter took advantage of some poor defensive work from rookies Isaak Phillips and Louis Crevier. The goal was scored 1:47 into the game.

The second goal would come a few minutes later when Quinn Hughes displayed why he's an amazing player. It was also off of some defensive mistakes from the rookie pairing again. Crevier and Phillips would be separated after this one.

• The Canucks dominated 5v5 play owning 60.47% of shot attempts.
• Hawks only had 5 giveaways while the Canucks had 12. That's some sloppy hockey for Vancouver.
• I thought the Hawks had a lot of high-danger chances. They had 14 while the Canucks had 20.
• Alex Vlasic played very well. He logged 24:57 minutes of ice time and although he didn't put any numbers on the statsheet, it's the little things that he does. He shuts down offense and makes smart plays. When he was on the ice the Hawks had a 75.57 expected goals share percentage.
• I don't think there's anything to dig out Crevier's poor game. He shouldn't be here and that's not his fault. He had a 28.13 Corsi, if you were wondering.

Hawks @ Kraken 1/24
Hawks lose 6-2
Hawks SOG - 34 Kraken SOG - 28
Hawks PP - 1/3 Kraken PP - 0/3

Number 18. That's how many consecutive road games this team has lost.

On Wednesday night the Hawks lost to a Kraken team looking to snap a 4 game losing streak of their own. The Hawks outperformed them as far as stats go. They just couldn't finish on chances or have solid goaltending in Arvid Soderblom.

Scoring kicked off with Jared McCann scoring 4:34 into the first, his 19th of the season as the Kraken's leading goal-scorer.

Jaden Schwartz would put another puck in at the 7:12 mark.

Seth Jones would shoot the puck and Anderson tipped it in to make it 2-1. I thought Jones got his second goal of the season.

The 2nd period saw 2 Kraken goals, the first coming 15 seconds into the start by Alex Wennberg. Brandon Tanev would make it 4-1 towards the end of the period.

Nick Foligno would make it 4-2 39 seconds into the third, putting the game within reach. However, Tomas Tatar would erase that hope 4 minutes later. He would score again at the 16:22 mark to finish the scoring at 6-2,

• Overall, the Hawks played with the heart we saw under Luke Richardson's watch last season. They just couldn't finish. Ryan Donato's 2-on-0 chance was the epitome of this stretch of Hawks hockey. Donato would finish the game with 7 shot attempts and 4 shots on goal. No points.

• The Hawks finished the 1st period with a decent stretch of hockey. They finished the period with a 62.86% Corsi at 5v5. They would finish the game with 70 shot attempts in all situations. The Kraken would finish with 58.
• The defense was pretty bad with a lot of breakdowns giving the Kraken space. There was a good shift by the Kraken in which they just cycled the puck and wore out the Hawks. The Hawks expected goals against at 5v5 was only 1.9. Instead, they let in 6 goals. Which leads me to my next point.
• Soderblom is pretty bad. On the postgame CHGO show they said he is dead last (44) for all goalies with over 1000 min. of game time in regards tp goals saved above average (GSAA). He's let in about 17 goals that the average goaltender should save. Tonight, he stopped 22 of 28 for a .793Save Perventage%.
• Of course Soderblom not having a good defense in front of him doesn't help things. But this is why you need a good goalie in net for the young defense. You want someone who can make saves and prevent the rookie defenders from going into cardiac arrest.
• Vlasic had a rough night with some good flashes. But mostly bad. He was on the ice for 4 goals against. Granted, one of those was purely bad luck.
• Jones looked good tonight (minus the own goal). He was very active in the OZ and had 9 shot attempts, 3 shots on goal, and 2 assists. He pairs very well with Vlasic.

Hawks @ Oilers 1/25
Hawks lose 0-3
Hawks SOG - 27 Oilers SOG - 34
Hawks PP - 0/0 Oilers PP - 1/1

Still reading? Oh boy.

The Hawks notched their 6th shutout this season, 3rd of the month, and continued their losing streak on the road to 19 games. Good enough to tie a 2004 record of 19 straight.

The first goal came on an Edmonton powerplay by Connor McDavid. The call garnered some criticism but it was a good call.

It's not a goal, but MacKenzie Entwhisle had some chances tonight. He was penalized on a breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot. He shot it right into Calvin Pickard's logo, which made for something of interest.

In the third period, McDavid set Zach Hyman up for a nice goal. The only Oilers 5v5 goal of the night.

The final goal was an empty netter by McDavid.

• The Hawks hung in there but they lack the offensive talent to finish. Corsi favored the Oilers. 57 shot attempts for the Oilers and 43 for the Hawks.
• No one on the Hawks stood out except for Entwhistle's chances. The only thing that this proves is that he's a fourth-liner. His stats were 5 shot attempts, 3 shots on goal, and 4 scoring chances.
• Quick observation, Kevin Korchinski made a really nice stretch pass that led to a chance.
• Lukas Reichel. Welcome back to the game after sitting 2 games in the doghouse. You really must have had a lot of fire to prove your worth, right? 1 shot on goal and 1 shot attempt. Look, he's in his head and it's clear the coaching staff doesn't know what to do with him. It's not their fault, it's hard to "fix" that. Reichel needs to have an amazing post-All-Star break comeback. If not, we can expect him to be on a 1-year deal. If during next season there is no improvement whatsoever, that's when the plug should be pulled.
• Vlasic had a 55.56 CF% in 5v5 situations. He had a solid night.

Hawks @ Flames 1/27
Hawks lose 0-1
Hawks SOG - 32 Flames SOG - 31
Hawks PP - 0/2 Flames PP - 1/2

The Hawks decided to break their record of 19 straight road losses with their 20th consecutive loss. That's also 4 shutouts in 6 games.

If you're watching this team every night, no one should ever question your dedication to this team.

You should, however, question your mental health.

The first and only goal would come from pending free agent Elias Lindholm who would score on the power play.

Right before he scored that goal, I thought the Hawks looked good on the PK.

• Boris Katchouk had himself two breakaways but couldn't finish. Again, this highlights what this team is right now. Which is a team of bottom-6 forwards.
• Taylor Raddysh led the forwards in ice time with 20:42 minutes. This probably makes you question some of Richardon's choices, and rightfully so. He had 5 shots on goal and 8 shot attempts.
• On Luke Richardson, I give him credit for this team trying its hardest to make something happen. They played with heart and had a 62.85% share of expected goals in the first period. The players just can't finish because most of them shouldn't be in the NHL.
• Reichel had some nice plays including a solid drive to the net. That was about it though. He finished the game with 1 shot on goal and 1 shot attempt.
• At 5v5 the Hawks were somewhat holding their own in terms of Corsi. They would finish the game owning 49.33% of shot attempts.
• Below is a highlight of Phillips with a great play.

Sick Bay

• Taylor Hall – Knee/Out for season
• Andreas Athanasiou – Lower body/week-to-week
• Samuel Savoie – Femur/ CLEARED as of Jan. 26.
• Lukas Philp – Achilles/6 months
• Tyler Johnson - Undisclosed/Unknown
• Anthony Beauvillier - Wrist/unknown
• Connor Bedard - Jaw/6-8 weeks
• Connor Murphy - Lower Body/day-to-day
• Nikita Zaitsev - Knee/unkown

Week Ahead

Next game is Wed., Feb 7.

I'll be putting up a blog post this week even though it's the All-Star break. I might do a post focusing on Alex Vlasic.

Let's Go Hawks
DirtyThird