Broken and Unreadable

Table of Contents

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

Before we dive into the week the Hawks had, here's some house-keeping stuff.

I'm creating a "bite-sized" version of the blog for my Instagram. If you don't like reading or you don't want to read all of this (and I don't blame you), worry not friend. I'm putting all the highlights in nice little slides so you can see how the Hawks did but with pretty pictures.

My Instagram is EatTheHatchet. That's where I'm active most and interact with people.

Also, looking to have the next Playbook out soon. Starting things super basic (more offensive zone observations). I want to start isolating specific players next. With the way the Hawks play, they make it difficult for content beyond pointing out the obvious. They play basic hockey and are bad at it.

Now, how did the Hawks look this week?

Weekly News

All L's. They lost every single one of them and scored a total of 3 goals.

The only reason why they aren't at the bottom is because the Sharks are complete trash.

For our beloved Hawks, we officially got word that Connor Bedard will be out 6-8 weeks. This means he'll miss the All-Star game and won't be dressed as a Dorito Bag.

On Jan. 9, the Hawks sent Louis Crevier back to Rockford. He had 3 assists in 13 games and was on the ice for 5 goals and 13 goals against (5v5). His expected goals for percentage (xGF) was 5.05 and his expected goals against (xGA) percentage was 9.95.

Taylor Raddyish and Joey Anderson returned to the lineup from their injuries on Jan. 9.

Corey Perry met with Gary Bettman and received his blessing to play in the NHL. He was never not eligible to play and no details have emerged as to what happened. We'll see if the NHLPA appeals anything because there's speculation that his actions weren't worthy of a contract termination. Late January is the deadline for an appeal.

Nike Foligno received a contract extension of 2 years with a $4.5mil AAV. There's no doubt that this is an overpayment. Even so, it's still not a bad thing as the Blackhawks need to hit the cap floor later this year.

Will we see him get a C? I hope so. I like him.

Some don't.

Seth Jones finally recovered and returned to the lineup to play against the Stars on Jan. 13. I talk about his stats below.

Finally, during the Stars game, Kyle Davidson answered some questions during the first intermission. Second City has a good summary at the end of their game notes.

Basically, don't expect the Hawks to be active during the trade deadline. KD is looking for some continuity. I'm not sure Jason Dickinson or Petr Mrazek would fetch anything worthwhile. Mrazek has been solid, and the goalie market is pretty sparse, however, the Hawks need something in net that isn't Swiss cheese.

He also had some thoughts on Alex Vlasic:

On to the games.

Game Recaps

All games go back to last Monday (1/1). Stats are from Natural Stat Trick. A glossary of advanced stats terms can be found here.

Hawks vs Oilers 1/9
2-1 Hawks Lose

The Hawks lost to an Oilers team who was hot off of a 7 game-winning streak. The good out of this game was the way the Hawks played. They outshot the Oilers and looked better than them in regards to fancy stats and the ol’ reliable eye test.

A win would have been a great reward for the effort they played.

On to the notes.

• The Hawks put 26 shots on net to the Oilers 15. The Hawks also had a 53.95 CF% and 62.12% of expected goals. The Oilers were only up 1 but I’m not so sure we can chalk these numbers up to the Oilers protecting a lead. The Oilers looked sloppy and the Hawks were scrappy.
• Mrazek had a strong start throughout the game. He only faced 15 shots and saved 2 (with 2 other goals being wiped off the board), however, he displayed skill in the net that is sure to have garnered the attention of GM Ken Holland. (Trade bait?)
• Dickinson scored the lone goal for the Hawks. He had a pretty decent game and could have gotten another goal. He had 3 shots on goal, 4 shot attempts, and 2 scoring chances. I really hope the Hawks decide to keep him because he looks like a decent bottom 6 center.

• Philipp Kurashev had a strong game. He played his heart out at the end to make a kick save which prevented an empty net goal. He had 4 shots on goal, 9 shot attempts, and 3 scoring chances.
• Kevin Korchinski looked hungry. He’s getting better at taking more shots instead of opting to pass. He had 2 shots on goal and 7 shot attempts.
• Vlasic gets my star of the game. He didn’t provide a lot of shots, but that’s not his style. He showcased his breakout ability, drove deep in the OZ with the puck to kick-start possession, and shut down a lot of plays. I am very excited to see his career play out.
• There are a lot of players who made me do a double-take (Blackwell, Zaitsev, Donato, to name a few). Rem Pitlick debuted for the Hawks and he had some good looks.

Hawks @ Jets 1/11
Hawks Lose 2-1

The Hawks played another game in which they played a lot better than the roster looks. The Hawks were somehow able to not only hang on to a 1-0 lead for most of the game, they also did an excellent job of shot suppression for most of the night. Other than that, there's not a whole lot to say about this one.

• 5v5, the Hawks had 41.58% of shot attempts (aka Corsi For), and finished with 21 shots on goal for and 28 against (all strengths). Their best effort was surprisingly the second period, which is when they normally shut down. They suppressed the Jets to only 6 shots on goal while putting 10 shots on net.

• Mrazek got the number 1 star of the game. He stood on his head and made some awesome saves. It's a shame they didn't get him a W. He saved 26 shots of 28 for a .929 SV%.
• Colin Blackwell had another decent night with 6 shot attempts and 4 shots on goal.
• Connor Murphy's goal was generated off of a great play by Lukas Reichel. Speaking of Reichel, beyond his assist, he's pretty quiet on the statsheet. 0's across the board, and that includes shot attempts and shots. On the ice, he looked good (aka, "the eye test"), however, the statsheet is telling the real story here.
• 15th straight for losing on the road.

Moving on to the next game. (Checks schedule) Dallas...again?

Hawks vs Stars 1/13
3-1 Hawks Lose

Seth Jones returned to the lineup tonight.

The Hawks had another surprisingly decent effort against a much better team. There were two near goals when the puck dribbled near the goal line on two separate occasions. If those had gone in this might be a different game.

Before I hit the notes, I want to take a look at Jones' play tonight. Obvious caveat, this was his first time on the ice since being injured (Jones apologists, ready your weapons). I thought he looked bad. That's my opinion. I think he's at fault for one goal against. He put the Hawks in jeopardy with a penalty in the 1st. He watched a puck almost go in the empty net (Kurashev would have tried to play goalie again). And I thought he looked slow (which he was always slow).

But how do the stats line up against my eye test?

In all situations, Jones had 4 shots on goal, 7 shot attempts (tied for highest with Raddysh), 2 rebounds created (highest), 1 giveaway, 1 takeaway, and 4 blocked shots.

His fancy stat numbers are as follows. At 5v5, he had a 53.66 CF%, a team-high expected goals-for of 1.16, an expected goals-against of .32, and an expected goals share percentage of 78.25% (which is good).

Ok. So maybe my eyes were cherry-picking the bad moments of his game. The stats say he had a large positive impact on the team in this one-game sample.

How'd the other guys do?

• Lone goal came from Boris Katchouk after a nice Zach Sanford breakaway.

• The Hawks did very well in the 2nd period. (hmmm, a positive trend?) They had a 59.56 CF% and 20 scoring chances in that period alone. They finished with owning 51.89% of all shot attempts at 5v5. That might not look great but consider the current Hawks roster and their opponent.
• You already know that I am going to be praising Vlasic's game. He looked solid despite a couple of mistakes. He had a very strong 1st period which included an awesome short-handed chance. He's made a few of those rush attempts this season. If he was able to score and finish, I could confidently say that he is a strong candidate as a top-pairing defenseman. The good news is that he's still incredibly young and has so much development left.
• Vlasic's stat line is an expected goals share percentage of 78.78% (5v5), on the ice for 3 goals against, he had 2 shots on goal, 5 shot attempts, and 2 takeaways.

This is another loss where the Hawks played decent but could not finish on any of their chances.

Sickbay

• Taylor Hall – Knee/Out for season
• Andreas Athanasiou – Lower body/week-to-week
• Samuel Savoie – Femur/Out for the season
• Lukas Philp – Achilles/6 months
• Tyler Johnson - Undisclosed/Unknown
• Anthony Beauvillier - Wrist/unknown
• Connor Bedard - Jaw/6-8 weeks
• Nick Foligno - Finger/unknown

Week Ahead

• 1/18 vs Sharks 7:00
• 1/19 @ Sabres 6:30
• 1/21 vs Islanders 7:30

DirtyThird
Let's Go Hawks