Mid-Week Musings

Posting this in the middle of the trade deadline isn’t a great idea, but here I am. I wanted to air out some thoughts before Friday when the trade deadline hits at 2pm CT. Not that trade deadlines are as exciting as they used to be. I don’t mind getting Elliotte Friedman notifications that make me go “hmm, that was interesting.”

I’ll take a look at what the Hawks have done so far today as well as taking a look at the technical side of things.

Trade Talk

• The Hawks made a move today. Anthony Beauvillier was traded to the Predators in return for a 5th-round pick in this year's draft. Beauviller carries a $4.15mil cap hit and the Hawks did not retain any of it. The Hawks originally traded a 5th-round pick to the Canucks to acquire Beauvillier in an attempt to reinforce an injury-ridden roster back in November. The 26-year-old had 4 goals and 14 points in 45 games while playing on both teams. His Hawks total was only 2 goals and 4 assists in 23 games with some time spent injured as well.
• Beauvillier spent some time up on the first line with Bedard and didn’t do much other than a couple of turnovers. He spent his last game as a Blackhawk on the 4^th line. I didn’t see him getting traded only because I assumed no one was interested. But I guess he has ties with Preds GM Barry Trotz who coached him on the Islanders.
• Boris Katchouk was also placed on waivers today. This is most likely for him to make the playoffs in Rockford. The Zach Sandford move to place him on waivers also makes sense now. Expect some paper transactions soon to allow some players to be eligible to play with the pigs.

What are they doing?

Breaking down the tactics of anything the Hawks are doing is pretty… dull. It’s bad hockey and it doesn’t matter (I say that a lot here). The Hawks play such a simple form of hockey and the tactics will change once they’re competitive anyways.

Folks, it's not getting better this season (or the next, realistically).

One thing I hear a lot is that the offense needs to get set up in the OZ and cycle the puck more often. There are a couple problems with this. 1 - They aren't wrong. The Hawks rarely maintain long enough possession to initiate a cycle. 2 - The trend has been that when the Hawks do cycle, they tend to overcycle.

Let's not overthink things here.

The problem is that the Hawks players are not talented enough. This can be applied to any tactical situation on the ice and we can slam the book closed. End of story. We suck.

When the Hawks do cycle the puck, it's usually followed by a turnover or really bad passing. If there's a passing lane or a shooting lane, instead of taking that opportunity, at times they endlessly cycle. This gives the defenders time to set up tight defense as there aren't any players who are a threat without the puck (other than Bedard, who defenders just smother until a turnover happens).

In the above picture, a good cycle has F1 drawing the blue defender out of position. This frees up F2 to make a pass to the F3 who's in the slot. If there are no lanes, F2 can cycle the puck again and F3 follows through. It shouldn't take more than 2 cycles, or else it's been too long.

Cycles need to be quick and short. Not long and drawn out. Draw the defender out of position, open up a lane, move the puck. The Avs did a great job of outcycling the Hawks out of position because our defenders love to puck watch. The Hawks have zero threat to even tempt puck watching.

What the Hawks can do now, other than not sucking, is to limit their cycling and work the puck low-to-high. Working the puck low-to-high stretches the OZ and creates space, useful for those pesky tight defenses.

Again, assuming the Hawks are momentarily blessed with talent to pull off a basic hockey play.