The Blackhawks did what they needed to do yesterday at the UC—beat a struggling team at home. And there were additional encouraging signs in the 4-1 win.
Here we sit, at the halfway point of the 2017-18 NHL season, and the once mighty Blackhawks are a point out of a wildcard playoff spot at 20-15-6. We’ll have a more comprehensive first half breakdown here on The-Rink.com in the next couple of days, but let’s summarize by saying this:
20-15-6 and 11th in the conference is not anything any should feel good about. And yet, at the same time, there are some hidden positives.
First, the Hawks have played 19 games at home (where’s they’ve been a strong 11-6-2) and 22 on the road. Second, while Patrick Kane’s line (with Nick Schmaltz at either center or left wing) has been, meh, as you’d expect,mostly good all season, perhaps more importantly for the team’s fortunes, the Jonathan Toews line has been showing some signs of life of late.
It was The Kane-Schmaltz line that opened the scoring, with schmaltz niftily retrieving a puck from a scrum to the left of Oiler goalie Cam Talbott and tucking the puck through Talbott’s 5-hole. 1-0 Chicago.
Not too much later, Alex “El Gato” Debrincat took a wild shot from the goal line to Talbott’s right that caromed in off an Oiler defender. 2-0.
Shots in the first period were 15-11 Chicago, but the Oilers had two high quality chances close in, one for Connor McDavid, the other for Patrick Maroon, both of which were ably shut down by Anton Forsberg, playing for the first time in a couple of weeks.
Each team tallied a goal in the second period. The Oilers beat Forsberg on what was a sift goal when Darnell Nurse redirected a slow shot that slipped past the Hawk netminder. Forsberg was otherwise rock solid in the game, stopping 32 shots, and earning first star. 2-1 Hawks.
The Hawks stretched the lead back out to two goals late in the period when Jonathan Toews, made a power move through the slot, fending off an Oiler defender with one arm, and pushing the puck toward the net with the other. Brandon Saad was there to fire the puck home. 3-1 Chicago.
The scoring ended in the third period, when the Toews line struck again. This time, Toews and Saad simply wore down two quality defenders in Nurse and Kris Russell with relentless low cycle, leading finally to a Jordan Oesterle wrister past Talbott, 4-1 Chicago.
That was the game, a needed pick-me-up after a disappointing 5-4 home loss to Vegas on Friday, where most observers felt the Hawks were simply outworked. The bigger stories, perhaps, were these:
- a strong outing for Forsberg, who had to be wondering, at least a bit, whether he was going to end up a footnote in the Cinderella story of Jeff Glass. As excited as some of the throng got about Glass, Forsberg simply makes it look a lot easier, because he’s bigger in his net and doesn’t flop around like a fish in the crease.
- The resurgence of the Toews line. This was the second strong game in a row for this line. As much as I have my doubts about Vince Hinostroza as a consistent top 6 player in the NHL, his speed and energy create opportunities when used correctly. Which means—getting past opposing defenders, dishing the puck to Saad or Toews and letting them go to work. When he tries to get too cute, like he did with a blind drop pass later in the game yesterday that ignited an Oiler odd-man break, not so much. But another big reason for this line’s success of late seems to be that Czech rookie David Kampf is now taking a lot of the draws on penalty kills and that is taking harder minutes off of Toews, within each game and over time.
- A better defensive showing. The Hawks protected the house better in this game than they did against Vegas, when a hapless Glass was basically shelled for 40+ shots. Jan Rutta made a particularly nice play, negating a prime Oiler chance.
The Hawks hit the road in Ottawa Tuesday night. We’ll have a preview then, and more in the meantime.
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