2013: The NHL season that almost wasn't

"Dave's a mess."

 

Always scary to see, covered him in midget and his first year of junior. Not a fan of the fights off a draw like that, something that happens organically in the game sure, but this is needless. They rushed a little to quickly to get him off the ice, nearly dropped him a couple of times. Should have let him collect his senses better before dragging him off. Less movement is better. Don't want to take any unnecessary risks.

 

Interesting article by Elliote on how analytics are moving into hockey. There are some really interesting sites out there that use advanced stats. It is obviously far more difficult in a sport like hockey compared to baseball which is basically an individual sport, but a lot of these new stats can be useful.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2013/03/nhl-teams-ready-to-embrace-advanced-statistics.html

 

I'm curious about how good the puckheads here think the Blackhawks really are.

Lot of one-goal victories in that streak ...

 

I hate the Blackhawks with every fiber of my being, but I think they are playing on a whole different planet right now.

They do have a lot of one-goal wins, but I think that's even more impressive. There have been several games where they've been down in the third period, and surely some would figure the streak ends now. But then they score a couple of goals to win it, or win in OT or the Shootout, or at least get it to OT to guarantee the point.

I'm not ready to anoint them as the modern day version of some of the great Montreal, Edmonton or Detroit teams from the last 35 years, but they are head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league, IMO.

 

Best team in the league, even after the inevitable flat spot they will hit.
As long as there goaltending is average they are a notch above any team in the league.

 

They've just about lapped the field in goal differential, and that's with only one empty-net goal all season.

They aren't a 94% point percentage team long-term, of course, but they are the best in the league AINEC.

What's really driving them this season is how many of their secondary players took steps forward. It seems like everyone hit their upside overnight.

Guys like Stalberg, Kruger, Crawford, Saad, Shaw, Leddy, Hjarlmarrson. They've all hit the absolute best case of "how good could this guy be?" that you might have thought going into the season.

 

Secondary scoring has been huge, but I cannot emphasize enough the importance of Patrick Kane finding his game again. Since winning the cup in 2010 his point totals have fallen from 88 points in 82 games to 73 in 73 and 66 in 82 last year while his shooting percentage had dropped to 9.1%. This year he has 27 points in 24 games and is shooting percentage has jumped to 18.5%, and all year he has just two penalty minutes. He already has five PPG this season. Last year he had four and in 2010-11 he had five all season.

I haven't heard him being much of a distraction either during the season -- mind you I easily could have missed something in the day to day goings on of the club. I think somebody finally smacked some sense into him after his bullshit this summer.

You can have all of the secondary scoring in the world, but if your best players are dog fucking it, you're screwed, as was the case the last season or so with Kane and the Blackhawks.

As JC mentioned though, as long as the goaltending holds out -- and both Emery and Crawford have been outstanding this year -- they have to be the favourite to win the cup. With every other comparable streak, I believe that team has hoisted Lord Stanley at the end of the season.

 

Yeah, Kane's another guy who has hit his ceiling. You always suspected he had another gear, even when he scored 88, but I was beginning to wonder if he'd ever find it.

It's not just the scoring those secondary guys provide.

Hjarlmarsson and Leddy making big strides means this year's defensemen are better than the Cup year's. Hjarlmarsson/Oduya has been a better pairing than Keith/Seabrook for long stretches. Ledddy's playing like a No. 3 defenseman on the third pairing. They've been able to save a lot of minutes on Keith/Seabrook, too, which will help in the long run.

Kruger's turned into an amazing penalty killer at center. This not only has helped their PK go from a problem to No. 3 in the league, but it's let guys like Toews and Hossa get off the PK and save their legs for regular shifts.

That kind of stuff seems small compared to the superstars, but the Blackhawks have had a ton of it hit all at once. Brunette was an absolute line-killer last season, slowing down whoever he was paired with. Saad replaced him this year and looks like he absolutely belongs in the top-6 of an elite team.

 

NHLPA has agreed to realignment. Let the griping now begin from Florida and the celebrations in Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit and Columbus begin.

 

Splitting up Chicago/Detroit sucks, but I understand why they did it.

 

Around the halfway point of the season, so who would you give the awards to if it ended today?

Hart?

Norris?

Vezina?

Calder?

Jack Adams?