It's Early But, ......

The Hawks have opened the season with three impressive wins over three of the best teams in the Western Conference from a year ago. Although that in itself should raise an eye in terms of the power rankings, it’s the style of play in which they accomplished this, that should make observers take notice. Obviously it's early, but the 4 basic themes that were issues last season, look to be addressed, solidified, and turned around as of now.

1) Goaltending. Still too early to make a call, but last night is exactly the kinda game you can go deep into the playoffs with. Crawford looked confident and stayed upright on most saves, as opposed to his first game when he went to his knees to cover up almost everything. Defensive breakdown not withstanding, I still think he shoulda saved that 1st goal, but the save on Tarasenko alone shows an increased confidence over last year. He played larger than his size in the crease, and was in position to put pads on most shots coming on net. Question remains, can he keep it up, or even get better.

2) Defense. The common consensus with Bowman had been, he seemed to accumulate a lotta number 5-6 caliber defenseman that couldn't cover the flaws in the goaltending, and he likely over paid for them as well. Now I won't argue contrary to that point on Montador, who certainly seems destined to a compliance buyout in June, but the rest of the unit is performing better defensively than in the Cup year. Keith & Seabrook are a given, but the pairing of Hjalmarsson & Oduya has been just as good. Hjalmarsson is playin’ with an aggressive swagger and confidence which has gotta in part come from the steady play from his partner. Shot blocks, poke checks, & swift passes outta trouble have all been apparent with this pairing. Bowman's biggest 'under the radar' move had to be the Rozsival signing which made almost no headlines as it came days before the lock out. Looking back at Rozsival’s role in the playoffs last year with Phoenix, he routinely had top pairing minutes on a team which relied greatly on defense. His pairing with Leddy has allowed the 20 year old, 3^rd year defensemen to develop the confidence that was missing much of last year. Leddy has shown to be consistent and defensively sound these first three games, even with a mental snafu here and there. When he has made the unforced error, his speed and skating ability have allowed him to cover that up.

3) Puck possession. The biggest difference between the 2010 Hawks, and the 2011 & 2012 Hawks had to be the amount of time they held onto the puck. Offense was the main beneficiary of this; but defensive zone breakouts, getting to loose pucks, and odd man breaks were all areas that took the biggest hit in the last couple seasons. Once the skill of players like Campbell, Ladd, Versteeg, and Brouwer were gone, the Hawks had to rely far too much on the top 6 forwards to move the puck as opposed to playing their system. This year has been nothing short of a focused workman-like approach to basics. Get the puck in deep, go to the net, and put shots on goal. With the added defensive depth, contributions of younger guys, and a healthy top 6, they seem to be able to maintain control much more than the last couple years.

4) Special teams. Last year the Hawks power play (15.2%) ranked 26^th out of 30 NHL teams in the regular season. By way of comparison, their penalty kill (78.1%) ranked 27^th out of 30 NHL teams. For the Hawks to have scored the 5^th most goals in the NHL last year, but to have the 26^th ranked power play speaks volumes as to the issues that contributed to their demise. Acknowledging the early nature of the season, these two problem areas seem to be trending in the right direction. At 90% the Hawks penalty kill is currently ranks 5^th, and the power play has improved to just over 23%. One would think with the offensive talent in the top 6 forwards, the power play should be something that will continue to get better, and the early turn around on the PK shows the commitment to the first three aforementioned themes.

The first week of the season has illuminated issues with some teams around the league that would generally be worked out in training camp. Rough starts in Philadelphia, Carolina, Washington, Detroit, Vancouver, LA, & Phoenix all might get resolved in the next few weeks, or might be a pre-cursor to real problems that might contribute to missing the playoffs in a 48 game season. When training camp gets shortened from four weeks to one, and includes no exhibition games, your bound to see rough starts as some clubs work out the kinks. Luckily the Hawks seem to be moving in the right direction from last years issues, ………… and it is still early.

Blackhawk Trades & Buyouts

The next two weeks should give us plenty to ponder in terms of the Hawks roster, and who's on it. First and foremost, the defense is a pretty crowded unit right now. The Hawks return 8 defensemen, and that doesn't count Dylan Olsen. Now anyone can argue that Bowman has assembled a conglomeration of mediocrity, but every one of the 8 are veteran players with plenty of experience. Overlooking pairings for the moment, the Hawks could run out.......

Keith / Seabrook
Hjalmarsson / Oduya
Montador / Leddy
Brookbank / Rozsival

There is also the fact that they have some depth in the minors with Olsen and Bret Lebda. As Bowman took it in the shorts last year for never addressing or acquiring a true no. 2 center, I would guess that's gonna be the 1st order of business via a trade of one or more of those guys. Who goes, who's available, and if Bowman has the stones to make it happen all remain unclear.

Then there's the issue of the 2 compliance buyouts the team will have after the conclusion of this season. These buyouts were one of the more intriguing things to come outta this new CBA, and teams like Vancouver (if they can't unload Luongo prior) had to be doing cartwheels. On the flip side, since burying an NHL contract in the minors will count against the cap, one would guess Olesz's 3.1 mil would be the first buyout. After that there's nothing glaring that the Hawks are harped with, but a case can be made for either Frolik @ 2.3 for 1 year, Oduya 3.3 (2 years), or Montador 2.7 (2 years) could be options if they aren't traded before then.

With the Hawks sitting at 64 mil, and with all teams being allowed to operate up to 70 this year, they seem to be in good shape. Next year however, is when a fire drill of activity should happen league wide as every team scrambles to get down the the 60 mil hard cap. The team actually has about 4 mil in expiring contracts after this year (Stalberg, Mayers, Bickell, Rosival, & Emery), but it's getting creative with those amnesty buyouts that could enable them to pick up some space and land a free agent that just so happened to be bought out by another team trying to make the cap.

Time for the big boy pants Stan.