PIB Blackhawks Report Card: First Midterm
October 26th, 2009 | by jneveau |Jim Neveau, PIB Co-conspirator
It seems like only yesterday that the season kicked off for the Chicago Blackhawks, but in the blink of an eye, the denizens of the Madhouse on Madison have already played 10 games.
They are currently sporting a 6-3-1 record, good for first place in the division, and have some quality wins to their credit, including a franchise record comeback win over the Calgary Flames.
Here at PIB, we would like to present yet another new feature to keep fans in the know. This one is called “The Report Card”, a series in which we will give a report on the team’s performance every ten games or so.
This will be the team’s first quarter midterm report card.
Offense: B
The Blackhawks are currently 13th in the league in scoring, notching 3.2 goals per game. They are also 3rd in the league in shots on goal, averaging 34.1.
Patrick Sharp and Dustin Byfuglien have stood out for the Hawks, each scoring five goals to share the team lead.
This isn't what I meant by "stand out", Buff
The team has gone through some peaks and valleys with scoring so far in the young season, but it has been mostly positive in the goals department. The team’s 55 shot effort against Florida in the opener and the big comeback win against Calgary stand out.
Defense: A-
The Hawks defense is playing very well as a unit. They are allowing 2.5 goals per game, which ranks 6th in the NHL. They are also only allowing 22.4 shots per game, which leads the league.
Duncan Keith is off to a hot start on the blue line, notching a +6 and making the most of his team leading 26:21 TOI. Brent Seabrook also has a +5, and Jonathan Toews leads the team with a +7.
The only area the Hawks may be lacking on the defense is a good enforcer, as both Ben Eager and Adam Burish are sidelined with injuries.
Goaltending: C
Cristobal Huet and Antti Niemi have each gotten a good deal of starts in the early going, but Huet has been the question mark, having two terrible games against Dallas and Calgary, as well as a poor effort against Florida in the opener. He has had good moments though, shutting out Nashville on Saturday, and also stymieing the Avalanche in a shootout win for the home opener.
Niemi has played well in his time in the crease, shutting out the Panthers in Helsinki and protecting the cage well enough to allow the Hawks their comeback win against the Flames. He has made the saves when he needs to, but questions remain as to whether he is consistent enough to warrant being made a starter or at least a co-starter with Huet.
Power Play: C-
The Hawks come out of their first 10 games with a 18.9% success rate, ranking them 16th in the NHL.
Cam Barker and Dustin Byfuglien have each contributed a pair of markers on the man-advantage to share the team lead.
The big issue facing the Hawks on the power play right now is their lack of success on 5-on-3 advantages. They have had at least four such situations so far this year, and have been unable to convert on any of them. For a team to be successful, you have to be able to convert when the other team is reeling, and the Hawks need to show that they can do that. Otherwise, it could become an Achillies’ heel of this franchise.
Penalty Kill: B +
The Blackhawks are currently ranked 8th in the NHL with an 83.8% success rate on the penalty kill.
The unit has been a lot more consistent this season, with John Madden providing much needed veteran leadership in that area of the game, as well as the solid play of Duncan Keith and Toews while a man down.
Duncan Keith (photo property of Pam Rodriguez)
The only thing to be concerned about here is the average rank of the power play units the Hawks have been facing. Yes, they have faced three top-ten units (including the top-ranked Calgary Flames), but they have also faced the 30th ranked Predators twice. The average rank of their opponents’ PP unit is 17th, so the success rate is at least somewhat impacted by the low quality units they have faced.
Standout Player: Duncan Keith, Defenseman
You could try to make a case for Patrick Sharp or Dustin Byfuglien to be in this spot, but Keith has been a dynamic force on both sides of the puck, and that’s why he is PIB’s Standout Player.
He has three goals already this season, including a short-handed tally. He is +6 through the early going, and he is also playing 26:21 a game. Finally, he is getting a lot of opportunities to be on the ice in various situations, as Quenneville has sent him out for an average of 30 shifts per contest.
Now, we’re not saying that Keith is playing for a pay day (he is a restricted free agent at season’s end), but who could argue with the logic of locking him up long-term as soon as possible?
Needs to Step Up Player: Brent Sopel, Defenseman
Ironically, the worst player on the team in the early going also resides on the blue line, and that player is undoubtedly Sopel.
Supporters will point to his 13:22 of ice time per game and say that it’s hard to produce results when you are getting nearly half as much playing time as other defensemen, but when fellow D-man Cam Barker has already got six points (2 G, 4 A) and he only averages 10 seconds more per game than you do, you realize that it’s time to see some results.
Sopel has a pitiful -3 in the early going, as well as a couple measly penalty minutes. Anytime he wants to start earning his $2.5 million salary would be greatly appreciated by many a Hawks fan.
Overall Team Grade: B-
The Hawks have some quality wins on their resume over Colorado and Calgary, but there is still a lot that needs to be fixed with this team. Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane have both cooled off considerably after their hot starts (Sharp has one point in his last four games after notching nine in the first six, and Kane has gone goal-less in five straight games), and need to step back up, especially if Captain Toews is going to be out for more than a game or two.
Also, while Byfuglien has scored five goals, he has also committed a lot of dumb mental errors, including ending two power plays prematurely on Saturday night against Nashville with dumb penalties.
Brian Campbell has also continued his knack for committing costly turnovers, losing the puck to Mikael Samuelsson to allow the game winning goal against the Canucks last Wednesday.
The Hawks are a team struggling with injuries right now, and the mental mistakes will hopefully be ironed out as time progresses. It’s still early in the campaign, but these kind of things have to stop if the team is going to improve on last season’s results.
Tags: Brent Seabrook, Brent Sopel, Brian Campbell, Calgary Flames, cam barker, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Duncan Keith, Dustin Byfuglien, John Madden, Jonathan Toews, Mikael Samuelsson, Nashville Predators, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp
By Nick on Oct 27, 2009
I completely disagree with your idea of Sopel. While he has not been our best offensive defenseman this year he has been stellar in many other areas of the game. He has been phenomenal on the PK, which is a big reason we’ve won some of the games we have. Him and Madden on the PK are a big reason we are where we are. His shot-blocking ability is unrivaled by anyone else on the Hawks, and he’s played well positionally in our own zone. Not every defenseman on the team has to be a powerhouse offensive player in order to contribute. He’s played extremely well, as has all of the Hawks D. The only problems I see are Campbell has coughed it up a couple times, and in general some bad positional play in our zone that has led to some bad goals. I think there’s a couple players on the Offense that are more suspect to the “Has to Step Up” category much more than Sopel does. The ironic thing is that Sopel is the Step up player because of his lack of offensive production. He’s not back there to put up points. That’s Keith’s, Barker’s, and Campbell’s job. Sopel is a PK specialist, a shot block specialist, and a stay-at-home type of defenseman. Why you need his production on the line when you have so much firepower back there already is beyond me. I just think you were trying to come up with some bogus reason to throw Sopel under the bus.
By Capitalist Infidel on Oct 28, 2009
Nick, I agree, Sopel has been a real bright spot! Is he overpaid? Of course but he’s playing his role as best as we could possibly hope for. Blocking shots, logging minutes on the penalty kill, hitting, and playing exceptional positional hockey.
I wonder if the author of the article has ever watched hockey before this year? He then complains that the average pp unit we faced is ranked 17th, I wonder if he knows that there are 30 NHL teams? At the end of the season the average (I know, it’s skewed because we don’t play each team the same amount of times) pp unit we face will be 15th.
By Christopher Ralph on Oct 29, 2009
The thing is – Sopel is the 6th dman making over $2million per yr…while he does contribute on some aspects – shotblocking, etc, He IS the worst dman on the squad – by default – the other 5 are simply head & shoulders above this guy. My main problem is that in today’s NHL, team’s can’t be paying over 2 mil for what he brings to the table. GM Bowman, especially with Hawks cap issues, have to find bargain players to fil these spots.