Weekend Recap: Hawks win 1 and lose 1
Win number 1 is out of the way.
While CHSN is still figuring itself out, the Hawks got a win against Edmonton (double checks notes) and an OT loss against the Jets. Throw in a Bears win in the land of the Red Coats and you have yourself a pretty nice weekend. And for those who are fans of pork-based hockey, Rockford started their season with a bang.
Hawks 1 - Jets 2 OT Loss
Just a heads-up, these aren’t as in-depth as I’d normally like them to be. I didn’t go the extra mile with certain numbers or include any clips. It’s a busy month for me but enjoy!
The Hawks looked much better in this one. Especially a certain goaltender.
The Hawks didn’t get their sleep start. They looked good right from the start. The Jets owned even strength possession in the 1st with a 60.87 Corsi, but sound defensive positioning and good goal-tending helped the Hawks. The second period actually saw the Hawks with solid possession numbers, a 62.96 Corsi at even strength.
Shots on goal were much more level than shot attempts. In the first period, the Hawks had 6 to the Jets 7 shots. The Hawks also had better shot quality with an expected goals for of .94.
The forecheck was on point.
Wyatt Kaiser looked solid. I wish Nolan Allan was playing over TJ Brodie, who actually looked good analytically. Would rather have the young kids play together.
Arvid Soderblom held his own behind a much better defense. Soderblom held a 1-0 lead after Ryan Donato scored late in the second. I was honestly more invested in getting Arvid a shutout win than the Hawks winning this one. Of course, Mark Scheifele would score with 64 seconds to go in the game. Scheifele would also score the winner right away in OT.
Soderblom finished with a .943 SV% and saved 33 of 35 shots on goal. Not Bad.
Hawks 5 - Oilers 2
They continued their sound defensive positioning from the previous game with some excellent goal-tending in the form of Petr Mrazek (more on him later). If their last game lacked offensive punch, this one made up for it.
Connor Bedard had an excellent game. His fancy stats don’t make it look like that as the Oilers played better at 5v5 than the Hawks.
For as sound as the Hawks looked, they found offense in their powerplay. Scoring on all 3 and actually looking good while doing it. Of course, there are still some question marks surrounding Pat Maroon being on the second PP unit.
Mrazek for sure kept the Hawks in this one. The Oilers could have scored on a couple and changed the way this game went. But the fact that Mrazek is off to a good start is nice. Let’s just stay healthy.
Teuvo Terevainen and Bedard should never split up for the rest of the season. Those two are just so good together.
Looking at the numbers by themselves, you see that the Oilers looked a lot better than the Hawks in terms of possession numbers. Also, the Hawks’ 3 goals coming in the powerplay are also going to skew the numbers a bit. Sprinkle in a great showing by Mrazek and you have what looks to be a lopsided game when in reality it wasn’t.
With a 1-1-1 record, it’s nice to not start the season with a losing streak. The one win against a Stanley Cup Finalist is also a pretty nice feeling. But let’s remember who this team really is. It’s 3 games and 1 win. Let’s let this breathe a little.
The Pig Pen
The IceHogs opened the season on Saturday against the Grand Rapids Griffins with a 4-1 win. Colton Dach, Kevin Korchinski, and Samuel Savoie all scored. Frank Nazar got an assist on Savoie’s goal. Korch’s goal, by the way, is worth checking out.
In other Hog news, Bryan Bickell will be added to the IceHogs ring of honor.
Their next game is Friday at 7PM in the first of back-to-back games against the Admirals.
The Week Ahead
The Hawks have two games they should get wins out of and one game that could go either way. Calgary just shared in the early season beat-down of the Oilers, but they are expected to be bad this season. The Sharks are pretty level to where the Hawks are at. They have more of their young forwards at the NHL, but the Hawks have more experience in their lineup.
And the Sabres? Who knows what will happen there. We could go to OT, or Buffalo could try to turn around their slow-ish start. Keep in mind, that they still have a whole week to get through.
Other than that, you probably won’t hear from me after this week! I’ll be on an island baking in the sun. I’ll post until Thursday and then I’ll be out for just over a week.
Trash Bin
For all things not Hawks related.
A Week Or So In… Shenghai
There’s a lot of skate parts for me to catch up on from the past few days. So expect some more skate talk until I disappear in some tropical island. Today we have RDS’s “A Week Or So In… Shenghai.”
Really cool spots, great filming, and some absolute hammers were dropped.
SOTY Talk
No, this hasn’t been released yet. But New Balance’s Intervals should be premiering sometime soon. Whenever that does release, it’ll probably lock in Jaimie Foy for Skater of the Year. But who are we kidding, Foy is basically locked in for SOTY anyways. He’ll be the fourth person to win the award twice. For those who don’t know, SOTY is the only award in skateboarding that matters. Thrasher has been doing the award for 34 years.