Goalie Controversy?

Ray Emery is set to start again tomorrow against the Sharks. Earlier in the season, when Emery was struggling, he was only set against the "easier" opponents. That's a lenient term because any team can win any night, but coach Q felt more confident with him in net against a weaker offense. Now Emery is being put up against a very good offense. There must be a reasoning behind playing Emery more often, but it may not be exactly what it seems to be. It's true that Crawford has struggled recently. He hasn't has as good of numbers as expected and has started to give up softer goals. Emery has been playing better in the past few games and is actually making a lot of good saves. The obvious conclusion is that Emery is playing more than Crawford because he is better and maybe Q wants to make him the starter similar to what is happening in Vancouver right now. I don't think that's the case, though.

I think that Quenneville knows exactly what he's doing by playing Emery more than Crawford right now. The first thing he's probably thinking is that Crawford could obviously use the rest because earlier in the season Q was afraid to start Emery because he had bad start after bad start. Now that Crawford can actually rest, Quenneville is going to do it as often as he can. The second thing is that he knows Crawford is in a slump, so he is trying to figure out how to get him out of it. When did Crawford play his best last year? When he is fighting for his job. If Emery continues to start continuously, Crawford is going to realize that he has to fight for his job and get with it.

There is no goalie controversy in Chicago, because Emery still isn't the starter. Crawford is the starter and he's a good one. All goalies need rest and by playing Emery more, Emery is getting better and starting to get in a groove. You can argue that by playing both of them equally and maybe even playing Emery more, the Blackhawks goaltending is better than it would be without a "controversy". You could also make the argument that the Blackhawks could have one of the best goalie tandems in the league at the end of the year. Blackhawks fans shouldn't be worried about Corey losing his job right after signing a big contract or becoming like Huet became. Sitting on the bench for a few games is making Crawford better. 

John Scott: Good or Bad?

One of the biggest questions this year is whether or not the increased minutes for John Scott are helping the Blackhawks or not. Last year he played in 40 games in the regular season. So far this season, he has played in 13. Last year penalties were a problem for Scott (he had 72 PIM). This year has been much better so far. He is much more disciplined. This year he only has 4 PIM and has played much cleaner hockey. He isn’t getting caught behind and hooking or slashing someone because he has to make up ground.

Over the offseason, Scott worked on his skating and puck handling. At the beginning of the season, it wasn’t apparent that he worked on anything at all, but he hasn’t looked too terrible lately. He has been on the 3^rd defensive pairing for most of his starts, but got a chance to play forward in Carcillo’s place against the Kings on Saturday. He has played better this season compared to last season, but the stats don’t show it. He is a -2 this season. That isn’t very good.

I’m not a big John Scott supporter, but you have to admit that he has improved his game. Just because that means he improve from being terrible to just being bad doesn’t mean he didn’t improve. If he keeps improving every offseason, he could be a decent player in 5 years. The fact that Quenneville has confidence in him to become a better player might be enough motivation to work hard every offseason in order to play more and more each year.

Scott is getting more and more minutes and has been playing better now that he actually plays a real shift. With a lot of hard work during the offseason, he could become an everyday defenseman. If John Scott could figure out how to skate and use his size right, he could be a great defenseman.

1st Quarter Grades for the Blackhawks

We're one quarter of the way through the season and it's report card team. Which players have gone above and beyond and which ones have disappointed? I'm going to tell you.

Brian Bickell C+
Bickell gets a C+ because he did well earlier this season, but has played terrible hockey lately. He has some great linemates and prove that he could score early in the season. Lately, he looks awful and will likely be replaced by Ben Smith on the third line as soon as Frolik comes back.

Dave Bolland B
Bolland was also very good in the beginning of the season, but has had a few injuries and hasn't produced as much since he's been back. His line was the best one on the team for the first two weeks of the season, but hasn't scored as much since. Bolland is still trolling and being awesome, but doesn't quite get an A because of the injuries and fall off of his line.

Andrew Brunette B-
Brunette was signed to improve the Blackhawks power play, and technically has done that. The Blackhawks power play has struggled, but with 4 power play goals this season, Brunette has improved the power play by getting his butt in front of the goalie and getting some ugly goals.

Daniel Carcillo B+
When Carcillo was brought to the Hawks, many people, including myself, was not on board and thought that he would be a punk that would be suspended most of the time and not really contribute to the team. He has surprised, though, he is now on the second line that is centered by Kane and has been a solid contributor in the top 6. This is much more than people expected, but he doesn't get an A because he has had some bad games including the first game against the Canucks.

Michael Frolik B-
Frolik has played better this year, but still isn't getting the puck in the net. Along with his other linemates, he played well in the beginning of the season. Now he's injured, but should be back soon. With the possibility of a new linemate when he comes back, maybe he will start to produce again.

Marian Hossa B+
Hossa was great with Kane at the beginning of the season, but has been moved up to the first line. He's now with Toews and gets his chances, but hasn't been producing as much. Hossa always plays well and plays hard. I'm really happy that he hasn't had any injuries yet this year.

Patrick Kane A
Kane has adjusted to his new position very well. I was one of the doubters of putting him at center, but he has proved that he plays the position very well. He wins faceoffs, plays defense pretty decently, and dishes out the puck very well. Kane matured and improved his game a lot over the summer and is now a true leader on the Blackhawks. He is probably the player that I'm most impressed with this season.

Marcus Kruger B+
Kruger stepped into the role he was given on the Hawks very well. When Bolland was out, he played well and tried to produce. His efforts kind of killed the momentum of that line, but he still played good hockey. I think he has a lot of potential and the more experience he gets, the better he will be.

Jamal Mayers B+
He's been basically exactly what I expected. He has done well on the fourth line and has gotten in some fights. Him and Carcillo are doing a good job at enforcing and also contributing on offense and playing defense. He's been a nice addition to the Hawks and I'm glad he's here.

Patrick Sharp C+
Sharp got off to a bad start this season, but improved a little bit. I'm still not impressed with what he has done so far this season. Last season he went above the expectations and scored the most goals on the Blackhawks and maybe that's why this season looks so bad, but I just think he is underachieving this year. He can do a lot better than he is doing right now.

Ben Smith A-
With only a few games in the NHL this year, it's hard to say whether he has been good or not. He could have a good chance to produce with good linemates. There will be more to say about Smith after he has some more games under his belt.

Viktor Stalberg A
Stalberg has played much better than I expected this season. He has been playing on the first line and has actually been playing well. He is scoring goals and is accenting Jonathan Toews very well. Toews is being a good captain and center by using Stalbergs strengths, speed, very well. Thanks to Toews, Stalberg has become the player that most Blackhawks fans hoped he could be, but never thought that he would actually become. I am happily surprised by Stalberg this season.

Jonathan Toews A
Toews has played like the Blackhawks captain should. He has played very well both dishing out the puck and scoring. He has 19 points already this season and is 24th in the league in that area. He's been very good helping Stalberg become a much better player as I just mentioned. He's been playing good two-way play, as always and has flat out helped the Hawks win games.

Niklas Hjalmarsson B
Hjalmarsson's normal defensive buddy was not signed for this season and is now playing in Florida. It has shown on the ice, because Hjalmarsson hasn't been playing as well without Campbell there. He struggled with Leddy as his partner and still hasn't found his niche. He is still a good player and will probably get into a groove soon.

Duncan Keith A-
Keith has played some very good games, but has also had some very bad games. He will be back with Seabrook when Seabrook comes back and that might spark Keith's game and get him back to playing his best hockey. Keith is back to playing Norris trophy defense in most of his games. He leads the league in TOI and that sometimes affects his game, but will still be a Norris trophy candidate.

Nick Leddy A
Leddy has been very impressive this season and on certain days, is the best defensive player on the ice. He has improved a lot since last year and is ready to be a top defensemen. Hopefully he can spark Hjalmarsson's game when they start playing together again.

Sami Lepisto B
I can't really give Lepisto an honest grade because I haven't seen him play much. He played a little in the beginning of the season and looked fine. Nothing extremely impressive, but nothing bad. He's been just what the Blackhawks signed him to be. He plays in the third defensive pairing every few games and does his job.

Steve Montador A
Montador has been a pleasant surprise for the Blackhawks. He's a little slow, but has played good defense and has scored some very important goals. He's one of the reasons that the Blackhawks power play is starting to get better than it was before. He might start coming back down to earth soon, but I'm still impressed with the last few games he has played.

Sean O'Donnell C+
I haven't seen much of O'Donnell this season, but what I have seen of him has been bad. One of the biggest showings of his bad play was the first game of the season. It might have been because he was a little rusty, but I wasn't impressed. I haven't seen anything from him this season that should make me happy to have him on the Blackhawks.

John Scott B-
John Scott has been, well, let's just say that he didn't get a C because he has shown flashes of getting better. But he also doesn't deserve anything above a B+. It would take me too much time to explain all my feelings about Scott.

Brent Seabrook B
Seabrook has been playing well this season despite being away from his buddy, Duncan Keith. I think that he'll play better hockey when they are reunited later this week. I'd like to see a little better hockey from Seabrook, but he's basically done a fantastic job this season.

Corey Crawford A
Crawford has been playing amazing this season. He has had to play a lot more than he expected because Emery hasn't been a very reliable backup. There are no signs that he is going through a sophomore slump and he looks like a premier goalie right now. He has had bad nights, but has been a solid goaltender all year.

Ray Emery C-
Emery hasn't played very much this season, but hasn't looked very impressive when he has played. Granted, Emery hasn't had much defensive help when he's between the pipes. I'd like to see how well Emery plays when the defense actually decides to show up, but so far this season I haven't been impressed by Emery's play.

Blackhawks win 5-1 in Vancouver

The Blackhawks played much better in this game against the Canucks. In the beginning, they had troubled getting the puck past Schneider because he was playing so well. The Canucks were actually the first to score, but would not score again for the rest of the night. Andrew Brunette's power play goal tied the game and Kane's power play goal put the Hawks up and they didn't look back from there.

The key in this game was that the power play was working. The efficiency of the power play has been a concern lately, but with the help of Montador and Brunette, the power play has been much better. They showed it last night against the Canucks and hopefully carry that success throughout the whole "circus trip".

The Blackhawks and Canucks rivalry

Over the past few years, the rivalry between the Blackhawks and the Canucks has grown. Last year, the rivalry rose to new heights. You all know the story, the Hawks were down 0-3 and made a great comeback to force game 7. In game 7, Toews had that great goal and then the OT didn't really go as planned. The Canucks "slayed their dragon" and thought that they would win the Stanley Cup as soon as they beat the Blackhawks. Some of the comments after the series against the Canucks made Blackhawks players angry. Stan Bowman went out and signed Dan Carcillo and one of the immediate things that Carcillo addressed in his press conference was that he was going to be going after certain Canucks players.

The Blackhawks essentially accomplished this goal of going after the Canucks players in their first meeting this year. The one thing they forget was that they were playing hockey and had to score goals and play defense. They played terrible in that game and didn't seem like they had the motivation to win. They made it seem like their number one goal was to beat up on the Canucks and just hit them as many times as possible.

I have a plan for the Blackhawks in this game. They need to keep playing hard hitting hockey, but they need to actually play defense and try to score some goals. They shouldn't stop playing tough hockey, because that's one of the reasons they didn't win in the playoff series. Carcillo and Mayers can still get in fights and hit hard into the boards, but they need to play smart hockey. I would love to see Carcillo score. That would honestly mean more to me than Carcillo getting in a fight with Bieksa. I want a Blackhawks win tonight, not a Blackhawks beat-down.

Blackhawks after 10 games

Through the first ten games the Blackhawks look impressive during some games and sloppy during others. Some old problems and some new problems are haunting the Hawks. They still don’t play in the third period when they have a lead, Toews has had another slow start, and they can’t seem to get the power play working. Granted, through the most recent games they have been better on the power play and third period play, they are still lacking in some areas. It’s a good thing that the good outshines the bad to this point. Kane at center has been very successful, Hossa looks to be back in it, until the recent suspension Carcillo has looked very good, the checking line is probably one of the best and yet unnoticed in the NHL. Corey Crawford is solid in net and there is no sign of a sophomore slump. All these good things and yet, the Blackhawks are under the radar. With the surprising success of the Leafs, the dominance of the Capitals, the failures of the Bruins, and the great play as always by the Red Wings, the Blackhawks have gone unnoticed and yet in those ten games they are 6-2-2. A pretty good record considering that fact that last year they were 5-4-1 in their first 10 games.

There is obviously more the Blackhawks could be doing and they probably will improve in the future. Toews is starting to heat up and Keith isn’t in as big of a slump as the beginning of the season. The Blackhawks only have two true losses. One of those losses was the very first game of the season, which was a preseason game for the Hawks and regular season game for the Stars. They were outplayed all over the ice. After watching that game, I was worried. Absolutely none of the players looked ready to lay and the big season I expected looked like it would be a disappointing one just like last season. The next few games were a little more convincing, but the game against the Bruins was a realization. The Blackhawks still had some of the same problems. They didn’t play in the third period. The Blackhawks have a good team that can go far in the playoffs. They have great players and great teamwork. This team can win the Stanley Cup if they fix some of their problems. If the Hawks continue to play the way they have, they will be very successful this season.

Hawks lose first game 2-1, play home opener tonight

I didn't get to catch the game last night, but what I heard from other fans, it wasn't very good. Q decided to change the lines as much as he possibly could. Even Montador got a chance to play wing last night. The team was crazy and everywhere. Confusion and Lehtonen are what killed the Hawks last night.

There were some positives, though. The Sharp, Toews, and Kane line was reunited and looked like the only line that wasn't completely lost. This means that Kane probably won't be playing center as expected. Q might use him there every once and awhile, but he can't deny the chemistry between those three elite players. Nick Leddy scored with 14 seconds left in the third period to prevent the shutout.

Hopefully the Hawks can get a win tonight at the United Center. They are playing the Stars again and maybe this time Q has his lines figured out. Kruger was recently recalled from Rockford and will probably be used at center on one of the lines. With Bolland and Smith out, the team looks a lot worse. When they come back, the Hawks should start clicking. But, as Patrick Sharp said, "2 points in October is just as important as 2 points in April."

Crawford didn't play extremely well and hopefully improves tonight. The Kane, Toews, and Sharp line should be together for most of the game and I predict that they'll get at least one goal. I'm predicting a Hawks win tonight.