Right out of the gate this morning, congrats to the Cubs for stealing every headline and back page in the city yesterday when they stunned the baseball world and stole manager Craig Counsell away from the rival Milwaukee Brewers. The Blackhawks had a scheduled off day following a mediocre effort loss on Sunday night that caused a players-only meeting. And then the lawyers representing the second player (“Black Ace 1”) in his lawsuit against the Blackhawks held a press conference yesterday morning. But all of that got buried in the sports broadcasts,꧑ pages and sites by the Counsell news.
So let’s catch up a little on some Blackhawks stuff before they practice at 11 on Tuesday, shall we?
Yesterday I made the case for the Blackhawks to make a big change and promote rookie defenseman Kevin Korchinski to the top power play unit. The eye test tells us it should happen and the numbers seem to support the idea. So maybe having a couple weeks with a lot of practice time makes this the right time to make the change?
As was the case last year, goaltending has not been a problem for the Blackhawks thus far this season. Ben Pope wrote a nice piece about the bounce-back performance on Sunday night from Arvid Söderblom. We saw him a little last year, but it’s worth remembering that he’s still only 24 years old and has appeared in just 71 AHL and 23 NHL games in his North American pro career. There is still development happening here, but I was equally impressed with his return to the crease after the disaster in the desert.
I really enjoy this part of the Blackhawks broadcasts these days. Tony Granato does a great job of coaching up the hockey fans watching the game on NBC Sports Chicago with a breakdown on the big board. Coming from a guy who’s been a head coach in the NHL (Colorado), college (Wisconsin) and managed the men’s Olympic team for the United States, he does a nice job of showing us how plays develop.
The Blackhawks’ next game is in Tampa on Thursday night. If you want to get an idea of what they’re good at — and where they’re struggling — last night’s game in Toronto was a nice microcosm of their season. The Leafs scored the first goal and then the Bolts rattled off four unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead to the room for the first intermission. Final score: 6-5 Leafs in overtime. There’s a lot of skill still on the Lightning, but they have their defensive issues.
I love me some random stats, and this one grabbed my attention last night.
If you’re looking for a neat, clean way to represent a player’s value and/or production, Paul Pidutti at has a really nice setup. And he re-launched his site today. It’s definitely worth giving it a look and maybe even supporting should you feel compelled (I do). Even if I don’t agree with his Hall of Fame grade on Steve Larmer…
One of the guys who I’ve been disappointed with thus far this season has been Andreas Athanasiou. So let’s talk about how Luke Richardson has made it clear with his words on Sunday night and ice time distribution that the coaches are looking for him to step up as well.
Finally, let’s circle back to the coup the Cubs pulled off on Monday. This sets up to be a wild winter on the North Side.
