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So far, I think the Hawks have made a fine choice with their head coach in Jeff Blashill. Some questioned his desire to keep Burakovski on the top line, and rightfully so, and leave an offensively talented Nick Lardis on the 4th line with Slaggert and Lafferty, who are not so offensively gifted.
With Burakovski, I think he was just a player that had speed, size and skill that could blend with Bedard to keep offensive zone possession. Both he and Greene seemed to be Blashill’s best options, though neither have been shown to have great finishing capabilities. Enter Frondell. Here he comes off the plane from Sweden and he’s put on the top line with Bedard, replacing Burakovsky. Blashill sees the above listed skills in Frondell, and can immediately try him on the first line. Here’s a quote from Blashill regarding Frondell:
“Sometimes when guys come from junior or college, they never have to defend because they have the puck the whole night. . . . For him, he’s had to defend. He’s had to be a fourth-liner. He’s had to do those kind of things. That helps him grow.”
Blashill recognizes that Frondell has developed some of the aspecs of the pro game in Sweden, and has no qualms about putting him with Bedard, which leads us to the Lardis discussion.
A few days ago Blashill was quote regarding Lardis as needing to play “10 minutes a game” style or something like that. I didn’t quite understand the meaning of it, but now that Lardis has been promoted to the second line, and reading into that above quote, it makes more sense to me.
Lardis, like prospects, Marek Vanacker and Jack Pridham seem to have had their way in junior. So the skill is there, but in the NHL they won’t have their way quite so easily, and therefore they need to defend and play the right way to further their developement towards being good NHL players. By putting Lardis with Lafferty and Slaggert, defensive structure was going to be in the forefront. Lardis’ efforts did not go unnoticed, and he’s looked good with Nazar and Bertuzzi.
The head coaching job has evolved from the hardnosed play my vets kinda bench boss, to the I have to get to know my players individually and manage from there kinda coach. So far, I’m happy with Blahill. He’s doing things right for his young players, and he’ll have even more next year, so hopefully the developemnt of youth continue.
Like you stated Coach, this is the exciting part of the rebuild. Now we’re getting to see the young draft picks that KD and company have selected, and so far, with Bedard(no brainer), Nazar, Moore, Rinzel, Greene and Levshunov, it seems that the scouting and developement of these young players have been very positive. Now adding Frondell and Boivert to the mix, interesting times ahead for the Hawks.
All three prospects have been great for their squads. Each having multi point games. 2 more today with Frondell adding 2 more powerplay snipes and Spellacy with a goal and an assist so far. Great stuff for us Hawks fans.
Frondell looking good firing the puck on the powerplay. 1G/1A through 2. The Hawks should have some good shooters on the powerplay next year with Frondell Kantserov and Lardis along with Bedard and Nazar. That’s a lot of skill right there!
Thanks Coach for the write-up. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I’ll be tuning in on the NHL Network this morning(westcoaster) to watch Frondell and Team Sweden. These 3 players if they can reach their potential are exactly what the Hawks will need. Lot of jam especially along the boards.
I think Knight is a very good technically sound goalie, but when he makes a miscue, which he rarely does, suddenly his concentration level drops momentarily and his play wavers. After the faceoff following Matthews’ goal the Leafs dumped the puck towards the net, from I believe beyond the blue line, and Knight inexplicably misplayed it by letting it rebound from his pads straight up the center of the ice. Normally I think he would have snared it or at least steered it towards the corner. Not to absolve anything from Crevier, but he probably thought that too. Crevier has to play Joshua hard, as anything can happen. Joshua’s shot was of the nothing to look at variety, but Knight failed to make the save.
I watched the Flames-Sharks game afterward, and a similar thing happened to the Flames’ D. Sharks dumped the puck from beyond the redline, and 2 Flames D-men are closer to the goal line than the oncoming Barclay Goodrow. Both D skated nonchalantly towards the goal line expecting to hear a whistle for icing, but icing was waived off because both defensemen were wide in their lanes and Goodrow raced down the middle, collected the puck first and scored on Wolf, who also looked stunned.
Hopefully the Hawks’young players can learn from these types of moments and not take anything for granted. Just play 60 minutes of good hockey.
Thanks for the thoughts regarding this. Perhaps the Hawks already have the intel you mentioned. I like the Geekie option that you mentioned.
Coach what do you think of the chances of the Hawks sending Broissoit back to Winnipeg along with maybe a defenseman or a pick for Brad Lambert. Assuming Broissoit is later healthy enough, they woud know what they’re getting in him, and the Hawks should know quite a bit about Lambert when they were monitoring Dach, Allen and Korchinski in Seattle. Not sure of the feasibility or even the interest by the teams, just that the familiarity of both teams make this an interesting fit.
Excellent piece Coach. There’s a lot going right for the Hawks as of now, and you’ve pretty much summed it all up. That was a big article by the way; appreciate the time and effort that you put in here.
Great read coach. Love how the season’s going. One thing about Bedard that rings out to me other than his skill on the ice is his determination. He seems to be one that keeps on striving to improve. He knew what he wanted to improve in the off-season, his speed, and it definitely shows. The cadence of his strides has increased as he skates through the neutral zone. McDavid is a guy you’ll notice with a high cadence with his strides. It’s like a high revving engine.
Bedard has also been improving at the dot this season. No longer a push-over.
Perhaps when people saw Bedard at a young age and labelled him a generational talent, they saw the skill, but they also understood the kid’s mindset. Crosby, MacKinnon and McDavid all seem to have that kind of determination. Hopefully Bedard follows suit.
I guess this is a good time to ask. I mentioned following Burakovsky since he came up with WSH and that the dude showed real skill with good size and the guy can skate. He’s shown that as a Hawk…….. Yet in 700 NHL games he’s averaged .54 pts per game. You’d think he’d be a top 6 NHLer putting up at least 60 pts per but for some reason it seems he’ll never reach his ceiling.
Love to see you chime in Frenchy but would like to see what Hawk fans feel as well…… Either way, great signing by KD. I thought with his skills he’d fit with Bedard and he sure has. Going by his stats over 700 NHL games seems we got the good Burakovsky.
What I like about him is that he’s one of the few forwards that can make zone entries with pace, other than Bedard or Nazar, and still maintain control and find an open teammate. He seems to have good hands and vision. Hopefully he can stay healthy and keep the first line buzzing.
Reichel never showed any game, either last season or this season. He obviously didn’t show much in practice either. If he thought he was cutting it he was way off. I don’t think we’re talking about Patrick Sharp going from Philly to Chicago. More like Alex Nylander.
Agree. I thought Alex Nylander too, although I really wanted both to succeed. They both seem kind of lost out there, not knowing where to go. Oh well there’s still a chance for Reichel to turn it around.
Boiler i read that article by Frenchy which was good, it wouldn’t let me post.
I saw snippet somewhere that said the last time or only kid his age was over a point per game in the KHL was Kaprizov.
You know me boiler I’m really excited about the pipeline. One day they are going to be suffocating as a team.
Yeah it’s great knowing that your pipeline has some youth that are associated statistically with superstars at a young age, with Kantserov being mentioned with Kaprisov, and Frondell with Pasternak and Nylander. Of course these are just stats, and anything can happen, but just watching these two with the skills that they possess, it’s just exciting to imagine what this team will morph into.
Thanks Coach for this write up. Made my day. Now hopefully the Hawks take it to the Kings!
Wow, you’re going back a lotta yrs if you were reading Al at HB. Sucks you couldn’t post but I remember you from somewhere. I don’t get around to too many message boards on the internets but I could swear I know a Haru from somewhere. .. You post anywhere else under that name?
No. That’s just the name of the central character of a Japanese TV drama about hockey in Japan.
Thanks, Frenchy!
I am glad (along with the rest of us “Buzz-bums”) that we are here with you!
Appeciate you,
Wiz
Agreed wholeheartedly, although I never was able to post as a BuzzBum. My account never worked, so I was reading all of you in the background since Al C. was the blogger.
