Fire Colliton

[JaegerDice]

Who would have replaced him (I am drawing a blank)?

Literally anybody.

Regin was available as a 13th forward, they eventually went with Shaw.

Shaw isn't even a good center, but he fulfilled the criteria of 'literally anybody but michal handzus'.

 

[Panzerspitze]

TT sitting was moronic but he got it right a majority of the time.

Q in Florida has little to do with Q here.

Maschinter, Eager, Handzus, Rozival, Seabrook/Oduya pairing decisions? Vermette playing time?

My personal favorite: Removing 10-SHG scorer Sharp from the PK, permanently.

 

[JaegerDice]

There's no doubt Q plays favorites, often seemingly at random.

Also, there are times where some line combos are untouchable even if they go for extended periods without making an impact. Meanwhile other lines get changed if they go half a period without a goal.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Maschinter, Eager, Handzus, Rozival, Seabrook/Oduya pairing decisions? Vermette playing time?

Eager? Eager was nice 4th liner in cup run who when not doing stupid things was a fine 4th liner

Even scored a GWG in SCF

Handzus and Rozy were key depth in 2013 cup run and were underrated for what they brought

Rozy was still better option as player since Stanley brought in constant stream of garbage like Rundblad after cup win

Vermette played like shit outside of a few games vs Ducks/Lightning as Hawk

 

[Panzerspitze]

Q didn’t play shitty systems for the most part (pp and PK went up and down) and he was not slow to react.

The forwards collapsing too low in the defensive zone that one poster has complained about in this thread or another about JC today, well, I used to say the same thing when complaining about Quenneville's "system".

 

[JaegerDice]

Eager? Eager was nice 4th liner in cup run who when not doing stupid things was a fine 4th liner

Even scored a GWG in SCF

Eager really wasn't good at hockey. He was better than Burish, who was the other option. That was his sole redeeming characteristic. There's a good reason he was out of the league within 3 years of that cup. He wasn't even good enough to stick around on a tanking edmonton team.

 

[BK]

Maschinter, Eager, Handzus, Rozival, Seabrook/Oduya pairing decisions? Vermette playing time?

My personal favorite: Removing 10-SHG scorer Sharp from the PK, permanently.

Mashinter...

 

[hawksrule]

Eager could skate, that’s it.

 

[BobbyJet]

Eager could skate, that’s it.

And a hard shot, and an agitator.

 

[JaegerDice]

Eager? Eager was nice 4th liner in cup run who when not doing stupid things was a fine 4th liner

Even scored a GWG in SCF

Handzus and Rozy were key depth in 2013 cup run and were underrated for what they brought

Rozy was still better option as player since Stanley brought in constant stream of garbage like Rundblad after cup win

Vermette played like shit outside of a few games vs Ducks/Lightning as Hawk

Handzus and Rozsival did their jobs well in 2013. That should have been the end of their time with the Blackhawks.

Hell, Rozsival would have been fine to keep around as a #5 dman, if Q ever deigned to play him as a #5 dman. We had a guy who would go on to be a top pairing dman on another team, and Q couldn't be arsed to play him more than 8 minutes a night. ****ing infuriating.

As far as Vermette, Good lord, no.

He didn't get as many goals as any of us would like, but that happens sometimes.

He still played an excellent 2-way game and was a key part of a 3rd line that turned into a cheat code in the WCF and SCF when the top lines cancelled each other out. He was a great pick-up. I'd have loved to have had him back for a year or two to play 3C while Danault marinated with Kruger on the 4th line, but from many reports he had no love lost for Q after that run. Also, he really loved the desert.

 

[Panzerspitze]

Eager? Eager was nice 4th liner in cup run who when not doing stupid things was a fine 4th liner

Even scored a GWG in SCF

Handzus and Rozy were key depth in 2013 cup run and were underrated for what they brought

Rozy was still better option as player since Stanley brought in constant stream of garbage like Rundblad after cup win

Vermette played like shit outside of a few games vs Ducks/Lightning as Hawk

Even assuming Vermette were playing like shit save for Anaheim, he was always ever as good as Toews on faceoffs, when every other center on the roster sucked at it. He should've been in the line-up on that alone, given how much Quenneville (and all coaches) love(s) a faceoff man. Yet, Quenneville jerked his playing time around, in the playoffs, until Vermette fully "bought" into Quenneville's "system", deducing from what Vermette said to the media.

 

[BK]

The forwards collapsing too low "system" that one poster already complained about in this thread about JC, well, I used to say the same thing when complaining about Quenneville's "system".

Q never had a d system this stupid.

 

[JaegerDice]

The forwards collapsing too low in the defensive zone that one poster has complained about in this thread or another about JC today, well, I used to say the same thing when complaining about Quenneville's "system".

Q never used a man-to-man or man-to-man hybrid system. All zone.

Teams collapsing down generally isn't a problem. It can hurt offensive output cause you can't get as many free rushes, but assuming you have a team that can pass well, you could just move up the ice as a unit with short passes.

 

[BobbyJet]

Maschinter, Eager, Handzus, Rozival, Seabrook/Oduya pairing decisions? Vermette playing time?

My personal favorite: Removing 10-SHG scorer Sharp from the PK, permanently.

Q's "fresh legs" move will be remembered for years by many Hawks fans.

 

[hawksrule]

And a hard shot, and an agitator.

I was not much of an Eager fan.

 

[Panzerspitze]

Q never had a d system this stupid.

I don't recall seeking forwards collapsing low in the D-zone under JC until this VGK series. OTOH, I saw for at least during Quenneville's last 2 1/2 year.

 

[JaegerDice]

And a hard shot, and an agitator.

Isn't the point of an agitator to get the other team to take penalties?

If so, Eager wasn't a particularly good agitator. He took more penalties than he drew (that's just calls, not minutes served). A full extra penalty for the Blackhawks vs drawn from the opposition per 60min played.

He did have a heavy shot when he had a full lunar cycle to get it off. Like Bollig after him. Neither were particularly useful players.

 

[BobbyJet]

I was not much of an Eager fan.

 

[JaegerDice]

I don't recall seeking forwards collapsing low in the D-zone under JC until this VGK series. OTOH, I saw for at least during Quenneville's last 2 1/2 year.

They did it to start the season. It was intended to help provide support and outlets to the D in efforts to help the goals against.

It did help the goals against a little bit, but completely snuffed out their offense. A quarter of the way through the season or so, they abandoned it and let the forwards stay higher for stretch passes. They figured they may as well try to outscore the opposition if their D was going to suck anyway.

Turns out doesn't matter how you play system wise, if you have trash D you're not going to win a ton of games.

 

[BobbyJet]

Isn't the point of an agitator to get the other team to take penalties?

If so, Eager wasn't a particularly good agitator. He took more penalties than he drew (that's just calls, not minutes served). A full extra penalty for the Blackhawks vs drawn from the opposition per 60min played.

He did have a heavy shot when he had a full lunar cycle to get it off. Like Bollig after him. Neither were particularly useful players.

No surprise. I doubt you will ever appreciate a player like Eager.

 

[JaegerDice]

No surprise. I doubt you will ever appreciate a player like Eager.

That is accurate. I will never appreciate bad players.

 

[ClydeLee]

I don't recall seeking forwards collapsing low in the D-zone under JC until this VGK series. OTOH, I saw for at least during Quenneville's last 2 1/2 year.

You're complaining about it as it was just his last year? I recall public comments from people complaining about Q having the Hawks do that in 2010. And would say that was always a part of his teams to not attack the points as strongly.

The team was just bad the last 2 years

 

[BobbyJet]

That is accurate. I will never appreciate bad players.

Perhaps undesirable if you're picking a fantasy team but every team has to have 'em in the reality of the NHL.

 

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

I still don't buy into axing Colliton yet. We're a middling team that has a lot of questionable roster players that range from overpaid to aren't costing a lot but aren't providing much. And everything in between. We're honestly just a mess, when you look at it from a cohesive, macro approach. I don't think we played that terribly these playoffs, honestly, but there's room to grow.

Kane, Toews, Dunc (until his contract is up), Dach, DeBrincat, Boqvist are folks i wanna see here for the future as main pieces.

 

[JaegerDice]

Perhaps undesirable if you're picking a fantasy team but every team has to have 'em in the reality of the NHL.

No.

Neither the 2013 team nor the 2015 team had a Ben Eager.

The Frolik-Bolland-Kruger and Desjardins-Kruger-Shaw lines put the 2010 4th line to shame.

They had guys who were physical, its just that their physicality - whether they were using their body to protect the puck, or just battling guys like a pitbull in the corners or on the walls, or hitting guys, or battling for space and screens in front of the net - it was just one dimension of a multidimensional, useful player.

2013 Bickell could bang in front of the net. He could also corral the puck and put a shot on net within the square footage of a phone-booth.

Marian Hossa could use his body to protect the puck against anybody the other team put on the ice, without ever throwing a hit.

Jonathan Toews would just relentlessly battle for the puck and come up with it, even against guys much bigger than him.

Saad would just put his shoulder down, get his feet moving, and dare defenders to try and stop him.

Meanwhile, the 4th lines were happy to just take on top 6 competition, put the puck in their end, and put their stars in a blender in the corner with great sticks and a willingness to take punishment.

Toughness and physicality is an important part of winning cups.

The Ben Eagers of the world, who make it onto rosters because they pass a size requirement and are willing to get punched in the face for a living, are absolutely not.