Know Your Central Enemies: 5 Blackhawks Questions With Sam Fels

Sam Fels is easily one of my favorite writers to cover the Chicago Blackhawks because while he’s quick to throw a funny jab at rival teams, he’s also never hesitated to be fair and critical of his own beloved Hawks while still having a good sense of humor about it all. He not only covers the Blackhawks and hockey in general on his site Faxes From Uncle Dale but he also writes about the Chicago Cubs and has been known to have opinions about Da Bears as well.

You should follow him on Twitter @FelsGate, you know, as a way to say thank you for giving us some great and thoughtful answers to questions we had about the Chicago Blackhawks…

Sam – Let’s say we’re just a tick north of accepting our fate. If Corey Crawford can stay healthy all season, and be as good as he’s been the past couple seasons, and if Schmaltz, DeBrincat, Sikura can all take a step forward, and if they have one more kid step up, they could actually scrape a playoff spot. That seems the ceiling though. They’re clearly not the Jets or Press. The Blues showed the urgency in the summer we wish the Hawks would have. I don’t ever buy the Wild or Avalanche, so I can make a case the Hawks can overhaul them. But any injury or dip to Crawford and they’re totally boned.

Sam – Basically, they both need some luck. Their underlying numbers were really solid last year, they just couldn’t buy a goal. If they do the same possession- and chance-wise this year, and just see their shooting-percentages spike a tad, they’ll both put up 25-30 goals and no one will say shit. That said, the two of them together lack a little dash. Neither is a great playmaker, per se. It worked when they skated with Hossa because they were all three battering rams that could just force the puck into scoring areas and the net. They can’t do that now. They could use DeBrincat or someone like him who can make a pass or deke a guy to open up space, but Saad doesn’t really play on the right and DeBrincat is kind of wasted on the right side. I hope they try it more this year though.

Sam – Well, the Hawks would tell you Dylan Sikura. He came up for the last five games last year after finishing a brilliant season at Northeastern. They tried to get him to sign for a couple years. I’m not sure his college numbers weren’t just a product of playing with Adam Gaudette, but we’ll see. The Hawks could use either him or Victor Ejdsell, whom they got for Ryan Hartman, really popping this season.

A name I’d like to see is Henri Jokiharju, their first-round pick from ’17. He’s a silky-skating, push-the-play d-man, and the Hawks quite simply don’t have that on the blue line anywhere. Keith can’t do it any more, Erik Gustafsson is most likely a 4-A player, and that’s it. They’ll hem and haw about him only being 19 and needing more seasoning or some bullshit, but he’s honestly already one of the best six d-men they have. Put him on the third pairing, give him sheltered starts, and basically let him be what Sergachev was in Tampa last year. If they do that and he succeeds, the Hawks have a much better chance at being interesting.

Sam – I don’t think a message really needs to be sent. It’s kind of an open secret that Stan and Q don’t see eye-to-eye, and another playoff-less season is going to see Q axed. Even a shitty start could do it. My hunch is that Stan has sold the higher-ups on whatever his “rebuild on the fly” plan is and it would be asinine to fire him halfway through it. He’s added some intriguing pieces in Schmaltz and DeBrincat. Sikura, Ejdseel, Jokiharju are at least hopeful. They’re already leaking to the press how much everyone loves their coach in the AHL Jeremy Collition, so don’t be surprised at all if he’s installed at the top job within the calendar year. I also get the sense the veterans, who can’t go anywhere, could probably use a new voice. It worked in Pittsburgh, after all.

If he’s the Crow that played last year, then yes I think he can be. They were on the cusp of the playoff picture when he went down last year, and that’s with Saad and Toews not being able to hit a bull in the ass with a snow shovel and Q screwing with DeBrincat before letting him just run wild in the.top six. The defense is going to blow, even if they let Jokiharju play (why they did simply nothing to address it is beyond me and they should be backing up the truck for Karlsson or should have for Justin Faulk or Dougie Hamilton but whatever) but if your goalie is throwing a .927 at the world you can sort of cancel that out. Maybe Keith has one more year of brilliance left in him (I doubt it). Maybe he and Murphy can finally combine well (Murphy played well with everyone BUT Keith last year, which is really strange). But the whole team, the team’s direction, the future, the coach, the GM, it all hinges on the health and form of Crawford. No one seems to know this but he’s a top-five goalie in the league. Jets fans should be well aware of what a good goalie can do over a bad one.