Number One, Hungry Healthy Hossa; There is no discounting how much Marian Hossa has meant to the Blackhawks over a season and a half. The guy is a selfless hustler who plays all phases of the game like he's auditioning for a shot at making the club every time he's on the ice. He does not take the privelage of playing professional hockey lightly and it shows. A superb puck handler and a swarming defender, Hossa has been a 40 goal scorer 3x in his carreer. The first two weeks of this year he was an offensive machine racking up 7 goals even potting one from between his legs while looking away from the net. Then the injury bug bit again and he hasn't been the same player since. (vertigo recently) My only beef with Hossa's play, when he is healthy, is he tends to finesse the puck too much while looking to set up a teammate for the score. While his 'team first' play has it's place, the Hawks overall are guilty of outsmarting themselves here.They often spend an inordinate amount of time putting on a passing clinic while failing to score! What I'd like to see is Marian Hossa as well as the rest of the team be far more aggresssive, more hungry with the puck and take it directly to the net. This puts more direct pressure on the opposing goalie yeilding more goals. I'd like to see Hossa get a little greedy with the puck and fatten up his stat sheet a bit. All too often I'm left yelling at the screen, as Hossa dishes the puck to a teammate, "C'mon 'Hoss' just take the shot!!"
Number Two, Fix the P.K; We are obviously missing the snot out of Brent Sopel and John Madden. Sopel often looked like the guys from the movie Dodgeball absorbing wrenches thrown at them by their coach, Patches O' Hoolihan, (If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball....this has nothing to do with hockey, I just love the quote!!) selflessly dumping his body in front of bullet after bullet squelching opponents power play opportunities limping off the ice afterward doubled over. Asked 5 years from now about the players who were key to the Blackhawks success in winning the Cup in 2010-11, I doubt many will mention Sopel's name on the same level with Johnathin Toews,Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. Whether he is remembered or not, he definitely earned his name etched on that Cup. A salary cap victim, Sopel was shipped to Atlanta in the offseason. John Madden must have been doing something right back there as well. He was a steady presence on the PK unit. Though unheralded as a forward, he always found his way to the puck, clearing it the length of the ice, taking valuable chunks of time off the clock. He is a special teams ace. He has found a way to win 3 Stanley Cups, he must be doing something right! Currently, Niklas Hjalmarsson is the lone Hawk who seems willing to dive in front of pucks to kill off time. I don't blame the other players for not wanting to dive in front of shots! It's gotta hurt like hell!! Somehow the Hawks need to find a way to improve here. "We" currently sit at 77.4%, ranked 26th out of 30 teams in killing off penalties. Ironically, the Hawks have ranked at or near the top in power play scoring just below 25%. This is like a smoker who works out, hitting the brick wall you just built with a sledgehammer. It's counterproductive. I don't have the magic solution to fix the Hawks "kill squad" I simply know it has to be much more efficient if we are to make the playoffs.
Number three, Step Up Young Gun; Viktor Stalberg, Nick Leddy, Jake Dowell and Jeremy Morin please take note of Brian Bickell and Jack Skille's play level. These two, Skille especially, seem to understand what it takes to play at this level. Bickell has found his groove turning into a solid contributor with 12 goals and 14 helpers. Skille, though lacking in production, only 7 tallies so far with 9 assists, can't be underestimated in his value to the team. Only 23 years old, he exhibits the exuberance of a new puppy throwing himself into all phases of the game with abandon. He often bites off more than he can chew trying to skate around or through 3-4 defenders at a time in effort to put the puck on net. He is stymied more times than not, but you just gotta love his tenacious approach. He is the pit bull that won't let go of the mailman's pants! He just doesn't give up. Eventually, Skille is gonna find the back of the net on a steady basis. His hard work will pay off in time. The other young guys, Stalberg, Dowell, Leddy and Morin (Leddy and Morin when they're with the club) just haven't seemed to put the pieces together just yet. One of these young guns needs to put aside the trepidation and play like his life depended on it and make an impact during the final stretch. I'm tired of hearing how fast Stalberg is. He is lightning on skates but lets' go already!
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