Photoshop Of The Day: CarBomb, Thoughts On Hawks 4-3 Win Over Jets

Did I like CarBomb’s energy?
Yes, as I said over the summer, he’s like Adam Burish on crack.

Did he create havoc, cause a couple of turnovers, and even create a couple of scoring chances that resulted in at least one goal?
Yup

Did he have some big hits?
Yup

Were some of those hits awkward, near penalties, or leave him out of position?
Uh huh.

Did he he run into his own teammates a couple of times?
Yep, he sure did.

Was one of those collisions potentially pretty bad and involve Hossa – the same Hossa who got taken out by another minimum wage teammate last year?
That would be him.

Did the Blackhawks play one of the worst team in the league, the Jets?
Can’t take too much away from this when the bar was set so low. It was an excellent game for Carcillo, let see how he does when faced with better competition.

Summary
Consider me on the fence. Daniel Carcillo was enjoyable to watch most of the game and I respect the hell out of the effort he puts out. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes reckless and misplaced. We’ll see how this plays out over a few more games.

On a different note…

I dig all the Leddy-Keith pairing “love” around the Hawks blogosphere. Either everyone gets it and I don’t, or vice versa.

Let’s see, today’s most recent jabs at that pairing can be found here, here, and here. The other usual suspects took the day off.

What pairing was on the ice for ALL THREE of the Hawks even strength goals? Leddy-Keith. But of course it’s not working. Heh.

That pairing is designed to skate primarily with Kaner’s line. It’s not supposed to be defensively “strong.” Just like Kane’s line isn’t supposed to be defensively strong. The objective of this combination is to “out-offense” the opposition. In the past 2 games (since Bolland’s return, and hence, normal line configurations) they’ve done exactly that.

People say “You’re wasting Keith’s talents paired with Leddy,” but I never hear anyone claim Hossa’s talents are similarly wasted skating with Kane. Funny how that works. I guess we see what we want to see. That’s why there’s more than one blog.

And the byproduct of the 2-8 pairing, that  has been ignored or overlooked, is how excellent Seabs-Hjammer have been together. The same Niklas Hjalmarsson who had problems last season, paired with Brent Seabrook he’s playing more confidently and has even initiated at least two plays that resulted in goals with a couple of nice take-aways. That pairing has been lights-out in a shutdown role.

Other observations…

The “Wellwhiff” was hilarious. Couldn’t have happened to an easier target.

Brian Bickell came to play hockey this year. Let’s hope this continues.

Jonathan Toews made an ill-advised pass to “no one” in the high slot in the final minute with the Jets goalie pulled. That can’t happen. That puck needs to be thrown down low. Not one of Johnny’s best game.

Kane was 10-14 for 71% from the dot. You’d think by now we’d have learned not to doubt him.

Ray Emery started shaky, stayed shaky, but eventually got the job done. The first two Winnipeg goals were the result of deflections in front of Emery. You can’t stop all of those, but maybe one doesn’t result in a goal with better fundamentals. /shugs The 3rd Jets goal was the result of a Cirque du Goalie performance by Emery that had him flopping all over the crease. Other than that goal, he looked fine.

John Schultz
Follow me on Twitter @ChiNativeSon