2019-2020 Blackhawks / Season Predictions

[GRADEN]

Team is pretty much set now in Prague... We just sent Dahlstrom to waivers (claimed by Jets) and assigned D Gilbert and F Wedin to Rockford... That leaves Nyalnder, Perlini, Dach, and Kubalik in good position to get those first cracks at playing with our top guys.

The D pairings look set as well. Our top 6 plus Slater Koekkoek is the clear order and then we have Gilbert / Boqvist likely to get some time this year from Rockford.

Our lines this season:

Caggulia - Toews - Kane
DeBrincat - Strome - Shaw
Saad - Kampf - Nylander
Kubalik - Carpenter - Smith

(Perlini, Dach)

Gustafson - Keith
Murphy - De Haan
Maata - Seabrook

(Koekkoek)

Crawford - Lehner


I think obviously the bottom 6 lines will jump all around and that in the beginning of the season Dach will get those 5-9 games centering Saad / Shaw / Nylander / Caggulia / Kubalik and see how he does before returning to Saskatoon. Our top 6 defenseman due scare me a bit health wise and speed wise so expect to see Gilbert / Boqvist / and possiblely late season Ian Mitchell if we are fighting for a playoff spot.

Prediction: We will score and we will give up in close goals, but our net minders are good and our experience in the 3rd period should come through in that 92-97 point range good enough for a seeding in that 6-8 range.

Hawks predictions:

Kane 38-53- 91pts
DeBrincat 35-40- 75pts
Toews 26-45 - 71pts
Strome 22-44 - 66pts
Saad 19 - 34 - 53pts

Gustafson 14-39 - 53pts
Keith 6-41 - 47pts
Murphy 7 - 31 - 38pts

Crawford 2.41 .921
Lehner 2.47 .916

NHL

Avalanche over Maple Leafs 4-1

[GRADEN]

Watched game 1 twice so not to miss anything:

1. We were really slow!
2. Matt a is our best defender
3. Keith is really slow
4. Caggulia / Nylander have good skill and are nice assets
5. Crawford was really bad - lower body issue perhaps
6. Dach would be ideal player to center Cat and move Strome to RW
7. Gilbert not an NHL player, bounced back with some hits but ultimately over his ability
8. Kampf hustles well
9. Dump and retrieve not this rosters bag...
10. Face off camp needed badly

Overall I liked Caggulia / Kane / Matta and everyone else was below average to terrible.... and wow we looked slow out there