Andrew Shaw

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Injuries, salary cap crunch will force Blackhawks to play shorthanded

By Adam GretzDec 2, 2019, 2:48 PM EST

Times are tough for the Chicago Blackhawks right now.

They enter the week having lost five of their past six games and were completely embarrassed by the Colorado Avalanche over the weekend, being outscored by a 12-5 margin in back-to-back losses on Friday and Saturday.

Now they have to play the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues on Monday night, and will have to do so with a shorthanded roster that will include only 11 forwards due to an unfortunate combination of injuries, an illness, and a salary cap crunch.

It is not uncommon to see teams play with 11 forwards, but it is usually done because they are dressing a seventh defensman.

The Blackhawks do not even have that going for them on Monday.

Here is the situation:

Duncan Keith, Andrew Shaw, Dylan Strome, and Drake Caggiula will all miss Monday’s game due to injury.
Keith, Strome, and Caggiula were all already sidelined and did not play in Saturday’s ugly 7-3 loss to the Avalanche, while Shaw’s injury (undisclosed) was revealed on Monday morning. The official word from the team is that he is currently being evaluated.
Adding to the issues is the fact goalie Robin Lehner (by far their best goalie so far this season) will not be available on Monday due to illness, forcing the team to recall goalie Kevin Lankinen from the American Hockey League. The problem is that move puts the Blackhawks against the salary cap, preventing them from calling up another forward to fill the open spot that all of the other injuries created.

This all paints a very bleak picture for the Blackhawks because it not only illustrates just how tight the team’s salary cap situation is, but it also serves as a reminder that they are spending a ton of money on a team that simply is not very good.

After they play the Blues on Monday, they have a few days to get healthy again and get some players back before they have to go on the road for a back-to-back that will take them through Boston and New Jersey.

While this type of shorthanded lineup is extremely uncommon, it is not completely unheard of. During the stretch run of the 2014-15 regular season the Pittsburgh Penguins were facing a similar situation when they were forced to play with only five defensemen in the lineup because of injuries and a salary cap situation that prevented any additional call-ups from the American Hockey League.

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Adam Gretz is a writer forPro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line atphtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

Shaw looking to help Blackhawks return to playoffs

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Associated PressSep 25, 2019, 4:00 PM EDT

CHICAGO — Andrew Shaw started chirping right away. A few lines for Jonathan Toews. A few more for a couple new teammates.

It was like he never left.

Trying for a turnaround after two down years, the Chicago Blackhawks once again dipped into their past as part of a flurry of offseason moves. General manager Stan Bowman reacquired Shaw in a trade with Montreal in June, looking to add more grit and energy to a lineup that seemed like it needed a spark at times last year.

The 28-year-old Shaw returns to Chicago a married father, with another child on the way. But the pesky forward said his game remains very similar.

”Maybe just a little less reckless,” he said. ”Still physical, still hits, but just try not to lead with my head anymore.”

Shaw was selected by Chicago in the fifth round of the 2011 draft. He helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2015 before he was dealt to the Canadiens three years ago.

The addition of Shaw gives coach Jeremy Colliton another versatile piece. He could grab a spot on one of Chicago’s top two lines, or provide some offense on the third or fourth group. Shaw set career highs with 28 assists and 47 points in his final season with Montreal. He scored a career-best 20 goals during the 2013-14 season with the Blackhawks.

”Whether he’s top six or he could be on the fourth line, he’s still going to contribute,” Colliton said. ”We want to have that sort of personality throughout our lineup. I think we have a bunch of guys who can move up and down.”

Shaw became one of Chicago’s most beloved players during his first stint with the team, and he said he has been greeted warmly since he came back this summer.

”Love. I mean pure love. It’s awesome,” he said. ”People coming up to you, recognizing you, glad to have you back, saying they missed you. It feels good. It feels good to be loved.”

WHO’S HERE

The Blackhawks acquired Calvin de Haan and Olli Maatta in a pair of June trades to help bolster their defensive pairings. But de Haan is coming back from right shoulder surgery and Maatta has struggled with injuries over the years, in addition to concerns about his skating ability.

WHO’S NOT

Chicago traded promising young defenseman Henri Jokiharju to Buffalo in July for Alex Nylander, a talented forward who hasn’t lived up to expectations since he was selected by the Sabres with the eighth overall pick in the 2016 draft. The progress of the 20-year-old Jokiharju and 21-year-old Nylander will be closely watched in Chicago and Buffalo over the next couple seasons.

KEY PLAYERS

The addition of Robin Lehner gives Chicago one of the best goaltender situations in the league. Lehner agreed to a $5 million, one-year deal in free agency after he went 25-13-5 with a 2.13 goals-against average last season with the New York Islanders. Corey Crawford was sidelined by a concussion during each of the past two seasons, but showed flashes of his stellar form last year. If Lehner or Crawford goes down, the Blackhawks have Collin Delia waiting in the minors.

OUTLOOK

Chicago allowed a whopping 291 goals last season, second worst in the league behind Ottawa, and finished with the NHL’s worst penalty kill at 72.7%. Bowman made several moves this summer to address those issues. If they don’t work out, it could be another long year.

PREDICTION

Life is tough in the rough-and-tumble Central Division, home of the defending Stanley Cup champion Blues and the loaded Predators and Jets. But if de Haan and Maatta can stay healthy and Chicago gets more secondary scoring from its bottom two lines, it could return to the playoffs after a two-year absence.

Burning questions for Montreal Canadiens in 2019-20

By James O'BrienAug 16, 2019, 4:18 PM EDT

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Each day in the month of August we’ll be examining a different NHL team — from looking back at last season to discussing a player under pressure to identifying X-factors to asking questions about the future. Today we look at the Montreal Canadiens.

Let’s explore three questions for the Habs as 2019-20 approaches …

1. Which Carey Price will show up, and how often?

With that $10.5 million cap hit, Carey Price remains a questionable investment in the eyes of many (myself included).

Still, the 2018-19 season restored some hope that Price could at least be an above-average, if not occasionally elite, goalie for the Canadiens. He managed a .918 save percentage last season, which matches his career average. Considering the heights of Price’s career, that’s a remarkable achievement.

But you must also consider the low points of Price’s career, simply because the Habs have traveled through those valleys quite a bit lately. Price played poorly in 2017-18, and was limited to just 12 games played as recently as 2015-16, so it’s not a given that Montreal will receive great play from Price.

As a side note: it’s his birthday. Here’s hoping it’s a happy one, especially since Price earned about a million cool points for the touching moment he was a part of during the 2019 NHL Awards, as you can see in the video above this post’s headline.

He’s certainly someone who’s become easy to root for.

[MORE: 2018-19 Review | X-factor | Under Pressure]

2. How many players already bumped against their ceilings?

The sheer number of Habs who enjoyed career years is remarkable, from Max Domi to Jeff Petry to Phillip Danault. Even traded-away forward Andrew Shaw often played over his head.

How many of those performances are repeatable?

The advice to tap the brakes is worthwhile with Domi, in particular. Contrast his brilliant 2018-19 season (28 goals, 72 points, 13.8 shooting percentage) with a rough final year in Arizona (nine goals [four empty-netters], 45 points, six shooting percentage in 2017-18) and you’ll realize that it’s dangerous to simply pencil in the same results from year to year.

It’s not all gloom and doom. While the “sophomore slump” is a threat, Jesperi Kotkaniemi could also take another big step forward. Shea Weber could be healthier, which may or may not lead to a healthier power play. And, if you’re hoping for anything to repeat, strong five-on-five play usually isn’t a fluke, at least when you keep most of the same players on a team, and most of them are pretty young.

Still, it’s possible that improved power play work might offset a slight drop-off, rather than supplementing a resounding team at even-strength … but we’ll see.

3. Will Marc Bergevin remain patient?

When it comes to judging the Habs’ GM’s work lately, it feels like people have been grading Bergevin on a curve: “Hey, this didn’t work out as badly as we thought.”

That friendly outlook might not last very long, and if Bergevin’s seat starts to heat up again — they’ve missed the playoffs for two straight seasons, and three of four — then there’s the risk that he’ll make reckless moves to try to save his job.

As scrappy as this team is, forking over draft picks and/or prospects for quick fixes could really sting. Thankfully, Bergevin didn’t spend big during the past trade deadline or in free agency this summer (aside from a baffling Ben Chiarot signing), so he’s shown some discipline.

Bergevin’s one of the league’s most entertaining GMs because he’s willing to be bold, though, so we’ll see how long he can be stoic and not make a splashy move, beyond the occasional facetious offer sheet.

MORE:
• ProHockeyTalk’s 2019 NHL free agency tracker
• Your 2019-20 NHL on NBC TV schedule

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

PHT Power Rankings: Top regression candidates for 2019-20 NHL season

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By Adam GretzAug 5, 2019, 1:17 PM EDT

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A week ago we used our PHT Power Rankings to look at 10 players that could be on the verge of a breakout during the 2019-20 NHL season.

This week we go to the opposite end of the spectrum and look at 10 players that could be due for a regression back to reality.

Regression candidates tend to be pretty easy to spot and usually come from players coming off of outlier seasons or were riding extremely high shooting percentages or save percentages that are simply not sustainable from one season to the next. Can they still be good? Absolutely. Will they be as good? Probably not.

Who are the biggest regression candidates this season?

To the rankings!

1. Casey Cizikas, New York Islanders. Prior to 2018-19, Cizikas had played parts of seven seasons and never scored more than nine goals, averaging just eight per 82 games played. That is what made his 20-goal output such a surprise. It was a great year, but it was mostly driven by an 18 percent shooting percentage that was nearly 10 points higher than his career average. That sort of spike is not sustainable for any player, let alone one that has a 400-plus game sampling as a fourth-liner with limited offensive ability.

2. Joe Pavelski, Dallas Stars. Pavelski has been one of the most underrated goal-scorers of his era and is coming off a monster 38-goal season for the Sharks. Even if he regresses from that number he should still be a great addition for a top-heavy Stars team that needs secondary scoring. They just shouldn’t be counting on him to push the 40-goal mark again. He had a career-high shooting percentage (20.2 percent!) at age 34, making him a textbook candidate for regression. Consider that only one other player since 2000 has shot higher than 20 percent at age 34 or older (Mario Lemieux during the 2000-01 season). A more reasonable expectation for Pavelski: 20-25 goals.

3. Robin Lehner, Chicago Blackhawks. With all due respect to Barry Trotz and the coaching job he did, no one person meant more to the 2018-19 New York Islanders than Lehner. His .930 save percentage masked a lot of flaws and was the driving force behind the team’s improbable defensive turnaround. That is an almost impossible performance to maintain year-to-year, and he is now going to a team in Chicago that still has some big question marks defensively and has been one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL the past two years.

4. Alex Chiasson, Edmonton Oilers. Chiasson was one of the few things Peter Chiarelli touched in Edmonton that didn’t immediately turn into a dumpster fire. He scored 22 goals for the Oilers, nearly doubling his previous career high, and was one of the small handful of players that actually exceeded expectations. Getting a lot of time next to Connor McDavid helped, as did an 18 percent shooting percentage.

[ProHockeyTalk’s 2019 NHL free agency tracker]

5. Cody Eakin, Vegas Golden Knights. In the three full seasons prior to 2018-19 Eakin scored just 30 total goals. He followed that up by scoring 22 last season alone. He is a negative possession player (and looks even worse relative to his team), doesn’t generate a lot of shots on goal, and is coming off of a career-high shooting percentage. Bet on him being closer to 10 goals this season than 20.

6. Jeff Skinner, Buffalo Sabres. The 2018-19 season could not have worked out better for Skinner on an individual level. He had a career year in a contract year and cashed in with a mega-deal with the Buffalo Sabres. He scored 37 goals two years ago and seems to have great chemistry with one of the league’s best centers (Jack Eichel) so he should be capable of another huge year, but another 40-goal season seems like it’s asking a lot.

7. Darcy Kuemper, Arizona Coyotes. He filled in admirably for an injured Antti Raanta and was one of the biggest reasons the Coyotes were able to hang around in the playoff race until the final week of the regular season. That performance, however, was a pretty big outlier in his career, and if Raanta is able to stay healthy he will be in a competition for playing time. Expectations for Kuemper in 2019-20: Lower them … at least a little.

8. Elias Lindholm, Calgary Flames. A fresh start in Calgary turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for Lindholm as it produced a career-year that saw him shatter all of his career highs. There is reason to believe a lot of the improvement is real (great possession numbers, a shooting percentage that wasn’t a huge outlier, playing alongside talented players) but another 50-assist, 78-point season seems like a high bar for him to match.

9. Andrew Shaw, Chicago Blackhawks. On a per-game basis the 2018-19 season was by far the best one of Shaw’s career, so it was probably a good idea for the Canadiens to sell high on that and move him. Given the Blackhawks’ lack of forward depth he is probably going to be given a significant role, but I don’t know how willing I am to bet on him scoring at 60-point pace over 82 games again.

10. Ryan Strome, New York Rangers. After a nightmare experience with the Oilers, Strome went to the Rangers and erupted offensively with 18 goals in the final 63 games of the regular season. He did this despite averaging just 1.27 shots on goal per game and getting caved in from a possession standpoint. Sometimes players go on hot streaks that eventually fizzle out. His debut with the Rangers was most likely a short-lived hot streak that will eventually fizzle out.

Also worth mentioning: Jaroslav Halak (Boston Bruins), Jared McCann (Pittsburgh Penguins), Ryan Dzingel (Carolina Hurricanes), Ben Bishop (Dallas Stars)

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

Blackhawks, fans welcome back ever-pesky Andrew Shaw

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Associated PressJul 28, 2019, 10:51 AM EDT

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CHICAGO — Andrew Shaw is back in Chicago following a trade with Montreal last month, and the ever-chirping 28-year-old has been the toast of the team’s annual fan convention this weekend.

The convention crowd erupted when Shaw – part of the Blackhawks’ 2013 and 2015 Stanley Cup championship teams – was introduced at opening ceremonies Friday. On Saturday, he got a standing ovation as he arrived for his own ”welcome back” session on the event’s main stage.

”I have a lot of good memories here, but you want to make more,” Shaw said. ”I never wanted to leave. I always dreamt of coming back.”

Shaw is generously listed at 5-foot-11 and 182 pounds, but Blackhawks management and players believe his grit and scrappiness will help return the retooled Blackhawks to the playoffs after a two-year absence.

”He’s one of the great guys in the game,” defenseman Brent Seabrook said. ”He’s one of those guys that always brings energy, whether it’s on the ice or off the ice. You know you need those guys around to spark things.

”The season gets long. The season gets dragged out. You’re in some dark cities, you know, snow and weather and all that kind of stuff, and then a guy like Shawzy really brings that energy, that fire.”

As part of lowering their fat 3.55 goals-against average – second worst in the NHL last season – the Blackhawks want to be tougher to play against in 2019-20.

”We felt were missing maybe some sandpaper and little more of a north-south game where we finished hits more often,” said Al MacIsaac, senior vice president of hockey operations. ”Andrew Shaw, as we all know, has that personality on and off the ice.”

Shaw had 16 goals and 19 assists in 67 postseason games during his previous five-year stint with Chicago, including one of the most memorable plays in franchise history. He was credited with a goal in the third overtime of Game 1 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals against Boston when the puck went off his right shin pad and into the net.

During the celebration, Shaw hollered ”I love shin pads,” a line that sticks with him and epitomizes his style.

”(Former teammate) Bryan Bickell used to give me a hard time,” Shaw said. ”He said I never scored a goal with my stick. It was always off my body.”

Shaw jumped in a goalmouth scramble and knocked the puck into the net with a soccer-style header in a game at Anaheim in the Western Conference Final 2015. The goal was disallowed, although Shaw celebrated in an attempt to sell it.

The Blackhawks sent Shaw to the Canadiens in June 2016 for a second-round, 39th overall draft pick used to select 21-year-old sniper and budding star Alex DeBrincat.

DeBrincat had 41 goals in his second NHL season in 2018-19. Shaw has never scored more than 20, and last year had 19 as he notched a career-high 47 points with Montreal.

”I feel like I still have a lot to give,” Shaw said. ”I came off a pretty good year and I’m excited. I’m feeling healthy. I’m feeling energized.

”To come back to a city that’s given me so much love and help me grow into who I am, it’s nothing but smiles.”

Shaw promised fans he’ll be as annoying as possible and maybe a little dirty to opponents.

”For sure,” he said. ”I’m not dead. I’m still here.”

And he’ll save his best for the Central Division rival and Stanley Cup champion St. Louis, even if Blues goalie Jordan Binnington is a friend.

”I can’t wait to beat up on the Blues,” Shaw said.

HE SAID IT: Owner Rocky Wirtz also got a standing ovation when introduced on stage at a session on Saturday. By contrast his late father, Bill, was booed loudly whenever he made a public appearance.

”Everywhere he goes, he gets a standing ovation,” team president John McDonough said.

”Even in the washroom,” Wirtz quipped.