The Blackhawks top line of Richard Panik, Jonathan Toews and rookie Nick Schmaltz was a mesmerizing sight to behold Tuesday night - and not just from a Chicago fan's perspective. Anyone who considers themselves a loyal pundit to the sport of hockey should appreciate what may have been the best single-line performance in the NHL this season.
The line accounted for all five Blackhawks goals en route to a crucial 5-3 win over the first place Minnesota Wild. Between the three forwards was a distribution of 10 points, 10 shots on goal, nearly 55 minutes of ice time, a plus-26 in shots taken vs shots faced and a staggering 15 plus/minus rating.
The best screenwriters in Hollywood couldn't have scripted a better night for the trio.
And whats the last thing you want to do with a well-oiled machine that, for the betterment of the past month, has been running close to near-perfection?
Mess with it.
For almost a year now the wing positions alongside Toews have been a revolving door of in-and-out commuters. This season alone has seen the future Hall of Famer center 15 different wing combinations. There's no doubt this carousel of inconsistencies attributed directly to the veteran's sluggish start to season. A sluggish start that had the glue-sniffing branch of the Blackhawks fanbase equipped with pitchforks and demanding the greatest player in franchise history to be traded.
Not since the days of Marian Hossa and Brandon Saad has Toews possessed a steady duo of linemates - a conundrum the normally reserved Blackhawks captain recently
shared his dismay over to John Dietz of the Daily Herold. But as Dietz stated, Toews' pleas for consistency did not go unheard because, indeed, "when Jonathan Toews talks, Blackhawks management and coaches listen."
And listen they did.
True to his word, the Blackhawks captain has found not only time, but chemistry alongside Panik and Schmaltz. And with this chemistry has exploded for 14 points over his past 8 games - a run the Blackhawks have gone 7-1 during.
With the trade deadline rapidly approaching and Toews' linemates all but solidified moving forward, you'd have to believe Stan Bowman's March 1st approach is in for somewhat of a remodeling.
No longer necessary is the need for a big splash scoring winger to accommodate the Blackhawks top-line center. What Toews has at the present moment is just as good, if not better, than what Bowman would have to pay top dollar for on the trade market.
For this reason I believe Bowman and the Blackhawks play it conservatively in the coming days by turning their attention from potentially pricey scoring wingers to cost-effective depth players - specifically a definitive third-line center.
The third-line of Ryan Hartman, Vinnie Hinostroza and Tanner Kero, while performing exceptionally well in a checking role in past weeks, is in need of a true and experienced centerman. The combination of Hinostroza and Kero is simply not getting the job done at the face-off dot.
Really, the only effective Blackhawks centerman at this point, in terms of face-off success, has been Jonathan Toews - as the chart below illustrates.
At this point, those associated with the Blackhawks should be quite knowledgeable of the red flags associated with entering the playoffs paper-thin down the middle. If you can't win face-offs, you can't have possession. If you don't have possession, you can't score. It's as simple as that. See the 2014 Western Conference Final versus the Los Angeles Kings, for example.
Miraculously, despite their ongoing face-off and possession woes which have the team placed 23rd in the NHL in FO%, 12th in Corsi and 19th in Fenwick, the Blackhawks have utilized their overabundance of elite skill and remarkable goaltending to establish themselves as one of the league's top teams.
Obviously, the next step toward cementing the Blackhawks as the league's top team would be through the addressing the roster's immediate and glaring issues. Expensive scoring wingers by the name of Vrbata, Iginla, or Vanek will not remedy these shortcomings.
The fantasist in me would have the Blackhawks dead-set on acquiring Arizona's Martin Hanzal, but the realist in me knows the 6'5, 220 lb centerman with the 56.1 face-off percentage would cost an arm and a leg to lure out of the desert. Word out of Arizona has the Coyotes asking for a first round pick and a top forward prospect - which in the Blackhawks case would likely be Alex DeBrincat - for the pending free agent's services.
I couldn't even finish typing that sentence without laughing.
A far more realistic and affordable target might be Tampa Bay's Brian Boyle - a career checking-line center Blackhawks fans should be quite familiar with from the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Like Hanzal, Boyle is a towering presence at 6'7, 245 who is rock solid at the dot (53.7%). He doesn't have the natural scoring prowess of Hanzal (though, he does have 13 goals this season), but he plays with a nasty edge that makes him one of the most effective and reliable checking-line centers in the game.
Further, Tampa's salary cap issues are rivaled only by the
Chicago Blackhawks. Boyle is a pending free agent at season's end and is almost guaranteed to walk come July 1st. The smart move by Tampa would be to get something for the center while they can.
That said, overpay for Boyle I would not. First round picks and top prospects are completely out of the question.
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