Hawks GM Bowman won't overreact to growing problems
What happened Thursday night in Edmonton hasn't changed what Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman hopes to accomplish before the Feb. 27 trade deadline.
Bowman said on Friday he still wants to add a defenseman to his roster and that he still has faith in the Hawks' ability to play sound team defense despite what the numbers say.
“We've said for a while we'd like to strengthen our defense,” Bowman said during an interview on the Hockey News Radio Show on XM Satellite radio. “Our top four defensemen have played very well, but you do concern yourself with overloading them too much, so if you've got guys in the third pair that can eat up some more of those minutes it would be an ideal situation.”
Bowman maintained he still is having a problem finding teams willing to trade at this point in the season.
“There are a lot of teams still in the race,” Bowman said. “There are a lot of buyers and no one is selling, so we're at a logjam right now.
“I've had numerous discussions with seemingly every general manager and everyone is kind of the same way. There are no players available. There is a lot of talking about what you'd like, but I'm just not seeing those players readily available. At some point that will turn, but it's hard to say when.”
Bowman was asked about Thursday's 8-4 loss to Edmonton, a horrific display of goaltending and defensive play by his team.
“You try not to overreact,” he said. “On balance we've had a good season to date. I wouldn't term it a great season, but I think we've been, not too far off the top of the pack the entire season. And now it's just trying to tighten up those areas that you think need tightening up.
“I think overall, these things do happen to every team, and we have to find a way to battle through it.”
The Hawks have enough defensive issues that Bowman might not be able to fix them all before the trade deadline.
They've been a poor defensive team all season with defensemen who get out of position, too many forwards who would rather cheat offensively than take care of their own end and goaltending that isn't anywhere near Stanley Cup caliber.
“It's not about scoring, it's about checking,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “That's how you win in this league. That's where the commitment is.”
Quenneville's first step toward helping fix his problems came Friday when he started Ray Emery against the Flames. Corey Crawford's game is so out of whack right now that the Hawks can't continue to let him work through it.
Crawford's performance in Thursday's loss was maybe his worst of the season. The Hawks staked him to a 2-0 lead, but the goal he let Taylor Hall score in the second period was soft and turned the entire flow of the game to the Oilers.
Crawford spent the rest of the night swimming in his crease, out of position time after time before Quenneville finally pulled the plug in the third period.
Is Emery going to be the answer down the stretch? That's debatable, but it's not likely Bowman is going to be able to address his goaltending problem before the trade deadline.
The likes of Nikolai Khabibulin, Antero Nittymaki and Evgeni Nabokov are available, but would they really be upgrades over Emery and Crawford?
Bowman has gone from a GM in an enviable position of looking to add a piece or two to a very competitive team, to a manager with multiple problems to solve and little time to do it.