Imagine the Hawks life without Fleury...
Lets pretend that the Chicago Blackhawks, never signed elite goaltender Marc Andre Fleury. What would life be like for the struggling Hawks squad?
At 15-20-7, they were just shutout by the Colorado Avalanche. They have lost four-straight games. Despite some minor success under new coach Derek King, they still sit 7 points out of the wild card spot. Leap frogging teams in the Central division is just as hard as one would think. Nashville, St. Louis, Minnesota, are all teams that pretty much own the Hawks this year.
There has been some positive notes of course, but the parity in the league and their inconsistencies have many doubting their playoff dreams.
Forward Alex DeBrincat has been a one man army for the Hawks.
He has been lethal from the left side, with one timer ammunition, often fed by Kane. In 42 games this year, he has 24 goals and 9 assists. He also has 10 powerplay goals. Great numbers from a rather anemic team when it comes to offense. That's probably a 45-50 goal season. Imagine the numbers if the hawks had any consistency. This type of offense has bolstered him to his first all star game. He is the lone Hawk as no Kane tells the story of the struggle in Chicago.
The big picture is the inconsistency. But what is inconsistent? When you start to look at the numbers, its either you give up too many, or you don't score enough. In the case of the Hawks, its the latter.
Marc Andre Fleury has done his best, and often has been brilliant in his starts. His numbers don't lie, as he is 13-13-3 in 29 games. His goals against is on the heavy side, especially for him, at 2.76. However, a stat that shows how well he plays is the save percentage. This is more of a goalie stat versus the goals allowed which is more of a team oriented statistic. It is currently at .913. What was his save percentage career wise before coming to the Hawks? .913. The same. Talk about consistency. He also has 3 shutouts this year. One of them coming in Montreal, where even the crowd has cheered on his accomplishments. Fleury won his 500th game that evening. Even a depressed Montreal crowd couldn't help but cheer him on for the win. It at least gave them something to cheer about.
So yes, it has been the scoring. What was once know as a deadly offensive threat, is now known as an impotent group. Toews coming back from a year of sickness provided a lot of hope for the team. His leadership alone was worth having him back in the locker room. But, he struggled and didn't score until that Montreal game, Dec 9th.
Kane's numbers aren't much better and at one point, he didn't score for 8 games. Not a mild slump for number 88. The supporting cast has been just as much to blame. Dominik Kubalik was so cold, rumors of him getting traded developed. Some wondered where Kirby Dach had gone. They remembered where he was after seeing him getting burned by a Cale Makar, spin-o-rama overtime game winner.
The last piece of evidence in the numbers. They don't lie:
� 5v5 Shooting% � 6.61 (31st)
� 5v5 High-Danger Shooting% � 14.95 (25th)
� 5v5 Expected Goals-For/60min � 2.03 (T-31st)
� Goals-For per game � 2.29 (30th)
� Shots on Goal per game � 28.4 (29th)
SO, imagine life without Fleury. The Hawks would have to deal with the likes of Kevin Lankinen (who cant buy a win this season), and maybe Malcom Subban (who also has a hard time getting the W when he was a Hawk).
The Hawks would be in discussion with teams this year like Montreal, Phoenix and Buffalo.
