Yay!

havent been this excited for a game since October

Same here! Very interested to see where he ends up in the lineup too. I'm also just glad that no matter what Frank was gonna do, he isn't going back to Michigan. I did not like the fit for him there. I felt like they were utilizing him improperly and I also felt like he made plays constantly that were awesome and brilliant but no one he played with was ever on the same page.

Good luck today! And good luck to the kid, too!

Im pretty cool with him on that line as well, at least to start off. Probably a little sheltered minutes against not the top defensive units, and Dickinson and Anderson both play hard but have offensive skills as well

Hey, Garak and newman23 - thanks for this ACGM and your thoughts. I, too, am excited to see how Frank does.

Garak, can you expand on your thoughts as to why you think Frank wasn't a fit at Michigan? I certainly did notice he excelled in the World Juniors - became a fantastic assist machine there - playing with really good players. Would it be fair to say that his talents were wasted a bit in college; that average players just can't "keep up" with what's possible with him, while superior players can not only "see" what he's gonna do for them but can capitalize on what he does? If that's true, he could make a better pro than college player, yes?

Regarding his contract; i.e., that it took hold IMMEDIATELY and he's burning his first year now... IMO, the Hawks are sending a message to all their prospects: we're gonna give you a shot and not seek to hold you back on earnings. If you perform at a high level, we'll reward you sooner rather than later.

Last, if he's THAT good (including adjusting to the pro game as well as Slaggert seems to have), then the rebuild is really ON. Gonna be great to watch the Hawks grow from here!

Exciting times, indeed.

IMO he was playing too low in the lineup too often at Michigan. He (and michigan as a whole) looked great when he was on a line with brindley and mcgroarty but he spent a lot of time centering the 2nd or 3rd line and was never put on PP1.

Copy that, newman23; thx.

Lights the lamp 🚨 on his first shot on goal!

I formally take back anything i've said on this site about Franky needing to go play in rockford next year

Maybe finally we can get Foligno/Dickinson off of Bedard's line so that I don't have an aneurysm every time they kill an offensive zone possession from having bricks for hands

During the game tonight, I was struck once by seeing Nazar direct traffic in the D-zone (when the Canes were having one of the long stints there). For a kid in his first game to know where responsibly to be - and where others should be - in the defensive zone, and then to talk about it on the ice, said a LOT to me. He very well be up here to stay.

Yeah. Honestly, I don't know if I could pinpoint what it was. It's all speculative, really, and I could be WAY off base.

Sometimes it seemed like he was being overlooked and sheltered for no reason, like maybe the coaching staff and/or other players were playing favorites. He would get pulled off the top line when he was obviously the best player on that line. Maybe that was just the coach thinking he could run his own line and they didn't want to stack their best players on one line, or maybe it was just a subconscious thing that was just a holdover from the year prior when Frank missed most of the season and the team had built all that on ice camaraderie without him. Sometimes it seemed like other players were just not on his level at all. So, yeah it could've been a case of his talents being wasted in college, but it just felt so obvious that I don't know how anyone could've missed it. Like, not even just being a homer here, if I were on that coaching staff, watching tape and creating the battle plan on a game to game basis, I would've looked at Nazar and been like "that is THE guy on this team and we need to lean on him for the toughest assignments and build our plan around his versatility, responsibility, and positional awareness." But, subconsciously, maybe that WAS just my inner homer seeing things that weren't there.

Yeah. I guess this is a more simple and concise way to put it than how I did. haha.

I was shocked to see him out on the PK as well

I'd assume the plan is for Hall to take that spot back over next season

Hmmm... Didn't he start, too, on the lower lines at the U-20 World Juniors team this year? I remember being mystified by that... Maybe that was why; i.e., he was often slotted too low at U-M? By the end of that tournament, though, he'd become an assist machine - playing up higher, IIRC, and being VERY effective.

That may explain, too, what I saw in two games when U-M visited South Bend this past season (and why Nazar seemed inconsistent to me this year)... The first game, both he and the entire team got shellacked by the Irish, 6-1. (Slaggert was terrific that game.) U-M looked like they had "jet lag" or something. The second game was entirely different, and U-M beat ND in a good game.

I guess reasons for his deployment can only be speculative, without knowing their coach's mind or the dynamics of the U-M team.

Whatever the case there, though, he seemed to fit right in everywhere last night - 5-5; when he almost initially scored crashing the net (prior to his breakaway); and, even on the PK. I know, I know... it was only one game. Luke had good things to say about his overall game - in addition to the threat he presents offensively, he (Luke) emphasized that Frank played a responsible full 200-ft game, as well.

How great to contemplate what the future portends for us beleaguered Hawk fans after the last two-plus years! The fun should continue, too, as recent draftees graduate into the NHL (fingers crossed).

One last thing regarding Frankie, as I just re-watched some of his postgame interview. He was asked how long it took to fully feel like himself after his significant hip injury last year... He said it was right after the World Juniors! So, perhaps I am overthinking this; maybe that's why he seemed to be inconsistent or was slotted where he was.

Cheers