Usually I do this myself, but this year the whole crew is chiming in so you can hang us all out to dry in April. Let’s kick this pig…
Hawks Point Total and finish in the division
Cieslak – 104 points, 2nd
McClure – 102 points, 2nd (lose on ROW)
Feather – 110 points, 1st
Fearless Leader – 108 points, 1st
Leading Scorer
Cieslak – Kane, 91pts
McClure – Garbage Dick, 90 points
Feather – Kane, EIGHTY-THREE
Fearless Leader – Kane, 89 pts
Well, probably not. But these posts can’t be three words long.
It’s amazing what can happen for a player like Kane when he gets an actual line with which to play. After spending years with the likes of Michal Handzus and Andrew Shaw and Kris Versteeg or centering a line or whatever other jokers and punters the Hawks could drudge up rather than just playing him with Toews, Kane got Brad Richards two years ago and finally a center and other winger in Panarin and Anisimov. It resulted in an Art Ross and Hart Trophy.
And the Hawks needed all of it with Saad and Sharp gone, Hossa falling off, Toews not being able to produce a top line’s production all by himself, and basically no bottom six for most of the season. The problem for the Hawks is that they might find themselves in the same bind again this year. And this time, other teams are not going to be fooled by the names of Toews or Hossa and leave their best out against them instead of Kane’s line.
There isn’t much I can add to what everyone else said last night about Team USA. We basically knew this team was doomed the minute the preliminary roster was released and Justin Abdelkader was on it. We knew they were further doomed when the U-23 players wouldn’t be available, though we were suspicious that they would have been picked anyway given USA Hockey’s, and really hockey in general’s, adherence to veterans and #GRITHEARTSANDPAPERFAAAAARRRT.
Last night I spent a fair amount of time baffled at how Dean Lombardi had put together two Cup winners (though I guess it’s really one team that won twice when they’re that close together) if this is what he prioritized for Team USA. But the thing is, there was a time when Lombardi totally got it. While the Kings first Cup team was big and nasty and relied on Quick to bash their way to a parade, the 2014 team beat the Hawks at their own game. Lombardi saw what needed to be done and added Gaborik, called up Pearson and Toffoli and let them run. All of that was added to Doughty, Martinez, Voynov, and Muzzin who could really push the play. Remember the pace at which that Conference Final was played. That wasn’t neanderthal hockey. That was hockey as it should be. Where did that Dean Lombardi go?
Apparently he was lost long ago as he tried to back it up after that with the likes of Milan Lucic, Brayden McNabb, and Vinny Lecavalier. Maybe he was on drugs in 2014?
A day later than I had planned due to some planning snafus getting out of Montreal. Though I maintain Quebec is a weird vortex that just changes the date on your flight without you knowing so you can never leave (yes, I am Kat Stratford maintaining that boy kicked himself in the balls).
First off, let me say that I really wanted to like the World Cup. In my mind, it really did have a chance to be better than the Olympics, and if the league is willing to have it regularly for a while (correctly) it still could be with a built up reputation. This is for a couple reasons.
One, some of the reasons I am the hockey fan I am is the ’87 and ’91 Canada Cups. Ok, I barely remember ’87 but I do remember that even at six-years-old seeing Gretzky and Lemieux on the same line was a really cool thing. It was like seeing Jupiter and Saturn combine. I saw one of the of the warm-up games in ’91 at the Stadium between the US and Canada that featured a Roenick penalty shot on Belfour (saved) and the first sighting of the unholy monster that was Eric Lindros and Chris Chelios bouncing off of him like a superball. The US taking the first World Cup in ’96, with a completely loaded roster that is still kind of hard to fathom, is a cherished memory for a lot of us this age. This tournament, in whatever form, has certainly shone bright at points.
Normally, the week of Prospects’ Camp and the Convention yields nothing more than a bunch of self-congratulatory hot air (though when it’s on the heels of a parade that’s usually pretty deserved) and a bunch of puff pieces about prospects that will never ever matter. This time around, the prospects that might matter only scrimmaged once so there wasn’t much to get a read off of. And the Convention actually yielded a couple things worth talking about, even if it’s just July Space Madness and we’re all speculating for the sake of speculating (and it’s better than talking about the asinine idea of trading Kyle Schwarber for a fucking reliever or the White Sox… well, the White Sox).
So first things first, and the drum we’ve been beating about Marian Hossa slotting down this season to be a checking line winger with Marcus Kruger.
It wasn’t hard to be immediately smitten by Andrew Shaw. Within his first couple shifts as a Blackhawk, he’d already scored and gotten into a fight (guess which one Q noticed more?). You watched him skate around that first game in Philadelphia and thought, “This kid is nuts!” Hockey is probably the one sport where watching a player makes you say that, and that’s a good thing (though Willson Contreras might be carrying this tradition into baseball, and a young Charles Tillman did it for the Bears SKY POINT). In his second playoff game he ran over Mike Smith, fulfilling the fantasy of most Hawks fans (and I assume players as well). Sure, it didn’t help the Hawks much but that didn’t mean we didn’t glean a perverse joy from it.
Yesterday we picked through the wreckage of this season, so today it probably follows that we pivot and what’s ahead. At some point this summer, there’ll be talk of how much is left in the Hawks’ “window.” That’s up for debate and there are things that Stan can do to extend it, or also shorten it.
What is obvious to anyone who has read this blog this season for more than five minutes (other than the desire to talk about music or beer far more than hockey), is that the Hawks are going to be right back here in a year’s time if they don’t figure out their blue line problems. They can say a summer of rest will rejuvenate Keith, Hammer, and Seabrook but two of those guys are over 30 when next season rolls around and Hammer is approaching. The simplest and most obvious answer is they’re going to jam The Hill They Will Die On (TVR) into the second pairing again, but this is not an answer to any question anyone is asking.
Looking back at the night and series before, it isn’t just bewildering that the Hawks’ season came to a conclusion on the back of not one but two shots hitting both posts in this series (Andrew Ladd managed it in Game 3 as well). It’s bewildering that this sort of margin hasn’t come to bite the Hawks before. Of all the things that have been impressive about the last seven or eight seasons, it’s that the tiny, tiny margins that playoff games and series are decided on have rarely if ever bitten the Hawks until now.
Seriously, the Hawks are Zdeno Chara hitting a post and and whichever multiple OT game against Nashville or Anaheim swinging the other way from having just one Cup and essentially being Penguins West. It is that thin for an organization that has constantly rolled out some of the best and deepest teams in the league.
But then, you notice the luck more when your team is flawed in the ways the Hawks were this season.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7:30pm
TV: NBCSN, CSN, CBC In Da Great What Nort’
PALLBEARERS: St. Louis Gametime
Well now we’re gonna see if #ThisTimeWillBeDifferent, aren’t we?
There’s so much riding on this game tonight for St. Louis I kind of want to hurl in delight. If they lose, their coach will assuredly be fired, playing staff will be changed. We can look for CAPTAIN! to have a new address next year (probably going to happen anyway). Kirk ShattenKevin will almost assuredly go on the trade block again. The great goalie search of St. Louis could kick up into hyper drive again, or they’ll try for the 87th time to give the job to Jay Gallon and he’ll watch it go right by him.
If they win, then they’ll have slain their biggest demon, overcome a major mental hurdle, and be looking at a matchup with a Dallas team that probably won’t have its top center and is trying to play with no goalies and a defense that uses the youth soccer tactic of just chasing the puck in packs. There might be some validation for this Blues core with a win tonight. With a loss, it gets broken up.
For the Hawks… eh, if they don’t win they’ll have been a flawed, tired team that still has three banners in seven years with a core intact that is always in position to make a run for more. Win tonight, and they’ll have broken a main rival for nearly just the sheer joy of it. Who’s got more pressure y’think?
vs. 
PUCK DROP: Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8:42pm
TV: NBCSN round the nation, CSN here
THE SWORD OF DEMOCLES: St. Louis Gametime
All right, let’s get the positive right here at the top. No team has put the Hawks to the sword at first time of asking since the ’09 Wings. It took the ’11 Canucks four tries, the ’12 Coyotes two, and the ’14 Kings three. Quite simply, when the Hawks haven’t won the whole fucking thing they’ve been just about the toughest out around. And that’s with rosters as or more limited than this one. This is also a Blues team that has one series win to its name in this era. So for proceedings to end tonight, both teams are going to have to do something that has gone against their recent nature.
