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Eklund had a blog the other day positing the question as to whether this year’s Florida Panthers could replicate the magic of the ’96 Panthers—and take the Stanley Cup.
I’m not here to comment on that beyond saying this: hockey, especially at this time of year, often defies expectations and predictions. Suitably, for a sport played on ice with metal blades.
I think most would agree this year’s Hawks have been a little disappointing. I think most also would agree they’re a good to really good team, but likely not still playing in June.
But they are 4-2 for the year against the best (regular season) team in the league. And I would like their chances against the Blues in the playoffs as well.
Why? Because aside from the variability and luck that always enters into hockey, in the playoffs, matchups are everything.
And when the Hawks put on their Big Boy hockey pants, and decide to play through the rough stuff and return what’s given physically, they can still outskate the Blues most nights. They outshot the Blues 40-20 last night, and their speed upfront was a huge problem for a not terribly fast Blues defense.
For the same reason, I suspect the Blues would have problems with the Red Wings and the Canucks. But the Red Wings could easily go down in round 1 against the Preds. And the Blues would likely dominate a couple of other playoff clubs.
Matchups, injuries, luck.
At the beginning of the year, a lot of people said, and I generally agreed, you could put about five to six Western teams names in hat and draw one to predict who would make the Finals. And that’s exactly where we are.
Quite honestly, I think that number is about 8: St. Louis, Vancouver, Dallas, Detroit, Nashville, Chicago, San Jose, Los Angeles. And a couple of those teams might not even make the dance.
But, yeah, really, any of those teams could win three series, depending on how it plays out. (I can’t wait!)
Turning now to the Blackhawks, they seem to be back on a little bit of a roll, coming off a turnaround road point in New Jersey. And yet, where do the Hawks play tomorrow night? Nashville, a team that thoroughly dominated the Hawks last week at the U.C.
The Preds put an end to the Hawks’ last hot streak, and they will tomorrow unless the Hawks show up with a serious ‘300’ mindset.
I’m not ready to say the Hawks are a playoff force to be reckoned with. They play two top Western teams in their last four games and I think all fans should hope to see at least a shot at winning both games.
If that happens, and with Duncan Keith and Jonathan Toews back, who knows? What we do know is the Hawks have nights, like last night, and in spite of a pretty spotty performance in net by Corey Crawford (prior to a stellar shootout), where they are as good as or better than the ‘best’ in the league.
And that’s why they play the games in the playoffs.
Thanks for reading,
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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