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It probably won't come as a surprise that re-signing Bryan Bickell has become the top offseason priority of the Blackhawks.

This has been confirmed for me recently by a source close to the Hawks who told me the club has no intention of "losing another (Dustin) Byfuglien."

I would look for a 3-4 year deal at an average salary of $3-3.5 million. The Hawks and Bickell were close earlier this year (per a source close to Bickell's family) on a deal averaging significantly less money. But clearly, Bickell has elevated his value in these playoffs and a case can be made that he is now one of the league's better power forwards.

When his pilot light is on, Bickell is a 6'4", 235 pound "do it all" forward, who can shoot, handle the puck, skate and defend reasonably well, occupy the front of the net and deliver punishing hits.

The comparison to Byfuglien is interesting and apt. Both are small town kids who like to hunt and fish, big and athletic, but not by nature "type A" personalities. And both are late bloomers.

The Hawks will likely use one or both of their compliance buyouts on Steve Montador and/or Rostislav Olesz, freeing up a bit of cap space, but really only commensurate with the impending downward adjustment in the cap.

Thus, the emphasis and higher price tag on Bickell now puts another impending UFA, winger Viktor Stalberg, in the position of likely having to accept a discount deal to stay with the Hawks. And that appears very unlikely.

Nick Leddy and Marcus Kruger are both RFAs, and so the Hawks have a lot more leverage there.

GAME 2

Look for the Kings to do a lot more chipping and chasing, station to station hockey.

They will try to use their size and work ethic to beat the Hawks down low, gain possession and go from there. For the Hawks, the prescription is to move and think fast, keep their breakouts clean and efficient (as possible). They did this with some success in Game 1. But the Kings are going to really try now to pressure the Hawk defense, especially Johnny Oduya, Nick Leddy and Michal Rozsival.

Therefore, I would look for Duncan Keith, Nik Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook to maybe play more minutes today. Especially if the Kings demonstrate that they can get to the other defensemen.

But while the Kings have publicly cited difficulty getting through the neutral zone as the issue yesterday, they also spent a good deal of time pinned in their own end, especially in the second period, when the Hawks did the most business on the scoreboard. This is where it is up to the Hawks to keep their feet moving and their sticks active, pinch and rotate. If they can do this, then you can look for another lop-sided shot margin, and possibly another Hawk victory tonight.

I have no word on Mike Richards' status tonight. I will say if Richards was legitimately dinged by the third period hit from Dave Bolland—and not embellishing—then the injury could be a factor tonight and the rest of the series.

All for now,


JJ

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