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Boy, have I ever struggled with this pinning this Hawks team down all year. On most nights, I think they are doomed and will miss their 1st post-season in 10 years. Other nights, I feel like I'm having a flashback of Cup contender Blackhawks hockey.

It's been an amazing run considering the turnover this team has dealt with after 3x Cup roster purges due to the salary cap. Now, it's time we look in the mirror and ask, "is this the end of the post-season run?"

Help me out here as the last math class I took, I failed, but for the Hawks to make the playoffs, their looking at a minimum of 94 points. That would mean the Hawks would need to secure 44 points in their remaining 37 games - a 22-15 type record. Doable, yes, but even at 94 points, they might not get in – it may take more points or come down to a tie-breaker with a team in the West.

The Hawks have had 22 wins this season with 14 of those against teams who are currently out of the playoffs after tonight's games. So quick math would tell us that they have only had 8 wins against playoff caliber teams (#notgood).

Using that trend, let's look at the last 37 games on the schedule… SPOILER ALERT, it doesn't look pretty.

First, teams currently in the playoffs with the number of remaining games in brackets:

EAST: Washington (1), Columbus(1), New Jersey (0), Tampa Bay (1), Boston (2), Toronto (1), Pittsburgh (0), New York Islanders (2)

WEST: Winnipeg (3), Nashville (1), St. Louis (3), Vegas (1), Calgary (2), Los Angeles (2), Dallas (1), Minnesota (1)

Next, looking at those EAST teams above, the Hawks have 8 points (3-3-2) in 8 games. Let's say they can only secure 8 points in the remaining 8 games… where does that leave them with their Western foe?

This season, in the 17 games they have dueled with those WEST teams about they are a measly 5-9-3 for a whopping 13 points… and THIS is where my concern lies.

They have 14 games remaining against those top (legit) teams in their conference. The Blackhawks would need to go on one hell of a run against those teams to get into the post-season, as well as give themselves any sort of confidence heading into the extra-season.

Conclusion being, prepare for your April, May and definitely June TV schedules to open up because it's beginning to look like an uphill battle for our wounded warriors.

I wanted to hold off as long as possible to write any sort of "demise of the Hawks" type of a blog because, well going back to my opening line, I just didn't know what this team was on a game-to-game basis.

Am I going to stop yelling at my TV screen and pumping out as many blogs as possible offering insight along the way? Hell, no!

I will be right there with you guys and gals hoping this bye break is the beginning of something amazing with this team. Is it possible they enter into Saturday's game against the Islanders rested, clear-minded and hungry to take one last shot at saving their season, I can 100% see that.

However, I'm tired of being hopeful that this season will turn around. This team has a large enough sample size for me to say that they just don't have the horses this year. Boy, I hope they prove me wrong though!

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Moving on to a couple topics I'd like to touch on that have owned the internet of late. First, would be the Corey Crawford situation.

After radio silence from my sources since it happened, I had only heard what you have all heard over the past few weeks; the odd rumour here and a lot more silence over there.

I found Jonathan Toews' recent comments very strange:

"We're always concerned about our teammates first, and then our team second," Toews said, via the Daily Herald's John Dietz. "Crow knows he's trying to get better. He's one of those guys that we know we can rely upon as a person, as a teammate.

"He'll do what he can to get himself better, so he can get back to playing and get back and help our team."

I'm obviously not the only one that viewed the Captain's comment as odd, as it's been dissected by beat writers and bloggers everywhere, however, the most intriguing part was not what he said, but why?

Outside of an 18-year old Toews swearing on national TV after winning a WJHC gold medal, he's a very calculated and well-spoken spokesperson for the Hawks – he always has been.

All injuries are handled with such discretion in the NHL and if Toews truly knows what's happening with this mystery Crawford injury, why did he choose to say anything about in such a cryptic way? Especially when he could have put any comment on ice until he and his teammates returned from their Caribbean vacations.

I won't comment on it any further but I do hope whatever is going on that Crawford is on his path to getting healthy again and returning to his Vezina-esque season he was having before he went down. He is their best chance of getting to that 22-15(ish) record.

Sticking with the injury front, it appears Mr. Anisimov is on track to draw back into the lineup when the Hawks hit the ice again this weekend. When he comes back, who goes down?

The safe bet would be Tomas Jurco. Oh wait, that was the opposite of a safe bet by Bowman because he's going to have to go through waivers again. Which means Jurco was called up, played 0 NHL games, had a full week off without practice and then headed back down to Rockford (if he's not claimed).

This would be another example of Quenneville and Bowman not being on the same page. Jurco had a chance to get into that Wild game right after Panik was traded, but Q opted to dress 7 D.

Great segue into my last topic, one that has been discussed a lot of the boards here. If the Hawks fail to make the post-season this season… what's next?

Who gets the boot? Stan or Joel?

I've heard that Joel will be the causality if the Hawks didn't make an impact in the playoffs, so if they didn't make it at all, he's all but gone according to my source.

I know that will make a lot of people happy on here, but I, for one, would have a very bittersweet feeling about it. He's a great coach and sometimes it's the devil you know, right? However, I do get the feeling that the Stan and Joel bickering has maybe reached its pique and it might be time to part ways.

Obviously, it's way too early to know who would replace Coach Q, if he were to go. There are a lot of ideas being tossed out there.

With Stan showing his cards on wanting to create a team that's faster and a lot younger, it's apparent that he's attempting a rebuild on the fly. I'm ok with that. If Quenneville isn't the one to take them into this new era, they best find someone who is a damn good communicator and can work well with younger players.

Tony Granato is a name I've heard out there in passing. This is most likely due to his multiple connections to the team.

His brother, Don Granato is one of the Hawks assistant coaches (and coached with Tony last year at Wisconsin). He was brought in this off-season by Stan to be the "eyes in the sky", the first time the Hawks have officially had 3 associate coaches since… well, maybe ever.

Tony learned under Quenneville in Colorado and credits his coaching style to Q. He's currently the Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin (with IceHogs former Associate Coach, Mark Osiecki) helping to reshape that program.

He is also from Downers Groove, Ill.

So much can and will change from now, but wanted to share that with you guys.

What's your take on everything? With no hockey this week, we all might go a little crazy this week. I'm already going insane with no sleep, so let's try to at least stick together for a little sanity.

I have a couple other blogs coming up to keep us busy as well.

See ya on the boards!

JL

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