So let's get today's business out of the way first:
Chicago Blackhawks (50-23-8) at LA Kings (38-35-7) 5PM Central/3PM Pacific CSN Chicago/Fox Sports West
NOTES:
This game doesn't matter.
I could stop right there. But, to be clear, the coaching staff decided before this three-game road trip that they would do their utmost to preserve the team's health, get a bit more experience for guys like Vince Hinostroza, Michal Kempny and John Hayden—who may not have regular roles in the playoffs, but might be called on due to injury or other adversity.
OK. Makes sense. So if you noticed I didn't post a recap on the 4-0 loss to Anaheim night before last, that is partially why. The game just didn't matter.
But the playoffs do.
I will have a Western Conference playoff preview in my next blog. But foreshadowing that, I will expand on some thoughts I dropped on the message board yesterday.
All season long, debate has gone back and forth on my message board about how good this Hawk team is. The obvious benchmarks being the Hawk teams that won Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015—and, on the other hand, the first round out teams of 2011, 2012, and 2016.
But to me, that's a bit of a fool's errand (although I engaged in it some myself). The larger picture needs to be considered. How good are this year's Hawks compared to this year's versions of the other teams in the playoffs?
I think it would be hard to find a knowledgeable NHL fan who would not agree that the Western Conference is not as good at this point as it was five years ago, or even three years ago, and the East, as you might expect, has improved proportionally.
So when you consider that calculus, it's not hard to see the Hawks, having finished first in the West and the Central Division, as the likely favorite to come out of the West.
But.
But, where in the past that would have meant, by association, they would be Cup favorites, this year you can't go there, because there is an argument the East is the stronger of the two conferences.
Again, all season long, we've heard the "Trotz/Washington can't win in the playoffs" mantra, "New York is good, not great," "Columbus is a flash in the pan," and of late "Pittsburgh is too depleted."
Any or all of those may be true. Or not. The playoffs are the crucible that proves or disproves those yearly truisms.
A couple of other things Hawk fans need to consider going in to these playoffs.
I am with even the most optimistic Hawk fans on a few things—the biggest being, I don't think this is a first round out team. No disrespect to the Predators or the Flames, but the Hawks are healthy, experienced and deep enough to be reasonable favorites in those series.
But what Hawk fans do seem to forget is that hindsight is always 20/20—and the pain and sacrifice necessary to achieve past accomplishments always seem to fade quickly in the memory. Fans forget, for example, how tenuous the first round wins versus Nashville were in 2010 and 2015. Or how close the Hawks came to elimination versus Detroit in 2013, and Anaheim in 2015.
And those were all deeper, better Hawk teams than this one. Don't kid yourself on that.
The other thing I will throw out there, that points to what I just said—if you take a look at shots taken per game versus shots allowed over the last several seasons, the Hawks have been underwater the last two years. They simply are not the same kind of possession team anymore.
Now, is it all doom and gloom going in to these playoffs? No, the Hawks have been trending upward the second half of the season—when they surged and Minnesota faltered.
The Richard Panik of last year's playoffs became the Richard Panik of this year's regular season. He has become a physically disruptive difference maker and yet another scoring threat.
A couple of the experiments driven by necessity earlier in the year—most notably Ryan Hartman and Nick Schmaltz—have panned out (Hartman, methinks, moreso than Schmaltz at this point, but . . .).
Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, and key playoff role player Marcus Kruger all seem to have overcome some nagging injuries of the last couple of years. By all accounts, including some private information I've received, Artem Anisimov is getting close to 100% and should be ready to go Game 1. The Hawks are deep and proven in net.
But, in my estimation, the Hawks will need guys like Hartman and/or Panik to perhaps take even another step up in these playoffs. Because starting very soon, the competition gets tougher. And if the Hawks do get out of the West, which is far from guaranteed, they will face a team like Washington or Pittsburgh or Columbus that is deep and proven and has given Chicago trouble in one-game match ups.
And we'll address all this in more detail soon enough.
All for now,
JJ