With last night's 4-1 win over a rested San Jose Sharks club, the Hawks have four straight come from behind wins over 2015 playoff teams, including three road games.
Hmmm, is it time to pronounce the Hawks back to being "the Hawks?"
You know, "the ice is tilted," "they look like they're playing 6 skaters (even when they're really not)" Chicago Blackhawks.
Hard to go there just yet.
But clearly, although it is really hard to say for sure what this team's identity is, and there are some discernible cracks in the facade regardless, this is a team that is gaining a lot of confidence in its ability to win—and do so versus the "elite" teams—in addition to a lot of points.
Bear in mind, the above has been accomplished while riding the backup goalie and with some nagging injuries to key players.
And there's a pattern emerging that suggests, even if this is not the "Hawks' year," it could well be (assuming they stay relatively healthy) a very good year for this team. Just look at recent history:
2010 Stanley Cup 2011 1st round elimination 2012 1st round elimination 2013 Stanley Cup 2014 Western Conference Finals 2015 Stanley Cup 2016 First round elimination 2017 ??
Every 2nd or third year, this team goes deep. Very deep. Probably because of more rest in the summer after an early exit, and opportunity to retool the roster. The team definitely got more rest this past summer, but the retooling was by default and crossed fingers for good luck—matriculating a lot of ready or not rookies as opposed to bellying up to the summer free agency bar with a big roll of bills.
And questions do linger. The team is underwater in shots for/against, and next to last in the league killing penalties.
However, they are steadily trending up, after a miserable start to the season in both areas. Meanwhile, they are getting stellar to unreal goaltending and big years (after 34 games anyway) from Marian Hossa, Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov, not to mention key roles being played by a small handful of rookies and some guy named Panik.
This Hawk team plays hard and relentlessly, and wins, even when it's not getting the best play from its top players (most notably Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith) or anything from its starting goalie (the injured Corey Crawford.
So while the picture isn't perfect yet—it can get better than it already is, which points toward some real possibility for this team as the season progresses into the playoffs.
I'll have a Senators preview tomorrow.
JJ
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