“(We) weren’t even close in that (first-round) series.…
“Four (Stanley Cups) sounds a lot better than three, right? It’s a long time away and a lot of work, but sometimes you go through those situations and you realize you won three Cups and it’s almost like you’re going to be there again. That’s where the reality check is for us now, realizing how hard it is to get back in that situation, how hard it is to win a Cup or go deep in this league. There’s a lot of work to be done.…
—Patrick Kane, speaking to WGN Radio, May 21
Once the enfant terrible of not just the Chicago Blackhawks, if not the entire NHL, Patrick Kane seems to have matured a great deal the last year or two, on and off the ice.
Whether it’s voluntarily giving up a first class seat to a US serviceman a few weeks ago, or the comments above, Kane seems to now fully “get it.…
And when it comes to his take on the Hawks’ performance and need for improvement going into next season, he seems to get it perhaps better than some, especially Hawk fans clinging top the notion that the Hawks are somehow better than they looked when we last saw them on the ice, shaking hands with an opponent.
Kane’s comments reflect not just great respect for the Nashville Predators—the team that vanquished the Hawks in four games a few weeks ago—but a stone cold (and brutally honest) assessment of his own team’s complacency and what it takes to win Stanley Cups.
Pretty soon, if not already, Kane and his teammates will get real serious in the gyms and rinks near their summer homes. But it would probably be foolish to assume that their training can or will be that much harder than it has been in years’ past. There are less distractions this summer, though, without question.
But Kane’s comments, while they can be taken as an indictment of the attitudes of players and coaches, seem to also point to larger, organizational work that also needs to be done.
The Blackhawks are on the outside looking in again. After two straight first round exits, you can’t blame bad bounces or hitting posts anymore.
If the Hawks are going to win another Cup in this Era, the time is pretty much this year or next.
Because unlike the summer of 2012, the last time the Hawks had endured two first round outs, this team is five years older, more constricted by big money contracts.
Marian Hossa is 38, Duncan Keith will be 34 this summer, Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook just turned 29 and 32 respectively.
The good news is, aside from a couple of those players playing through injury last year, all four are exceptional athletes who still have a lot, or all, of their abilities left. Overall, there is still a lot of elite talent on this roster—it’s just not evenly spread anymore.
And—for the players on the roster right now—there’s no World Cup this summer. No Stanley Cup parade or press appearances. Just daily dates with a pile of weights, a sled, a mountain bike, or a speed coach. Rest, rehab, rejuvenation.
The bad news is, the Hawks don’t have the luxury of waiting for their prospects to catch up (if ever) and round out a roster that now has at least a couple of glaring holes. The other issue is, while some of the Hawk prospects and last year’s rookies may end up being very good NHL players, their skills, styles and positions may not match the big needs at the NHL level.
The Hawks tried this the last two years, for example, repeatedly plugging natural right wings and centers, many of them rookies whose mere NHL readiness could be debated, into one of the top 6 left wing positions.
Key playoff depth on defense came from three guys in their late 30s, one of whom, Michal Rozsival, has been running on fumes for two years. Meanwhile, the Hawks’ record on drafting and developing defensemen over the last several years is pretty much dreadful.
This is not to dive into the issue of drafting or prospect development. The situation is what it is. But last year’s mantra— “we have prospects on the way…—will likely not be an acceptable answer this summer.
At least not to Patrick Kane. Nor should it be to anyone. The front office, especially.
More as I hear it, getting ready for what could be a very active latter part of June.
JJ