Some blogs are easier to write than others. This is definitely the latter.
If Bryan Bickell can get a puck deep early in overtime last night, maybe Game 5 of the WCF turns out entirely differently. As it was, the Anaheim Ducks took advantage of a Hawks’ line change and got the puck quickly from their blueline to a streaking Ryan Kesler. We all know the rest of the story.
Bickell is getting roasted this morning and deservedly so. At the same time, it wasn’t just Bickell who came out and sleepwalked through a first period that saw Anaheim take a 3-0 lead.
The series is not over, but the fact is, the Hawks blew an opportunity to put a stranglehold on the series, returning to Chicago for game 6 tomorrow night.
Now they have to defend home ice again, and then hope for a road victory in Anaheim in game 7. Tall order. Doable, not impossible, but definitely an uphill slog—when a much easier route was there for the taking last night.
It’s too early to write off the series or the season, but some season ending grades are taking shape for everyone on the roster, the coaching staff, and GM Stan Bowman.
This series, regardless of outcome, is starting to feel a lot like last year’s WCF, when the Hawks, undermanned at center, were manhandled down the middle by a Kings’ team that had deep, capable, physical center depth.
The Hawks did address the center position, both in the offseason and at the trade deadline. But this year’s deficiency is on the third defensive pairing, really 5-7 on the depth chart. The fact is, Kyle Cumiskey, a journeyman whose presence on the Hawk roster is due to head Coach Joel Quenneville’s recommendation, is better than two players GM Stan Bowman expended draft picks for: first, David Rundblad, then Kimmo Timonen.
Not just better, much better.
Even though the Hawks now appear to be on the ropes, as a Hawk fan, how can you not be incredibly proud of this club?
Last year, the mantra of some Hawk fans was “a bounce away from the Stanley Cup.… I saw it differently, as did some others, maybe more of a glass half-empty perspective: it seemed like the Hawks were undermanned in a critical area, but compensated for it through superhuman effort to get where they got to.
And how can you not say the same here? They had no business, after getting blitzkrieged in the first period, much less giving up Anaheim’s 4th goal with 5 minutes left in the third, tying that game and forcing overtime.
But they did. Anaheim fans no doubt are trotting out the “you got lucky… mantra of their own. Well, the Hawks have gotten similarly “lucky… throughout these playoffs when down.
Unlikely comebacks are becoming de rigeur for this team. But it begs a question: why does it have to always be necessary? The answer, to some degree, lies in a defense that is relying way too heavily on it’s top 4, because the 5-7 slots were not properly addressed.
Because a “power forward… being paid $4 million a year is playing more like a $1.5 million a year player. Delivering some hits and not much else.
No, it’s not over, and the Hawks as long as they have breath, may well pull this out.
But if they don’t, we’re starting to understand better why that would be the case.
I’ll have a Game 6 Preview tomorrow.
JJ
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