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Friday night in Winnipeg or after that in St. Louis, the Blackhawks could go out and roll sevens, delivering patented “Blackhawk… performance in 4-1 and 5-2 wins over good divisional foes.
They could, I mean this is the Chicago Blackhawks we’re talking about, right?
Right?
Unfortunately for Hawk fans, the likelihood of such a turnaround—or that level of play continuing for any period of time—is appearing more and more remote.
Hockey Chemistry 101: this team has a chemistry problem.
Maybe it’s the natural result of winning two Stanley Cups in the last 6 years under a salary cap: inevitably, your roster atrophies, you play too much hockey, it catches up.
A couple of posters on my thread last night really seemed to nail it though. Joel Quennevile seems to be making his lineup with too many “half players.…
David Rundblad has offensive skill, but he’s a bloody trainwreck in his own end. And he’s almost completely non-physical.
Michal Rozsival is a savvy veteran with two Cup rings, but he’s glacially slow and gaffe prone.
Teuvo Teravainen has promise and skill and smarts, but he lacks the maturity and confidence to be a legitimate difference maker and he is one more tiny forward on a team full of tiny forwards.
I know, I know, I sound like a broken record to those who love seeing the puck danced around the perimeter and 50-foot shots into the opposing goalie’s pads.
Brad Richards has helped Patrick Kane rack up big points this year, but he provides no help in the defensive zone.
Dan Carcillo can play physical and agitate opponents, and he makes too many dumb plays at the wrong times.
Bryan Bickell continues to actually show up for a minimal percentage of games.
Too large a percentage of Hawk forwards avoid the slot in the offensive zone, too many Hawk defenders fail to control the slot in the defensive end.
This is a team that seems to assume—too often—that pretty practice plays can win actual NHL games.
To that end, I continue to hear, and from multiple sources now, the Hawks are trying to add some size (with some modicum of skill) at forward.
Yesterday, I heard from a new source that the Hawks are again talking to Vancouver about Zack Kassian. A few days ago, I reported here that the Hawks were targeting Buffalo winger Nicolas Deslauriers.
The voices crying “all is well,… like Kevin Bacon about to get trampled by a mob in Animal House, have become more isolated and shrill.
But they’re right about one thing. This is the Chicago Blackhawks. A team with a lot of talent and tradition that should be in the Stanley Cup conversation year after year.
It just appears more and more now that this year, the front office can’t assume it will just happen. There’s been a sense all year that this team might need a tweak or two to get out of the West. Now it is becoming an overwhelmingly obvious reality. And it might take more of a minor shakeup than a tweak.
Getting Kris Versteeg back healthy, or perhaps even Trevor van Riemsdyk, could/would help some.
But, the games are ticking off the schedule and for a good six weeks now, the Hawks have been sinking slowly.
I’ll have a Jets preview tomorrow or Friday.
JJ