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Fast Five: Make St. Louis Sing the Blues

April 4, 2018, 9:28 AM ET [383 Comments]
Tyler Cameron
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Blackhawks will be happy to play the villain in their next 2 games vs. the Blues. St. Louis is currently 1-point out of the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

As much as this season has been a disappointing one for the Hawks, this would be a great feeling of accomplishment (I guess) to end the year on a high note.

I'm with you to those who want the highest draft pick possible, which would mean rooting for the Hawks to lose these last few games. However, I also would love to see some emotion and success to close out this year.

Here is your Fast Five leading up to this game, as well as random thoughts going through my brain:

1) It's amazing to have a feeling of happiness by keeping these Blues out of the playoffs. The feeling is driven by the recent rivalry of these 2 teams. Due to the Blackhawks success over the last 10 years, we're fortunate enough to hate a lot of teams.

Seeing the Sedin's retirement announcement makes me want to go back and watch some of those games. The Chicago/Vancouver hatred ran deep and some extremely entertaining games were played because of it.

Stick tap to Daniel and Henrik who have had outstanding careers (even if I hated them for a good portion of it) and will be heading to the HOF.

2) There is a lot of Coach Q talk going around lately. I have heard all along that he will be replaced but that's of course not 100%.

One thing I will say, Coach Q over the last couple of months has really been working with the younger players, as well as giving them more responsibility. This experience is only going to benefit these players heading into next year. Whether Q is in Chicago or not, this season isn't a complete bust for reasons like this.

3) Seeing a line of Sikura-Ejdsell-Debrincat is exciting to see and promising for the future of this team, but a guy that might be carving out a spot for himself is Andreas Martinsen.

The 27-year old is a UFA after this season, however, wouldn't be expensive to resign. If the Hawks are looking for any sort of grit, energy and pushback for their 2018-19 team, they will need to add guys like this.

Martinsen is a big body, can skate and has some NHL experience. He has a whopping 26 hits in 6 games (4.3 average which leads the team) and he would be a welcomed physical presence next year in my books.

Adding these young, exciting players are great but after the Hawks sent down Bouma, traded Wingels, Hartman and Panik, there's not much left on this roster other than Hayden and Connor Murphy that have that edge.

4) Toews looks like he is politely declining the invitation to play in the World Championships this year. I know guys like Connor McDavid are going to be there, so it would have been great to see Toews skate alongside the best-of-who's-left in Canada, but taking some time off is a no-brainer for the Captain.

5) Rockford still sits in 4th in their division after last night's games. Milwaukee did win though, so there lead over them decreases to 5 points.

This is a big game tonight for the ‘Hogs as they play San Antonio as they look to keep their winning ways going. Their streak is up to 4-games.
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That's all I got for now.

See ya out there!

JL


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