Tyler Cameron: The "What Ifs" from your 2019-20 Blackhawks At the beginning of this season, I was more optimistic than most.

I liked the additions of Andrew Shaw, Calvin de Haan, Olli Maatta, Ryan Carpenter, and Robin Lehner.

I did think though, that there were still a lot of "ifs" that needed to happen for this 2019-20 Blackhawks team to get into the playoffs.

Let's look at those "What Ifs".

First and you are up early!

The biggest on for me, was Kubalik.

Hard to imagine that he was held off the top line and top PP.

What if he would have been up there all year. Is it a given he would still be trailing Hughes and Makar for ROY?

I'd like to think not.

What if the Blackhawks traded for de Haan before the trade for Maatta? What if we kept Dominik Kahun instead of shipping him to PIT? What if we called up Carlsson before Gilbert? What if Coronavirus was invented by Bowman to somehow keep his job so he could tell Wirtz the team didn’t miss the playoffs this year because the season gets cancelled.

So many what ifs.

Great job of keeping us entertained Tyler. Thank you. Keep the creative juices flowing.

Flying Puck

How much of the offensive drop was due to the inability to consistently clear the defensive zone cleanly and transition quickly to the offense?

How often was a top-9 line out there stuck in the d-zone for such a long period of time that it was time to change when they finally had to dump it into the o-zone?

How many 2-line passes were turned over, forcing players to go backwards until time to change again?

Perhaps there are good stats out there - I’m just going by what I saw all season.

what if Toews showed up for the first 30 games

what if Toews showed up for the first 30 games
- waitforawhistle

Toews started out slowly for 11 games, not 30: in games 12-30, he was 5+11=16. Not slow.

In games 12-70, he was 17+41=58 in 59 games.

He was having an excellent season - not the cause of the “out of playoffs” team record at all.

If all these what ifs came about and all the stars aligned the Hawks would probably be in a playoff position. (Notice I didn't say "in the playoffs" because I fear the rest of the season isn't going to be played.) With that being said all the other teams have their "what if" lists and they would have improved teams also if they all came to fruition.

Question for you Tyler, maybe you can answer it here or expand on it later and perhaps make it a topic of a future blog. It's regarding the assistant coaches. We all now know JC will be back, but will he make some changes to the assistants, or be forced to by Stan? Will Marc Crawford be silently ushered out after that mid-season controversy, or will he be retained to provide some experience behind the bench? Will Brookbank and Mitell also be back?

The PK has shown improvement since last year and kudos to the coaching staff on that, but the PP, as noted, remains a disaster. I don't know which of them had a hand in coaching the PP, but maybe someone with a fresh look has to be brought in.

What if Bowman did not give DeBrincat a $6M contract? What if DeBrincat was traded for Kyle Connor and Blackhawks signed Connor?

How quickly we forget that at the beginning of the year, Saad, Kampf, Kubalik was the Hawks best line, and JC moved Kubalik up with Toews and the board was in an uproar because the one line that was working was split up, and then no lines were working.

What if JC started Kubalik with Toews, and didn't ease him into the league, and when he got comfortable with pace and smaller ice surface, and stuck him on line 1 immediately (with the normal Toews slow start). What if Nylander started on line 3 or 4 (where he seemed to be more assertive), instead on the slow starting Toews line?

The biggest what if of all: If Q was coaching this team, would they be Stanley Cup contenders?

PP1 - Kane, , Toews, Kubalik, Dach, Boqvist (Dach in front of the net)
PP2 - ADB, Strome, Saad, Nylander, Keith, (Saad in front of the net)

The biggest what if of all: If Q was coaching this team, would they be Stanley Cup contenders?
- LAHawk

Red Font right?

Bright Red

If all these what ifs came about and all the stars aligned the Hawks would probably be in a playoff position. (Notice I didn't say "in the playoffs" because I fear the rest of the season isn't going to be played.) With that being said all the other teams have their "what if" lists and they would have improved teams also if they all came to fruition.

Question for you Tyler, maybe you can answer it here or expand on it later and perhaps make it a topic of a future blog. It's regarding the assistant coaches. We all now know JC will be back, but will he make some changes to the assistants, or be forced to by Stan? Will Marc Crawford be silently ushered out after that mid-season controversy, or will he be retained to provide some experience behind the bench? Will Brookbank and Mitell also be back?

The PK has shown improvement since last year and kudos to the coaching staff on that, but the PP, as noted, remains a disaster. I don't know which of them had a hand in coaching the PP, but maybe someone with a fresh look has to be brought in.
- boilermaker100

Great question.

From all I've heard the players and team really like Marc Crawford back there behind the bench.

His mid-season controversy was handled well by all parties and Crawford has been working on improving himself as a human for almost a decade.

As for the other guys, I wouldn't be shocked to see Brookbank demoted back to Rockford. He just seems too inexperienced to be in the NHL. I think he's got all the makings to be a solid assistant coach but wouldn't mind another veteran voice back there if Colliton is staying.

My guess is Mitell stays as Colliton's guy. I'm not sure what to make of that guy, but Colliton has the backing from Stan and ultimately Rocky, so I can't see them taking Mitell away from him.

PP1 - Kane, , Toews, Kubalik, Dach, Boqvist (Dach in front of the net)
PP2 - ADB, Strome, Saad, Nylander, Keith, (Saad in front of the net)
- -Doh-

Oh I definitely forgot Dach on my PP units.

That wasn't intentional. I'm going to edit the blog now as #77 needs to be out there!

My edit will be almost identical to your suggestions above Doh.

Oh I definitely forgot Dach on my PP units.

That wasn't intentional. I'm going to edit the blog now as #77 needs to be out there!

My edit will be almost identical to your suggestions above Doh.
- Tyler Cameron

One other observation..... They keep the first PP unit on too long or put them right on the ice even if they just finished their regular shift when the penalty was called. Also they keep them on the PP too long. This makes the PP1 look exhausted at the end of their shift and it may even carry over to a couple of shifts after the PP is over. I would balance the PP time of the first and second pp units a little. Giving the 1st unit more time, but not that much more. If you wanted you could keep Kane out there for the 1st half of the PP2 shift. But then rotate the 3rd line, the 4th line and Toews line before sending Kane back out after the PP.

What if the Blackhawks had a competent head coach?

What if the Blackhawks had traded Gustafsson during last off-season?

Has anyone calculated the Hawk's PP % since the Gustafsson trade?
It seems like they've scored at a higher rate.

The biggest what if of all: If Q was coaching this team, would they be Stanley Cup contenders?
- LAHawk

No.
But my money would be on them having a better record.

If we're making broad stroke generalizations - then Q wouldn't have played the kids as much so the trade off would be a few more wins for less development growth by Dach and Boqvist. ... I'll take the more development growth than the few more wins.

Not necessarily season changing, but:

If we still had Jokiharju, would he be getting the same scrutiny that Nylander has?

What if the Blackhawks had a competent head coach?

What if the Blackhawks had traded Gustafsson during last off-season?
- scottak

That would have been the time to do so. Bowman could have possibly maximized the return on that trade. Another Blowman fail.

Not sure, but shorties against have definitely decreased, as a matter of fact, not sure if we have given any up since Gus and Mr. can’t stop breakaways left town.

For the what if's .I thought signing DeHann and Shaw was a very risky move ,but that is mostly hindsight .I really don't understand why Kubilk was not on the top PP ,that was a huge miss from a young inexperienced coach . I really believe ADB will rebound ,think his sophomore slump was delayed for what ever reason . I have great confidence that the HAWKS will have a great summer and hope for next year .Will there be a season next year well I hope so .. Stay safe out there

What if Hawk fans stopped stressing themselves out and understand that the Hawks are in the middle of a rebuild where so much of the roster are very young and part of the roster are AHL not NHL calibre and that the Hawks are a ways from competing.