Chicago Tribune Article

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

The Blackhawks’ playoff roster is better than the one they will open the regular season with. I don’t know what the playoff roster will look like, but I know it can’t help but look better with Marian Hossa and Adam Burish.

If the Hawks make the postseason, that is.

Like you, I reveled in the way the Hawks conquered western Canada and nearly closed the black hole of eastern Michigan last spring, but I have a bad feeling about this season. The start of it, anyway.

Let’s go back to the moment that little snot Darren Helm ended The Dream in five games in the Western Conference Finals. No, let’s go back one game before that. Game 4, clear No. 1 goalie Nikolai Khabibulin injured, Cristobal Huet in net, and the Hawks blow a home playoff game --- get routed in a home playoff game, actually --- when the evil Red Wings beat them silly despite playing without MVP candidate Pavel Datsyuk, Norris Trophy-winner Niklas Lidstrom, and multiple-Stanley Cup-winning grinder Kris Draper. The point where it was obvious the dreaded Wings owned the young, collapsible Hawks was 12 seconds after the Hawks scored and Huet gave up a miserable, deflating, killer goal by Hossa. If you want to know the truth, that’s when the series ended.

Huet was better in Game 5, but it became Game Last because the Hawks weren’t good enough. I wanted to go back to those games because goaltending is the pitching of hockey, the most important part of any team. Khabibulin is gone to Edmonton. Huet is the starter, and I don’t think Huet is good enough. No wait, let me clarify: I think Huet is just good enough to break your heart.

From the playoff elimination forward, the Hawks have gone through one embarrassment after another. Start with signing Hossa to a massive free-agent contract. Seemed like a great move to start free agency, taking your rival’s top goal scorer. Also seemed like a trade for oft-injured Martin Havlat, last seen receiving a lobotomy from Detroit defensman Niklas Kronwall.

But then we learned that the big Slovakian winger won’t earn a single koruna until maybe Thanksgiving because he needed surgery. Turns out, the Hawks gave Hossa a 12-year contract without giving him a physical. Paging Dr. Howard, Paging Dr. Fine . . .

So, the Hawks let Havlat go. He was their most valuable forward last year as he turned the checking line into one of the best two-way combinations in the league. Now his replacement will be in street clothes for the first six or seven weeks.

Dale Tallon, your plane was boarding.

The offseason remained off when Patrick Kane tried to play tough with a cabbie. I’m not worried about that having an affect on the season, but I am worried about Kane and every other Hawk who gets the call from his country to play in the 2010 Olympic in Vancouver. Sorry, but nothing good comes out of that for the Hawks. Nothing. Kane not only is an obvious pick for USA Hockey, but on the bigger ice in a game that stresses speed more than bulk, Kane is likely to get a lot of playing time. A lot. Which means a lot more chance for an injury.

Play for your country, kill your city.

The whole in-season Olympic thing has always been stupid, but that’s what a league desperate for attention resorts to.

And now Burish is gone until March. No, he’s not Kane or Jonathan Toews or Duncan Keith or Brent Seabrook, but he does a little bit of everything those guys do and he does a whole lot of aggravating. No Hawk on the roster right now can do a better job of distracting an opponent’s best player than Burish. See Jarome Iginla for details.

Most of the shift disturbing probably falls to Ben Eager, who can antagonize with the best of them and turn an opponent’s face into roadkill in about three seconds, but he can’t get there as fast as Burish and isn’t as accomplished at center.

The additions of Stanley Cup veteran John Madden and Tomas Kopecky give the Hawks a different look down the middle and give coach Joel Quenneville new match-up options, which is a huge advantage for the Hawks, what with Quenneville’s being one of the best bench coaches around. How long it takes for the Hawks to turn those differences into advantages, I don’t know.

That brings us to the Hawks’ opener, which is nine days and eight time zones away, or maybe it’s eight hours and nine L stops away, I can’t remember because I have jet lag. The Hawks play a couple fake games in Switzerland and a couple real games in Finland sometime soon. I hate this idea of going across the pond to play games that count. The Hawks set an attendance record last year. Their fans deserve every home game they can get.

What’s more, the entire idea of going to Europe to play games is part of the NHL’s usual backwards thinking. Look, the Swedes and the Finns and the Swiss already love hockey. You don’t need to sell it there. You need to sell it here. The NHL is behind baseball, football, basketball, auto racing and “Top Chef.’’ Wake up already.

But the Hawks are sentenced overseas. At least rival Detroit and St. Louis get screwed, as well, being ordered to perform community service in Sweden.

Maybe I’m wrong about all this. Maybe Huet is actually Patrick Roy with a learner’s permit. Maybe the Hawks have forward depth that plays out so effectively that they become the New Wings when Hossa suits up. Maybe Kane leads Yanks into the gold medal game against the hosers from the Great White North and it propels him to greater individual and team heights the way the 1987 Canada Cup transformed Mario Lemieux into a winner from just a one-stick pony. Maybe everything I consider adversity becomes an opportunity for the Hawks to soar.

Maybe. Hope so. But I don’t like the looks of it from here, and there’s another reason: The young Hawks snuck up on a lot of people for about half of last season. Not a chance of that this year. Not after reaching the final four, not after Kane makes the cover of NHL ’10, not after Scotty Bowman’s kid takes over the general manager’s chair. Everybody will be watching. That’s pressure. Everybody will play the Hawks like it’s a playoff game. That’s more pressure.

It’s one thing to surprise people. It’s another to do great things when everybody’s expecting great things to start with. These young Hawks showed last season they are quick studies. I hope they’ve wised up to how different this one will be.

[VM1138 1,921]

"Like you, I reveled in the way the Hawks conquered western Canada and nearly closed the black hole of eastern Michigan last spring, but I have a bad feeling about this season. The start of it, anyway."

Sorry Tribune writer...the Hawks didn't nearly close out Detroit. Not even close.

[Carman 387]

He is trying really really hard to get his name out there.

[dobbles 252]

i think this year is the hawks one big chance. with their had contracts, they can't keep a lot of these good young guys around. though it all hinges on huet. i seem to have a little more faith in him than most. i think he is at least a decent goalie. he's no brodeur, but hopefully the hawks won't need him to be. the hossa injury sucks for them. but assuming he gets back on time i don't think it will significantly derail them. and whats with all the whining about adam freaking burish? sure i love the grinder type guys as much as anyone. but if burish was a central piece in the hawks plans maybe they aren't as good as i though...

i think the hawks have a chance at winning the division this year. and unless they get some miracle contracts, it might be their only shot at it. and i am fine with them winning. helps get the rivalry going with them. it will make our playoff opponents tougher starting at a lower spot, but thats ok. being a top seed has backfired many times, so sometimes its better to play tough teams and have to bring it every night.

[MadMan Mark 0]

Chi-town has a one year window. . . that's it. They spent in the wrong areas. They DID NOT need help at the forward position. Their D cost them 2 games in the WCF and they did nothing to improve that area. Huet = downgrade in net from 08-09. If the Hawks are looking to save money, let Kane go. He is small and one-dimensional. Yes, he had a great series against Vancouver, but completely disappeared in the WCF. I will remember him for his punk ass move in one of the WCF games. . . he got checked behind the goal line and a skirmish started near the blue line. Kane skates up and shoves his stick into the group of people from the outside. What a *****! I loved when the Mule took his mouthpiece and threw it on the ice. I hope Ericsson lines this girl up and puts her through the glass this year.

If I were the Hawks, I would concentrate on getting Toews and then Keith signed. Kane equals all offense, and no defense. . . and his O can be shut down by a better, two-way forward.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

nearly closed the black hole of eastern Michigan last spring

As a physicist I can conclusively say the Blackhawks passed the event horizon in the first period of OT in Game 5. I'd also like to mention that closing a black hole is a retarded concept.

[Wings3:16 324]

I guess if "nearly beating" a city is winning one playoff game then the Wings almost beat a lot of teams through out the seasons...stupid.

[Guest Four]

Guy just sounds like a huge whiner..

*insert 5 yr old crying voice here*

"Awww shwucks! Chicago couldn't bweat the bwig bwad Wings, wit's not fair!"

[Johnny Diamonds 25]

The title of this article was "Too early to panic over the Hawks?" Or was that your own opinion of the blackhawks? I'm not worried about the blackhawks. Are you?

[thedisappearer 291]

That writer is trying to hard.

The Hawks have one shot... then back to mediocrity.

[Johnny Diamonds 25]

That writer is trying to hard.

The Hawks have one shot... then back to mediocrity.

I think they're running a circus over there right now. And are putting on a clinic of: How not to run a hockey team in the salary cap era. I'm getting a good laugh watching their hype train build up steam before the season starts and I will be LMAO when the thing derails.