Western Conference Round 1: Blues 4, Blackhawks 3 – Recap/Season Wrap-up

Game 1 Recap

Game 2 Recap

Game 3 Recap

Game 4 Recap

Game 5 Recap

Game 6 Recap

Game 7 Recap

The Blackhawks season came to an unfortunate early end, falling in seven games to the Blues. Give the Hawks a ton of credit for pushing it to seven games and give the Blues credit for not folding. It’s hard to talk about the issues the Hawks faced in this series without bringing up problems that had plagued them all year, so this is going to serve as the season wrap-up blog as well.

After having to trade Saad and Sharp last offseason, the Hawks had a major hole at 1LW. Shaw probably had the best showing there; he may end up having to go this offseason. The team is very unlikely to re-sign Andrew Ladd. Tomas Fleischmann played well after being acquired from Montreal; I’m hopeful the Hawks will be able to re-sign either him or Weise. One of them could be worth a look at the spot.

There was one positive to the Saad trade and it was the acquisition of Artem Anisimov. He was a great fit between Panarin and Kane. The team needs to decide where they’re going to play Teuvo Teräväinen. A lot of people thought Turbo’s season was pretty disappointing, and at first glance, I can see why they would think that, but his defense and decision making improved a great deal this season. As far as the lack of points is concerned – Turbo bounced all over the lineup and spent a lot of time on lines that weren’t scoring lines. Tyler Motte had a phenomenal season at Michigan this year and I think he could be a great fit with Teräväinen. Is Motte ready for the NHL? I think so, if he were to play with the right guys. Still, my money’s on him starting in Rockford. However, I though Vinnie Hinostroza would need at least a year in Rockford before even sniffing the NHL, and while he impressed me in training camp, I didn’t think the timetable would shorten a whole lot and he ended up seeing the NHL a bit this year. The flipside to that is Tanner Kero, who I figured would have been in the NHL all year. The point is, you never totally know until you see what these guys can do against NHL talent.

The Hawks’ strength in years past was their ability to roll four lines. At no point this year did they come close to doing so. In fact, the Shake An Bake line was the only line the team could count on all year. When the Q’s-an-art came out in the playoffs, and a couple guys stepped up, namely Richard Panik, they got closer, and were pretty much rolling three, but still not like they were during either of the last two Cup runs. Bowman should be on the phone with Panarin’s agent ASAP to get him signed to a long-term deal. If they can get that done, you’ve got to love the Hawks’ core. However, it was the lack of ability to roll four lines and the lack of physicality on those lines that did the Hawks in. The Blues did a great job of limiting chances and keeping players from getting to the net. Colorado and Minnesota, just off the top of my head, handled the Hawks in much the same way: plug up the ice. This is why if the Hawks were going to be able to keep one deadline acquisition (assuming Ladd’s going to be too expensive), I’d pick Weise.

Richard Panik had a few nice games in the playoff series, but I’m really hoping Bowman shows restraint here. After the Bickell fiasco, I’m pretty confident that he will. Remember, this is a guy who couldn’t crack the Leafs lineup and who Toronto gave up for a guy that everybody and their brother knew that the Hawks were going to trade anyway. Don’t bid against yourselves here and don’t gamble a great deal of money on Panik not going back to being the guy Toronto was willing to part with.

The defense is going to need some work. I didn’t think Oduya would be missed as much as he was, but in the playoffs, his presence was sorely missed as the Hawks had basically 4.5 defensemen they could count on. I have no problems with Stan Bowman’s decision to go for offense over defense at the deadline; I felt pretty confident that the Hawks could find two defensemen out of a bunch of viable options to play with Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, and TvR. Hindsight’s 20-20.

Going forward, the Hawks still have Ville Pokka in Rockford and Gustav Forsling in Sweden. In 48 games in the SHL this year, Forsling had 21 ponts (6 G, 15 A). He’s looked promising during any international games I’ve been able to see him in. The Hawks have arguably the best defenseman in the world and then two more guys who would be the top guy on a lot of other teams. TvR had a better year than he gets credit for, and I think Gustafsson has a really high ceiling. Not worried there at all.

Corey Crawford let in a couple not-so-great goals in the series, but for the most part was very good-to-great, even though his stats won’t show it. As good as he was, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating watching Brian Elliott. Elliott took that extra step up and won more than one game for his team.

Let’s be honest here, this is a disappointing end to the season for the Hawks. This was a tough matchup and they didn’t do themselves any favors slumping in February and March like they did. It’s incredibly hard to just flip a switch. Did they have some bad puck luck? Absolutely, but at some point, you’ve got to make your own luck and they just didn’t. Q did what Q does and gave his team the best chance to win. Bowman did pretty much everything right during the season, but it just didn’t work out. This offseason, I’d look to add a bit of size. The speed game is great when you can maintain control of the puck. However, whenever teams tried to plug up the ice and keep the Hawks from using that speed and controlling the puck, they had major problems (see 0-5 vs. the Wild). You don’t win three Cups in six years by accident, so I’m confident in Bowman to mad the tough decisions that are going to need to be made. This is a team that’s set up to win for years to come. Did they hurt themselves a bit by going all in at the deadline this year? Yeah, but that’s what you have to do. Cups don’t grow on trees and if you have a real shot at winning one, you have to take it. There’s still a lot of young talent in Rockford and I’d be pretty surprised if the focus in the summer of 2017 isn’t on restocking the farm system. These guys know what they’re doing, and that’s the solace to be taken here. This was a disappointing finish, but the Hawks have the best front office and coach in the game, and that’s why they’ll be contenders again not only next year, but for years to come.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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