As much fun as June was for Blackhawks fans, July was pretty painful. We all knew the Blackhawks summer Yard Sale was coming for the past 18 months or so, but we had no idea it would hurt this much. Likewise, we knew their window for winning the Stanley Cup was short and rapidly closing, but we didn’t have a clue that the window was this narrow.
Which brings us to the link of the day It’s by Andrew Tomlinson of “On Frozen Blog,” and it’s entitled “Chicago: a Case Study in Poor Management.” My intention is to highlight his most salient points and convey that I agree wholeheartedly. Also, there are a few points I disagree on; so I’ll debate those.
All in all, Tomlinson is telling us something about this hockey off-season that has gone wildly under-reported in the mainstream hockey media (if you consider hockey reporting mainstream that is), so I must give him kudos on that.
By Paul M. Banks
Tomlinson writes:
Washington has four top offensive producers in Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, and Alexander Semin, who share many of the same qualities as Chicago’s Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Jonathan Toews. In fact, Washington’s big four may even be better than Chicago’s. Both teams have some of the best young d-men in the league. Chicago haa a blueline anchored by Keith and Brent Seabrook, and talented but inconsistent Brian Campbell. The Caps counter with the up and coming John Carlson, Karl Alzner, and Mike Green. In fact, both teams even share similarities in net. Semyon Varlamov exploded on to the NHL scene in 2009 with a stellar playoffs and followed up with a great encore performance this year. To some extent Anti Niemi could be thought of as the Western Conference equivalent of Varly. He had a great regular season, supplanting Cristobal Huet, and the Hawks road him to the Cup finals.
Here, however, is where the similarities end.
I would agree for the most part. And that’s the solace Hawks fans are taking from GM Stan Bowman’s “everything must go!!! sale of second, third, and fourth liners.
Hey, we still have the core, and protecting out top four, not the role players, was to the Hawks front office what getting Aerosmith tickets was to Randy “Pink” Floyd in Dazed and Confused, “priority #1 of the summer.” But let’s see the Caps put together a Cup run in the postseason. And I know that may come off as sounding a bit sophomoric and low-brow meat-headish, but I don’t mean it that way. It’s just that in order for the comparison to hold water, the Caps need to finish the job they started by acquiring last season’s #1 seed in the East.
When Chicago’s first line struggled at the start of the Cup finals, offensive contributions came elsewhere. Role players are the glue that holds a team together. In hockey we know that superstars alone cannot win championships; there has to be a combination of talent, speed, goaltending, grit and above all chemistry, commitment, and luck. Without a solid set of above average guys who can bang the puck home on the doorstep or sacrifice their bodies in their own end Stanley Cup aspirations are futile.
Yes, that is exactly what happened in the story of the Hawks’ postseason run, but does it apply in all cases? I must defer to Pete and Bryan on this one (This site’s hockey writers, please feel free to comment below guys) They know more about hockey in general than I do. I’m more of a specialist on the Hawks themselves, and on the Hawks front office wheelings and dealings. However, Tomlinson’s theory seems to work prima facie.
Soon the Hawks will begin praying someone comes calling for Cristobal Huet. The franchise is barely $6 million dollars under the salary cap and still has to sign Niemi as well as fill out the roster, which will be a task in itself. In reality, Chicago is going to have to take the players that completed their team and virtually give them away. All of this is the result of the Blackhawks management mortgaging the future to win now.
Agreed. Take Soupy too while you’re at it. He’s also overrated, and almost as overpriced. Not quite, but still overpriced. And yes, Chicago, we’re still in the eye of the hurricane right now, there’s more storm left as our home team needs to fill out the roster with legit NHL bodies. Otherwise depth will suffer, and if major injuries strike…we’ll be in trouble in 2011-12.
Uhmm Yes! No, let me re-phrase that- HELL YES! Especially when you’re an Original Six franchise with a Cup drought one year shy of a half-century. Remember this is THE city of sports droughts. Well, maybe Cleveland is, but hoisting THE CUP IS THE POINT OF THESE EXERCISES after all.
The reality is that Chicago will again likely return to being the little brother of Detroit while much of the rest of the Western Conference upgrades. Meanwhile, Washington will again be a lead favorite to win the Eastern Conference.
Strongly disagree. What you’ll see is a more wide open and balanced Western Conference. I’m not crowning Detroit’s ass any time soon. THEY ARE WHO WE THINK THEY ARE. Lol! Just kidding. If anything, San Jose is the favorite because they retained their top scorers this summer. And yes, I know they are about as useful in the postseason as Michael Lohan is at parenting seminars, but we’ll see next June. Ditto on the Washington point. We’ll have this discussion next summer.
Tomlinson seems like he has a great hockey mind, so I’d like to hear his thoughts on a couple more Blackhawks salary cap issues. Andrew, please send me your feedback on these questions.
Where do you put the blame for this mess?
How much on Dale Tallon, how much on Stan Bowman? Ever since Rocky Wirtz took over, we all knew Dale was going to be shown the door. He was Bill Wirtz’s guy, not Rocky’s. We knew they were just waiting for the right moment, and it came with the Qualifying Offer sheet mailing snafu on Canada Day ’09. That gave them their excuse to promote Bowman and demote Tallon.
And what about Bowman the Elder? Does Scotty have some blood on his hands for creating the current mess?
And your thoughts on the Marian Hossa signing?? It seemed exorbitant and extravagant to me. Of course, I also dislike it because of a media incident that surrounded the reporting of it. It did not end well for one of my media cronies. A rumor I heard that makes the Hawks’ front office and PR Department look quite sinister and manipulative, if the story is true.
As I can’t confirm it’s validity, I’ll have to not share that story at this time.
But again well done, Mr. Tomlinson.
Written by Paul M. Banks, President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru
How can you take shots at the Lohan family in their time of need? Oh wait. it’s always their time of need.
They truly made TMZ what it is today.
You can relate Michael Lohan’s parenting skills to anything that’s abysmal in life