Additions: D Sheldon Brookbank
Subtractions: None
UFAs: C Brendan Morrison, LW Andrew Brunette, D Sean O'Donnell, D Sami Lepisto, G Cristobal Huet
Promotion candidates: C Brandon Pirri, LW Brandon Saad, LW Jeremy Morin, RW Ben Smith
Blackhawks
general manager Stan Bowman clearly thinks the team he had in place
at the end of last season is good enough because he has made only one
minor tweak to the roster this summer, signing depth defenseman
Sheldon
Brookbank. The hope is that Marian
Hossa, whose season ended in Game 3 of the first round against
the Phoenix Coyotes when a Raffi
Torres illegal hit left him concussed, can return healthy and
still be a point-per-game player. Hossa has resumed training and
Quenneville said he expects him to be ready to go by training camp.
Despite some offseason turmoil, Quenneville is also banking on a big
season from Kane, whose numbers have dropped in the past two seasons
to a career-low 66 points last season. He put up 88 points in
2009-10. "Our power play struggled and we need him to be a key
factor in that area," Quenneville said. "When he gets
productive, he gets hot and he goes on some great streaks." By
avoiding temptation this summer, Bowman is putting faith in some of
the Blackhawks young players, including Hayes, Dylan
Olsen, Ben
Smith, Andrew
Shaw, Brandon
Bollig and 19-year-old left wing Brandon
Saad, who is expected to challenge for a top-six forward spot.
Saad was the Hawks' second-round pick in 2011 and is coming off a
76-point season in the Ontario Hockey League. "When young guys
come in they challenge guys and it keeps everybody fresh. I think
it'll be healthy for our team," Quenneville said. "The last
couple of years, certainly with not winning in the playoffs, creates
a different appetite for our team going forward. We all feel we've
got something out there to prove and it should be a good challenge
for all of us."
The
Chicago
Blackhawks put up 101 points last season, good enough to be
one of 10 teams in the NHL to crack the century mark. It didn't
matter
because, for the second straight season since winning the
Stanley Cup, they were knocked off in the first round of the
playoffs. "It is heartbreaking every time you lose the last
game of the year and you're shaking hands with the team that is
going to keep playing when you're going home," Blackhawks
captain Jonathan
Toews told CSN Chicago. The good thing for the Blackhawks is
unlike in 2010-11, the season after a summer of being crushed by
salary-cap constraints, they feel they know exactly what went
wrong last season. Chicago will head into training camp for the
2012-13 season with an eye on fixing those problems, the bulk of
which are outlined among the following six questions that must be
answered for the Blackhawks to be a Stanley Cup contender in
2012-13:
Corey
Crawford won 30 games last season, but it was a struggle as he
allowed three or more goals in 27 of his 57 appearances in the
regular season and in five of his six appearances in the playoffs.
Instead of building on a strong finish to the 2010-11 season, he
went backward with a 2.72 goals-against average, .903 save
percentage and zero shutouts in 57 appearances. By comparison,
Crawford played in the same amount of games and only 38 more
minutes in 2010-11, but he had 33 wins, including four shutouts,
and posted a 2.30 GAA and .917 save percentage. Emery wasn't any
better with a 2.81 GAA and .900 save percentage in 34 appearances.
However, at least he can fall back on the fact he was coming off
major hip surgery that was supposed to end his career. Crawford
was supposed to cement himself as the clear-cut No. 1 in Chicago,
but he hasn't done that yet. It appears he'll be given another
chance this season to become that guy.
Patrick
Kane's production has tumbled 22 points to a career-low 66 last
season since 2009-10, when he had a career-high 88 points and
capped his season by scoring the Stanley Cup-clinching overtime
goal against the Philadelphia Flyers. He put up those 66 points
last season in 82 games after scoring 73 points in 73 games in
2010-11. He scored a four-season-low 23 goals and dished out a
four-season-low 43 assists. Kane's image then took a major hit in
early May when embarrassing pictures of him partying at the
University of Wisconsin surfaced. Blackhawks general manager Stan
Bowman told reporters the organization was disappointed in Kane,
who apologized for his off-ice behavior at the Blackhawks Fan
Convention on July 20, calling what he did "embarrassing."
Image problems aside, the Blackhawks simply have to get more out
of Kane this season on the ice. They need him to be a superstar
again. "I'd like to see those numbers get back to being a
point a game guy or pushing that number," Chicago coach Joel
Quenneville told NHL.com. "That's what we expect and what
he should expect of himself. I think he's capable of being above
those standards, so we look forward for him to get rolling."
Chicago
was 26th on the power play last season at 15.2 percent. It was
27th on the penalty kill at 78.1 percent. By comparison, the Hawks
were fourth on the power play in 2010-11 at 23.1 percent but still
just as poor on the PK at 79.2 percent. The drop in the power play
from 2010-11 to 2011-12 was a result of a lack of chemistry
between Jonathan
Toews, Patrick
Sharp, Patrick
Kane, Duncan
Keith and Brent
Seabrook. The Hawks received a combined 117 points on the
power play from those five in 2010-11, but 58 points last season.
Another problem is they never had a true net-front presence. The
problems on the PK go back further than last season. Chicago's PK
has been problematic since it won the Stanley Cup in 2010.
Quenneville doesn't believe it is a personnel problem, so it falls
on the coaching staff's shoulders to get it fixed.
The
last image the hockey world has of Marian Hossa is not a pleasant
one. He was sprawled out on the United Center ice after getting
run over by Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi
Torres in Game 3 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
Hossa was unconscious and diagnosed with a concussion after
spending the night in the hospital. Torres received a lengthy
suspension from the NHL that barred him from playing for the rest
of the postseason and will keep him on the sidelines for the first
eight games of this season. Hossa, who still doesn't recall the
hit or the events soon after, has been training this summer and
said he has not experienced any side effects from the concussion.
He expects to be ready and at full strength for the start of the
season. More will be determined in training camp, when Hossa has
to hit and be hit, but for now it appears the Blackhawks should
have their dominant point-per-game forward back in the lineup.
"Yeah, he needs to play," Quenneville said. "We
anticipate he'll be fine, but there have been a lot of guys in our
League over the few years that have had a similar injury and it
takes time. But we expect him to get back and contribute
significantly in all areas because he is so important to our
team."
Andrew
Shaw was the surprise, feel-good story for the Hawks last season.
Chicago's fifth-round pick in 2011 had 23 points in 37 games and
started to develop himself as a guy who could become a prized
agitator/scorer. He instantly became a fan favorite and media
darling in Chicago. This season, though, Shaw will have to prove
the progress and potential he showed last season as a grinder with
offensive ability was not a fluke. He will be given a chance to
become a key secondary scoring forward for the Blackhawks and
it'll be up to him to grab onto the spot and run with it. The
Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that Shaw has bulked up and
added 12 pounds of muscle this summer. That will only help his
cause to become a more powerful forward. "This kid has got an
amazing attitude and he plays the game at a different level as far
as his bite and his intensity," Quenneville said. "I use
the word relentless to describe the results you get from him in
the course of a game. You can only admire him. His teammates
appreciate what he brings. He's fun to watch."
The
Hawks coach, Joel Quenneville, was the toast of Chicago, the toast
of the NHL after guiding the franchise to its first Stanley Cup
championship since 1961. Now it's fair to say his seat is warming
up and a slow start could convince Bowman that a change is needed
behind the bench. Quenneville decided to fire assistant coach Mike
Haviland after last season largely because of Chicago's struggles
on special teams. For the first time in his tenure as Blackhawks
coach Quenneville has two assistants (Mike Kitchen and Jamie
Kompon) he hand-picked himself. The assumption now is if the
Blackhawks don't get out of the gate fast, Quenneville's job could
be in jeopardy.
So
what is Blackhawks goalie Corey
Crawford to think about all that after a season of not living up
to expectations? According to Chicago coach Joel
Quenneville, he shouldn't be paying attention of any of it. "I
saw [Crawford] at least a couple to three times already this summer
and his attitude has been great," Quenneville told NHL.com. "I
like his approach and we expect him to bounce back. He's welcoming
the challenge." Even with Luongo's situation yet to be resolved,
all indications as of now are that the Blackhawks will give Crawford
the chance to bounce back and become, as Quenneville referred to him,
"the top guy we think he can be." If Crawford proves he is
a top goalie, Chicago should be good enough to contend for the
Stanley Cup. If he struggles in the same manner he did last season,
when he won 30 games but posted a .903 save percentage and 2.72
goals-against average, 16th and 25th, respectively, among goalies
with 40 or more starts, the Blackhawks could be first-round fodder
for a third straight season. Chicago doesn't need Crawford to be
great every night to contend for the Cup; it just needs him to be
good a lot of the time. "We all know the importance of
goaltending, and we're going to need him to be solid, or even better
than solid," Quenneville said. "He's quiet, but when you
know his personality he's more upbeat and he felt sometimes (last
season) that he'd have to be great every night. That's part of the
learning curve to being a consistent goalie as a No. 1."
Crawford gave the Blackhawks and their fans hope he was the final
answer at the position late in the 2010-11 season. He closed strong,
going 15-6-3 down the stretch. Then, in the face of an 0-3 hole
against Vancouver in the first round, Crawford eschewed the outside
pressure and the relentless Canucks' offense to win three straight
and give the Blackhawks a chance in Game 7. They lost in overtime,
beaten by Alexandre
Burrows' knuckling slap shot after a giveaway. However, in many
respects Chicago's comeback and Crawford's goaltending became top NHL
storylines early in the playoffs. The story changed last season, when
Crawford's successes were bruised by his inconsistencies. It wasn't
until mid-February, after a brutal nine-game winless streak (Crawford
went 0-4-1 with 19 goals allowed), that he finally got rolling. He
won 12 of his last 17 starts, including five straight in the middle
of March. It was again a strong finish, but it was marred by a tough
first five months of the season. And, unlike in 2011, when Crawford
was able to persevere through the adversity in the playoffs, he went
backward against the Phoenix Coyotes, giving up three or more goals
five times in a six-game first-round loss. "It fluctuated as the
season went on," Quenneville said of Crawford's effectiveness.
"We had that tough streak losing nine games in a row. I'm not
blaming him. As a team we had a tough stretch. He's a very low-key
guy. His personality is kind of quiet. But I could sense that he was
probably frustrated that he didn't have the same results that he was
getting the year before. "I would expect him to get back to
being that top goalie again. He's looking to recapture that feeling
he had" Quenneville's future in Chicago and the Blackhawks'
hopes may very well be tied to Crawford's ability to find it. As of
now, they're counting on him. "I just have to go out there and
play well and show them," Crawford told reporters in Chicago
last month. "That's all I can do on my part."
Much
like the Pittsburgh
Penguins, the Chicago
Blackhawks have found out that turning a Stanley Cup title into
multiple championships isn't easy in the current NHL era, even if a
team is blessed with a young core of elite players. The Blackhawks
looked like potential Cup winners at times during the 2011-12 season,
but a concussion for captain Jonathan
Toews late in the season and some suspect goaltending didn't help
as Chicago was bounced in the first round for the second straight
campaign. There wasn't a lot of activity from general manager Stan
Bowman, but there wasn't a lot of need for it, either. Chicago is
still loaded, and there are several kids who could bolster the team's
depth up front and help the Blackhawks back into Cup contention.
Forwards
Brandon
Saad - Jonathan
Toews - Marian
Hossa
Viktor
Stalberg - Patrick
Kane - Patrick
Sharp
Bryan
Bickell - Dave
Bolland - Andrew
Shaw
Michael
Frolik - Jamal
Mayers - Jimmy
Hayes
Marcus
Kruger - Daniel
Carcillo
Defensemen
Duncan
Keith - Brent
Seabrook
Nick
Leddy - Johnny
Oduya
Niklas
Hjalmarsson - Steve
Montador
Sheldon
Brookbank
Goaltenders
Corey
Crawford
Ray
Emery
NOTES:
There are two clear objectives for the Blackhawks at the onset of
this season, complete the long-standing search for a dependable No. 2
center and sort through several NHL-ready or near-ready forward
prospects. There are a number of combinations for Quenneville to sift
through and test out depending on the answers to those to questions.
Kane could be tried in that spot again as well, as could Sharp, a
prospect like Brandon
Pirri or even 2012 first-round pick Teuvo
Teravainen. Marcus
Kruger has had chances as the center behind Toews, and a strong
camp from him would allow coach Joel
Quenneville to load up his top line, or mix-and-match. Pirri is
one of several guys who could be at camp making a case for a spot on
a crowded roster, along with guys like Shaw, Hayes, Saad, Jeremy
Morin and maybe a healthy Kyle
Beach. Of the established forwards, Kruger and Frolik might be
looking over their proverbial shoulders. The defense corps is pretty
settled. Oduya was a nice fit after the trade deadline last season,
and the addition of Brookbank gives the Hawks seven NHL-caliber
defensemen. Few players have more pressure on them as the new season
approaches as Crawford, who can't be the weak link on what should be
a contender for the Presidents' Trophy, especially considering
possible steps back by division rivals Detroit and Nashville.
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