Yecchh!
Once again the Blackhawks had a chance to pull themselves up out of
the dregs of the Western Conference, and once again they slipped
and fell farther in.
After teasing fans with a five-game unbeaten streak spanning the
All-Star break, the Hawks fell apart completely. They lost the
final five games of their seven-game West-Coast trip, a trip that
included only one opponent with a winning record and three of the
four teams that will accompany the Hawks to the golf course come
playoff time.
This latest slide effectively snuffed out any hope of the Hawks'
making the postseason tournament, and now the question is: What to
do with the rest of the season?
Given that Coach Dirk Graham's one strength appears to be working
with young players, one might expect the Hawks to commit fully to
the youth movement and get what they can for their veteran talent
before the trading deadline.
Of course, such a decision would have best been made in the
off-season, before 35-year old Doug Gilmour was signed to a
multi-year, multi-million dollar deal. While Gilmour has been
fairly productive, he hasn't been worth close to six million a
year, and that means that the Hawks will probably have to pick up a
substantial chunk of his salary if they are to unload the veteran
center.
The other conspicuously available veterans are captain Chris Chelios
and Alexei Zhamnov. The problem with these two is, who'd want 'em
right now?
Chelios is coming off one of the worst stretches in his career, a
road trip in which his miscues led directly to goals in four
straight games, two of which were one-goal losses.
The argument could be made that Cheli's mistakes are a result of
trying to do too much--to dominate games like he could a few years
ago--and some coaches might feel that, if used properly and kept on
a short leash, Chelios could still prove very useful to a Cup
contender.
With Cheli at least you know the effort is always there. The same
cannot be said of Zhamnov, the quintessential NHL Russian. Like
his counterpart in the Eastern Conference, Alexei Kovalev, Zhamnov
has shown countless times that he can be the best player on the ice
any night he chooses, and like Kovalev he seldom makes that choice.
The Rangers were lucky enough to find a team even more desperate to
get rid of a talented player than they were, and GM Neil Smith
landed Petr Nedved in exchange for Kovalev. It's unlikely Hawks'
GM Bob Murray will be so fortunate with Zhamnov.
The only deal that is being talked about presently is one in which
the Hawks get Sabres' tough guy and occasional scorer Matthew
Barnaby. However, the Blackhawks rumored to be on their way to
Buffalo aren't the high-paid veterans mentioned earlier, but kids
such as Ethan Moreau, Christian Laflamme, and Jamie Allison.
One wonders if, as Murray states, the Hawks' youngsters would "go
through a wall" for Graham, why these three kids--especially Moreau
and Laflamme who played fairly well under Craig Hartsburg--would be
on the trading block.
Another sign that Graham and Murray aren't ready to declare this a
developmental year is their refusal to give certain young players a
real chance to prove themselves in the NHL before shipping them
back to the minors.
Todd White and Dan Cleary are the primary passengers on the
NHL/AHL/IHL shuttle, but other promising players have also been
granted only brief stays with the big club. Jean-Pierre Dumont, Ty
Jones (the Hawks' only chance to salvage the Roenick-for-Zhamnov
deal), even Remi Royer would look better stinking up the ice than
veterans like Mark Janssens and Doug Zmolek. At least the kids
might get better.
News and Notes
Remember when the Hawks were getting outshot 2-1 every game, often
giving up two or three goals in the first period? Well that's all
changed. In the last five losses, the Hawks have outshot their
opponents twice, scored the first goal twice, and generally waited
until late in the game to fall apart. Ah, progress . . . . Mark
Fitzpatrick has had a hard time cracking the lineup with Jocelyn
Thibault playing as well as he has. And the one day Dirk Graham
decides to give Thibault a breather, Fitzpatrick lets in six goals
in two periods and gets an early trip to the locker room for his
troubles . . . . New Hawk Josef Marha has at least one thing in
common with many of his teammates: he's spent considerable time in
Craig Hartsburg's doghouse.
