On June 15, 2015, the Blackhawks won their third Stanley Cup since 2010 when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games and starting Wednesday, they will attempt to show the NHL that they are the best in the NHL as they open the season at home vs. the New York Rangers.
In the nearly 4 month off-season, the Hawks lost a few key players who were on last season’s cup winning roster and made key contributions in order to make winning the cup a possibility. More notably, less than a month after winning the cup, the team traded Patrick Sharp to the Dallas Stars in part due to salary cap issues. Also, in July, Brandon Saad signed a 6-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets worth $36 million after the Blackhawks traded his negotiation rights as a pending free agent in exchange for Artem Anisimov, Jeremy Morin, Marko Dano, Corey Tropp and a fourth-round draft pick in the 2016 NHL draft. Saad was also part of the team who won the Stanley Cup in the strike shortened 2012-2013 season vs. the Boston Bruins. Meanwhile, Kris Versteeg, who had been in his second tour of duty with the team was traded to the Florida Panthers. He was on the first Stanley Cup team in 2010 when the Hawks won in 6 games vs. the Philadelphia Flyers. Two veteran defenseman Johny Oduya and Antoine Vermette left the team for free agency, Oduya is now with the Dallas Stars while Vermette is back with the Arizona Coyotes, who traded him to Chicago last spring for a long postseason run.
Even with the subtractions from last year’s team, the Blackhawks still have their core in place. Jonathan Toews, who is the captain of the team and Marian Hossa will be there to light the lamp starting Wednesday evening to lead the offensive attack that is one of the most dangerous scoring teams in the entire NHL. On the back end, Duncan Keith, who was the 2015 Conn Smythe Trophy winner will be back along with veteran Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson and they will see considerable minutes on the ice especially in close game situations. We cant forget about the man behind the pipes, that being Corey Crawford. While he doesn’t receive the fan fare that a goaltender like Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens does, he has contributed considerably to two of the three cups the franchise has won since 2010. Also on his resume is two William Jennings trophies and the man behind the bench, coach Joel Quenville, who has won 754 regular season games and 115 playoff games, helped guide his teams to three Stanley Cup titles in six seasons.
The NHL’s biggest off-season story has been Patrick Kane, who has been accused of raping a women in early August near his mansion just outside Buffalo, NY. Nearly two months have passed since the story first broke and Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III had planned to present the case to a grand jury in early September but that has been postponed indefinitely. Those people who expect Kane to be absolved of any wrong doing and those who want him indicted prefer that the process be expedited but its more important for the DA to resolve it correctly than quickly.
The rape investigation took a bizarre turn recently when the accuser’s lawyer said that an empty paper bag that once held the women’s rape kit was secretly placed in the doorway of her mother’s home.
Although you can never underestimate this team especially in the playoffs like I did last season, while I think they will make it to the playoffs, I do not see the team going as far as they did in the 2014-15 season. The western conference is extremely competitive and the east is starting to improve. Not to make much of this but EA Sports NHL 16 simulation picks the Anaheim Ducks to defeat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup finals. Furthermore, EA Sports NHL 16 predicts that the Blackhawks will have exactly 100 points, third in the Western Conference. Even with the subtractions from last year’s team, I believe that the team has enough fire power to win the central division even though the division will be extremely competitive. At the same time, I do not believe that the team has another long postseason run in them although no one can underestimate their ability to defy the experts odds. I’ve mentioned this in previous posts but will mention again that one of the most difficult accomplishments in sports regardless of sport is to repeat as defending champions. I mentioned the Kane rape investigation, depending on what happens as the season goes along, if there are developments that hurt Kane’s defense, that could become a side issue that takes attention away from the team’s effort to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in the local and national media. I was asked of whether I thought Kane would play in the days after the news broke and I wasn’t sure either way but as long as he has not been charged with anything, I didn’t have any reason to believe he wouldn’t show up to camp, play pre-season games and be ready to start on Wednesday night against the Rangers.
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