Well, that was a fun ride, wasn't it? The Blackhawks, OUR Chicago Blackhawks, just finished this truncated 2013 regular season with one of the best winning percentages in the history of the NHL. Yes, this season was 34 games short of a normal regular season and it should be taken with a grain of salt, but the fact of the matter is that they have had an exceptional 2013, thus far. Something that boggles my mind is how so many people dismiss their accomplishments, but expel themselves at the thought of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In all honesty, that is fine by me. Have your bukakke festival over the Pens, and let them deal with the pressure. It's all back to 0-0 in the playoffs, and anyone with a brain knows this. All the Presidents trophies and winning streaks mean nothing once the post season begins, but that doesn't mean we can't look back and enjoy what they have accomplished.
Lets jump right into this and grade each player on their regular season:
19 - Jonathan Toews - El Capitan had what is becoming the typical Captain Serious season. He was second on the team in scoring and played all but one meaningless game. When people like Sharp, Bolland, and Hossa got hurt, Toews and Kane put the team on their backs and just kept plugging along. He has shown to be one of, if not, THE most complete players in the entire league. While Kane grabbed much of the spotlight with his scoring totals, Toews just continued to plug along. It's a pleasure to have him in this city and a "lifetime" contract would not be a mistake, once this one is up.
GRADE - A plus
65 - Andrew Shaw - This kid just keeps surprising. Just when you thought he was a flash in the pan, and he spent the majority of the lockout running around like a complete lunatic in the AHL, he shows up centering the Hawks 3rd line and plays excellent. Part of the reason this team has done as well as it has. is because of the solid play of it's secondary cast of characters. Shaw is right at the head of that class, too. He was moved to Center late in his AHL campaign partly because Jimmy Hayes just wasn't progressing like the Hawks brass liked. Once Shaw was moved there, he never left, and Quenneville plugged him right in on the third line from game one. I was one of the people that was critical of this move because I felt that Marcus Kruger fit there better, but Shaw has shut me up. He might only last 4 or 5 seasons in the NHL because he has no regard for his own safety or health, but it sure will be an entertaining 4 or 5 seasons. He's almost like a poor man's Dino Ciccarelli, because every opponent, no doubt, loathes him. For that reason, Hawks fans love him, and they should. Between his production and that of Marcus Kruger, I wouldn't be surprised to see Dave Bolland playing somewhere else in the fall. You heard it here first.
GRADE - A
36 - Dave Bolland - This has been a rough year for The Rat. Whether he came in healthy or not is unknown, but he certainly didn't end the regular season healthy. He played 35 games, but at least 10 of those were at 75%. He had 14 points and a -7 playing on the second line, next to one of the top playmakers in the entire NHL. This doesn't add up. He should have feasted on the opportunity, but instead dragged Kane down like a baby grand piano on his back. In his defense, there were far too many time when his other wing was Dan Carcillo, which is about as pointless as you can get, but there were also time when he was playing between Sharp and Kane. Two NHL Allstars. As I said above, with his salary, history of back and concussion problems, this may shift him to the "undesirable" category. This is a cutthroat league and he is no longer the Dave Bolland of 2010. $3.375 million a year can go a long way, in a year where the cap is dropping.
GRADE - D
16 - Marcus Kruger - This has been sort of a coming out year for Dream Warrior. He had a pretty solid year going in Rockford when the lockout ended, and there was no doubt he'd be playing for the big club. The question is WHERE? I figured that the 3rd line was perfect for him, IF Bolland was even serviceable on the second line. Shaw was never even in the picture, and I have to give Quenneville credit for that one. Kruger was plugged into the forth line with Frolik, to drag Bollig, Mayers, or whatever other cement head they dressed for the night around the ice. And he has done it well. Nothing that you're going to see the Hockey Night guys analyzing, but he's played well, also filling in on other lines when needed. Frolik and Kruger have pretty much served the same function, which could be invaluable in the playoffs. If he can learn the art of winning faceoffs, he'll turn out to be a very solid player for this team. Hell, it's not like Bolland has done much better.
GRADE - B minus
26 - Michal Handzus - If all things go right, this may become the "under the radar" move of the trade deadline. Handzus was an aging, hardly used bottom 6 player in San Jose, whom Stan Bowman stole for a middle round draft pick. Even though he's been shifted around, Zus has had 6 points in 11 Blackhawks games, which is 4 more points than he had in over twice as many Sharks games. Can you say "reinvigorated"? Quenneville now has the option of sending Handzus out there late in a game to win a big faceoff, and not have to worry about a defensive or offensive chemistry. Graded on his 11 games as a Blackhawk only.
GRADE - B
20 - Brandon Saad - Saad may be one of the bigger surprises this season. He didn't really set the world ablaze in his time at Rockford, but then again, who did? He just fit in with everyone else in Rockford, but once the lockout ended, he flipped a switch. Lets call it the "go time" button. He started a little slow, but has picked up to have been thrown into the Calder discussion. He won't win, but to be considered is a nice perk. Even with the slow start he was on pace for a 20 goal, 50 point season. Of course, this is with two of the premier players in the game, in Toews and Hossa, but that doesn't automatically net you 20 goals. He has played on the powerplay and penalty kill, as well. It was announced by the league, Monday, that Saad was one of the three Calder Trophy finalists. I think that was a little generous, but not a huge shock.
GRADE - A
25 - Viktor Stalberg - Vik, Vik, Vik.....Pick to Click Vik. I wanted to love the guy. His speed is maddening, along with his tendency to miss the net 60% of the time. Stalberg has talent, but he has also made a living as a bum slayer. Just ask last year's Columbus Blue Jackets. He's going to be a free agent come July 5th, and the Hawks probably won't be able to keep him. some team will give him the Ville Leino treatment, and he'll, in return, give them Ville Leino. That's all fine and well, because there are kids like Jimmy Hayes, Ben Smith and Jeremy Morin ready to fill his spot. It was good while it lasted, but barring a hometown discount, we're seeing our final days of the Swedish Flash.
GRADE - B minus
29 - Bryan Bickell - The other member of the third line that is probably playing his last games as a Chicago Blackhawk. For years, One Trick Bick has tried to crowbar in his wrist shot any chance he could. Lets be honest, it's a great wrist shot, but a man with his size should be plowing opponents through the boards. This year he has found a place with the rest of the misfits (Shaw/Stalberg) on the third line, and they have worked very well together. Oddly enough, Bickell and Stalberg have identical goal/assist/point/PIM totals. Again, the Blackhawks have guys like Hayes, Morin, and Smith waiting. Unless he signs another colossally stupid deal for the league minimum, he'll be gone, too.
GRADE - B minus
67 - Michael Frolik - Frodo is another guy I want to love. He is young, and has some skill, but he's never had the success he had in Florida. This is probably because he wasn't playing behind some of the most talented players in the entire league, in sunny Florida. This year he has had spot duty in the top six, but has been mainly a 4th line player. If Quenneville, and Frolik are ok with that, then so am I. He has played well, with no pressure on, and has also proven to be a valuable penalty killer. of course, we would all like to see more scoring out of him, but 10 points for a 4th liner is nothing terrible. His other talents are really more important than his goal scoring.
GRADE - C plus
13 - Daniel Carcillo - My dislike of Gorilla Salad has been well documented. This is not because I hate him as a human being, but because he was known as a colossal dickhead who tried to maim people. There is no room for a dirty scumbag on this team. This year was another story. He seem like he has tried to go the route of Matt Cooke, but an injury in the first game he played saw his spot go to a rookie you might have heard of named Brandon Saad. In Gorilla Salad's defense, he was put in a position that he was destined to fail at. He is not a top line player. He should have been no higher than the 3rd line. Anyone with half a wit to them knows that Saad is much better suited for the position. After Saad stepped in, Carcillo was a rare participant in the Hawks plans. Their success would support that, as well. Mind you, I'm not saying that the Hawks only did well because Carcillo was out, but it's a small piece to the puzzle. I cannot see a reason for Mr. Salad to be around next season, but he's going to be here. A $800K mistake by Bowman, which is much better than a $2 million mistake, I suppose.
GRADE - D
52 - Brandon Bollig - Ah, my dear Brandon Dull-ig. I kind of feel bad for this guy, in a way. He's a marginal AHL player, brought up to compete at a level that is above his head. Sure, you're not going to have the liability that John Scott was, but why have a liability at all? The Blackhawks are built around speed and puck possession, not clowns running around trying to get noticed by staging fights. If you really need that, pick a guy that has some redeeming value, like for instance, Zenon Konopka. He's a big slobbering cementhead, but he can win faceoffs. See? Redeeming quality. And before you say, "but he's such a nice guy, he signed 55 autographs after sitting in the press box for three straight games, or after mucking it up with the best that Peoria had to offer", being a swell guy is not a redeeming quality the Blackhawks need. In his defense, he tries. It's not his fault they throw him into the fire. He's just a marginal fighter, with average fighter's skills, and a good beard. Take that for what it's worth.
GRADE - C
88 - Patrick Kane - Going from one end of the spectrum to the other, we have Party Boy Patrick Kane. Someone in the organ-I-zation probably had a talk with young Patrick following last year's Cinco De Drunko incident in Madison, and told him to find a little focus, and a little less brewskis. That is exactly what he did. When he could have sat around until January doing 12 oz curls and picking off the plethora of low hanging Wrigleyville trixies but, instead, he took the lockout to go over to the Swiss A league and play for Biel, with some kid named Tyler from Baaaaahston. That did him a world of good, and might have boosted his career. I don't think anyone could have imagined the boost it gave him. He was the most dominant Blackhawks player, by far, and arguably the most dominant player in the league (if not for a guy named Sidney). All this focus and dominant play has earned him some consideration for the Hart trophy. This is the Patrick Kane us fans have been waiting for. All this while dragging around the rotting carcass of David Bolland and, at times, the empty lifeless shell of Daniel Carcillo. Any other player would have had the life methodically sucked out of them, but Kane battled on. I really don't need to say any more.
GRADE - A plus
81 - Marian Hossa - Another player that came into this season with enormous question marks next to his name. No one really knew what would come of the Hoss, after Raffi Torres tried to decapitate him, thus helping dig the grave for the 2012 Blackhawks. He was probably the player with the most to gain from the lockout. He was able to spend a plethora of time in the quiet room, with his shades on. When the season DID begin, he looked rested and back to form. Had the season begun in September, Hoss would not have been ready, and they may have rushed him to return a little premature. Instead he was forced to sit and healed properly. Yay, Lockout.
GRADE - A
10 - Patrick Sharp - Mr. Handsome had a rough year. He missed almost half of the games because of a freak shoulder injury, but still managed 20 points in 28 games. He's consistant, in that he's very up and down, but he still produces. He floats off into oblivion for periods of time, and then other times he's like a rabid dog on the trail of his next meal. He's streaky, and we've come to expect this. When he's played, it's been well. Lets leave it at that, but the injury lost games take some points off.
GRADE - C plus
22 - Jamal Mayers - Megamayers has been virtually invisible this season. Nineteen out of forty eight games, isn't good. Somewhere between the end of last season, and the beginning of this one, he was forgotten about. Unless things go drastically wrong in the playoffs, Megamayers will be going the way of Andrew Brunette and Sean O'Donnell.
GRADE - D minus
I left out Drew Leblanc, Jeremy Morin, Jimmy Hayes, Ryan Stanton, Shawn Lalonde, Brandon Pirri, and Carter Hutton because anything less than 5 games isn't worth talking about. Maybe next year, gents.
2 - Duncan Keith - Deuce had sort of a re-awakening. Early on in the year, Keith and his bossom buddy looked like the 2 and 7 of 2010, but the need to shuffle the deck split them up. Keith has still played much better than the Labrador puppy we've seen the last couple of years. I'm sure that has something to do with Oduya and Hjalmarsson taking some of the load off his ice time. Whatever it is, I like it. Now if we could just find a way to keep him from blasting shots into the nearest defenders shin pads, we might be onto something.
GRADE - B plus
7 - Brent Seabrook - Lucky Number Sleven started off like an All-Star with Keith, but also slowed down a bit, once the pairings were split up. Even with the slow down, he is one of, if not, the most most steady Hawks defenseman. I've always been a huge fan of his play, so it should be no surprise that I feel he is the MVP on the back end. Keith gets all the glory, while guys like Seabrook and Hjalmarsson do the grunt work. Eight goals in a 48 game season is pretty damn good.
GRADE - A minus
8 - Nick Leddy - This was sort of a breakout year for Nick Leddy. He started in the AHL slaying bums, but he never really slayed any. He played down to their level and struggled most of the year. Once the lockout was over, he did what players like Kruger and Saad did, which was shift from neutral to third gear. When Leddy seriously skates up the rink, no matter how fast everyone else is literally standing still. If he ever figures out how to finish, he's going to be scary dangerous. I don't even think the Hawks have scratched the surface of what he can be, and that should make the rest of the division, especially Minnesota, very nervous.
GRADE - B
32 - Michal Rozsival - When Bowman signed Roszival in the off season, most people just overlooked it. He's a big, older defenseman that some might mistake for Sean O'Donnell part two. Well, this move might be one of the moves of the year, especially when it comes to "under the radar" ones. He has fit in perfect to solidify a defensive corp that looked very shaky the last two seasons. He makes mistakes, and is slower than most of the other guys, but he makes up for it with positioning, aggressiveness, and most importantly his penalty killing. He's stayed healthy and help stabilize the back end. So much so that he has led the team in ice time a few times. Not bad for a throw in.
GRADE - A
27 - Johnny Oduya - Based on last years playoff performance, not many people were keen on bringing Johnny O back. The fact of the matter is that he was an affordable bottom 4 defense. This year he has been solid, if not, unspectacular. When the season began, Oduya and Hjalmarsson looked like the dynamic shutdown duo, but once the rest of the Western Conference caught up, they needed to be split up. Johnny has his place and, as we've seen, he can pot the occasional goal. For a bottom 3 defenseman, there are much worse out there. This is a team that was playing with Lurch O'Donnell and Dylan Olsen last season. Three goals, twelve points, and a plus twelve out of a guy that spend a good majority of the season as part of the shutdown pair gets no complaints out of me. He is signed for 2 more years at declining salaries of $3.3 mil next season and $2.8 mil the following which is chewy, but still edible. I'm not going to jump on the meatball bandwagon and blame Oduya for everything that goes wrong in Blackhawk Land, because you know what you get with him. When he finishes his Hawks career as a number six guy only making $2.8 million, Bowman will look like a shrewd deal man once again.
GRADE - B minus
4 - Niklas Hjalmarsson - Hammer might be one of the most interesting players on the list. First of all, finding out that one of his favorite bands is In Flames completely won my heart. Second, Hjalmarsson finally secured his place on the team. Before this season he was a man without a defined place. He could be shuffled up and down the defensive pairings, but never claimed one for his own. All that is over. His now slightly inflated salary is also edible considering the shutdown defense he has played. I was on the "trade hammer" bandwagon for two seasons and this is the first season since the cup that I'm leaning more towards the "keep Hammer" fan club. He absorbs an ungodly amount of pain blocking shots and doing the dirty work on the back end. Not the sexy pick for defensive MVP, but should not be left out of the talk. The way he has been blocking shots, he has to have all his meals paid for by the 50/30 boys. The only reason I gave him what I did is because a couple more goals would be nice. I know, beggars can't be choosers but I run this joint, so sue me!
GRADE - B
17 - Sheldon Brookbank - This is a pickup I really never understood. I guess Brookbank's penalty kill ability was worth the shot, but Roszival has proven to be a much more valuable defender. He played twenty six games, had one goal, and I can't really recall anything else he did. I'm giving him an average grade because if I can't recall much about his play, that means he didn't screw things up enough for me to notice.
GRADE - C
50 - Corey Crawford - You would think that with the way the Blackhawks Meatballdom is going on and on, Corey Crawford was in the bottom quarter of goalies, league wide. His goals against must be over 3, right? He must have a save percentage under .900, right? He finished the regular season with stats in the top five, or better, in all important goaltending categories. I'm not going to blow smoke up your skirt and tell you that he's one of the top five goalies in the league, because he is NOT. He, along with his counterpart, are an average to slightly above average goaltending tandem that benefitted from some solid defense in front of them. This is not a bad thing, ladies and gents. There was a certain goalie in 2010 that was an average goalie that benefitted the same way, named Antti Niemi. He has blossomed into an upper tier goalie, but was still raw and wet behind the ears in 2010. Chris Osgood made a career off this kind of scenario. Crawford certainly has his share of face palming incidents, but he has his moments in the spotlight too. Right now Corey Crawford is the best option the Chicago Blackhawks have, PERIOD! He has done enough this year to gather a little Vezina talk around the league, which should tell you all that you need to know, but the Bears "backup quarterback syndrome" has crept it's way to West Madison. Everybody loves the next guy in line. There was a time when the fans were clamoring for Jeff Hackett over Ed Belfour. Belfour only went on to win the Cup in Dallas, and Hackett, well....
GRADE - A
30 - Ray Emery - Now we have the ying to Crawford's yang. The backup goalie made of spare parts, with glass hips. The Jeff Hackett of his day. Again, I say that both goalies played excellent. Both have great records. Emery deserves the playing time he got. What he does NOT deserve is the starting spot. He is an older, guy coming off some major hip problems that require him to take extra time to heal and even just prepare. He's a disaster waiting to happen. The Blackhawks have used him to, what I would say, is his maximum potential. To prove this theory, as I type this, Emery is hurt with a top secret lower body injury that some have speculated is a hip issue. Enjoy Ray for what he is. An excellent backup, or 1B Goalie, but Crawford has done nothing to lose his job, and Emery has done nothing to take it. Sit down and take a breath with all that mouth breathing.
GRADE - A
