Chicago Blackhawks Implosion in Process

2008: 20-7-7

2009: 20-17-4

Anyone else see a problem?

On Christmas Day, the Chicago Blackhawks were the trendy team in all of sports. Coming on the heels of the out-of-nowhere run of the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series, the long tormented Original Six franchise had seemingly found a winning formula.

There were a couple of blips on the radar, but the Hawks were able to cover the blemishes.

Cristobal Huet hadn't been the goalie of the future GM Dale Tallon had hoped, forcing the Hawks to keep Nikolai Khabibulin. Thankfully, Khabibulin found the fountain of youth while the Hawks tried to sell his contract to a Russian team and he sat out the entire preseason.

Then the Hawks decided, after the fanfare from the Home Opener had dulled, to make a change on the bench. Tallon fired fan favorite, and Hall of Fame player for the Hawks, Denis Savard and replaced him with Joel Quenneville. The move wasn't taken well by the media initially, but when games started ending in wins, the pain was numbed.

Overall, life was wonderful at the United Center. The team was hot, they were looking at the media event of the season with the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in fantastic throwback uniforms on New Year's Day against the Red Wings, and they were dominating a tough schedule.

Merry Christmas indeed.

Then the Hawks took the simple five hour drive to Detroit on December 30 for a year-end game against the rival Red Wings.

In that game, Patrick Kane took a tough hit, one that was viewed by many as being dirty, and suffered a high ankle sprain. He would leave the ice early in that game and not return. His status for New Year's Day at Wrigley was now questionable.

On December 30, Kane had 16 goals and 25 assists (41 points total).

On March 31, Kane has 24 goals and 40 assists (64 points total).

In more total games played after the injury, Kane has score half as many goals and two-thirds as many assists as he had before the December 30 game in Detroit.

I am among the chorus that thought Kane, though being voted a starter is an enormous honor, should have taken a pass on the All Star Game.

The Blackhawks were well represented by captain Jonathan Toews and defensiveman Brian Campbell, and Kane could have used an extra couple days (especially without any skills competitions) to rest his ailing wheel.

But Kane played. For a kid who's generously listed at 160 pounds, he tried to push a tough exterior. But for a 20-year old who is in just his second professional season, he's going though both physical and mental growing pains this year.

The hit in Detroit put a shimmy in his giddy-up; Kane has not played as well both to the naked eye and on the stat sheet since then.

Kane's ankle was the first domino to fall out of place for the Hawks. Within a matter of just a few games in early February, veteran wing Patrick Sharp and goalie Khabibulin went down with injuries that would hold each of these crucial players off the ice for around six weeks.

Despite the issues that have shown up throughout the season, Quenneville has tried to maintain a level approach to the game. But in mid-February, as the Hawks looked to tinker with their order to have what looked, on paper, like a more playoff-ready lineup, just one move was made.

In an effort to secure the one part of the game that the Hawks appeared to be most lacking in on a stat sheet, Tallon dealt for center, and faceoff specialist, Samuel Pahlsson. Pahlsson, who was part of a Cup winner in Anaheim, has been effective on the drop since being acquired.

The problem with the deal is that James Wisniewski, the defender the Hawks gave up for Pahlsson, was the rock, the glue of the defensive units for the Hawks.

The Hawks have a unique mix of hard-edged physical defenders and finesse, offensive-oriented skaters on defense. Wisniewski was the happy medium between the pretty skating and handling of Brian Campell and the enforcer Ben Eager. Wisniewski completed the Hawks defensive rotation.

Rewind to last year. Before Campbell was on the roster, the tandem of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook was the stalwart of the Hawks defense. But there was a noticeable difference between the play when Wisniewski was on or off the disabled list.

That trend continued this season when he returned from knee surgery in early December. The Hawks won six of the first eight games Wisniewski played in, allowing more than two goals in two of the first ten in which he appeared.

Now we're looking at the first of April. Yesterday, hundreds of April Fools camped out at the United Center to buy playoff tickets for the first time in seven years; I am a season ticket holder, so I slept comfortably last night. Broke, but comfortably.

But when will that almighty first home playoff game be this year? As we begin April, it would be Game Three, because the Hawks now have a firm grip on fifth place in the Western Conference.

The relatively good part of being the fifth seed on April 1 is that, as of today, the Hawks would match up with the Calgary Flames in the first round and not the Vancouver team that beat the senses out of the Hawks this past weekend. The Hawks have played well against Calgary this year, so on paper that's a positive.

But that same "paper" that tells us the Hawks match up well against Calgary also tells us that the Hawks are in danger of playing Vancouver still; the Columbus Bluejackets are just three points behind the Hawks for fifth, and the teams meet twice in the next two weeks.

The Chicago Blackhawks, if they continue playing as they are right now, could very easily be the sixth seed in the Western Conference.

Looking back at this season so far, there have been a ton of positives for the Hawks as well as a lot of painful lessons that any team averaging barely 25 years of age per player would go through.

As March ends, the Hawks are going though a rough patch of games that is testing the mettle of the young roster.

The intensity isn't going to decrease in April, as the Hawks schedule is against teams in playoff contention every single night. As they search for the right rotation, the best matchups, and a flow to their game that works, the Hawks will try to maintain their position as either a four or five seed in the West.