Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks: Is It Time To Panic?

Working in a bar near the United Center and continually wearing my Blackhawks attire around town, I seem to be continually confronted with two questions lately. 

The first one is, What is wrong with the Blackhawks? And the second is, Can you believe we let Byfuglien and Niemi go?  It seems as though the city and its newly acquired and veteran fans alike are in a panic, simply because we aren't dominating the league as defending Stanley Cup champions.

Now, to answer the first question, there is nothing really wrong with them.  They are a young team with a lot of new faces that are just taking a little time to gel together.  When you have that much turnover it takes time to get used to some of the strengths and weaknesses of your new teammates and to learn to trust them, and their abilities. 

Think about it: last season we returned most of our team from a six seed that ran all the way to the Western Conference Finals before being ousted by Detroit.  Then, at the beginning of the season, they have their first two games in Finland where they take a week and a half long trip that gives them a chance to bond even more.  This year's team had no such trip and not near as much time together as last season's.

Another thing being the long haul of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the even longer haul of the celebration afterward, you miss a lot of your offseason.  The Stanley Cup is considered one of the hardest trophies to win, partially because its playoffs are the most grueling of them all. 

The Blackhawks played in 22 of possible 28 playoff games, and that puts almost all of our guys over 100 games on the season last year.  Plus, if you want to add in the Olympics that some of the top players (Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Marian Hossa, and Tomas Kopecky) participated in, then you are putting these guys at over 110 games last season for most of our star players. 

That is a long season for anyone, no matter how young a player might be.  And then also as I said the post Cup celebration tends to cut into part of your off season preparation time.

Essentially, the Blackhawks finished playing hockey on June 9 and the celebration ran til the end of June.  That gave them July and August to relax before the start of training camp.  Where as teams that didn't make the playoffs were done in mid-April, and had almost four and a half months off to relax and begin preparations for this season.

And finally the biggest thing this season is that The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup Champions.  That means night in and night out you get every opponent's best effort; be it a lowly team with minimal points or a team at the top of the conference, everyone is shooting for you.

On to the second question.  Now, when I answer this, I have to say it is unfortunate that we couldn't keep everyone from last season, but that is the post-strike/salary cap era of hockey that we now live in.  I also need to point out that Niemi and Byfuglien are not the two best players we lost or are missing.  Those players would be Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg. 

Let's start with the generic stats of games, goals, assists, and total points.  Versteeg played in 79 games, tallying 20 goals and 24 assists for a total of 44 points.  Ladd played in 82 games and had 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 points.  And finally, Byfuglien came in with 17 goals and 17 assists for 34 points in 82 games. 

All seem to be about the same caliber within about ten points of each other, with Versteeg and Ladd both in front of Byfuglien, though. 

But the big stat to me is in their plus/minus ratios.  Which for those of you that don't know that is a ratio of goals scored by your team to goals scored against your team while you are on the ice.  So if you play a game and you are on the ice for two goals for your team and one that is scored against you, your plus minus is plus-1, even if your team loses the game say 3-2. 

Now, that is a telling sign because it takes into account not just how much you contribute to the offensive side, but also how well your unit plays on defense.  This is where it is very telling though with Versteeg at plus-7, Ladd at plus-2 and Byuglien at minus-7. 

That is a gap that definitely shows the loss of Versteeg and Ladd weighing in much more importantly, especially with a defensively challenged team like the Blackhawks have right now.

As for Niemi being a huge loss, anytime you lose a Stanley Cup Winning Goalie it is not the best scenario, but there is also the argument he was a flash in the pan.  After all, he is starting for his current team, the San Jose Sharks, right now as he sits behind a goaltender with considerably less experience.  He happened to get hot at the right time down the stretch and in the playoffs, but Turco can do the same thing.

Now some of you may doubt me on that, by saying Niemi's 2.25 GAA last season well out paced Turco's 2.72 in Dallas.  But if you look at the fact that Turco played in 14 more games (53 to 39) and started 17  more games (52 to 35) and faced almost 700 more shots against (1605 to 936), I think you will be happy to know that Turco's .913 save percentage is going to out weigh Niemi's .912. 

So do the Blackhawks and Chicago fans need to push the panic but yet?  Absolutely not.  They are still a good young team that just needs to start to gel and get to know each other.  And once they do that new stars will begin to emerge and take over the memories as great as they may be of Byfuglien and Niemi. 

But if we are still struggling in January, then come see me.