As published in the April 18th publication of “The Committed Indian” for Game 2 of the first round against Calgary. Thanks to Sam for the opportunity.

As the 2008-09 regular season comes to a close and the Chicago Blackhawks prepare to get their first taste of playoff hockey in seven years, it’s important to reflect on this seasons accomplishments.

The UC has been a sell out every game this season and lead the league in attendance. Just 2 short years ago, the Hawks were 29th in attendance. The return of a hockey presence in Chicago will go into late April with only their second playoff appearance in 12 years. Not only did they make the playoffs, they locked up home ice for the first round and finished 3rd overall in the Western Conference with 104 points. A great deal of the success has been on the shoulders of Toews and Kane, the face of the Blackhawks. However, the Hawks would not have achieved so much without unexpected contributions from unexpected sources.

When the season opened, everyone knew the Hawks were thin at center. Dale had failed to land a top center and Bolland was the best option we had in the system. Most didn’t see Bolland as a viable 4th line center in this league. But one coach later and some line juggling by Q, and Dave Bolland has stepped up to center the most consistent line on both ends of the ice. The Bolland line kept the Hawks in a good number of games and filled the role of a “shutdown” line for the Hawks.

Going into the season, the defense looked strong, but then Hjalmarsson goes down and Hendry’s play doesn’t match up to last years. In addition, Cam Barker starts the season in Rockford due to salary cap issues. In comes Aaron Johnson. Johnson not only filled the void, he slid into the 3-4 pairing. Before his injury, he not only led the Hawks in plus/minus, he was among the league leaders. His stay at home style was a perfect compliment to Campbell’s offensive minded play.

Another unknown was Kris Versteeg. Versteeg was obtained in a minor league trade and expectations weren’t very high. It took him a few games to get going, but once he did, the talk of a Calder was not far behind. Besides, before last year, when was the last time the Hawks had a young prospect amount to anything more than a 4^th liner. How many said JR? That was over 20 years ago.

A big unexpected twist early into the season was the firing of Savvy and the hiring of Quenneville as head coach. There was a lot of speculation surrounding this move and whose move it was, but with the line juggling Savard did, it wasn’t a huge surprise. The timing of the move was the big question, just 4 games into the new season. As it turns out, moving in a coach with proven success was instrumental to the success of the Hawks this season.

Another question going into the season was announced at the convention. It was the decision to give the captaincy to a 20-year old. It wasn’t really a question of if he was the right guy; it was a question of if he was the right guy now – is he ready to step in at such a young age. “Captain Serious” has put to rest any doubt, as you can already see his maturity and leadership ability is well beyond his years. Toews should be the Hawks captain for the next 15 years.

Once the season was under way, there were the usually slumps and hot streaks. Toews couldn’t buy a goal to start the season, but finished strong with 34 goals. Kane started strong and after his injury in mid December, has been snake bit. Now he can’t buy a goal. Campbell has really shown us what his offensive game is all about. But he has also shown us what his defensive game is all about. We also learned quickly that Sopel is not the player he was last season and wonder why Dale overpaid so much in Sopel’s extension. As we watched Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook mature through the past season or two, it’s impressive to see that they could arguably be one of the top pairings in the league.

Throughout the season, the two biggest surprises were ironically the top two whipping boys for Hawk fans. Any trade talks or salary dump discussions, and these two players were always at the top of the list. Fans and media were quick to trade them both for a bag of used pucks but it seemed that Dale couldn’t get that deal done either. For the last 2 injury-riddled seasons, Havlat was not expected to play more than 3 games this season before another trip to the IR. When talking line speculations before the season started, Havlat was never in the discussion. This season, he has been the most consistent players on both ends of the ice. Skating on a line with Bolland and Ladd, Havlat was playing on a primarily defensive/checking line. When Havlat gets hit, everyone is still expecting him to go down, even though he has proven through the entire season that he has shaken the injury bug, missing only one game this season. The Hawks need to resign him as soon as possible, before he hits the free agent market.

The other castoff is of course, Nikolai Khabibulin. Khabi has had a few miserable seasons, not playing to what the expectations of a $6.75M goalie should be. Let’s not factor in that the team in front of him was exceptionally bad and couldn’t put the puck in the net. This is a ton of pressure for a goalie, who knows he can’t make any mistakes as he can’t expect any offensive support. So, in the off season, Dale pulls of an unexpected move and lands FA Huet for a big contract, leaving Khabi for dead. This wouldn’t have been a bad move, but Tallon’s failure to move Khabibulin really put the Hawks salary in a bad spot. To Khabibulin’s credit, he came into camp and found a roster spot. All season, he has out performed Huet. Come playoffs, Q has given him the nod between the pipes. This is why we paid so much for Khabi, let’s see where the big hype of playoff experience takes us. It appears that Dale’s failure to pull the trigger on moving these huge salaries turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Blackhawk fans are not familiar with getting fortunate bounces, but the success of the Blackhawks this season would not be where it is today without these unexpected contributions. Enjoy the playoffs, it has been a long time coming, but don’t forget the little things that got them here.