Chicago Blackhawks Season Preview

The Chicago Blackhawks came off the 2008-2009 season flying high. Khabibulin, along with young stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews led the team all the way to the Western Conference Finals. Patrick Kane made a name for himself putting up a hat-trick in game 6 against the Canucks. He made Luongo cry and put a climax on to a spectacular season for the Hawks. The Blackhawks were later dispatched in the Western Conference Finals by the Red Wings in 5 games. However, no one could deny that the 08-09 season was a major success.





Coming off a fantastic 2008-09 season, expectations for the young Blackhawks were sky high for 2009-2010. The Hawks added prized free-agent Marian Hossa to the mix further adding to the teams depth. Nik Khabibulin signed with the Oilers for 4 years and Cristobal Huet was given the reigns to be the full-time starting goalie. This move left the fanbase 50/50 on whether Huet could be the "man" in net. The Hawks had a team with a top 4 defensive tandem of Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, and *Hjalmarsson, and tremendous depth at forward. The Hawks were ready to meet the demands of something that had not been done in Chicago since 1961.

*MEMO: To Pierre Mcguire, Mike Milbury, the whole versus crew, CBC, and TSN: Niklas Hjalmarsson's name is pronounced (Jal-mar-son NOT Chal-mar-son)

The season started off a bit slow as the Hawks came back tired from the European Premiere part of their schedule. Hossa was not going to be able to come back until late November because of injury. Even without Hossa, fans knew that this could be a top tier team. Despite early struggles, there was one defining moment early in the season, that made people realize that this team was going to win the cup. After watching them come back from a 5 goal deficit, people started to see that this team was something special.


In the middle of the season, the team was still in 1st place. Goalie Cristobal Huet was being criticized by fans for his up and down inconsistant play and untimely soft goals. Backup goalie Antti Niemi was given a few more games every now and then and he started to perform great. Fans started clamoring for Niemi in net. However, this was all overshadowed by the marquee Western Conference preview in late November. Marian Hossa's 1st game with the Hawks was a major success.



Later on in the season Huet was replaced with Antti Niemi. Coach Q felt that Niemi would make critical saves at key times. Ultimately this was a great move. The Blackhawks rode Niemi all the way to their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

In case you missed what happened, check out the video below!



The Blackhawks won the cup, however, they were in some serious salary cap trouble. The Hawks had to trade/lose to free agency, Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Ben Eager, John Madden, Colin Fraser, Adam Burish, and Brent Sopel..

Basically the Hawks lost most of their 3rd and 4th forward lines. Most people are freaking out, saying that half of the team is gone. While that may be true, most of the people who are gone are 4th liners or 5th or 6th defensemen...

Think about it... John Madden is past his prime and will retire soon. He was on the 4th line for the 2nd half of last year. Ben Eager, Adam Burish, and Colin Fraser are easily replaceable with young talent (So dont count those 3 as any major loss). Brent Sopel is old and a slow 6th dman at best. The only real significant losses the Hawks suffered were Byfuglien, Ladd, and Versteeg. Versteegs production can be replaced by Stalberg. Byfuglien was ok in the regular season but he is highly overrated. (you cannot count on him beasting in the playoffs every year).. Ladd is good but like I said earlier the top 4 dmen will be the same. The top 2 forward lines will be the same. Bolland will still be on the 3rd line. Niemi was lost but Turco now replaces him. It will be interesting to see how Turco does with an amazing defense.

Detroit used this formula before and they won 4 cups in the last 12 years. The Blackhawks may not win the cup this year, but they will still be a force in the Western Conference.

Predictions: 1st in the division and 3rd in the conference.

Looking at these lines, the top 2 forward lines are still scary good. Kopecky and Bolland will do good on the 3rd checking line and Skille is fast as hell. The 4th line.. well it is a 4th line.

The Blackhawks are in better shape then most people think.

Projected lines for 2010-11

Brouwer Toews Kane
Stalberg Sharp Hossa
Kopecky Bolland Skille
Bickell Dowell Makarov

Keith Seabrook
Hjalmarsson Campbell
Boynton Hendry
Scott

Turco
Crawford

good post but that is a review of the past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of teh past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Yeah I know. I was not finished because as soon as I got to the 2010-11 part I had to go play my gamechangers playoff games..

I will finish the rest later

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of teh past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Ok check it now.. I finished

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of the past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Yeah I know. I was not finished because as soon as I got to the 2010-11 part I had to go play my gamechangers playoff games..

I will finish the rest later

oh my bad...

congrats, good luck vs pqohi in the finals

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of teh past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Ok check it now.. I finished

nice job!

leafsfan54 wrote:

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of the past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Yeah I know. I was not finished because as soon as I got to the 2010-11 part I had to go play my gamechangers playoff games..

I will finish the rest later

oh my bad...

congrats, good luck vs pqohi in the finals

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of teh past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Ok check it now.. I finished

nice job!

Yeah but I feel that it is kind of bullshit that Pquoi gets to play and be used to all of the lag and I have to fight through it because I am not used to it..

I wish they would just give us both the game but obviously there can only be 1 winner.. I just wish I could face someone from north america not finland..

I was hoping someone would knock him off but that was not the case.. I went 1-1 vs him in the regular season but every game was tough because he always had the lag advantage..

It almost feel like cheating

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of the past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Yeah I know. I was not finished because as soon as I got to the 2010-11 part I had to go play my gamechangers playoff games..

I will finish the rest later

oh my bad...

congrats, good luck vs pqohi in the finals

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of teh past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Ok check it now.. I finished

nice job!

Yeah but I feel that it is kind of bullshit that Pquoi gets to play and be used to all of the lag and I have to fight through it because I am not used to it..

I wish they would just give us both the game but obviously there can only be 1 winner.. I just wish I could face someone from north america not finland..

I was hoping someone would knock him off but that was not the case.. I went 1-1 vs him in the regular season but every game was tough because he always had the lag advantage..

It almost feel like cheating

I don't think there's such a thing as getting used to lag. Northern Europe has some of the best broadband in the world, and especially for PS3, they have a lot of users. There's no doubt in my mind that he matches up against a lot of Europeans on a daily basis.

Playing Cross-Atlantic games will for sure cause lag for one of the players, the player that plays away. Pquoi was host twice in the games against you, right? That means he had no lag in two of the games. You were host in one of the games, and I believe he had the most lag in that one. That's just how peer to peer gaming works. The fact that he had the upper seed comes from him finishing at number one.

With me being in Norway, I really hope I won't have to hear complaints about lag after a game, whether I win or lose. I know I won't be complaining.

RRhoads wrote:

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of the past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Yeah I know. I was not finished because as soon as I got to the 2010-11 part I had to go play my gamechangers playoff games..

I will finish the rest later

oh my bad...

congrats, good luck vs pqohi in the finals

HockeyMediaPlus wrote:

leafsfan54 wrote:

good post but that is a review of teh past 2 seasons not a preview of next... i dont believe 2010-2011 was mentioned

Ok check it now.. I finished

nice job!

Yeah but I feel that it is kind of bullshit that Pquoi gets to play and be used to all of the lag and I have to fight through it because I am not used to it..

I wish they would just give us both the game but obviously there can only be 1 winner.. I just wish I could face someone from north america not finland..

I was hoping someone would knock him off but that was not the case.. I went 1-1 vs him in the regular season but every game was tough because he always had the lag advantage..

It almost feel like cheating

I don't think there's such a thing as getting used to lag. Northern Europe has some of the best broadband in the world, and especially for PS3, they have a lot of users. There's no doubt in my mind that he matches up against a lot of Europeans on a daily basis.

Playing Cross-Atlantic games will for sure cause lag for one of the players, the player that plays away. Pquoi was host twice in the games against you, right? That means he had no lag in two of the games. You were host in one of the games, and I believe he had the most lag in that one. That's just how peer to peer gaming works. The fact that he had the upper seed comes from him finishing at number one.

With me being in Norway, I really hope I won't have to hear complaints about lag after a game, whether I win or lose. I know I won't be complaining.

Yeah, I was just frustrated. It seemed like he got every bounce...

I apologized to him for complaining. I just am very competitive thats all..

id prob keep kopy and hossa together. kopy always plays much better when hes lined with ho ho ho ho hossaaaaaa