The Blackhawks' Third Quarter: What Me Worry? (Maybe a little ...)

All good things must come to an end, I suppose. Alas, the 'Hawks finally suffered a regulation loss—five of them, actually—during this last 12-game stretch. I believe the New York Times referred to their 6-5-1 record during this span as fairly "pedestrian," which seems fair. Still, Chicago remains atop the Western Conference (although the Anaheim Ducks are still right behind, and took all three meetings with the Blackhawks this year—more on that in a sec though), and is now tied with a Pittsburgh team that won every single game they played in March for the most points in the league. Entering this final stretch of the shortened season, the playoffs are all but a certainty, but that does not mean there aren't certain concerns that need to be addressed if Chicago is to bring home its second Stanley Cup in four years.

First (and foremost, in my mind) is the number of frightening late period/late game collapses. I haven't been keeping track, but there has been a disturbing number of goals allowed in the final two minutes of periods this year, and whereas this year began with me constantly expecting the Blackhawks to come back from one-goal deficits late in games, I now fear that they'll inevitably cough up any third period lead they have. This trend is most certainly not a good thing, and it needs to stop before the playoffs begin. Enter the playoffs with an inability to protect a lead, and a first-round exit is not out of the question.

And while I noted last quarter that Chicago had two of the best goaltenders in the league, there's the annual concern about whether Corey Crawford really is your "number one" guy in between the pipes. I'm a bit more skeptical about this issue (Antti Niemi was facing similar doubts toward the end of the 2010 regular season, but that turned out OK), but Crawford can't afford to allow the softies that helped Phoenix oust the 'Hawks last year. Emery is certainly more than capable as a backup right now, so it's not like we're stuck with a Huet-ish alternative here.

Similarly, there's been A LOT of venom directed at Dave Bolland, who has been basically invisible, borderline dead this season. It was kind of ironic that the goal that finally ended his more than month-long scoring drought didn't actually involve him taking a shot. Again, like the goalie situation, Bolland similarly struggled in the 2010 regular season before making an impact in the playoffs. A lot of the things he does to get under the skin of opponents does not come up on the stat sheet anyway, kind of like what he did to help set up this goal.

Finally, there's the underwhelming faceoff numbers, an issue that is supposedly addressed by the one notable trade Stan Bowman made before the deadline, acquiring Michal Handzus from San Jose. The Blackhawks didn't make any big-name moves like the arms race that is going on in the East between Boston and Pittsburgh, but I'm not sure they really needed to either. The team has been without the contributions of both Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp during these last dozen games, and those returns can only help.

So yeah, this 'Hawks fan is nowhere near as ecstatic as was the case during the last update. In searching for the right photo for this quarter's graphic, there were certainly many good nominees, including this bloody Niklas Hjalmarsson pic or either of these downed Jonathan Toews photos. Ultimately, did a little tinkering to this Tribune photo of yet another disappointing loss to the Ducks.

As I said, there's some alarm among Chicago observers that Anaheim took all three meetings with the Blackhawks. Similar to the 2010 comparison logic I have been using to ease most every other concern I have noted in this post, I'm somewhat dismissive of a playoff meeting with the Ducks even occurring. Not because of any of that team's players, mind you, but mostly because of the track record of head coach Bruce Boudreau. During his time with the Washington Capitals, the teams consistently enjoyed regular season success, but also suffered early playoff exits. (In 2010, as the top overall seed in the NHL, the Caps gout bounced by the No. 8 Montreal Canadiens.) Sure that was sort of the story with the franchise even before Boudreau arrived, but I'll just say have my doubts about whether a Boudreau-led team can even make it to the Western Conference Finals to face the Blackhawks—assuming they get there too, of course.

Again, coming off a year in which the Los Angeles Kings were the lowest-ranked team in the West but went on to win the first three games of every single postseason series they played in, we should all know that the seeds can be misleading. Perhaps even more so in a shortened season. Nobody should be completely dismissing the chances of a Detroit, St. Louis, Edmonton or Minnesota team that could very well be an opening round opponent for either Chicago or Anaheim less than a month from now. How the 'Hawks finish out these last 12 games will go a long way toward easing my concerns.