The Blackhawks' Third Quarter: Gearing up for the final stretch

This is the first time I've posted a quarterly update for the Blackhawks in 2014, thanks to what many of use are hoping was the final interruption for the Olympics. While the 'Hawks were fortunate to have their 10 players return without injuries (teams like the Red Wings and the Islanders were not so lucky), Marián Hossa of course left last night's game early on with an upper-body injury a few nights after returning from Sochi. I won't waste too much time bitching and whining about the Olympics though, seeing as there's a little thing called the Trade Deadline approaching on Wednesday. While it basically goes unnoticed here in the States, it's essentially a national holiday in Canada. This year, there might be reason for Chicago to be active on that market if the team's serious about repeating as Stanley Cup winners.

Sure, the Blackhawks got a couple forwards from the Isles about a month ago in exchange for a fourth round pick. But I don't blame you for not being overly excited about either Pierre-Marc Bouchard or Peter Regin, seeing as I had to look up who they were when the trade was announced. It's a low-risk move, but probably low on rewards too. And so the refrain remains, as it has seemingly almost every year around this time, for the team to find a stronger second line center. This news isn't going to make that chorus much quieter, and neither will the recent move by the chief rivals in the Central to acquire Buffalo's star goalie, Ryan Miller. The playoffs indeed seem like a safe bet for Chicago, but there's good reason to have concern about how far this team's going to be able to go.

At the moment, five of these seven teams would be playoff bound. If current standings held, the 'Hawks would get Dallas. While winning the division isn't nearly as important as winning the Cup, there's a little additional importance placed on it this year in the new playoff seeding system. Put it this way: Would you rather see Chicago get a first round opponent like Colorado with a premier goalie? Or would you prefer one of the wild card teams that barely got in? Yeah, that's not a tough call.

Either way, an admittedly tougher St. Louis team will be waiting in the wings and then there will probably be a very physical Pacific club waiting in the Conference Finals (although it is my hope that the first two rounds for that division take a toll on said team). I have my doubts that the Blackhawks will make another move before the deadline on Wednesday and my fandom is probably preventing me from being overly concerned about it since I still just don't think anybody can win a best-of-seven against this team. We can only hope that the Hossa injury is nothing too serious and the rest of the team is able to stay healthy going into the postseason. For now, there remains ample reason to believe that Chicago could still be playing when summer arrives.