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As is usually the case, the first quarter of the baseball season passed by with me being far more engrossed in hockey and basketball playoffs to really catch too many games. This year, I even failed to notice that the Braves hit the 41-game mark.
The expectations for this season were dramatically lowered when Atlanta lost two of its starters before this season even began. It seemed like it was going to be extremely difficult to compete for the division, much less the Wild Card. Yet here we are, 41 games into the season and the Braves atop the standings.
Of course, this isn't terribly likely to hold. The Nationals are right behind Atlanta, and they have far more talent on their roster for the long haul. Depending on how everybody's health plays out, there remains the chance that the Braves may be able to compete for a postseason spot. While the story thus far has been the pitching, the team's offense has struggled mightily. Considering that it's more likely that the former will regress before the latter improves dramatically, it's going to be a real uphill fight all year long.
It was another hard-fought season of Chicago Bulls basketball, with the team holding its own despite losing its marquee player and trading away a longtime contributor as well. Tom Thibodeau once again worked his magic with this seemingly doomed roster, and the Bulls somehow end up having home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Perhaps most astonishingly, it very much seemed that other teams in the Eastern Conference were doing their best to avoid having to play Chicago in the first or second round.
That speaks volumes of the type of opponent that the Bulls can be. Even though the offense is lackluster (to put it kindly), the defense remains the selling point and now win against this team comes without being earned through 48 minutes of grueling work. So does that translate to a championship threat? Of course not.
And there's sort of the rub with being a Bulls fan. We're becoming more and more used to this annual collection of scrappy underdogs overachieving without ever really being realistically in the title conversation. The signings and moves at the end of the year is fueling speculation that GarPax may be maneuvering to acquire Carmelo Anthony during the off-season, which certainly sounds good on paper. The problem it that we've been down this fantasy free agent road before, and the results rarely work out in Chicago's favor.
For now, I'll try to enjoy the prospect of the Bulls giving an Indiana or even a Miami fits, but it remains just about impossible for me to truly build up any real hopes about a Larry O'Brien Trophy being presented to this basketball team in June. They try hard and leave it all on the floor, sure, but it's only fair to admit that there remains a very real ceiling for the squad.
For every one of the previous three quarterly updates, the Blackhawks had been holding off the St. Louis Blues for first place in the Central Division. The largest lead at any quarter's conclusion was a mere four points and the leads at the time were always somewhat misleading because St. Louis always had at least a couple games still in hand. It was shortly after that last update when the Blues boasted the biggest of all trade deadline acquisitions in star Sabres goalie Ryan Miller that St. Louis finally overtook the 'Hawks for the top spot in the Central and appeared well on their way to contending for the Presidents' Trophy. However, the month of April was not kind to the Blues, concluding the season by losing six in a row and, in the process, conceding the division title to a plucky Colorado Avalanche squad that I had originally forecast to finish in the cellar (so, you know, "oops").
With Detroit now a member of the Eastern Conference, St. Louis has certainly felt like the new regional rival for Chicago. In that sense, it's only appropriate that they meet in the first round of the NHL's newly revamped playoff system that wants to hype up division rivalries. The Blackhawks finished the year with the team's two biggest stars, Toews and Kane, sidelined by injuries. The Blues have also been dealing with their share of health woes, as Derek Roy, Vladimir Sobotka, T.J. Oshie, Brenden Morrow, David Backes, and Barret Jackman were all listed as "day-to-day" in the final two weeks.
Of course, paralysis, amputation, or decapitation are the only types of injuries that would cause a player to miss the playoffs in the NHL. Everybody's going to be banged up when the race for the Cup kicks off Wednesday night, but I don't see how 'Hawks fans cannot feel great about the team they drew. Whereas the last few weeks were fret with concern about how Chicago was ever going to be able to score on Colorado netminder Semyon Varlamov (boasting a stunning .960 save percentage against the Blackhawks this year), the Blues suddenly look like a complete mess and an ideal opponent for last year's Stanley Cup Champions to begin their title defense against. I might not be so optimistic a couple weeks from now, but for the time being, I'm pretty damn happy.
As has been the case pretty much all year long, the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers remain far and away the only two elite teams in the Eastern Conference. And while the Bulls were essentially written off as soon as Derrick Rose went down only a few games in to the season, and while shipping Luol Deng off to Cleveland at about the midway point seemed to further cement the reality that this wasn't going to be Chicago's year, the Bulls just continue to grind away and keep winning games. If the playoffs were to start today, the Bulls would have home court advantage in the first round. But again, this is all simply delaying the inevitable. Do you want to be eliminated by Miami or Indiana?
For as much of a lost cause as this year is for Chicago, the team still has maintained a lot more interest among fans than I would have suspected. A big part of it has to do with the remarkable play of Joakim Noah, who became the first center to record three triple-doubles involving assists (as opposed to the blocks that are typically the third double digit for big men) in a single season since David Robinson in 1993-94. He was also the first center to record 14 assists since 1986.
As eye-popping as those statistical notes are, a lot of the talk naturally drifts to what the team will be able to do in the off-season. And the biggest headlines Noah has made in recent weeks has had to do with him reportedly urging Carmelo Anthony during All-Star Weekend to come to Chicago next year. This, as always, is a very entertaining concept to imagine, but probably has no realistic chance of actually happening. That won't stop many of the die-hards who still believe the crack in the championship window can be yanked wide open with one move.
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.
Perhaps it was fitting that the first half to this season concluded in Cleveland, the new home (well, at least for this year) for Luol Deng. For the most part, the trade was only surprising in that the Bulls front office actually pulled the trigger on a deal. Too many times in recent years, it has seemed as though this organization clings to its own overvaluation of its own talent. All too often, the belief in players like Deng or Kirk Hinrich or name any other draft pick has led to many fans insisting that the team should not part with said young players because their ceilings will be just as high as a Kobe or a LeBron.
We know that Luol Deng's ceiling is not anywhere near that high, but his current floor remains pretty darn high as is. In Luol, Chicago fans were privileged to have a nightly solid effort from a team player who understood his role, played solid defense, and always kept his nose clean. In fact, Deng's numerous humanitarian efforts while a member of the Bulls cannot be understated.
I consider myself to be among many who were surprised to learn that Deng left Chicago as the fourth-leading scorer in Bulls history. Still, after being a steady contributor for nearly a decade in the Windy City, there was no denying that it was in the organization's best interest to obtain some sort of compensation while available before Luol became a free agent and earned a paycheck that Chicago could not afford to sign. We are now only halfway through a completely lost and unwatchable season, but the many draft picks that the Bulls got in exchange for Deng could give fans reason to be a little more optimistic. We have no idea what level of player former league MVP Derrick Rose is going to be when he returns to the floor, but the ability to sign new, young talent at more reasonable rates while Tom Thibodeau is still in charge (however long that lasts ... ) could help the Bulls contend again. One day.
I suppose that I am perhaps entitled to feel somewhat disappointed by the Bears closing out the season with consecutive losses when a win in either one of the two final games would have resulted in this year's team winning the NFC North and going to the playoffs in Marc Trestman's first year. The fact that the defense was so abysmal on a legendary level probably spared fans the additional embarrassment of a nationally televised playoff loss. Of course, I'm the guy who picked the Lions to win this year's Super Bowl, so I'm still more saddened that after having such a golden opportunity this season, Detroit somehow found a way to screw it up.
And so yet another year ends with Green Bay heading to the playoffs while Chicago stays home. There was certainly a lot to like about the improvements that Trestman made to the Bears offense this season, but there is going to be a lot of much-deserved focus on improvements to the other side of the ball this off-season. The Sunday night blowout loss in Philadelphia was incredibly humbling, but the game-winning Aaron Rodgers TD toss in the season finale was again the result of a defensive lapse. We could sit here and marvel on how very close the Bears to winning the division this season, but truth be told, we should feel fortunate that the team was able to hang around in post-season discussion for as long as they did because of the lackluster competition. In any other year, the division should have been wrapped up in Week 14.
There's some people who will ask why we should be commending Trestman for going 8-8 when Lovie Smith was fired after finishing 10-6, but I'd still feel like the needle is pointing up for Chicago going forward despite the win-loss record.
It certainly appears that this year's defense of the Stanley Cup will be nothing like the 2010-11 season in which the Blackhawks had to creep in after grabbing the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference. Unlike the fire sale that followed the 2010 Cup win, this year's team has been kept largely intact and is storming through the NHL 41 games into this season. Consider that Chicago has scored five or more goals in nearly half of their games this season.
Name a player on this team and chances are good that he is having a solid campaign thus far. When a waiter at a local restaurant saw my Blackhawks cap during a recent visit, he asked who my favorite player was. It had been a while since I'd been asked this and I had to think about it. Based upon the very Norris Trophy-worthy season he's having thus far, my reply was Duncan Keith. But it could have just as easily been Patrick Kane. Or Patrick Sharp. Hell, why not Brandon Saad?
Blah blah blah. In short, there isn't a whole helluva lot that 'Hawks fans shouldn't feel good about right now. The champs are playing like the best team in the league, and it once again remains very hard to imagine that any team is going to be able wo win a seven-game series against Chicago come April. If there is one worry, it is undoubtedly the penalty kill that currently ranks among the league's worst after going on an amazing streak of success in last year's playoffs. Then again, with the team scoring as often as it is right now, simply avoiding stupid penalties would seemingly be the easiest fix to that, ahem, "problem."
Oh, and then there's the whole three-week interruption we're about to go through for what I hope and fervently pray is the final NHL player participation in the Winter Olympics. In addition to the fatigue concerns and how the sudden time out of the country will affect the roll the Blackhawks have been on, there is as alawys just the overwhelming fear of a star player sustaining an injury. Sure, Chicago has more than enough contributors right now to possibly make up for the inevitable player loss or two that will happen between now and the playoffs, but I'd still prefer safe than sorry. And it's hard to ignore the fact that the last time there was a mid-season Olympics break, the 'Hawks won the Cup that year.
I see no point in lying. I attempted to listen to the Bulls game last night, but only made it about two quarters in before I decided to watch TV instead. (This, for the record.) OK, I lasted less than two periods.
This is likely to be the story for the remainder of the season. Oh, sure. The Bulls could be hard-working and grindy enough to make the playoffs in an appalling Eastern Conference, but this season's hopes for any sort of deep playoff run were vanquished as soon as Derrick Rose—fresh off missing an entire season—went down a mere 10 games into this one.
The Bulls quickly announced Rose would be out for the season. No playoffs, no nothing. Year over. End of story. Commence talking about the possible draft pick even though management will have to publicly dismiss any discussion about possible benefits of tanking.
It seemed we would get through another painfully disappointing regular season, but things were considerably worsened when Rose talked about a possible return if the "situation is right" in his first public comments.
*SIGH*
Which means for the rest of the year, the media is going to be obligated to have headlines just like these ones. I'm casting my vote early: He won't be back for the playoffs and I'm not holding out any hope for the team even he does. Like many of us thought, this year appears destined to come down to Miami and Indiana in the East, with the rest of the field being a sideshow.
While not yet technically eliminated from the playoffs, it seems to be a safer assumption that this first season of the Trestman era will end immediately after Week 17. For me, it's more or less what I expected coming into this year, although the loss to the Vikings in Minnesota that concluded this most recent quarter of the season was more discouraging than anything I could have imagined. Much of the week on Chicago sports radio has been spent calling to question the logic of attempting a 47-yard field goal on second down in overtime. Indeed, for a guy who has seemingly been as smart and analytically aware as Marc Trestman has seemed to be all year long, his defense of the decision left a lot to be desired. Then again, perhaps a poor defense is the best summary of this Bears season.
The team continues to deal with a set of highly consequential injuries to arguably two of its most important players on the two sides of the ball in Cutler on offense and Briggs on defense. There's been plenty of bright spots on the offense this year (for once), what with Matt Forte's continuing efficiency, Alshon Jeffery breaking out, and Martellus Bennett being a tight end who can actually, you know, catch. Oh, and that McCown guy's been pretty effective too. The defense, however, is even more dreadful than my initial fears about depth led me to fear they would be. Never in my lifetime can I recall Chicago having a league worst run defense.
I don't doubt that the team will continue to battle in these final four games, what with the North being similarly pathetic and underwhelming. Oh, and Jay Cutler has a payday coming up.
There's better pictures out there of the championship baaner ceremony, but few of them fit very well in the quarterly graphic. So there ya go. (You can go here to watch the ceremony, or get a better range of images here.)
When the NHL dropped the puck on this 2013-14 season, it seemed to come up on a lot of people sooner than usual. That was partly because we were coming off a shortened season that didn't begin until January last time around and partly because this season did start a little sooner than usual thanks to the three-week interruption we'll get courtesy of the Homophobic Hockey Winter Olympics over on the other side of the planet.
So whereas I was quite the dedicated fan last year who listened to or watched every single 'Hawks game, this season's competing with playoff baseball and regular season NFL as well as us finally cutting the cord with cable has ultimately seen me only pay passing attention to the developments of games I get in the form of various push notifications on my cell phone. And the one thing that has been an annoying constant thus far this season is being informed that Chicago will be up 2-0 or 3-0, but then later that evening I will be told to tune in because the game is tied and is going to overtime. Sure, the Blackhawks end up winning a majority of these contests (I'm a little stunned to read that the 'Hawks are 1.000 when leading after one and .917 when leading after two, but are 3-4 in overtime), but the defense late in games is my foremost concern.
Some of that has to do with goaltending issues (possibly because of new equipment?), largely because Nikolai Khabibulin thus far has not shown any signs of being anywhere near the backup that Ray Emery was last year. However, another aspect concerns a penalty kill that has essentially been the complete opposite of the dominance showcased last year. Still, none of these are issues that cannot be corrected.
And it's hard to complain too much when Chicago sits atop the division standings.
Even during the conclusion to the last quarter of the season, there were signs that this year's Bears defense was going to be one that was going to struggle. Still, it was hard for me to imagine that Chicgao's D would be as awful as it has been, and things only got worse this past quarter when Lance Briggs became the latest player to sustain an injury. Oh, and Jay Cutler went down too.
I was preparing to search for a very frumpy-looking Marc Trestman photo to use for this quarter's graphic after the team suffered a convincing loss to New Orleans, came up with on the losing end of a shootout with the woeful Washington Redskins, and barely beat a then-winless New York Giants. Then suddenly, lo and behold, this past Monday night in a game that the rival Packers were supposed to basically have wrapped up by the end of the first half, an incredible thing happened: Green Bay's star quarterback was not only sacked, not only suffered an injury that forced him from the game, not only will miss several weeks of action, but all of this was the result of a play by much-maligned first round draft pick Shea McClellin.
Not only did the Bears pull off a stunning upset on Monday night to stay above .500, but Chicago now sits in a three-way tie for first place. With Jay Cutler expected to return in a matter of weeks, the playoffs still seem like a very real possibility for many fans. Perhaps that's fair, but I say slow down. After all, the Lions were my Super Bowl pick. Still, there is one Wild Card out there.
For as long as I've been a Bears fan, the team's identity came largely from its defense. From fans to coaches, the football team has long lived in the enormous shadow cast by the 1985 World Champion defense. Ever since then, there's been constant whining about the improvements that need to be made to various components of the offense, but fans could always seem to take comfort in the quality of the team's defense.
Of course, it seems like I've been saying for the past few years that the defense is aging. The window was closing. And now this past off-season, iconic linebacker Brian Urlacher retired after the Bears supposedly "low-balled" him by giving him a modest offer. The amount is kind of trivial since in his previous season, the man did not really play like he did a decade ago in his youth. Oh, and no other team wanted him.
Meanwhile, the defensive-minded Lovie Smith didn't get an offer from anybody after being let go, and his replacement Marc Trestman has been referred to as a "quarterback whisperer" for the success he's had working with numerous top QBs around the NFL. This once again gave some Bears fans reason for optimism about the offensive prospects, for once. And now four games into Trestman's first season, it's still taking a little getting used to. The defense most certainly isn't as good as it has been in years past, but the offense may be more potent than its ever been. In today's NFL, that could make this team a real contender.
But it's not that easy, of course. Nothing ever is.
There really can't be much to complain about when a Braves team that was widely expected to finish second to the Washington Nationals this year and settle for a Wild Card berth at best instead dominates pretty much from wire to wire in winning the team's first division title since 2005. Yeah, that's nowhere near the agony that, say, Pirates fans finally overcame this year, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise to see how successful Atlanta ended up being this year.
So what does it mean? Well, it means that there won't have to be a silly one-game playoff this year for the Bravos. However, because the team sort of limped across the finish line, the St. Louis Cardinals strode in and swiped home-field advantage, now setting up a less than desirable first round date with the Los Angeles Dodgers. While it's been a few years since the Braves got into the playoffs for an actual, you know, series, it's suddenly all coming back: the doubt, the worries, and the predominant sense of skepticism.
I'll dwell on that more in my Divisional Series picks tomorrow, but for now, I should really take a moment to appreciate how well this year turned out. Putting aside the disappointing (and expensively lackluster) performances of B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla, there was plenty to be happy about this year after all. I imagine whenever the Final Thoughts for this year's team go up, there will be much more praise for the pitching and other positional players as well as manager Fredi Gonzalez once the year concludes.
This has certainly been a very encouraging campaign that has restored a lot of faith about the long-term future of this team. Whether the team will prove to be strong enough for the immediate future is something we'll begin getting a better idea of tomorrow night. I'll certainly be hoping for the best.
Considering it was less than two years ago that what seemed like a sure playoff berth in the third quarter instead ended up being a monumental collapse that year, it is hard for Braves fans—or at least this one—to begin making championship parade plans just yet. Even if the team did have a 14-game winning streak during this past quarter. And they have now won 17 of their past 19. 27-13 since the last time I did an update on this team.
But the Braves are a different beast than, say, the Blackhawks are when it comes to my Four Bs. Where I entered the most recent NHL Playoffs with enormous confidence and felt like a Stanley Cup was a very realistic goal, I remember full well that crazy shit happens in the baseball postseason. And while Atlanta has been playing out of their mind in so many respects, it just takes a couple guys going into a sudden slump to watch the whole dream vanish in a matter of three or four games.
Still, there is no denying that what the Braves have accomplished thus far this season has been remarkable. The East has not just been the complete disappointment of the Washington Nationals that many people expected to end up in the Fall Classic, but this Atlanta team has also been better than most anybody expected. If they can indeed maintain this level of play, then the team has as good an argument as anybody. While the use of the Tim Hudson season-ending injury in this third quarter graphic is very reminiscent of the Chipper Jones third quarter injury three years ago, the Braves have just continued to reach into the farm system and plug in another pitcher every time it seems that they have suffered a devastating loss. The depth club's depth has been nothing short of remarkable, and now with it seeming that a division title can be wrapped up much earlier in September than anybody could have possibly hoped for, there won't have to be any worry about overextending key players before the playoffs begin.
All things considered, everything looks quite golden for Atlanta ... for now.
When both Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters suffered season-ending injuries, I thought that meant for sure that Atlanta's bullpen would inevitably be struggling throughout the season to hold leads and allow Craig Kimbrel to even have a reason to enter ballgames. As it turns out, the Braves arrived at the halfway point of the season with the best relief ERA in the majors (2.70). But the even bigger surprise is that Fredi seems to have learned from what many believe was the error of his ways a few years back when he seemingly exhausted the arms in his bullpen, as the amount of Atlanta's relief innings after 81 games was the fifth-fewest in Major League Baseball.
So midway into this 2013 season, the pitching has in fact been remarkably strong. That, of course, was the story throughout the 1990s, which could just as easily make the average Braves fan confident as it could skeptical. Still, with the second-best overall ERA (trailing only the remarkable Pittsburgh Pirates—whom you might recall I picked to win that division this year) in baseball, I'd be nuts to complain.
In addition to the pitching, the other pleasant surprise at this point would be that Atlanta is no longer in the lead for that team batting strikeout record that I thought they would eclipse this season. The Astros overtook the Braves in that category, and ended up only four behind where the 2010 Diamondbacks that own that dubious record were after 81 games. Of course, Atlanta's batters are indeed still striking out a lot, but they've been scoring and winning too. All things considered, it's hard to have asked for more at this point.
This season could not have gotten off to much better of a start than the way it did for the Braves, winning 12 of their first 13 games. Of course, since then? Well, 11-17 isn't quite as much to boast about. While Atlanta clings to first place, a mere game ahead of the Nationals, the 23-18 mark represents the lowest winning percentage of any of the current six division leader. Yes, that's right: Even lower than the woeful American League Central.
I could go on to lament that the Braves could slide out of the playoff picture entirely if caught by the Nats, but let us be honest: We're only 41 games into a very, very long season. Hell, the team slid to third place last year at the halfway point and still made the playoffs as a wild card. So it would rather premature to draw sweeping conclusions at this early point in the year.
As is always the case at this point of the season, we are reminded that there is still a lot of baseball yet to be played. And there is, more specifically, a lot more baseball to be played at the Ted, as Atlanta has played the least number of home games of any team in the league at this point. Furthermore, the club is in first place despite not having had their entire lineup play together in a single game yet this year. So, there's been some good (the explosive hitting of Justin Upton, the comeback story of Evan Gattis), some bad (the struggles of B.J. Upton, Jason Heyward and Dan Uggla), but ultimately, there is—as always—still a long way to go.
You know, way back like 100 days ago when I made my original predictions for this NHL season, I said that this year's Stanley Cup winner would be the first team in five years to also win the Presidents' Cup for the most regular season points. Of course, I was talking about the St. Louis Blues, but I'm sure going to hope I was right about that other part now that the Hawks went and secured not only the best record in their division and in the conference, but the entire league as well. So, pressure's on.
This final graphic of the regular season contains the team picture from the 1990-91 season the Blackhawks last brought home a Presidents' Trophy. Lest you forget, the Chicago team that year was immediately shown the door by a Minnesota North Stars team that went on to lose that year's Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh. This year, the Blackhawks will open the playoffs with Minnesota's newest hockey incarnation, the Wild, and the Penguins are once again favorites in the East. Considering that three of the last four year's Presidents' Trophy winners have been first round exits, there's some mild concern coming from these bad memories.
That nonsense is just damn silly though. Count your fucking blessings, I say, that Chicago is meeting a Minnesota team that stumbled in to the postseason and just barely qualified ahead of a Columbus Blue Jackets team that is nothing like the wretched versions of years past. As it turns out, I think this year's Western Conference playoff picture shapes up very much in the Hawks' favor and there was very, very little during this 48-game season that would lead me to believe any other team in the league can win a seven-game series against them. I know the Hawks never played an Eastern Conference opponent this regular season, but that's not really all that concerning. Sorry.
At long last, the NBA regular season arrived at a somewhat merciful end. I will admit to watching some of the final night of action, games that had real seeding implications. For Bulls fans, we did not learn until the final night that Chicago gets to face a far more beatable Brooklyn team instead of a stronger Indiana squad in the first round of the playoffs. While the Nets certainly make for a more winnable series, what's really the reward? You get to be the next team to lose to the Heat? Yeah, maybe it won't be as embarrassing as getting pummeled in the Finals, but let's just say that I am not expecting to be asking to watch any Bulls games in June. Not even much of May. Certainly not without, well ... you know. That guy.
There's a part of me that still quietly clings to the "Wouldn't it be cool" scenario in which Rose returns for the first game of the playoffs, the same point in the last season that was his last game. Or maybe Game 3, the first game in Chicago. No announcement, he's just suddenly in the starting lineup.
Of course, the reality is that you'll be watching the same group you've been seeing all year, still banged up and still grinding it out. Hell, even with Rose, that likely just means the team loses to Miami in five or six instead of four. There's admirable aspects to this year's Bulls team, but there just isn't much point beyond hoping for one playoff series win this year.
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.
