Reflections From The Wings Series

I wanted to write immediately following the loss to the Wings, but a combination of being busy and needing a lot of time to digest it all has put those plans on hold until now. But finally I'm inspired enough to lay out my main takeaways from the Detroit series:

Huet showed why he was given the big bucks and reminded us that for the better part of the season he played like a #1. Will he put up a nasty performance like he did in Game 5 every night? Probably not. But can you win consistently with Huet in the net? I'm leaning towards saying yes. Again, I think he's like Belfour - highly talented, a bit erratic, but on the right team he's fully capable of winning a Cup, and he'll always keep you competitive.

So I'm thinking Game 5 was the start of a new era. It's time to let Khabi go and hand the keys to Huet, while giving Crawford and Niemi a shot to prove themselves as the capable #2 who can take over for Huet in a few years (Huet will turn 34 in September). Sure, I'd love to keep Khabi, but two major roadblocks stand in the way, and there's no way around either.

Khabi, as brilliant as he was in the playoffs, couldn't stay healthy. He got hurt a few times last season and missed stretches again this year. It's easy to discount what Huet meant to this team, but given how often Khabi went down, Huet's steady and reliable presence was priceless. Khabi turned 36 in January, so you have to imagine these injuries will only become more frequent. Without another #1 on the roster, how can the Hawks win enough regular season games to get a good seed, while also keeping Khabi fresh for the playoffs?

Plus, as the Hawks learned this year - how can you build around a guy who could get hurt at the absolute worst time? Who knows how this series would turned out had Khabi been around for that disastrous Game 4? A win there and this is a totally different series. The fact is that you just can't have a #1 goaltender who can't be relied upon to start near 60 games and show up every single night in the playoffs. You cannot win with that set-up.

The second issue is that Khabi is just too pricey for the Hawks right now. Maybe things would be different had the Hawks not signed Huet, but that's the reality. And it's a reality I'm not gonna feel bad about - again, Huet was key in both getting us the wins we needed to have a strong regular season and in keeping Khabi fresh enough to thrive in the playoffs. With no Huet, the Hawks don't accomplish half of what they did this year, not by a long shot.

Moving forward the Hawks can't afford that much money tied up in their goaltending. The salary cap will actually go down next year (and possibly down again the season after) at a time the Hawks are going to have to pay many of their skaters significantly more money. Especially given the presence of two possible legit NHL goaltenders at Rockford, there's no reason for the Hawks to try to keep both Khabi and Huet in the fold.

Instead, one has to go. And when you consider Khabi's injury and endurance issues in combination with the fact that Huet is already locked up, it just makes sense to bring to a close the Khabibulin era in Chicago. I'll be sad to see his brilliant play go, but Khabi will make a great signing for a team with goaltending issues who wants a short-term fix that will give them a shot at post-season success. And the Hawks will be able to use that big chunk of money to keep as many of their great young skaters in the fold as possible.


The second major takeaway I got from the series was that the Wings are not more talented than the Hawks, but they are a far better team.

It's pretty simple really - if the Wings just had more talent, then the Hawks would have won that series. Because Detroit lost a boatload of talent as the series went on - Kopecky and Lilja never suited up, Datsuyak and Lidstrom - arguably their two best players - missed multiple games, Ericsson and Draper missed a contest.

So if it was just an issue of talent levels, the injuries would have tilted the talent equation in the Hawks' favor and they would have taken the series. Instead, the Wings outplayed the Hawks in every game, and no matter who was out on the ice, always looked like the far superior club. It's a testament to the level of innate talent and the grit of the Hawks that they hung so tightly with the Wings, because they just were in no way their equals.

There is just an inherent advantage to the system and the way the Wings players operate within it that gives them a distinct edge over the Hawks. For the Hawks to overcome this, it's not about adding more talent. It's about the Hawks and their coaches getting better as a team.

But I have faith that will happen. I'm a little leery of JQ, as the Wings have been eating his lunch for over a decade. Does he have the hockey mind to produce a system that can rival the Wings? And if so, does he also have the coaching talent and motivational skills to get the Hawks skaters to thrive within this system?

Because that's what it will take - the players need a good system and they need to execute at the highest level within it. But as I said - I have faith. Don't forget, this was only the second season that this core has been playing together, and really the first that it was all assembled in a way that made sense. 2007-08 was filled with injuries and featured a hodge podge of skaters mixed and matched under a different coach.

Now JQ has a core that won't change much, that has skated together for a great season and long playoff run, and has an entire off-season to work on his strategies and with the players to elevate their game to the next level. Plus, he's got the great Scotty Bowman - arguably the greatest hockey mind ever - to help him out.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to write a bit about the player moves I'd like to see the Hawks make this off-season, in terms of getting the exact right mix of personnel together for next year. However, as much as I love all the wheelings and dealings, the reality is that the only thing that will really take the Hawks to the next level in 2009-10 is an improved system and far better play within it.

It won't take a complete overhaul or dramatic leaps. But it will take significant coordinated effort and improvement from every aspect of the club. Better puck control, tighter defense, more intelligent play, improved spacing, and on and on. The system and the talent within it needs to all work together to bring the most out of every skater, and more importantly, the absolute most out of the team.

And if you're uncertain whether it can happen - look no further than the Penguins. They took a dramatic leap forward in 2007-08, making a long playoff and unexpected run. It ended when they were bested by a Wings team that wasn't more talented, but was far better at executing their game plan.

Sound familiar?

Hopefully, the Hawks can also mirror Pittsburgh's next step - overcoming Detroit's superiority not by upping their talent level, but instead by playing much better hockey, and earning Lord Stanley's Cup as a reward.