Rozner: Chicago Blackhawks have much soul searching ahead

Since the advent of the salary cap in 2005, no team has come close to the Chicago Blackhawks in terms of success.

Their three Stanley Cups in six seasons is now the standard for modern dynasties, and it seems unlikely that any franchise will find a way to manage the cap with so many stars in their prime and accomplish in the future what the Hawks have in this decade.

Whether the Hawks can rebound from consecutive first-round exits remains to be seen, and it will be at least 52 weeks before anyone knows the answer.

The Penguins and Sidney Crosby found their way back to the winner's circle in 2016, eight years after the first one, and they did it with less talent, arguably, than the Hawks had this season.

But Jonathan Toews will be 29 next April and with already 10 years in the NHL, the Hawks' captain offered a somewhat subtle, yet ominous, tone when the players cleaned out their lockers over the weekend.

"There are some things I want to work on as far as skill and speed, trying to find my game to make sure I'm making the best of these years right now when it matters the most," Toews said. "That's the focus I'll have, regardless of linemates. It has to start with me and I'll continue to focus on that."

The best of these years, when it matters most.

Yikes.

Toews is a smart guy. He's feeling his hockey age after a decade in the league, not to mention two in-season Olympics, a preseason World Cup, two postseason World Championships, two World Juniors, an under-17 - good for 37 games and scores of thousands of travel miles - and 128 NHL playoff games.

That's two extra seasons of hockey.

He seems to know that the best of his hockey years should be right now if he can stay healthy, but the Hawks have missed on two great opportunities to win it all again after another shockingly slow start to a postseason series.

"It's not necessarily reinventing the wheel but understanding what went wrong, our preparation and why we weren't clicking and hitting our stride at the right time of year," Toews said. "You saw a (Nashville) team doing exactly that.

"But it wasn't for lack of trying or lack of effort."

That's a bit of a surprise coming from Toews when GM Stan Bowman, head coach Joel Quenneville and several players made it clear that the Hawks' compete level wasn't nearly good enough.

Though Patrick Kane agreed with Toews, several players did not.

Asked why their intensity level was poor, Duncan Keith said, "Well, it's a collective thing.

"I know it wasn't there. You either have it or you don't. Just as a team when you look at Nashville … they're playing great hockey and they're competing. I think that's the biggest difference, the way they competed.

"You can go over all the (strategy) you want, but if the compete level isn't there to win the puck battles or battle to get the puck out or whatever, nothing's really going to work no matter what kind of plan we're going to have.

"For me, that's the biggest thing."

Brent Seabrook was in lockstep with Keith.

"The intensity wasn't there right from the get-go, and we've got to straighten that out. I think it's on us," Seabrook said. "It starts with myself. I wasn't good. I've got to be better and try to push my teammates to be better.

"You've got to give a lot of credit to Nashville. They played a heck of a series. They didn't allow us to do anything out there, and we didn't raise our game to try and beat them at their game."

Only 23 seconds into the third period of Game 4, Keith buried Viktor Arvidsson with a clean hit just inside the blue line, and the Hawks played a desperate third period.

Just makes you wonder where that was up until that moment.

And it's not just about hits, obviously. The Hawks are a small and skilled team. They're never going to win a physical battle, but there's no reason you can't finish a check without running out of position.

They didn't do that in this series, passing up numerous opportunities to let the Preds know there was another team on the ice.

"It's not just the fact that we lost the series. It's how we lost it," Seabrook said. "I think that's the toughest thing to take out of this playoff experience.

"I think we didn't have any pushback. We didn't play our game. We didn't do anything we wanted to do. You give Nashville credit, but we didn't show them anything about how the Blackhawks can play."

The Hawks admitted that they weren't sharp heading in and that they may have underestimated their opponent.

Most of them also recognize that their effort wasn't playoff-worthy.

Without it, you're guaranteed to go home early.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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