Impressive streak ends for Chicago Blackhawks
Nine straight playoff appearances. Five conference finals. Three Stanley Cups.
That's a pretty impressive stretch for the Chicago Blackhawks since Joel Quenneville was named coach five games into the 2008-09 campaign. And while we've known for a while that the 2017-18 Hawks were out of the playoff picture, it became official with Tuesday's 5-1 loss to Colorado that the postseason streak would not extend to 10 years.
"Obviously one of those runs you want to keep going," said Patrick Kane, one of the few Hawks who met expectations this season. "We had a disappointing second half of the season, to say the least."
Said defenseman Connor Murphy: "It (stinks), and it's kind of embarrassing. It's hard. You play to make the playoffs. Not making it is definitely a failure."
Taking in the bigger view, though, how many Hawks fans in 2006 or 2007 would have believed a nine-year playoff run was coming? Yet happen it did, thanks to deep, talented rosters and smart, effective coaching.
• The streak began in 2008-09 when a squad that included Kane, Martin Havlat, Jonathan Toews, Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp, Dave Bolland, Andrew Ladd, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell and Nikolai Khabibulin finished with a 46-24-12 record. The Hawks eliminated Calgary and Vancouver before falling to Detroit in the conference finals.
• The Hawks added Marian Hossa, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Antti Niemi the next season and claimed the franchise's first Cup in 49 years when Kane's shot found its mark in overtime of Game 6 at Philly.
From there, the salary cap wreaked havoc on the roster, but general manager Stan Bowman always added to the core, and Quenneville had players such as Brandon Saad, Bryan Bickell, Andrew Shaw, Marcus Kruger, Antonine Vermette, Brad Richards, Teuvo Teravainen, Nick Leddy and Johnny Oduya at his disposal.
The Hawks were deep. They were talented. And they always believed any deficit - whether in a game or a series - could be overcome.
"We've had some terrific players and some really good teams and some real good depth," Quenneville said Tuesday after seeing this year's team fall to 30-35-9. "Always had good starts to the season. We had a lot of options as a staff to work with.
"It was a great environment game in, game out. The building was rocking. We were good at home. We were successful on the road. Real consistent.
"This has been the one year where we're a lot more unpredictable in our game."
For sure.
The smart, disciplined play. The tape-to-tape passes. The electrifying finishes. The annoying, in-your-face defense. The stellar goaltending … it's all disappeared.
Why? For many reasons.
• Duncan Keith is no longer the 25-year-old puck-moving magician he was when the postseason streak began. He has 1 goal on 172 shots and has had perhaps his worst season defensively.
• Brent Seabrook was 23 in 2009, playing in a league that looks nothing like it does today.
• Despite solid play of late, Jonathan Toews wasn't the difference-maker he needed to be in the first 50-55 games.
• Brandon Saad, such a huge part of that Cup run in 2015, has scored just 10 goals in the last 68 games.
• The Hawks are using four inexperienced blue-liners, and a fifth in Murphy, who has never been in the playoffs.
• And when goalie Corey Crawford went down, that was basically it.
"If anything it's kind of humbled a lot of us in here, and it could be a good thing," Kane said. "Come back with a little bit more of an edge next season."
Hawks fans certainly hope so because the last thing they want is a repeat of 1997-2008 when their team missed the playoffs nine out of 10 times. The expectation is the Hawks can be like Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Winnipeg and Colorado - all squads that missed the 2017 postseason - and get themselves back in the hunt in 2018-19.
"There's a great example - the team we played today - of how far out you can be and how quickly you can recapture that winning attitude and get right back in the race," Quenneville said of Colorado, which won 22 times last season. "The playoff picture is probably completely different than a lot of people anticipated. That's how close teams are when they begin a year.
"Then things can go right from goaltending to special teams to top players. There's a number of ways where you can make a difference."
Scouting report
Blackhawks vs. Vancouver Canucks at United Center, 7:30 p.m. Thursday
TV: NBCSCH
Radio: 720-AM
The skinny: The Canucks have scored just 7 goals during their seven-game losing streak. They were shut out three straight times and went almost 223 minutes without scoring. … Brock Boeser leads all NHL rookies with 29 goals, but he is out for the season with a lower-back fracture. Daniel Sedin (21) is Vancouver's only other 20-goal scorer, but he hasn't scored in eight games. … Vancouver ranks 27th in goals per game (2.6) and 28th in goals allowed (3.2). … The Canucks will miss the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons. … The Blackhawks have scored the first goal in 27 of the last 36 contests yet are just 12-12-3 in those games. … Vancouver beat the Hawks in the teams' other two meetings this season.
Next: New York Islanders at Barclays Center, 6 p.m. Saturday
- John Dietz