Flames' pain is Hawks' gain as playoffs get going

Had the regular season lasted another week, it's possible the Calgary Flames might not have made the playoffs at all.

That's how bad they played the last couple of weeks, and it's a horrible way to enter the postseason.

In fact, to look around the Western Conference right now, if you could choose your opponent it would be the Flames, a club the Blackhawks swept this season.

And it's the Hawks' good fortune that they'll get Calgary in the first round of the playoffs that begin at the UC later this week.

From the bottom up, St. Louis, Anaheim and Columbus have all been solid of late.

From the top down, San Jose, Detroit and Vancouver are all worth avoiding until absolutely necessary, especially Vancouver, which has a goaltender in Roberto Luongo who might win a Stanley Cup on his own if he has to do so.

That leaves the Flames, who have been dreadful since getting socked by a combination of injuries and salary-cap issues.

For a team like the Hawks with so little playoff experience, facing the nerves that will accompany such a match, the last team they would have wanted to face in the first round was Vancouver.

The flip side is the biggest break of all, getting a banged-up Calgary team in the first round.

Calgary played several games near the end of the season without a full roster and suddenly looked like a team that didn't much care where it finished in the Western Conference standings.

That said, they have some players who can win playoff games by themselves, and they've done it too many times to treat them without respect.

Winger Jarome Iginla and goalie Miikka Kiprusoff still are capable of world-class performances and can carry a team and single-handedly win postseason games.

They've been to the Stanley Cup Finals, losing to Nikolai Khabibulin's Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 in seven games. Their last 3 defeats were by a single goal, as they blew a 3-2 series lead.

So they know how to win in the postseason and they know what it's like to lose, two things most Hawks players know nothing about, aside from a few veterans like Khabibulin, who has eaten Calgary alive his entire career.

The Flames' biggest problem right now is on defense, where they've lost several veterans in the last few weeks and their status is unclear as the postseason begins.

Needless to say, without Dion Phaneuf the Flames are no threat to beat anyone, and the all-star defenseman has been battling an injury.

The Hawks' biggest issue is inexperience, and regardless of how messed up the Flames are at the moment, the Hawks still will have to overcome nerves and excitement.

They also have seen over the past month what happens when they don't listen to coach Joel Quenneville.

When they get down early in a game and get away from what Quenneville wants them to do, which is protect the puck and protect their own end at all costs, they get into big trouble.

But they've also seen that when they do as he says, when they stay patient and stay with their game even when trailing, they are capable of shutting teams down and winning games 2-1.

With Calgary in so much trouble right now, the Hawks can win this series merely by doing what Quenneville asks them to do.

That said, they also could lose, even to a badly wounded team, if they forget what they've done that has made them successful.

On top of that, Calgary coach Mike Keenan will make sure his Flames play physical and he'll make targets of players such as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Martin Havlat, hoping to pound them early and see who disappears under the pressure and physical beating.

With the addition of big center Olli Jokinen, the Flames if healthy would make for a difficult first series for the Hawks. But under the circumstances, the Flames enter this series a complete disaster, and the Hawks have gained confidence and a belief in what Quenneville preaches.

All that said, and allowing for a young club's inexperience, I make it the Hawks in six.

Playoff hockey in Chicago.

Let the games begin.