Hawks digest tough outcome
DETROIT - It was too soon after their crushing 2-1 overtime loss to the Red Wings that knocked them out of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday night for the Blackhawks to reflect on what a great season they had.
Their goal starting out was to make the playoffs, but a 104-point regular season was followed by wins over Calgary and Vancouver in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Hawks lost in five games to the Red Wings, but only Game 4 wasn't close.
"It's frustrating to take as a team, but you have to give them credit for being the better team," captain Jonathan Toews said. "This is a career experience, I guess, something we can use down the road. It's a long road to get back to this point and you never know how many opportunities you're going to get.
"There's always going to be that feeling of unfinished business in this dressing room. There are a lot of guys that want to get there and go all the way and get the job done. Maybe we can use this as motivation, that sinking feeling that stings quite a bit. I think we're going to remember that for a long time."
Duncan Keith thinks the journey is only going to help the team grow in the long run.
"It's tough to take right now," Keith said. "We went pretty far in the playoffs and got a taste of getting closer to the Finals. It's tough to look back right now, but we've got to take some time to relax now and look to improve upon this next year because next year is going to be even harder."
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville spoke of how proud he was of his players.
"I think we should all be proud of the year we had," Quenneville said. "It was a great group to work with. These kids have been great all year long. They matured. They developed.
"We got to find out what playoff hockey is all about. You know, the best measuring stick, we went up against the best team and the lesson you can learn is that you don't win the Cup and think you're the best team. You've got to go prove it."
There will be personnel changes this off-season; there always are, though maybe to a lesser extent with this team.
Martin Havlat, Nikolai Khabibulin, Sammy Pahlsson, Matt Walker and Aaron Johnson are unrestricted free agents.
The Hawks have five key restricted free agents to re-sign in Dave Bolland, Kris Versteeg, Cam Barker, Troy Brouwer and Ben Eager.
Perhaps the biggest need is for more size and toughness on defense, but that won't come through the draft. As a result of their long playoff run, the Hawks will pick 28th in the first around ahead of only Pittsburgh and Detroit.