Despite goalies, Hawks could make long run in playoffs

So this is just about where the season began.

Notwithstanding the efforts of GM Stan Bowman the last few months to move the team's worst contracts, thus creating salary cap space for next season and improving their goaltending situation, the Blackhawks are essentially where they were when they went to camp in September.

And while disappointing, it's not a disaster.

The Hawks are still the best team in the Western Conference and they've proven all season that they can overcome bad goaltending by playing great team defense, blocking shots, and possessing the puck.

They'll simply have to do it for a long stretch of games during the playoffs, with no letdowns or lapses.

It can be done. It's not impossible.

Besides, the best of the West all have issues right now, and all the best goaltenders in the conference looked mediocre or worse at times during the Olympics, a stage as big as the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It's fair to wonder how that will affect some of those guys mentally the rest of the way.

San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov was a disaster for Russia against Canada, and lost right out of the box to New Jersey at home Tuesday night.

Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff handed Team USA the Finland game with comical gaffe after gaffe.

Team Canada won in spite of Roberto Luongo, the Vancouver netminder who treated the puck like a hand grenade every time it got near him, but if you're going to wear boxing gloves it's tough to hang onto the puck.

The Hawks have just as much reason to keep an eye on possible first-round opponents like Detroit, which may be getting healthy in time to throw a scare into someone, or Anaheim, which has the experience and the goaltending of Jonas Hiller, who starred in the Olympics for the Swiss.

Otherwise, the Hawks have no great reason to be afraid of anyone, certainly not a San Jose team that hasn't proven it can play when it matters most.

Maybe this will be the year the Sharks finally put it together, but even with the most complete team in the West the pressure on them will be enormous, while the young Hawks just go about their business and don't seem affected by nerves.

So the trade deadline comes and goes, and the Hawks' trade for Kim Johnsson a couple weeks ago was a solid deal that should help them.

Credit Bowman for improving the club while trying to move some bad contracts. No one thought that was possible in September or in February, and it turned out to be impossible in March.

In a perfect world you get those things done, but the Hawks' cap situation is far from perfect, and they didn't come close to anything big.

So here we are, all these months later with the same situation, an electric offense with a defense that has to play bigger than it is to win games in spite of its goaltending.

The Hawks have shown that their forwards can offer great help, and if their offensive defensemen are willing to pick their spots carefully, managing their inconsistency, this is not an impossible task.

They don't need Cristobal Huet or Antti Niemi to stand on their heads, they just need one of them to make a big save once in awhile and stop giving up the terrible goals.

Is that too much to ask?

You don't want to have to win games 6-5 in the postseason, but there are other teams around, like Washington, and maybe even some in the West, who will have to do the same.

And those teams all believe they can win the Stanley Cup.

This postseason is going to be as wide open as any in recent memory.

Any of six to eight teams believe they can win it. There is no overwhelming favorite. The roller coaster ride is only weeks away.

Fasten your seat belts.

brozner@dailyherald.com