Really can't see them trading Panerin,
Kane would be pissed , they're arguably the best duo in hockey, Kane has had carrier years since he's played with him. And you have to wonder if Panerin had come over a couple years earlier if Kane didn't have a couple heart trophies and scoring titles by now.
And if they don't go anywhere next year or he doesn't is invisible in the playoffs you trade him in his last year of the the contract.
- Blackhawks4life

Kane was on an Art Ross Trophy pace in 2015 before breaking his collarbone. 88, 2 , 19 + 81 are the only guys I'd think StanBo has on his "untouchable" list.

why does this matter? who cares? seriously. It is April 22nd and the Blackhawks have a long offseason (and regular season for that matter) to think about how to beat that style of play in the playoffs. In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see how the NHL TV ratings are with one of the best known teams out in the first round and the boring style of play advancing. There IS something to what Kane said, it has to do with the officiating in the playoffs compared to the regular season. The NHL is a business, if that style of play impacts their bottom line, they'll take notice of its most popular players' comments and perhaps make some changes in the future. Seems to me, Kane is playing the long game here. Good for him.
- matt_ahrens

No arguments from me about playoff officiating, way too much is let go that turns games into being more like a rugby scrum than the regular season. Only thing is all the other playoff series this year have been exciting as teams play through the borderline checking and loose officiating and its exciting to watch. Hawks on the other hand get beaten physically and frustrated and its painful to watch. Maybe we will see if the problem is the preds style of play or hawks inability to play through it in this next preds-blues series

I think this team needs a big, shake things up, hockey trade this offseason; at least two regulars going each way.
- matt_ahrens

Seabs, CC, Krug, Rosy, Oduya and Campbell bye bye! (one can hope)

and oh yeah throw in Bowman and Q.

Sounds harsh but something needs to be done.

Current culture no longer working.

Does anyone really see any major lineup changes to the Hawks for next season. I sure don't!
- walleyeb1

nope...all this angry talk about "change" and "unacceptable"...

fact 1: keith 6 years left 5.5 per at age 34 in July with NM
fact 2: hossa 4 years left 5.3 per age 40 in Jan with full NT and NM; actual salary 1 mil
fact 3: seab 7 yrs left 6.9 per just turned 32, no clauses
fact 4: craw 3 yrs left 6 mil 33 in dec, no clauses

and of course toews and kane contracts....

i don't know what options he has with these players and contracts..they all look untradeable to me in that I don't see much of a meaningful return...

he made a commitment to not have another 4 and out disaster like this one...thats a bold promise...

outside of a huge hockey trade involving kane or panerin or craw....

i don't see how things change

Really can't see them trading Panerin,
Kane would be pissed , their arguably the best duo in hockey, Kane has had carrier years since he's played with him. And you have to wonder if Panerin had come over a couple years earlier if Kane didn't have a couple heart trophies and scoring titles by now.
And if the don't go anywhere next year or is invisible in the playoffs you trade him in his last year of the the contract.
- Blackhawks4life

Two years out in the first round, the top of the house shouldn't care if Kane or anybody else gets pissed. They pay for winning, not passing pretty and losing. And more particularly when almost none of them even competed.

the fall of the kings...

2014: win 2nd cup in 3 years with 3 str WC final appearances
2015: DNQ
2016: R1 lost to sharks 4-1
2017: DNQ

coach and gm fired

the fall of the hawks??

2015: win 2nd cup in 3 years with 3 str WC final appearances
2016: down 3-1 in R1 to blues and lose in 7
2017: trapped and skinned by the preds in 4
2018: ????

coach and gm fired????

Rangers are the team I'm rooting for if Toronto loses. Frank the Goons on the Ducks, Frank Ovi, and Frank Cindy Crosbaby. Let's go Rags or Buds!!!

I'm not sure it matter so in 2 years. This Oilers team is so stacked at forward and is fast. What great signings in Maroon and Lucic. Forwards you need in the playoffs.

Rest of the Weat might chasing McDavid and Draitsal for the next decade.

Once again the expert was wrong! did not not hear much spin

the fall of the kings...

2014: win 2nd cup in 3 years with 3 str WC final appearances
2015: DNQ
2016: R1 lost to sharks 4-1
2017: DNQ

coach and gm fired

the fall of the hawks??

2015: win 2nd cup in 3 years with 3 str WC final appearances
2016: down 3-1 in R1 to blues and lose in 7
2017: trapped and skinned by the preds in 4
2018: ????

coach and gm fired????
- bogiedoc

save a year do it now

Blues Bruins final. Backes gets to see the blues finally win a cup.

Not realistic but it beats the pens winning again. Hope the ducks get trashed next series. The right ref at the right time lets someone use Perry as a punching bag/ or finally suspends him for his garbage.

You guys need to just stop with the nonsense of trading Hjalmarsson. He is not going anywhere!!!!! SMH!!!!!

Duncan Keith will be traded before Hjalmarsson is.
- dahawks8819

DK, cap recapture penalty??

IMO, he's got one more year to fix the mess the Hawks are currently in. Another short playoff run next season (anything less than Conference Finals) and he will be replaced. I am holding out hope he can make a really solid hockey trade like Panarin Forsking + Crawford for Ekblad + Trocheck or something. Status quo is NOT what the Hawks need
- EnzoD

Ekblad is going Nowhere plus hes 1 or 2 concussions from being done IMO

DK, cap recapture penalty??
- blackhawk24

A lot of people seem to forget about the recapture penalty.

canadian teams:

calgary = gone
montreal = gone
edm, toronto, ottawa = TBD

hmmm edm with another early 2 goal lead...get er done

You guys need to just stop with the nonsense of trading Hjalmarsson. He is not going anywhere!!!!! SMH!!!!!

Duncan Keith will be traded before Hjalmarsson is.
- dahawks8819

They probably won't move Keith because of the possible cap recapture penalties if he retires early (because of his Luongo-esque contract)

save a year do it now

- Hawkster

its quite clear stanbow and Q are staying...

i think the "big change" is firing the video coach or zamboni drivers...

nope...all this angry talk about "change" and "unacceptable"...

fact 1: keith 6 years left 5.5 per at age 34 in July with NM
fact 2: hossa 4 years left 5.3 per age 40 in Jan with full NT and NM; actual salary 1 mil
fact 3: seab 7 yrs left 6.9 per just turned 32, no clauses
fact 4: craw 3 yrs left 6 mil 33 in dec, no clauses

and of course toews and kane contracts....

i don't know what options he has with these players and contracts..they all look untradeable to me in that I don't see much of a meaningful return...

he made a commitment to not have another 4 and out disaster like this one...thats a bold promise...

outside of a huge hockey trade involving kane or panerin or craw....

i don't see how things change
- bogiedoc

Crawford has a modified NTC

So Kane is still pretty ass hurt over losing. He is saying that the Preds are not fun to watch, and they the preds should have played the way they did....

The Chicago Blackhawks' season is over, but Patrick Kane is still talking.

The star forward took a shot at the Nashville Predators' style of play at Chicago's postmortem session Saturday.

"A team like that, you kind of hope they don't win," Kane told reporters, according to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times. "I don't know if that's necessarily the best way to watch hockey games."

Kane said Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville was calling the Predators' trapping system "Red Rover."

Nashville shut out Chicago in both of the first two games in what was a four-game sweep by the Predators, limiting the Blackhawks to only three goals in the series.

Kane scored one of those, in Game 3, and chipped in with an assist in Game 4, but both he and Jonathan Toews were essentially held in check by goaltender Pekka Rinne and the Nashville defense.

The Predators weren't a particularly dominant defensive team in the regular season, ranking 15th with 2.68 goals allowed per game. The Blackhawks came into the playoffs on a four-game losing streak and thus finished on an eight-game skid, with their last win coming March 31.
- pred_26

Ok professor, thanks for the history lesson. In the next round the other team is actually going to hit back every game and not just once in the 4th game.

That said, coach had a game plan and the players executed. Have fun in the next round.

Kane was on an Art Ross Trophy pace in 2015 before breaking his collarbone.
- EnzoD

The problem with this is that what was an Art Ross Trophy pace in 2015 was not an Art Ross Trophy pace in 2016-17. What Kane got this season would have won the Art Ross in 2015.

Panarin makes Kane a better player. Full stop. However, I mean seriously if the right deal is there ... then consider it (for anyone).

I said it earlier in the season, this team needs to ditch its sacred cows and be open to re-defining them at some point as circumstances dictate.

Obviously, that time is now.

To me it isn't really all that relevant that they won 50 games this season, because there were times when they were stopped cold. Seriously if any fan anywhere in the world has access to game tape over the season (and with NHL.tv they do ...), it can't be all that terribly tough for a coaching staff to review those times and work out how it was done. I doubt that you bother tipping your hand in the regular season with this - but who knows. Anyways - seems like the combination was pretty straight-forward. Neutralize Kane, Anisimov, and Panarin... limit the opportunities of whatever group Toews is playing with ... get into Quennville's head, get him doing the blender thing -bonus points if you do it early in a game/series... even better if it happens at home ... and if you shut them out both games at home, frankly -you won the lottery in terms of getting in Quennville's head .... it becomes blender-city and everything gets second guessed.

Won't even touch on the D- as there is no way that all of those 6 should have played the entire series together without trying something different.

The Predators weren't a particularly dominant defensive team in the regular season, ranking 15th with 2.68 goals allowed per game. The Blackhawks came into the playoffs on a four-game losing streak and thus finished on an eight-game skid, with their last win coming March 31.
- pred_26

I've always thought it came down to Rinne's health. He has played hurt quite a lot during his career, am I right? Seems he is healthy right now, so you are going to get to see what happens when that's the case. The D corps has always been good there. Poile has admitted that he does a better job drafting blueliners than forwards.

It looks to me like Q is ready to promote TVR to 2nd pairing, based on his playing time and his o-zone starts, evening getting a noticeably longer leash skating deeper into the o-zone. Albeit completely fruitless...

My guess is he won't be exposed in the draft (or a deal will be made for LV not to take him...

I think a lot of the talk about removing Bowman and Q is a bit overblown right now. Yes, it wasn't a pretty end to this season, but both have a track record of successes. However, of the two, I would say Q has (and should) have more leash than Bowman. Lately some of Bowman's trades have been quite sour and his love for locking up core players for too much term and too high of cap hits with NMCs (how much influence did McDonaugh have here?) has put this team in a very difficult position. I think he's going to need to show some real progress and shrewd trades/signings that give the team some success the next few seasons or he'll be on the hot seat.

The problem with the people putting positive spin on this team like it's 2011 or 2012 is that it's 5-6 years later. The Toews/Keith/Seabrook/Hossa/Hammer's of those years aren't the same version as they currently are. And the hard pill to swallow is they certainly aren't going to improve or peak back at elite status if they've all truly lost a step. If they are now just very good players, rather than great players, this team has huge issues. In my mind, this team's championship window is officially closed and is now merely a perennial playoff team, not Cup Contender.

The Hawks probably can retool their defense well enough on the fly with improvement and maturation from Forsling and Kempny, but honestly its the forward crop that is a bigger problem. All the key 3rd/4th line players the Hawks had during the Cup years are long gone or aren't the same players anymore, and if your top 6 aren't scoring or being threats at an elite level, then you're in deep dog crap. Anisimov and Panarin just don't have the feel of playoff performers, and Kane can't do it alone. Toews clearly has lost a step, and I don't know if that will ever get better. He seems on his way to becoming the next Brent Sutter at this stage in his career; a nice 3rd line shutdown center, but not an offensive force.

The young players and depth up front is alarming. Hartman and maybe even Panik seem to have a future as important grinder/scorers, but Schmaltz needs to take it to another level next year and get stronger, get more aggressive, and drive to the net more. Anismov is looking like a huge mistake, while it's nice he's a big body and can chip in 15-20 goals, he's been injury prone his whole career, isn't overly physical, and his lack of defense/faceoffs doesn't really make him the ideal #2 center Bowman made him out to be. Kruger is now overpaid at his salary for a 4th line center and he just doesn't provide enough offense. The Hawks also got almost nothing out of Tootoo and Desjardins this year that were supposed to be 4th line veterans. Rasmussen probably will work out fine as a 4th line winger, and guys like Hayden, Motte, etc are all too unknown. This forward group is entirely too one dimensional and almost resembles nothing of what it was 2-3 years ago.

To top all of this all, the cap hell they are in isn't going to allow for easy fixes, and may not allow for any fixes at all unless Stan can somehow hit immediate home runs in the draft with impact players. However, even if that happens, we are still talking about 2-3 years before those players get to the NHL level, and by then it's too late. The Hawks aren't going to be able to "fix this" via free agency, and their one bargaining chip in Crawford that may net them something may only buy them 1 player when they need about 4-5 player upgrades. Personally, I as much as I really like Crawford I think Stan's only chess move here is to trade him and re-up Darling. He's in check right now, and if he's not careful, this team is going to be in checkmate.

I will say after 49 years of waiting, we all should still be thankful we saw 3 Cups in our lifetime and the joy it brought all of us to see such a quality team over the last 8-9 years. But we also need to face a harsh reality that this may be the swan song of this team and the championship parades are over. for the foreseeable future.

Kane was on an Art Ross Trophy pace in 2015 before breaking his collarbone. 88, 2 , 19 + 81 are the only guys I'd think StanBo has on his "untouchable" list.
- EnzoD

^^^^^THIS (bolded). Said after game 4 that if they were gonna go down like that (embarssing and having never really shown up) it could be a good thing - gives Stan cover - with fans and marketing - to make some big changes that are much needed and about a year overdue. Also timing is good for it - expansion draft means league wide maneuvering and room to trade. With the entry draft in Chicago that also means some drama for the home team at that draft could come as well. I don't think they will sit on their hands. I think that the message from Stan and Q tells you this year is different. Stan's remarks were prepared and approved before he got to that podium.

^^^^^THIS (bolded). Said after game 4 that if they were gonna go down like that (embarssing and having never really shown up) it could be a good thing - gives Stan cover - with fans and marketing - to make some big changes that are much needed and about a year overdue. Also timing is good for it - expansion draft means league wide maneuvering and room to trade. With the entry draft in Chicago that also means some drama for the home team at that draft could come as well. I don't think they will sit on their hands. I think that the message from Stan and Q tells you this year is different. Stan's remarks were prepared and approved before he got to that podium.
- Marlowe

I"ll assume Stanbo and Q didn't see any of the Montreal - NYR series until last night and when they did the first thing that should have occurred to them is how both teams competed like hell physically and at both ends of the ice. It was one hell of a series. Same thing in the Pitt - Columbus series and even the one between the Flames and Ducks.

There was no other first round playoff where a team absolutely declined to compete like their Blackhawks did. It was obvious to any hockey observer, even though nobody in the press will ever state the facts publicly. For that reason alone, Stanbo better act on what he sees as the roots of the problem.