After so many years of waiting, the people of Chicago were able to celebrate a Stanley Cup championship on June 9th. Two weeks later, the dismantling began as the possible dynasty became another victim of the economics of the modern game. (a.k.a. The Salary Cap)
It’s almost easier to tell you who’s still left on the team than to tell you who’s gone. Several players from the Stanley Cup team will now be playing for Chicago Blackhawks South, better known as the Atlanta Thrashers. The rest ended up finding places here and there and will attempt to live up to the expectations placed upon Stanley cup winners despite playing for new teams that aren’t nearly as strong.
The great news for Hawks fans is that the core of this young group is still intact with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook all around to defend possibly the hardest trophy to defend in all of sports. But they’ll have to rely on new faces and in a lot of cases, young faces to pick up the slack if they want to get back to where they were a year ago.
The forward ranks remain strong with the aforementioned superstars on the club, but the question remains: Can they be as good with several of their role players now moved on to different teams? Everyone who left just had a specific role on the club that made them so valuable. Can the news guys like Viktor Stalberg, Fernando Pisani and Jack Skille find a way to stand out to help the club in their own specific way?
Good news for the defence though as the Top 6 remains virtually untouched. The Top 4 is exactly the same as Keith will be paired with Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson will be with Brian Campbell. With so much change surrounding the team, these four guys will be counted on to bring much needed stability night after night as the team works through the growing pains of a new roster.
The move that will draw the most attention throughout the season will be the change between the pipes. The duo of Antti Niemi and Cristobal Huet are gone to fend for themselves in San Jose and Switzerland respectively. And the new duo of Marty Turco and Corey Crawford will take their place.
Turco represents one of two players to look out for in camp as he played in only 53 games last season for the Dallas Stars, picking up 22 wins with a 2.72 GAA and .913 save percentage. The Turco of 5 years ago would have been an upgrade, but the present-day Turco is a lateral move at best. We’ll find out if it’s worse than that. The other player to keep an eye on is Troy Brouwer as he emerged last year as a key member of the club by adding 22 goals and 40 points last season. More will be expected of him this season as he gets moved up the depth chart. Can he handle the pressure of being a Top 6 forward?