You may have seen the commercial: a group of guys sitting around, having a few beers, and one of them says, ”It doesn`t get any better than this.”
Well, it doesn`t get any worse than this for the Black Hawks, a group of guys who sat around too much this season. They were swept out of the first round of the playoffs for the second year in a row Sunday night at the Stadium.
The smallest crowd of the season, 14,370, came out to see if the Hawks would prolong the inevitable. They didn`t. Detroit again took a 2-0 lead and held on for a 3-1 victory to win the series four games to none.
The end was too much to bear for defenseman Bob Murray, who had just completed his 12th year as a Hawk. All members of the two teams traditionally shake hands at the conclusion of a playoff series, but Murray headed directly for the locker room after the final horn sounded.
The loss was the Hawks` ninth straight in the playoffs. They dropped the last two games in their best-of-seven series to Edmonton two years ago, and they were beaten three straight last year by Toronto.
The chants of ”Goodbye Pulford,” directed at Hawk coach and general manager Bob Pulford, could be heard before the third period was half over.
Pulford didn`t talk to the media after the game. He sent co-coach Roger Neilson to meet the press outside of the locker room.
”I`m co-coach. Some nights I come out,” said Neilson. When asked if he`s like to be THE coach, he replied, ”Yeah, I would like to become a head coach again.”
After finishing the regular season eight games below .500 and losing four straight to Detroit, the Hawks should be due for some changes–on and off the ice.
”There`s got to be changes after last year with Toronto and this year with Detroit,” Al Secord said after the final defeat. ”But that`s up to the people upstairs.”
Getting swept out of the playoffs like a pile of dirt is particularly painful to never-say-die team captain Darryl Sutter. He may retire to become an assistant coach next season, and he doesn`t expect to see all of the same faces next season.
”There has to be changes,” Sutter said. ”In two years, we`ve played seven playoff games, and we haven`t won one.”
A major reason for the Hawks` playoff failure this season was the power play. They were 0-for-17 with manpower advantages in the four games against Detroit, including an 0-for-7 performance Sunday night.
But that shouldn`t come as a big surprise. The Hawks` power play finished last in the league during the regular season.
”The biggest mystery is the power play,” Neilson said. ”It was second in the league last year. It bailed us out a lot. It was basically the same personnel this year.”
The Hawks never had a lead in the series. The best they did was manage a tie Saturday night before losing 4-3 in overtime.
Ed Olczyk, who scored the tying goal Saturday, had a disappointing season. The Chicagoan isn`t sure where he`ll be playing next season.
”I`m worried about staying here,” he said. ”I don`t want anybody here to go. We`ve gone
Going from being a division champion one year to a 29-37-14 regular-season record the next year is the epitome of thick and thin.
”We got off to a bad start,” Olczyk said of this season. ”We were up and down all the time. I don`t know what the answers are.”
Detroit certainly solved the Hawks.
”They have a great attitude,” Secord said of the Wings. ”They deserve to win.”
After getting outshot 68-35 in the two games in Detroit, the Hawks outshot the Wings in both games at the Stadium. They had a 47-33 advantage Sunday, 18-8 in the third period. But they managed to crack Wings` goalie Greg Stefan only once.
”We worked as hard as we could tonight,” Neilson said. ”It just wasn`t in the stars.”
Detroit had a 1-0 lead after the first period and a 3-1 edge going into the third period. Wayne Presley, the Hawks` second-leading goal scorer this season behind Denis Savard, cut Detroit`s lead to 2-1 midway through the second period.
Savard recorded only one point in the four games–a goal Saturday that trimmed the Wings` lead to 3-1 in the second period.
”It`s going to be a long summer,” Neilson said.
