Like the National Hockey league itself, the Blackhawks are adrift in uncertain waters as the scheduled Saturday launching of the season draws near.
On the surface, the just-concluded exhibition season, with its lone victory over a major-league opponent, would suggest The Good Ship Blackhawk is in danger of capsizing.
But don’t send out the rescue boats yet. Darryl Sutter, the captain of the vessel and a voice of calm in this roiling sea, says everything is shipshape and the crew is ready for the journey.
Even he cannot be sure of the final destination yet, but he thinks he has a sturdier bunch of deck hands than those who manned the ship a year ago, when the Hawks limped home fifth in their division before going under in the first round of the playoffs.
He will point to the late-season trades that brought defenseman Gary Suter and forwards Paul Ysebaert and Tony Amonte aboard. He’ll mention the off-season signups of center Bernie Nicholls and wingers Bob Probert and Brent Grieve.
Sure, he’ll start the voyage without Probert, who still is waiting to go to a rehab clinic in California, where he will try one more time to get his life together. But it is a long crossing, after all, and Sutter is convinced one day he will pipe Probert aboard.
Sutter knows he already has a top-notch defense corps, one of the top five goaltenders in the league and a brilliant young center in Jeremy Roenick. So why should he worry?
Well, let us count the reasons.
– No. 1: There is no proven backup to Ed Belfour, and while it’s true that the workaholic goalie needs rest no more frequently than a barn owl, there is always the risk of an injury, either to Eddie the Eagle’s person or his personna as he plays his option year without a contract.
Even seemingly indestructible goalies can get hurt. In that event, the choices are Jeff Hackett, the veteran backup whose record over the last two seasons is 4-42-4, or Christian Soucy, who sounds like a character in a W.C. Fields movie and, although he has demonstrated some talent, has no resume.
The Hawks were going to expose Hackett in Wednesday’s waiver draft, but when Comissioner Gary Bettman called off the draft because of the labor impasse, it meant the Hawks had to keep him or eat his $450,000 salary.
– No. 2: While the offense on paper appears to be more potent than a year ago, on the ice it hasn’t so far proved to be. Only once in seven preseason games against NHL opponents did the Hawks score as many as four goals.
– No. 3: The Hawks are counting on Probert to be their enforcer, but there is no guarantee he ever will wear the Indian-head jersey or that he ever again will be the punishing performer who once collected more scalps than traffic tickets. Without Probert, they still lack muscle.
– No. 4: Sutter still is looking for consistency from his younger players, including Patrick Poulin, who, if only by default, seems likely to open the season skating on the No. 1 line with Roenick and Amonte. Sergei Krivokrasov, the No. 1 draft pick a couple of years ago, finally has given glimmers of the moves that first caught the Hawks’ attention. But he doesn’t shoot the puck enough to suit Sutter, who enters the season still uncertain about two of his three top lines.
All that said, there is reason to believe that, once underway, this season more closely will resemble a cruise to Bermuda than the eternal voyage of the Lost Dutchman.
The Hawks have added some punch, even if it’s not the kind Probert has been known to deliver. It was hard to detect much offensive improvement in the preseason, because the Hawks seldom had their lines playing the way they will once the season starts.
Roenick missed half the games while awaiting the birth of his first child. Grieve, who figures to start on the Brent Sutter-Dirk Graham line, likewise saw little action because of a groin pull. And Probert, who, if he gets in good enough shape, eventually may play traffic cop for Roenick’s line, obviously was out of the loop.
But Nicholls gives the Hawks a proven center who should help Joe Murphy and Ysebaert score 60 goals between them. He also can still score some himself. Even in a down year last season with the New Jersey Devils, his 19 goals would have been third best on the Hawks. Last year, there was no second-line center and, in fact, no second line. Roenick and Murphy, skating together, were the only two 20-plus goal-scorers on the team.
Although Sutter still is wrestling with his line combinations, Poulin appears to have settled in with Roenick and Amonte on the No. 1 line. Poulin led the team with his four preseason goals and, with Roenick as his anchor, hardly can help but notch 20 or more in the regular season. If he works as hard and as often as Sutter would like, he could score 30.
Even the checking line, with Grieve, Brent Sutter and Graham, looks ready to make some offensive contributions. Graham had three goals in the preseason, one of them from such an impossible angle that even his own teammates were slack-jawed. Brent Sutter added a goal and an assist.
Then there is the back line, where Chris Chelios and Suter may be the best combination in the league. Suter, who appeared tentative defensively and out of sync on offense when he joined the team last March, showed during the preseason he has regained all his skills.
He moves the puck as well as anyone and, although he’s not a cruncher, he knows how to ride his man off the puck. Chelios, of course, is simply one of the two or three best all-around defenders in the league, a two-time Norris Trophy winner.
Belfour looked spectacular in the final period of the final preseason game, indicating he once more will be the most valuable member of the team. The power play, with Suter and Nicholls added, should be improved, and if the Hawks can add the half-goal a game that Sutter is looking for, they should be in the thick of what figures to be a close and grinding division race.
Now, if only they get the signal to weigh anchor.
