The three words freshly painted on the Blackhawks’ dressing room wall serve as a constant reminder.
If the Hawks don’t hear “aggressive and relentless” every day in practice from coach Craig Hartsburg, they’ll see it. And if a player chooses to ignore it, he won’t be welcome around these parts.
After closing fast last season (16-9-5) and barely slipping into the playoffs, the Hawks are determined to start fresh–and fast–this season. They’re looking to a number of new faces to help make it happen.
Sure, the thirtysomething crowd of Chris Chelios, Brent Sutter, Eric Weinrich, Gary Suter and Bob Probert remains, along with rising stars Tony Amonte, Alex Zhamnov and Jeff Hackett. They provide a strong nucleus to build around. But it’s youngsters such as Ethan Moreau, Eric Daze, Sergei Krivokrasov and Jeff Shantz that the Hawks are banking on to bloom this season.
And Hartsburg and General Manager Bob Murray expect rookies Dan Cleary, Jean-Yves Leroux, Christian Laflamme and Craig Mills to bring life and enthusiasm to the dressing room and to the ice, which they have done during the exhibition season.
Said Chelios: “Hopefully these guys realize we’re counting on them big-time. They can’t sit there and watch and wait. They have to go after it.”
The whole team will begin getting after it Wednesday night in Phoenix. A Hawks team that had grown a tad passive in recent years expects to come out flying in Hartsburg’s third season as coach.
“Our rally cry is we have to be more aggressive–take it to the net and create things by being aggressive,” he said.
“We’re not going to back off at all. We’ve got to become a real ugly team to play against as far as the tempo and the work ethic and what’s coming at you.”
The Hawks were just plain ugly the first half of last season, especially in December and January, when they went 6-14-5. They were unfathomably ugly at home, finishing below .500 (16-21-4) for the first time since 1957-58. They lost 17 times by one goal, a league high, and scored two goals or fewer in 29 games.
Mixed in with all that ugliness was goalie Ed Belfour’s ugly conversation with then-backup Hackett and Belfour’s ugly contract situation, which never was resolved. When he was dealt to San Jose in late January, it seemed to signal a new life for the Hawks.
“I look at the last 30 games last year and we played pretty well,” Chelios said. “I don’t know if it deceives you, but we played really well as a team. I thought we had built up a lot of confidence going into the playoffs.”
Where Colorado made short work of them. But that was last season.
“I’m excited about this team,” Hartsburg said. “I know our young players came on at the end of last year. I know they’re going to be better this year. There are a lot of reasons to be excited and optimistic.”
Reason No. 1 is Chelios, who is the healthiest he has been in two years. Not only should his solid defense continue, but he should be able to contribute more on offense.
Reason No. 2 is Amonte, armed with a new five-year contract and primed for another 40-goal season.
Reason No. 3–and this could be reason No. 1–is Zhamnov, who is healthy and in the right frame of mind. He lived with the burden of being the player the Hawks got for Jeremy Roenick last season and he didn’t come close to fulfilling expectations, scoring just 20 goals and 62 points. After starting to come on late in the season, he sprained an ankle in the regular-season finale and missed the playoffs.
This season, Zhamnov’s sixth in the NHL, should be different.
“Maybe you play 10 years in the league and people still talk that he has a lot of skill but can’t prove it,” Zhamnov said. “I want to prove my skills. I want to be the best player on the ice.”
Reason No. 4 is better team speed–the best it has been since the Mike Keenan days in the early ’90s.
“When we’re forechecking like we are,” Hackett said, “we’re going to be hard to beat.”
Reason No. 5 is odds–what are the odds of so many players having down years again? Daze, coming off a 30-goal rookie season, never got on track until scoring nine times in the final month to finish with 22 goals. Suter, an offensive defenseman throughout his career, had just seven goals and 28 points. Probert never turned it on until the playoffs, and Moreau played through the pain of his right shoulder popping out the final two months.
The Hawks took the season series from Stanley Cup champion Detroit 3-1-2. And they were a combined 3-0-1 against the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers, the two Eastern Conference finalists.
Now if the power play can kick into gear and the youngsters come through . . .
Laflamme, 20, proved in four games last season that he could be a dependable defenseman, and he has continued to impress. Leroux, 21, may not score many goals, but he does exactly what Hartsburg wants–he runs into people. Cleary, the Hawks’ 18-year-old No. 1 draft pick, has excellent hockey instincts and needs to learn by playing. Mills, 21, also acquired in the Roenick trade, fought his way onto the team with his feistiness. And rookie center Todd White and defenseman Tuomas Gronman were still in camp Sunday.
“When you have kids ready to play, you have to get them in the lineup,” Murray said. “Kids bring enthusiasm. We need some enthusiasm in our lineup.
“I’m excited about our kids. I hope they don’t (tick) me off.”
Oh, they’ll make mistakes, “but it will be from trying too hard,” said Hackett, who along with Chris Terreri gives the Hawks a solid 1-2 punch in goal. “They’ll bring a lot more energy to the dressing room and hopefully to the ice.”
“This team can challenge on our side (Western Conference),” Hartsburg said. “Depending on how we start the season, I think we have a chance to challenge Detroit and Dallas and Colorado. Again, the key for us is getting off to a good start.
“The way we finished, they know they’re a better team than anyone gives them credit for.”
Beginning Wednesday, they get to prove it.
