Although first-quarter marks generally have a bearing on the grade that ultimately appears on a student’s transcript, they’re only an indicator. They don’t determine who passes and who fails.
It’s the same in the school of hard knocks known as the National Hockey League.
The Blackhawks’ record for the first 23 games of the 82-game season (7-12-2-2) indicates they are failing in their quest to make the playoffs. But there are four months in which to do remedial work.
The Hawks ended their disappointing first quarter last week with a three-game undefeated streak–a triumph in Calgary; a tie in Edmonton, in which they got an A for effort; and a victory in Phoenix in one of their best performances of the season.
But then they flunked their first two tests of the second quarter last week in San Jose and Minnesota before winning 6-5 in overtime Monday night in Detroit. “We’re coming to a key time now,” said the Hawks first-year coach Alpo Suhonen. “December is the key month if we want to make the playoffs.
“I would be happy if we had three, four, five more points. We gave away a point in Montreal and when San Jose played us in Chicago [losing both games in overtime]. In Edmonton, we played much better than they did but it was a tie.
“We want to be on the winning side in December. About 20 teams are six, seven, eight points apart. Some teams that have been winning will keep winning. Some that have been winning will fold.”
To make the playoffs for the first time in four years, the Hawks will have to do several things in the second, third and fourth quarters that they didn’t do in the first quarter.
– They’ll have to play much better in the United Center. Home ice historically has been the NHL equivalent of a take-home exam, but you’d never know it by looking at the Hawks’ 2-6-0-1 record.
– They’ll have to dramatically improve one of the league’s poorest power plays.
– They’ll have to start knocking off teams in the league’s high echelon with regularity. Going into the Detroit game, only two of their seven conquests had come against teams with records above .500.
– They’ll have to keep getting the kind of goaltending Jocelyn Thibault has been giving them in November.
– They’ll have to get more goals from their third and fourth lines and their defensemen.
“We thought we’d have two highly productive lines,” said General Manager Mike Smith. “It appears we now do.”
Center Alex Zhamnov and right wing Tony Amonte on the first line and center Michael Nylander and right wing Steve Sullivan on the second line had accounted for 34 of the Hawks’ goals and 78 of their assists before Monday’s game. Eric Daze, currently the left wing on the first line, had five goals and three assists, and second-line left wing Dean McAmmond had two goals and five assists.
The seven other forwards on the active list had a total of six goals and seven assists.
Two lines can carry the Hawks only so far, and the load gets very heavy when the hill is this steep. The Hawks entered Monday’s game 15th in the 16-team Western Conference, and only the top eight teams in each conference are promoted to the playoffs.
“I always look at the season in 10-game segments,” said Smith. “The first 10 we were five games under .500; the second 10 we were one over. Basically, that stretch from games seven through nine when we played (Western Conference divisional leaders) Dallas and St. Louis and Colorado (and lost all three games) is what put us under.
“The first 10 we played significantly below our capabilities. The second 10 we played around what our capabilities are. Eric Daze has played a lot better than in the first 10. Most played much closer to their capabilities.”
One Hawk who has fallen far short of the capabilities suggested by his paycheck is veteran defenseman Boris Mironov, the highest-paid player on the team at $3.2 million.
Mironov’s salary suggests an impact player in the tradition of such stellar Hawk defensemen of yesteryear as Chris Chelios in the 1990s, Doug Wilson in the ’80s, Bill White and Pat Stapleton in the ’70s and Pierre Pilote in the ’60s.
Instead, Mironov’s statistics suggest that never have the Hawks paid so much and gotten so little.
Mironov’s plus/minus rating of minus-9 was the worst on the team in the first 23 games, and he was guilty of 20 turnovers. Several times his puck-handling lapses and inability to get back on defense paved the way for goals against. He also spent more time in the penalty box than any other Hawk defenseman during the first quarter of the season.
Offensively, Mironov’s contributions have been meager–no goals and five assists. And, because he has been used regularly on the power play, his lack of output has been a factor in its glaring weakness.
Smith knows Mironov’s salary and statistics make him a poor commodity on the NHL trading block. He can only hope for improvement, unless another team suddenly gets desperate for a veteran defenseman and is willing to gamble.
“Boris is getting better,” said Smith between periods of Friday’s 2-0 loss in Minnesota. “I don’t think his play has hurt us in the last eight or 10 games.”
But Mironov was no help against Minnesota’s expansion babies. He was on the ice for the first goal when the teams were at even strength in the second period and when the Wild got its insurance goal on a third-period power play.
Mironov defended himself when asked about the even-strength goal: “The puck goes down low; I hit the puck; it deflects off my stick. Lucky goal.
“No excuses. Nothing. We have 23 guys; all the guys are working hard. We have to work double hard and concentrate. We have to put the puck on the net.”
