Everybody knew the Bolland trade was coming at some point or another. After an abysmal regular season followed by a meh postseason, it was only a matter of where, not if. Bolland was shipped off to Toronto to be their number two center because that certainly worked out so well playing between 2 elite forwards in Sharp and Kane, as opposed to whoever the hell he’ll get stuck playing with in Toronto. Anyway, the Hawks received the Leafs’ 2013 2nd and 4th round picks as well as their 2014 4th rounder; a pretty decent haul for selling low.

They also shipped off Michael Frolik to the Winnipeg Jets which eliminates any and all chances we’ll ever get to see another playoff penalty shot out of him. They received the Jets’ 3rd and 5th round picks for him. In their last draft day related move, they swapped a few picks with San Jose, sending the Frolik 5th rounder and the Bolland 4th rounder to move up a few spots in the 4th and land a 4th round pick in 2014.

The Blackhawks drafted what can essentially be labeled as Dave Bolland’s replacement with the 30th pick in the form of Ryan Hartman. Full round recap:

1. C Ryan Hartman
2. D Carl Dahlstrom
3. C John Hayden4. D Robin Norell, C Tyler Motte
5. C Luke Johnson (a Lincoln Stars alumnus!)
6. C/LW Anthony Louis
7. D Robin Press (Mr. Irrelevant)

If you look REALLY closely, you might be able to discern a pattern here. The Blackhawks philosophy this year was obviously to strengthen up their system up the middle (a big need for the NHL team) and on the back end. You can never have too much depth, especially on the blue line so this is a good thing. I’m not going to grade the draft because I couldn’t tell you enough about the prospects to make an educated statement on any of them. Besides, we’ll know how this draft really turned out for the Hawks in about 4 years.

The Blackhawks didn’t have many real pressing needs to be taken care of in regards to free agency. However, the needs they did have, they quickly addressed. Rozsival was brought back with a two year deal at around 2.2 million per, Handzus returned on a one year/$1 mildo deal, Leddy was reupped for 2 years at 2.7 per (RFA) and the Bulin Wall was brought back on a one year deal for whatever reason.

Viktor Stalberg signed as a UFA to play top 6 minutes on the Preds which is hilarious. Some thoughts on the Blackhawks FA season so far:

• I’m not overjoyed regarding the second year of the Rozsival contract, but it’s not a big deal, so to speak. He was a stud in the playoffs and it gives the young’uns in Rockford a bit of developmental leeway.
• Handzus on a one year paycut deal to play bottom 6 minutes (presumably) is a pretty decent deal, especially if he starts winning faceoffs again. His new biomechanical hand should help that. Center depth of any sort is good for this center-depraved team.
• Two years of Leddy with a $2.7 million cap hit is pretty damn good, if you ask me. My favorite part about the deal is that he’s still an RFA when his contract expires.
• Khabibulin. What. The. Fuck. It’s only a one year deal and the guy performs in contract years so there’s that, I guess. Also, he’s going to play like what, 20 games for the Hawks? He just doesn’t have to fuck too many of them up and he’ll have served his purpose.
• This isn’t Blackhawks related, but I’m so sorry, Leafs fans. So, so sorry.

The 2013 season is officially in the books and the Blackhawks are Stanley Cup champions yet again after what can only be described as an utterly amazing season. It’s hard to express just how fun this season was for the city of Chicago and its patrons. Mere words don’t seem to do it justice, but I’ll give it my best. From beating the Kings on their banner-raising day to the most memorable seventeen seconds since @trot71 lost his virginity, this season was remarkable.

Up until that fateful day back in January, when fucking Adrian Dater of all people broke the news of a CBA agreement, it didn’t feel like we’d see NHL hockey until the fall of 2013. Fortunately for everyone involved, the puck dropped in Los Angeles two tortuous weeks later. Preseason optimism ran high as it often does for every team, but many felt the Kings would again represent the Bestern Conference in the Final. No, what was to transpire surpassed even the most optimistic of homos homers.

Finally. After months of vitriol between the owners and the players that tested the patience of millions of hockey fans, game day had long-last arrived. The unnecessarily long Kings banner-raising ceremony seemed a fitting way to begin a season already so delayed from its previously scheduled start. Not too long into the game, Patrick Kane potted the first goal of the NHL’s and Chicago’s season. The Blackhawks controlled the rest of the game and beat the Kings in front of a sold-out house 5-2. A win to begin the season was nice, but expectations were still somewhat tempered. It was only one game, after all.

Just over a week later, and coming off a thrilling overtime win over Detroit, the Blackhawks found themselves unbeaten after six games. They showed a glimpse of how good they were, and how good could they could be. Starting a season by rattling off six wins wasn’t an easy thing to do, and the Blackhawks did it in thrilling fashion. But there was plenty of season to go and only the worst of teams don’t have stretches where they play well to some degree.

Coming off two consecutive shootout losses in the Twin Cities and in Vancouver, a bit of air in the Blackhawks bubble seemed to have been let out. They traveled to Cow Town where they found themselves trailing to and heavily out shot by the metaphorical dumpster fire known as the Calgary Flames.

It seemed that the Blackhawks were finally coming back down to Earth. Well, not exactly. At 59:58 into the game, Marian Hossa tied the game at two apiece. The Blackhawks would go on to pull a shootout win out of thin air and preserve their point streak. This team’s resilience became apparent to all who watched them. Preseason optimists seemed to be looking pretty smart, but again, the season was still young.

Fast forward to the Blackhawks’ third shutout in February; a 3-0 win in St. Louis. The Blackhawks didn’t have a shutout during the entire 2011-2012 season and they already had three a little less than halfway through their 2013 season. The point streak had reached 20 games and the record for longest point streak to begin a season had been broken a few games ago. Expectations had skyrocketed and the Blackhawks were the talk of the league. Questions such as “How much longer could they go?” “How does this streak feel?” “Does this streak even mean anything to the team?” made regular appearances in the post game interviews.

The players all thought it was a neat accomplishment, but they resoundingly agreed it didn’t mean anything without a Cup run. A couple of games later, #GorillaSalad scored a game-winning goal against the Colorado Avalanche with under a minute to go on the clock to preserve the 10-game winning streak and the point streak. The Blackhawks had gone 24 games – half of their season – without losing a game outside of the shootout. An unbelievable feat. Yet, the players echoed their sentiments from before; it didn’t mean anything without a Cup.

The regular season ended with the Blackhawks winning the President’s trophy and clinching home ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Expectations for this team had risen to “Stanley Cup or bust”. Anything less than Toews taking the Cup from Bettman’s grimy, fidgety little hands and hoisting it over his head would be considered a failure. The division and the President’s trophy didn’t mean anything without a Cup.

A 4-1 series win over Barry Melrose’s confident pick to win the Cup was nice, but the Blackhawks had played poorly compared to what they were capable of. The Detroit Red Wings wouldn’t roll over and die like the Wild did. They certainly did not.

After the 2010 Cup run, obnoxious Scum fans repeated “you didn’t have to go through us” almost as often as they do “how many cups do you have?” (s/t to @jrlind). Well the Blackhawks would get their shot to do the seemingly impossible; shut Detroit fans up. A dominating performance in game one preceded three straight losses and they found themselves one game away from elimination.

Toews had yet to score a goal, the power play was an abomination on skates, and people were already talking about Quenneville’s eminent demise as conductor of the Blackhawks’ express. A thrilling season and promising beginning to a possible Cup run felt like ages ago. It seemed poetic; the hated Red Wings looked like they would end their Bestern Conference tenure by destroying Blackhawks fans’ hopes and dreams one last time. But as long as the Hawks kept winning, they’d survive.

Game 5. Toews scored a power play goal and Andrew Shaw netted two of his own and the Hawks lived to fight another day; a 4-1 win. They had dragged themselves back into the series, but still had two more wins to go. It seemed an extremely tall task but one they’d have to complete in order to keep their Cup aspirations alive.

Game 6. Corey Crawford let up probably the softest goal of his entire career in the second period and all hope seemed lost. The doom and gloom ran rampant throughout the fan base and reached even the most optimistic of devotees.

It appeared the Blackhawks wonderful season had come crashing to an abrupt and devastatingly unexpected halt…until. Until trade deadline pickup Michael Handzus beat Jimmy Howard blocker-side just under a minute into the third. Not long after, Ronny Pickle put the Hawks ahead 3-2. Michael Frolik – AKA Taters or GROIN RIPPER – scored on a penalty shot and the Hawks forced a game seven back in Chicago; a 4-3 win.

Game 7. Of course it came down to a game seven, because the Detroit Red Wings aren’t dead things. A late Niklas Hjalmarsson goal that essentially would’ve sent the Blackhawks to round 3 was waived off because Stephon Walkom is a turd. United Center didn’t even realize the goal was waived off until about 2 minutes after Walkom made the call; they were too busy celebrating. The building and its patrons experienced the dizzying highs and crushing lows of sports fandom within minutes.

They couldn’t believe the goal was waived off. The Hawks somehow avoided a goal within the last minute and they headed to overtime. Only three minutes after the puck dropped in extra time, Brent Seabrook sent the Detroit Red Wings home and United Center up for grabs. The Blackhawks had finally “gone through Detroit”. It was a phenomenal comeback that will easily go down in Blackhawks history as a legendary series. But it wasn’t going to mean anything without a Cup.

The Los Angeles Kings were the defending Stanley Cup champions. They were to be the last obstacle before Chicago got the right to fight for the Cup. Going up 2-0 was as good of a start to the series as you could’ve asked for. But as soon as the Kings won a game in LA, the sky was falling and the Kings were leading the series 1-2 according to the local media and meatball fans. Patrick Kane drew a lot of ire in particular, with some people wondering if he #shouldof been traded to Buffalo after all.

Quenneville decided to move Kane onto the first line with Bickell and Toews, a combination that he used during the 2010 Cup run, and suddenly Kane scores and he’s the messiah. Kane follows up his game 4 performance by completing a hat-trick in double-overtime of game 5 to send the Blackhawks back to the final. He scored the first and last goal of the 2013 Kings season. But a series where the defending Cup champions never really felt legitimately threatening didn’t mean anything without a Cup.

A triple overtime victory after being down 2-0 and then 3-1 in game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins was about as exhilarating as it gets. A heart-breaking loss in overtime of game 2 followed by a 2-0 loss in game 3 put a lot of doubt into the hearts of Blackhawks fans everywhere. But the players didn’t doubt themselves. Not for one goddamn minute.

A ridiculous game 4 overtime win where 11 goals total were scored put the Blackhawks right back into the series. They bailed out Crawford on the only clunker performance he had all postseason and brought the series back to Chicago knotted at 2 apiece. Game 5 almost killed Patrice Bergeron and put the Blackhawks ahead 3-2 in the series. They were only one win away from recapturing the Cup, but they had to beat Boston at TD Garden in game 6 to do it.

The Bruins played well throughout most of game 6, including absolutely dominating the first 20 minutes of the game. The Hawks were lucky to only be down 1-0 at the end of the first. The Captain put the Hawks on the board as he burned Chara and shot the puck through Rask’s legs. Fast forward to a few minutes past the midway marker of the third period. Milan Lucic punishes the Blackhawks for some sloppy play in their own end and puts the Bruins up 2-1 with about 7 minutes to go. A game 7 seemed all but inevitable at this point. It looked like the slobbering NBC executives were going to get their wish.

But then Corey Crawford skated to the bench and the extra attacker came on. Toews worked until he gets the puck and passed it out to Bickell who slammed home the puck to tie the game with 1:16 left to go in the game. A mere 17 seconds later, Dave Bolland capitalized on a Rask rebound and the Blackhawks took a 3-2 lead in the game and eventually win the Stanley Cup.

All of those qualifiers about how nothing that happened throughout the season mattered unless they won the Cup were suddenly irrelevant. Toews took the Cup from Bettman’s sausagy hands and hoisted it above his head for all of 10 seconds before he handed it off to Handzus and subsequently Jamal Mayers.

A season filled with so many unforgettable moments and memories was capped off and validated by winning the Stanley Cup. Expectations became extraordinarily high as the season went on and the potential of this club became apparent. It’s fantastic to have those expectations and that potential realized.

The feeling is incomparable. In a town where playoff seasons are reminisced upon, it’s surreal to be able to speak about championships plural, let alone championships within a few years of each other. You can’t help but get the feeling that the Blackhawks are going to hoist a few more by the time all is said and done with this team. With their second championship in four years, they’ve officially entered the dynasty conversation as well as established a precedent that nothing short of a championship can and should be expected at the end of each year. That’s an unbelievable thing to even comprehend for this team just seven years ago.

It’s hard to believe that the season is already over as it seems like the Kings raised their banner only yesterday. But it is, and it ends with the Blackhawks being able to raise a banner of their own when October rolls around; a banner some thought wouldn’t be raised by any team just a few short months ago. Funny how things can change.

“The series is just getting started really,” said Patrick Sharp handsomely.

After a whirlwind weekend of back-to-back games at United Center thanks to what’s left of the Rolling Stones being in town, the Chicago Blackhawks somehow found themselves with a 2-0 series lead over the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference Finals. In a fitting tribute to the Stones, FORT KICKASS was rocking both nights as Chicago flat-out dominated in game one and overcame a strong LA effort in game two. The series now heads west to the left coast where the Hawks will look to unhinge the Kings at Staples Center where they’ve been nails. More specifically, LA has won their last 14 games at home, stretching back to the regular season. This series is far from over by any and all stretches of the imagination, but the two wins certainly helped. Let’s delve into what brought us to where we are now and share what we’ve learned.

SIZE DOESN’T MATTER: Well, it hasn’t so far, anyway.

Much ado was made about how big Los Angeles was up front and how their size would be too much for Chicago’s smaller defensemen to handle (#hockeyporn). That’s proven to be mostly untrue, up to this point. For the most part, the Hawks have done a good job of avoiding being swallowed alive when playing along the boards where LA’s size really becomes a factor. As soon as a Hawks defenseman receives a puck along the boards they’ve found a quick, short little outlet pass to either the other defenseman supporting the play or a forward. This has offset the Kings ability to work the men in red over along the half-boards and get the puck out in front of the net which is a bad thing. This was especially true in game one. They had a little bit more trouble the second go-round, especially behind the goal line (goal 2 for example), but still found ways to combat the Kings’ big boys.

THE KINGS CAN’T SCOAR: The Kings were directly responsible for 3 goals in 2 games, which ain’t gonna cut it. Especially when one of those goals went into your own net.

In game one, the Blackhawks just flat-out dominated the puck possession game while limiting the Kings to a measly 22 shots. The one goal they scored was all thanks to Dave Bolland, which was kinda neat because a lot of the time you forget he’s there nowadays. Kopitar / Brown / Richards / Carter were held to a combined 4 shots, which is not a good number if you weren’t aware. Hell, even their third second goal was a garbage time goal scored when the Hawks clearly didn’t give a shit. You’ve got to wonder if Kopitar and Brown are hurt. Kopitar is WAY too skilled a player to only have 7 points in 15 games and Brown is WAY too much of a douchenozzle to not be a factor in this series.

HAWKS ARE FAST: Ok, well, we already knew that.

But the speed of the Hawks forwards along with the newfound space compared to last round against Detroit and the improved breakouts have proved to be quite the challenge for some of the Kings defensemen. As previously mentioned, the Hawks have been using short little outlet passes to get the puck out to the forwards. Once they have the puck, they’ve taken advantage of this extra space and skated behind the slower stay-at-home defensemen on the Kings like Greene and Regehr and got the puck on goal (goal 1 on Saturday, goals 2/4 on Sunday).

QUICK IS NOT INVINCIBLE: The Kings goalie was essentially the only reason the Chicago never blew game one open. He faced 36 shots and stopped 34 of them. So, yeah, he was good. But Sunday proves he’s not an impenetrable steel wall. Can you expect him to let in 4 goals on 17 shots every night? Absolutely not. The guy has still played lights out this postseason and we can expect him to put on a show at home, but now we have tangible evidence he’s not impossible to beat.

COREY CRAWFORD IS UNSPECTACULARLY SPECTACULAR: I oversaw a conversation between three absolute must-follows in @jrlind, @andrewcieslak, and @jessespector on my twitter feed Sunday night that I couldn’t agree more with.

It centered on just how well Corey Crawford has played this postseason and how unimpressively he’s done it. He’s been nothing short of terrific throughout the regular season and the playoffs yet he doesn’t seem to get any recognition for it (other than this great piece by Spector). He leads all playoff goaltenders in GAA at 1.67 and has a .938 save percentage, second only to Quick by a .002 margin. His .975 save percentage while shorthanded leads all playoff goalies and it’s not even close.

Corey doesn’t have to make the unbelievably acrobatic saves every goalie wants to put on his personal highlight reel. He just goes about his business, which is stopping shots. I think his more mundane style of goaltending works against him in terms of gaining some recognition. But in the end, it’s keeping the puck out of the net that matters. And Corey has done just that.

Also, let’s take a second to talk about just how amazing it is that Crawford stuck up for Toews when noted turd Kyle Clifford was being himself. And then he wanted to fight Bernier which is even better. That makes it two times in the past two postseasons that Crawford almost fought the opposing goalie, the other being against [Oscar-nominee] Mike Smith.

So now you want to go into enemy territory and win a couple games, huh? Wouldn’t that be neat? Well it would be but it also won’t be easy, especially when the home team has outscored their opponents 18-8 and they haven’t lost there once yet. It’d be cool as heck if the Hawks could take two in LA but realistically, coming back home with one would be a coupe. In order to keep the Kings from tying this series up, the Hawks should do these things.

BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES: You just know that the Kings are going to come out guns-a-blazin’ in game 3.

Desperation will be the name of the game for the men in black and silver. They’ve already come back from a 2-0 series hole against the Blues once and they’re perfectly capable of doing it again. They know their season depends on winning game 3 and their play will reflect that. But the Blackhawks are not the Blues (which is awesome, IMO). If they can survive the initial 20 minute onslaught they’re sure to face, the Hawks may have a chance to suck the energy right out of the crowd and get back to their skill-oriented game that’s worked against the Kings so far.

STAY OUT OF THE BOX: Looking at you, Andrew Shaw.

This obviously goes for the whole team but this is extremely important for Shaw. The Kings have struggled on the power play, scoring about 5.4 goals/60 on the man-advantage, and the Blackhawks have excelled on the penalty kill, killing 45/47 throughout the playoffs. But why test the PK with needless penalties?

Shaw is a very poor man’s Dustin Brown; when he’s not being a dummy and a PITA, there is some legitimate hockey ability there. But again, he needs to avoid taxing the PK and giving the struggling Kings offense any glimmer of hope.

MOAR SCOAR: ….from Kane and Toews that is.

Kane has 10 points in 14 postseason games so it’s kind of hard to complain about a lack of production from him, but he’s only dented the net twice and Kane has deservedly greater expectations than other players. With that said, he’s been moving the puck well and using the space he’s been getting this series and looks to be primed for a patented Kaner “fuck you” mode game out in LaLaLand.

Toews has played somewhat better since his abysmal game 4 against Detroit. However, the captain still needs to improve his play on both ends of the ice, including elevating his point total of 7 points in 14 games. It won’t be an easy task because you can’t expect Quick to play like he did in game 2 on a regular basis. However, you do expect your star players to live up to their designation as stars.

WATCH OUT BELOW: The Kings excel at creating offensive opportunities below the goal line. We saw a bit of that in game 2, as previously mentioned. Expect to see a lot of more of that these next couple of games. The Hawks will need to avoid blindly throwing the puck around the boards and behind the goal because the Kings will probably beat them off the puck and throw it to the forward parked right in front of Crawford which is the opposite of good.

Let’s remember, kids. A 2-0 series lead is great but nobody wins a marathon by running 13.1 miles. These next few games are going to be quite the ride so strap-in and hold on tight because this series is just getting started. Go Hawks.