Bowman's fingerprints on Hawks
"Young Chicago team has been the biggest surprise of the playoffs."
RED FISHER, The Montreal Gazette, May 13, 2009
Tell me, what has surprised you the most now that the NHL playoffs are a heartbeat away from the conference finals?
Was it the No. 8 Anaheim Ducks sending home the No. 1 overall San Jose Sharks in the first round?
The Washington Capitals losing three of their four
first-round games with the New York Rangers - and then winning the next three?
Or winning the first two at home against the Penguins in the second round, losing the next three, and then coming out of Pittsburgh with a 5-4 overtime victory to set up tonight's Game 7? (7 p.m., CBC, RDS).
The only certainty about playoff hockey is its uncertainty.
What else is there to be said about the young Chicago Blackhawks - my choice as the biggest surprise of the playoffs? They were winners over a very good Calgary Flames team in the first round, and now they're the first team to make it to the conference finals after their astonishing 7-5 victory over Vancouver on Monday.
The Blackhawks have astounded most among us, up to and including their finale with the Canucks. It started with them losing a 3-1 lead in the second period, falling behind 4-3 and then 5-4 with only 7:45 left in regulation, before putting it away with three goals in 3:13. Astonishing in every way for a team that failed to make the playoffs in nine of the preceding 10 seasons and hasn't made it to the conference finals since 1994-95, a year in which they lost in five games to Detroit - three in overtime.
Where does it begin with the Blackhawks, who have turned it around in one season? Was it when they replaced head coach Denis Savard with Joel Quenneville only four games into the season? The only thing wrong with that decision was that it should have been made during the offseason to avoid embarrassing Savard, one of Chicago's truly great stars as a player.
How much did the hiring of a chap named Scotty Bowman as a consultant help? My guess is his counsel contributed greatly.
Scotty always has been very good at avoiding the spotlight when he isn't the guy in charge, but he's a wise old bird who always has been free with his opinion on all matters, even when it isn't sought. The camera caught him often during the series with Vancouver sitting in a private box alongside Chicago GM Dale Tallon, and you can be sure the latter's ears were left ringing after every game.
A lot of teams, including the Canadiens, can learn from the Blackhawks' surprising surge to the conference final, starting with the fact there was no quit in them.
They came from behind in game after game. They didn't flinch if they trailed by one goal or three. Instead, they worked harder - as they did in Monday's shootout against a Vancouver team blessed with Roberto Luongo, arguably the NHL's best goaltender. A team is doing a lot of things right when it scores seven times against any goalie.
What the Canucks might have learned was that money doesn't buy everything.
Vancouver first-year GM Mike Gillis was the leader of a small pack of teams prepared to offer Mats Sundin an obscene amount of money to join the team.
Obviously, the hope was that the ex-Maple Leaf would help the team win the Stanley Cup or, at least, lead them to the final.
The Canadiens were among them, but Bob Gainey withdrew from the auction, and rightly so, when Sundin let it be known he would take his sweet time deciding
whether or not to play. Gillis was prepared to wait, and the result was that Sundin, who missed the first half of the season, never really brought the complete package to the ice - not during the last half of the regular season, when he scored only nine goals and 19 assists, and not during the playoffs.
What happens now is that somebody in Vancouver likely will lose his job, probably coach Alain Vigneault. That's too bad, because Vigneault had no say in the Sundin matter.
It's not as if the Canucks were faced with a unique situation. Anaheim learned it the hard way when Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne played in only 48 and 26 games, respectively, in 2007-08, the year after the Ducks won the Stanley Cup. Both future Hall of Famers struggled when they finally agreed to return, and neither was a factor in the playoffs. It was no great surprise when the Ducks fell out of the first round in six games.
Canada doesn't have a team in the conference finals, which is disappointing, but Chicago's youth will keep what remains of the road to the Cup something special.
No matter who you root for, if you're a fan you have to get that warm and fuzzy feeling watching a 20-year-old such as Patrick Kane score three goals in a playoff game. You have to feel good about seeing Jonathan Toews, at 21 Chicago's captain, scoring twice. You have to be full of admiration for a Chicago team coming from behind twice in the third period of an elimination game with four goals - including two by Kane and one by Toews.
The Blackhawks were a question mark at the start of the season. Now, there's no question they deserve to be in the final four.
rfisher@thegazette.canwest.com
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