The New Old Guys

Tommie Lee
Mar 7, 2015
3 min read

“Don’t expect the Blackhawks to make many moves before the trade deadline.”

A lot of people said that. In the pre-Kane injury world. But in the days before Monday’s deadline, it got real in a hurry for Chicago. Stan Bowman went all in and started making some changes to the lineup. The Blackhawks were underachieving, they knew it and we knew it. Now, there are some interesting pieces in play, and the rest of the season should be fun to watch, to say the least.

Step one was shoring up the creaking timbers of the blue line. We infuriated every Philly Flyers fan I know (heh) by snagging Kimmo Timonen. The Finn, who turns 40 in a couple of weeks, cost us a couple of draft picks. This is likely his victory lap, and he has made some noise about retiring after the season, Cup win or not, to pursue an interest in coaching. In the meantime, he can help coach up some of our guys. Especially fellow countryman Teuvo Teravainen, one can hope. Teuvo Time could learn a lot from a 4-time All-Star like Timo. His presence might also finally shut people up about shedding Nick Leddy. Caveat Emptor: He’d missed the season up to this point with blood clot issues. But now he’s healthy and ready to get out there and compete again. He looked good in his first outing with the team.

Right away we knew The Mad Frenchman, Antoine Vermette of the Insert Your City Here For A Nominal Fee! Coyotes was the best mercenary out there. He can play center really well. He can play forward really well. He can probably shoot accurately from the rafters. He’s devilishly handsome. He has a cool name. More importantly, he’s was the one name out there that looked like he had any hope of recouping some of the production loss attached to Patrick Kane’s appearance on the IR. Again, we gave up some picks, but we’ll get them back when we have to shed some salary later. Vermette’s also the first player in Blackhawks history to wear the number 80.

After these two moves, fans started to get a little more of their swagger back on social media. Some still complained, but some always will. Honestly, to grab two incredible talents without giving up a single roster player…that’s pretty damned impressive by any standard.

Not losing anyone meant there was still room for one more.

Monday afternoon comes. I’ve been talking about the trade deadline to my wife. She smiles and pretends she’s married to someone with more of a life.

“What do YOU want to see them do,” she asks?

“Here’s what I want to see,” I reply. “They need to get one more big name. They need somebody, either D-man or another pure forward, who comes from a team with no Stanley Cup wins. Someone who’s been around a while and is super-hungry to win one.”

Enter Andrew Desjardins, late of the San Jose Sharks, where the rafters are indeed bereft of Stanley Cup victory banners. He’s a big-league hitter, and will make the lines he skates on more physical and intimidating. His price, so late in the process, was a little steeper. A conditional 7th rounder in 2017 and forward Ben Smith. I’ll miss Smitty. I liked him a lot.

By the way…it’s pronounced day-ZHAHR-den, if you struggle with it. Most do. No shame in it. We all had to practice “Teravainen.”

Update on Johnny Oduya, by the way: He skated a bit this week, but is not expected to play this weekend.

It’s worth a mention by the way, that now that Ben Smith is gone, maybe the Blackhawks can finally think about retiring #28 in honor of Steve Larmer. The ’83 Calder Trophy Winner had 923 points in 891 games during what were some fairly lean years for the franchise. He was a Hawk when I first started watching the team, and went on to be a key factor in the early 90s Stanley Cup win by the New York Rangers, breaking the losing tradition there. He was an amazing two-way guy who helped turn Chicago hockey around when it needed it most. Let’s get his name and number up there in silk. Granted, there are some big names up there with some much bigger achievements, but screw it…I always liked Larmer. And I’m not alone.

We’re poised to make some noise. Let’s see if we can get the new old guys to gel and storm into springtime.

Go Hawks!