Mission 16W and the Mullet

Tommie Lee
Apr 14, 2015
4 min read

Our sometimes painful slog through the NHL regular season (hereafter known as “The Formality”) is over. Now, the season that really matters is upon us: The Stanley Cup Playoffs. The march to the Final.

Mission 16W.

As the race to grow the perfect playoff beard begins, so do our dreams of letting them get nice and long. It’s an interesting bunch, this set of 16 teams who emerged from The Formality. Lately, if there are two Canadian teams it’s a good year for them. Three is a great year. This year there are FIVE, with the surprisingly good Jets joining the Canucks and Flames in the West (yes, the Jets and Flames…wow…). In the East, Montreal and Ottawa face off in the first round.

So…here are the matchups for the first round, which begins Wednesday.

WEST: St. Louis and Minnesota. Nashville and Chicago. Anaheim and Winnipeg. Vancouver and Calgary.

EAST: Montreal and Ottawa. Tampa Bay and Detroit. New York Rangers (your President’s Trophy Winners) and Pittsburgh. Washington and New York Islanders.

Notably absent: Boston, who had an epic end-of-season collapse. And last year’s defending champion LA Kings. And aren’t we all just a little sad about that…

First one to 16 wins gets the greatest trophy in sports.

Most of the online predictions have the Blues or Ducks winning the West, and the Rangers or Lightning emerging from the East. That’s not including ESPN…who as we all know, are only vaguely aware that The Hockey is still a thing.

Now…onto the other business. Patrick Kane‘s recovery from his injury has been so solid that there is a report Monday from Comcast SportsNet saying he might be back for this week’s series with the Predators. This is barring any medical setbacks, and he would be listed as “probable” if it came to pass, according to the report.

That’s pretty far ahead of the original schedule, so I’m taking it with a grain of salt. We’re talking about Nashville. They’d be only too happy to knock him back down for the Cup run. As would anyone. And if we outlast Nashville (which most fans expect we will, they’ve struggled far worse than the Hawks lately)…we almost certainly face the dreaded St. Louis Blues in Round 2. They would love to feast on a Patrick Kane who came back too quickly.

Do we need him to come back fast? Opinions vary. But we went 12-8-1 without him. That’s good but not great. We need a healthy #88 on the ice. If Nashville turns out to be a basket of Music City Kitties…I’d rather see Mister Showtime saved until later, personally. He makes everyone around him better, but you can’t rush an injury like his in a sport where injuries are a big deal.

I think what we need more than Kane in the first round is for Antoine Vermette to step it up. He was starting to show some nice signs of life at the end of The Formality. Now’s the time to show the fans what management saw in him at the trade deadline, especially with the injury to Brad Richards. Also, the Defense needs to get sorted out, and fast. We cannot survive in these shark-infested (yet devoid of San Jose) Western Playoff waters with a D as flimsy as we’ve seen in recent weeks. Kimmo Timonen has to pull more weight. And for crying out loud…quit putting Roszival and Rundblad out there together in a bizarre contest to see who can suck more. IT’S A TIE! THEY BOTH WIN!

Still, it’s hard to look at this Preds team and not compare them in every way to the Blues team we knocked out of the first round last year. They stumbled into the playoffs like a drunken uncle. They lost with alarming regularity at the end of the regular season (hardly a Formality for them), squandering scoring opportunities and allowing the other team to score almost at will. And, like those Blues, the Preds started their horrific losing streak while in first place in the Central sliding to #2 like a chart-topping single that suddenly finds itself up against Beyonce.

If the team holds Kane in reserve, there’s no guarantee we see him in the second round. St. Louis managed to open that series with two wins last year. Nashville could do the same, and could pull off a Murder Near Music Row with their talent if they get ahead of Chicago. They have (arguably) more talent than the Blues did last year. Ott and his ilk are stronger and smarter this year in St. Louis. Nashville has more raw speed and young talent now than the Blues had then, and they strike me as more dangerous. Even when the Blackhawks fell behind by two games last year I felt convinced that we would figure St. Louis out in the end. And we destroyed them in those next four games.

Finally, congrats to Corey Crawford, who shares the William M. Jennings Trophy with Carey Price of the Habs as Best Goalie of The Formality.

And if you’re STILL one of those “Crawford sucks!” people after the year he’s had…then I’m afraid we can’t be friends anymore.

Grow your beards, people! The Second Season is here, and we’re headed to the Grand Old Opry Rink…

Go Hawks!