I'm really worried about Blackhawk health, longevity, and the amount of hockey the Blackhawks have played. We obviously left an opportunity on the shelf last year, and our biggest current rival (chosen by greatness not proximity or history) the Kings, our only true contemporary equal unless Pitt or Boston can add another Cup and make a claim....the current NHL history is a story of Kings vs Blackhawks.
I'm mostly just concerned with how do we keep Toews, Crow, Bick, Kane, Hossa, Sharp, Saad, Smith, Kruger, Shaw, Carter healthy. If we have this core healthy come playoffs, everything else is meh. Form...stats....appearances. With this core healthy we can't help but compete, they have proven championship heart and a will to stay alive against the corner, so....I'll feel we can win any game we are in with this group. Whether Versteeg or Tuevo can assert themselves into that group remains to be seen. Thats Crow and 10 players who are completely solidified into the top 12. The merry-go round of enforcers, scrappers, and skill trying to hold down the rest is entertaining...as well as watching the defense shape up in terms of depth and future form, however, the Blackhawks must have one of the simpler situations in the league. Everything looks like dominoes for the most part.....the front office is ridiculously prepared.
Most intriguing prospects......the top two scoring AHL defensive players are in Rockford. Johns is in Rockford? Tuevo is in Rockford? Pokka is in Rockford? I'm wondering how good Pokka is because it has the Finnish connection for Tuevo with it. Did we lose Leddy to make Tuevo happy at night? Is that worth it? Or can this guy justify being the default centerpiece of that trade without picks for a top 4 defender and powerplay defender. And our fastest defender in my opinion who bails out the aging speed of Keith(who makes up for speed with last second stick slaps that should be samurai legend) but sometimes it was Leddy bailing him out. Where can we find defensive speed?
I also want to watch Seabrooke for signs of being tentative after last years playoffs. Hopefully he's ok mentally, what happened against the Blues was just awkward timing and circumstance but had to take a mental toll on approach and split second decision making.
I mean...our hole at 2C was so huge last year that the fact we fixed that I just think its going to simplify things until injury to the extent that we will start out hot and dominant. Tuevo will put on a show in rockford for a few months, and while that is salary dependent, I really think its more of a plan to protect a 175 lb kid from a full NHL season while letting him season in AHL with a little more space....let him build his legend a bit while earning his way up and the respect of his teammates by doing the process right. I'm happy with Tuevo in Rockford for at least 3 months. He can be our valentine, or Christmas present....lets be patient and maybe if its even just a spark come Spring or summer. Patience.....its coming. It would be nice if the situation resolves itself somehow and a spot opens for Tuevo at the right time. Obviously, I'm obsessed with monitoring how it works out.
Now...the last thing we are watching is can Crawford improve at all? Can he keep going upward? I love his fast break reactions, his ability to come up in big games, and how he gets hot....but he needs to limit rebounds more, and on picking up vision of the puck in traffic.
