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Chicago Blackhawks fans must be wondering: What's the biggest offseason change coming for a team that underachieved in the 2011-12 campaign?

Surprisingly, the answer may not come in the form of roster changes. There'll be some new players, of course, but in order for a blockbuster trade to happen the Hawks would most likely have to move from their core group, something general manager Stan Bowman said he's not fixated on doing.

There will be some free-agent signings, as there always are, but with Patrick Sharp's new contract kicking in and all the other core players signed to big deals there isn't a lot of money to go around. The Hawks can make one decent splash -- if they choose to -- but that's about it. Everything else is filling in some blanks at the bottom end of the roster both on offense and defense. At least that's what it looks like here in late May. If, say, Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter wants to come to Chicago at a decent rate then things might change, but all in all, the Hawks have their core group and a few ancillary younger players to maneuver with as they head into 2012-13.

So what will be the biggest change?

Joel Quenneville.

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CHICAGO -- There will be more hockey this season for several Chicago Blackhawks, though it won’t be in North America. Getting knocked out in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is allowing some of them to play in the World Championships being held in Finland and Sweden next month.

Patrick Sharp and Duncan Keith will play for Team Canada while Viktor Stalberg will suit up for Sweden.
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane declined invitations from their respective countries.

“I think there is that element of uncertainty,” Toews said about a late season concussion. “The smart play is to rest and make sure everything is clear and it’s behind me. Obviously, I’d like to go and represent Canada every chance I get but right now it’s not the smartest thing to do.”

Kane sighted fitness and health as well. Kane had wrist surgery late in the offseason last summer limiting his ability to get in the best condition for the regular season.

“I think I’m just going to take the summer to rest and get excited about next season,” Kane said. “I’m healthy right now, I don’t want to risk that. I saw the difference it could make…I don’t think I was fully prepared for the season due to that.”

Sharp, Keith and Stalberg will leave very soon for Europe. The Championships conclude on May 20.

CHICAGO -- Anytime a team underachieves as the Chicago Blackhawks did this season, the blame game undoubtedly gets played. And for the Hawks, plenty can be assigned to the players.

But what about the men in charge?

There will be an offseason-long debate about who deserves more, general manager Stan Bowman or coach Joel Quenneville? Even for them there is enough to go around:

Stan Bowman: 65 percent

Second-line center: The moment Bowman traded Brian Campbell he was on the clock. He had newfound money and needed a second-line center. It was plausible a good one wasn’t an available via free-agency last summer, after Brad Richards’ mega deal in New York, but that doesn’t mean a trade couldn’t be pulled off either before the season or in season. The New York Islanders’ Frans Nielsen could have been had, but it would have cost Dylan Olsen. Antoine Vermette had a glorious playoff series against the Hawks but Bowman didn’t want or couldn’t get him from Columbus. The Coyotes did. The addition of a center would have had a trickle up and down effect on the entire team. It’s still a need.

Playoff built: Though Bryan Bickell led all skaters in the entire first round, through six games, with 32 hits, the Hawks weren’t built for a long, gritty postseason run. Even giving Bowman a pass for the moment on the goaltending situation -- though the regular season told enough there -- the team was constructed to win one way, with wide open offense. That doesn’t fly in the playoffs. At the end of the day the grit they picked up wasn’t good enough.

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CHICAGO -- If the Chicago Blackhawks were given a pass by fans and media a year ago after an early exit, they’ll get anything but this time around -- and they know it. After losing in six games to the Phoenix Coyotes in the opening round of the 2012 postseason, there are no excuses to be had.

“When you come in off a long offseason like we did last year, we had high hopes for this team this year,” Jonathan Toews said after the season-ending 4-0 defeat to Phoenix. “With the hopes comes a lot of pressure as well.”

Maybe the pressure got to them. It’s as good a reason as any for their underachieving season. The Stanley Cup championship from 2010 is beginning to become a distant memory after back-to-back first-round exits.

“You remember how long a playoff run it is, and how fun it is,” Duncan Keith said. “It’s disappointing when you don’t get a long playoff run.”

Keith and Toews are part of the Hawks’ core. And it’s that core that will be most scrutinized this summer. They failed to produce against the Coyotes, and at many key times, this year. Should it be broken up? That’s a question that will gain momentum.

Patrick Kane had no goals and four assists in the series, all in the first three games. He totaled six shots in Games 4, 5 and 6. Patrick Sharp scored once, on a tip-in at the end of regulation in Game 2. And he wasn’t his normal shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later type of player throughout. Dave Bolland had a few good moments, but finished with three helpers in six games. Brent Seabrook, who was so noticeable towards the end of the regular season, was less so as the series wore on.

Only Toews is above question. He scored in his return after missing 22 games due to a concussion and he slowly got better as the series went along. Yes, he admittedly dipped in Games 2 and 3 but started to find his legs as the series got more important. The rest of the core went backwards.

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CHICAGO -- The 300-level rowdies were howling in the third period when the Chicago Blackhawks' Jimmy Hayes was sent off the ice for a brutal boarding call on Michal Rozsival, who lay prone on the ice.

“That’s not a penalty!” one yelled.

This was halfway through the period and en route to a season-ending 4-0 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. You wondered about the irony there, or maybe the hypocrisy, but really, you almost felt sorry for the bloodthirsty lot.

After all, they’re hockey fans, not irony fans. To the provincial, the Hayes’ hit wasn’t brutal, it was just a “hockey play.” Brutal was going 0-3 at home and missing all 39 shots in Game 6.

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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks trailed the Phoenix Coyotes 1-0 after two periods in Game 6 at the United Center on Monday night.

Phoenix scored on the power play in the second after a questionable interference call on Jonathan Toews. Toews tried to enter the offensive zone, but ran into Gilbert Brule at the blue line instead.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored from the point on the ensuing man-advantage with Corey Crawford being screened.

The Hawks have dominated the action all night long, outshooting Phoenix 28-8 through 40 minutes. The home team ended the second period on the power play but failed to manage much of an attack. They’ll have 36 seconds of power-play time to start the third period.

A travel day for both teams on Sunday gives us a chance to look at the good, the bad and one surprise of the Chicago Blackhawks' thrilling 2-1 overtime win over the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 5 on Saturday. The Hawks now trail the Western Conference quarterfinal series 3-2.

The good

The reason Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was so happy with his team in Game 5 was they followed his game plan: shoot the puck. The Hawks had 38 shots on net. They had 29 more blocked and 17 missed the net altogether. That’s 84 attempts all told. Phoenix had 32. No one likes to get their shot blocked -- Duncan Keith had eight attempts alone -- but it’s all part of a grander scheme. Along with those that missed the net, it simply creates action in the offensive zone. Yes, getting blocked up near the point can create a breakaway or odd-man rush, but the amount of time and chasing the Coyotes did in their own end took away from any offensive attack. It was puck-possession hockey at its finest and you’re supposed to be rewarded for it eventually, even if not every shot or attempt is a great one. Those blocks can hurt defenders and those shots wear down a defense and goaltender. More of the same is needed in Game 6.

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Blackhawks centers Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews talk about the pressure the team is under and what they need to do to stay alive in their series against the Coyotes.

CHICAGO -- It’s not Blackhawks’ coach Joel Quenneville’s style to call out players individually, but he came close enough when asked about his team’s play in a 3-2 overtime loss on Thursday.

“There are certain guys that have to pick up their game,” he said after the defeat, which put Chicago in a 3-1 hole in its first-round series with the Coyotes.

It's hard to imagine those guys being any of the Hawks’ role players. A successful playoff team needs secondary scoring, the Hawks have gotten it from the most unlikely players on their roster.

Quenneville benched Jamal Mayers Thursday in favor of Brendan Morrison, and he tallied on a laser of a shot that deflected past goalie Mike Smith for the Hawks’ first goal. Then it was often-scratched forward Michael Frolik scoring late to tie the game. It was his second goal in as many playoff starts filling in for the suspended Andrew Shaw. Bryan Bickell and Brandon Bollig had big goals in the Hawks' lone win of the series.

But where are Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Jonathan Toews and Viktor Stalberg? That foursome has combined for two goals in the first four games of the series. And Brent Seabrook had his worst game of the series in Game 4 after playing stellar hockey for so long.

“Five on five whether it’s more zone time, we’re looking to beat guys and look for a better play,” Quenneville said. “We have more success when we just put it on the net as opposed to one more play.”

Toews, Kane and the normally shoot-first Sharp combined for six shots total. Stalberg had four but if anyone defined the tepid play of the stars it was him. On one shift, he started from his own end with the puck three different times only to get his pocket picked and have to circle back before a counter attack occurred.

“We had our opportunities to score, we had our opportunities to take advantage, whether it was on the power-play or whatever,” Toews said. “We didn’t work hard enough for that offense, and to try and go ahead in the game.”

The bottom line is getting goals from Bickell, Frolik and Morrison is nice, but it’s nothing to count on.

That’s what the Hawks' stars are there for. And now they may only have one game left to do it.

“For 40 minutes I didn’t mind the way we played,” Quenneville said. “Certain guys I think need to be better in our team game.”

Names aren’t needed.

CHICAGO -- Without thinking about the bigger picture, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews summed up his team’s playoff series, which they trail three games to one after another overtime loss Thursday, against the Phoenix Coyotes.

“We played well enough to win but it never really felt like we took control of that game at any point,” Toews said.

Does that describe the series so far or what?

Three times the Hawks have scored first only to lose the lead each time. Three times the Hawks have scored in the closing seconds of regulation to force overtime, but they have lost three of four in the extra session. For the second straight game, goalie Corey Crawford couldn’t stop a rather simple scoring attempt -- this time on a mini break by Mikkel Boedker, who beat him from a bad angle in Game 3.

“I have no clue,” Crawford responded when asked how the puck squeaked in. “Once I see the replay I’ll figure out how that went in.”

Soft goals, furious late finishes, poor power-play attempts. By definition, going to overtime in four straight games means a chance to win, but it doesn’t mean control. Three 1-0 leads were nice, but Phoenix had no issue dealing with those deficits, nor a problem when they blew a 2-0 lead on Thursday. It’s as if nothing fazes the Coyotes.

“The last month we’ve been preparing for tight games,” Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. “This has been going on for a long time. Our guys are thriving under the pressure.”

Can’t the opposite be true of the Hawks?

Yes, those last-second goals are fun, but they aren’t the formula for winning. They’re more a result of good fortune than great hockey.

“It seems like we get more motivated when we get down a goal or two and we see how well we can play and how much pressure we can put on them,” Toews said. “And we seem to be less afraid to make mistakes.”
Most of this rhetoric applies but at the end of the day if anyone knew this series was going to be this tight, then the edge had to go to the Coyotes for one reason: their advantage in net.

Sometimes the 82-game season tells you exactly what to expect. And for the Hawks, they entered the postseason with the least successful goaltending in the playoffs. Only 17 times out of now 86 games have they held their opponent to less than two goals. And when the other guy is giving up nothing, soft overtime scores aren’t going to cut it.

“Tough break again,” Quenneville said. “Kind of comparable to the last game. Brutal ending…Both games ended on a tough note for us. We didn’t give up many chances tonight.”

Those sentiments point a finger right at Crawford. Nothing is probably more demoralizing for a team or coach. Battle hard in a comeback, get it to overtime, then give it right back on the softest of shots. Yes, Nick Leddy misplayed his poke-check at center ice, but that’s what a goalie is there for, to cover up. Leddy did enough to thwart a great attempt. But it still went in.

Crawford’s miscue is a microcosm of the Hawks' problems all season. Poor power-play execution, bad defensive zone coverage and mediocre goaltending dropped them to the No. 6 seed. And now to the brink of elimination.

Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews discusses the hit by Raffi Torres on Marian Hossa.

CHICAGO -- There are a couple of sayings when it comes to playoff hockey which now apply to the Chicago Blackhawks and Phoenix Coyotes:

No postseason series really starts until a team loses on its home ice.

The dislike between two teams becomes real as soon as a goalie gets run.

Ok, maybe the latter sentiment isn’t exactly a known saying, but maybe it should be. Either way, the following two words apply to the rest of the best-of-seven series: Game on.

The first two games in the desert didn’t lack for drama, that’s for sure. The Hawks scored first in both games before Phoenix stormed back to take the lead, only to see those leads improbably evaporate in the closing seconds of regulation -- first with 0:15 to go then with just 0:05 remaining. Each team got its game-winner in overtime and neither has led by more than a goal.

“It’s [gone] exactly the way I thought it was going to be,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said after Saturday’s 4-3 victory by the visiting Blackhawks. “Tight and very contested.”

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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw shouldn’t be in any more trouble than the game misconduct he already earned for colliding with Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith in the Hawks’ thrilling 4-3 overtime win in Game 2 of their Western Conference quarterfinal on Saturday.

The hit deserved a penalty, but did it deserve to be a major infraction leading to an expulsion?

“It met all the criteria of being more than a minor penalty, and a major penalty was the right call I believe,” on-site NHL supervisor of officials Mick McGeough said after the game. “To come in at that speed and make contact with the goalie… just because he’s outside of the crease, he’s not fair game. Therefore, the guys thought it was sufficient for a major penalty, and a game misconduct because of the severity of the hit. We’re not doctors. We don’t know if the goalie is hurt or not. We penalize the foul not the result.”

McGeough makes a decent case, which brings to bear the notion that Smith looked down and out after the hit but stayed in the game. Afterward he said he was, “100 percent.” So did his lengthy stay on the ice draw Shaw a worse penalty? The Hawks thought so.

“Obviously the officials thought Smith was done, that’s probably why we got the five-minute penalty,” Jonathan Toews said.

Lucky for Shaw the ensuing power-play goal didn’t turn out to be the game-winner. It was five seconds away from being just that.

“I was down on myself,” Shaw said. “I know we have a hard-working team. They stick together and pulled out the win.”

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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- A quick look at the Chicago Blackhawks' 4-3 overtime win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night at Jobing.com Arena in Game 2 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

How it happened: Bryan Bickell's second goal was the game winner in overtime as the Hawks tied the series at 1-all. Improbably, for the second straight game, Brent Seabrook came through in the clutch in the closing seconds. With an extra attacker on the ice for the goalie, Seabrook’s point shot was tipped in by Patrick Sharp with 5.5 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game. In the first two periods, it was a special teams-filled game that was going the Coyotes’ way as they scored two power-play goals to the Hawks’ one. Chicago scored first for the second straight game when Bickell tallied out of midair on a rebound of a Dave Bolland shot during a first-period man advantage. But Phoenix scored twice before the opening 20 minutes were over. Shane Doan beat Duncan Keith behind the Hawks' net, then found Raffi Torres in front for the tally. Then Jonathan Toews was inexplicably called for goaltender interference, and Antoine Vermette tipped one in from in front of Corey Crawford on the ensuing power play. Brandon Bollig tied the game in the second period with his first career goal, but Phoenix retook the lead on another power-play score from Vermette after Andrew Shaw was called for charging on Coyotes goalie Mike Smith. The Hawks failed to record a shot on goal in the opening nine minutes of the third period, but Seabrook and Sharp performed their heroics before the final buzzer went off.

Questionable calls: At least one of two Coyotes power-play goals came after controversial penalty calls that went against the Hawks. First, Toews was called for goaltender interference despite Smith initiating all the contact. Vermette’s first goal came on that ensuing power play. Then Shaw’s hit on Smith could have been called a two-minute minor penalty, but the referees deemed it a major penalty and kicked Shaw out of the game. The game misconduct means he could be further punished by the league.

What it means: Bickell’s two goals were huge, and the Hawks stayed in the game despite playing poorly on the penalty kill. Both power-play goals were a result of men open in front of Crawford without a Hawks defender near them. It’s been a season-long problem, and it continued in Game 2. On offense, Joel Quenneville changed up the lines, and it produced some chances with Toews, Sharp and Viktor Stalberg skating together, as did Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Andrew Brunette for a while. Seabrook has proved to be clutch and has the best shot from the point, but it was the unlikely star, Bickell, who will garner the headlines. It’s a huge win when a loss seemed likely.

What’s next: The series shifts to Chicago with Game 3 on Tuesday after an off day Sunday and a practice session Monday.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Chicago Blackhawks trailed the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 after the first period in Game 2 of their quarterfinal playoff series at Jobing.com Arena on Saturday.

The Hawks got on the board first when Bryan Bickell tipped home a rebound out of mid-air at the end of a Hawks power play. Patrick Sharp was slashed on a mini-breakaway, giving the Hawks the man advantage.

But Phoenix stormed back with two goals, one after Shane Doan beat Duncan Keith behind the Hawks net and found Raffi Torres in front to tie the game.

Then, a terrible call by the referees led to an Antoine Vermette power-play score as he stood untouched in front of Corey Crawford. Jonathan Toews was in the penalty box after missing on an offensive chance and while his momentum had him going to the net, goalie Mike Smith shoved him out of the way. Toews was called for goalie interference even though it was Smith who initiated the contact.

The teams combined for 28 shots on net in the opening period. The Hawks had 17.