ST. LOUIS — As the great hockey writer Bob Verdi asked when he walked into the press room Monday morning at the Scottrade Center, “Are the Hawks leading this series 3-3?”
Perfect prose, as always, from one of the best of all time who is watching a Chicago Blackhawks team that has absolutely absconded with a series formerly led 3-1 by the failing St. Louis Blues. Now, it’s up to the Blues to take it back at home, and shed this franchise’s label as one that can never win the big game.
“This year is a different feeling,” said captain David Backes, a pending UFA who will likely move on if he can’t lead this team into Round 2. “This group of guys is as tight as it’s ever been. We’ve shown resiliency to fight through adversity in the series and the season. Now we need to show it in a Game 7 against our divisional rivals.”
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We’re down to 60 minutes (or more) in the Round 1 series with more pedigree than any other — the only one featuring two Top 5 teams from the National Hockey League’s regular season. And whoever wins tonight, earning the right to travel to Dallas and take on the Stars in Round 2, there will be repercussions.
Let’s take a look at what lies ahead on a few fronts, and back at a series that has taught us a few things:
• Popular thinking has St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock, who has chosen to sign a series of one-year deals as coach of the Blues, not getting re-upped if St. Louis loses. That’s fair, because that’s how the hockey business works. But a guy who has coached his team to consecutive seasons of 109 points, 60 points (lockout year – pro rates to 103 points), 111, 109 and 107 points in hockey’s toughest division shouldn’t be out of work for long.
What’s 107 points in the Central worth in the Metropolitan, won by Washington’s 120 points? Does it equate to 115 points? Maybe 118? Minnesota would leap at the chance to employ Hitchcock.
• St. Louis defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk has one year left with an AAV of $4.25 million before becoming a UFA, and a lot of lesser (read: Canadian) teams are wondering if he can be their No. 1 defenceman. Judging by his play in this series, that’s a stretch. He’s got one goals and three assists in six games (minus-2), but he’s not shown the ability to slow the game down when necessary, or make the smart plays to mitigate a Blackhawks push.
Shattenkirk was paired with rookie Colton Parayko as a veteran influence, but Parayko has been by far the better player. If I were an NHL GM, I’d be very careful about paying Shattenkirk as anything more than a good No. 3.
• The Blackhawks are hockey’s example of the rising tide that raises all vessels. Richard Panik couldn’t make the Toronto Maple Leafs, and had his first good game of this series in Game 6. It took a while, but his game has risen here. Don’t worry Leafs fans — we’re not of the mind that Lou Lamoriello let a great player get away here. And you could likely get him back this summer if you want, when he’s an RFA.
• Every year the salary cap turns the Blackhawks into Robin Hood, and they sprinkle good players among the NHL’s poor and hungry. This season UFA Andrew Ladd is almost certain to go too, but he’ll be hard-pressed to retrieve the six-year, $36 million deal he turned down in Winnipeg. He’s had one effective game here thus far, and five average ones. Ladd isn’t giving the Hawks what they’d hoped for when they gave Winnipeg Marko Dano, a first-round pick and a conditional third-rounder for him at the trading deadline.
At 30, Ladd is an example of changing “prime” in hockey today. Now, you want players from age 23-28, and 30 is getting old. He’s still a very good left winger, but I’d be offering no more than a three-year deal, not six.
• The guy you want off this Blackhawks roster is Andrew Shaw, his recent travails aside. He’ll be tough for Chicago to afford this summer, and may be packaged with Bryan Bickell as the Hawks try to dump the latter’s contract. Shaw can play on any of your top three lines — centre or wing — and brings up a team’s energy level nightly. Vancouver or Edmonton could dearly use a player like Shaw. Not sure the Toronto roster is ready for a support player of this ilk yet.
• Parayko has never played in a Game 7, and his favourite memory comes from 2006: “Oilers-Hurricanes in Game 7. I was 12, at home at my parents’ house in St. Albert. They (the Oilers) finished as the eighth seed that year. It was a lot of fun.”
Parayko has emerged in this series as a future top-pairing Dman. He is six-foot-six, shoots it like a canon, and skates very well. That he could go at No. 86 in an NHL draft tells you all you need to know about the difficulty in evaluating 18-year-olds.
“Are you still in awe of players like Toews?” he was asked? “Not as much now, (after) getting an opportunity to bump shoulders, rub him out. We’ve seen them 12, 13 times now. I think I’m over that. You know when they’re on the ice. They’re the elite players.”
He recalls watching Toews, Keith etc. play in Olympic games for Canada.
“One hundred per cent. You’re cheering for them in those games.”
But not tonight?
“Not tonight.”
