Needs More Ditka

The Stanley Cup and NBA Playoffs will collapse on the west side of Chicago, cuing a floor changing dance that will likely move the stagehand union to the brink of exhaustion. Let’s look at how far both teams can take this trip, and how much joy they can bring to the fans of the black and red, no matter what sport is being played.

Black Ice

The Hawks took game one in Chicago versus the Flames (for more analysis see herecomethehawks.net) and look to be in the driver’s seat after showing a considerable amount of jitters for the first two periods. They’re dominance of the Flames in the regular season, and tearing their heart out in game one can bode nothing but good things for the young Hawks. If they can take care of business in game two, putting together a dominating 60 minutes, the second round will be halfway achieved.

With the Ducks and Sharks poised to go the distance, those two rivals will decide who the Blackhawks play in the second round. If the Sharks can recover from a game one loss and win the series, The Blackhawks will likely be heading to San Jose, though the NHL playoff seeing system leaves everything up in the air. Come the conference semifinals and finals, everything is up in the air, though the Blackhawks will need some help to defeat the top two seeds in the conference, San Jose and Detroit. Alas, the Hawks are only one game in, and need 15 more victories to reach the promised land. Even after an amazing win, such as Thursday’s, the Hawks cannot get too ahead of themselves.

Seeing Red

The Bulls chances of winning in round one of the NBA playoffs went up exponentially before even playing a game. Kevin Garnett, Chicagoan, will be out for the entire season, and possibly the entire NBA playoffs. The Bulls are hoping to make the end of the playoffs come early for the Celtics. They aren’t one for having teams wonder. Rondo and Rose should be a hell of a matchup, but Rose has shown the propensity for being a big game player, if college is any sort of indicator. But new kid on the block Johnny Salmons will need to match Pierce or Allen’s points with Gordon showing up every night as well. If the inconsitent can stay level, the Bulls will have a chance. If Tyrus Thomas can have a big series on both sides of the court, the Bulls will have a great chance to win. Can the deep, but highly overrated Celtics bench make the Bulls youth negatable? Can Ty Thomas be a gamechanging player? Can Joakim Noah be any uglier, or rebound effecively? All these questions will be answered in this series, and if they can be answered in the Bulls’ favor, the stagehands will be cursing their names for a long time.

The Blackhawks’ lead is dwindling. What was once a solid ten point cushion is now a paltry five. And while the Blackhawks are nearly certain to go to the playoffs (only a Mets’ esque .200 winning percentage from here on out could leave the Hawks at home during the playoffs) the Hawks are showing kinks in the amour. This is a team separated from the nine game domination streak they ran in December. The question truly is, how separated are they?

The question of definition for the Blackhawks this season was a question of being a solid hockey team or an elite squad. Right now, it is flat out wrong to say that the Hawks are of the upper echelon. And while back to back losses are nothing of importance in the grad scheme, the nitpickers in this world (me) will be looking for specific flaws when the Hawks take the ice against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

First, will Martin Havlat play? The almighty HavBolLadd line has played their worst two games of the season this weekend. Havlat only played seven minutes in the Sunday tilt, out with the vague lower body injury. When Gary Bettman made the injury poilicy, he must have had an upper body injury, very upper body. But, the engine that makes the Blackhawks go, HavBolLadd, and specifically the team’s best player, Havlat, are not leading the way for the Hawks right now. Perhaps that’s the entire problem. But perhaps being a combined minus ten in two games is a stronger cause for concern. Whatever it is, if Havlat is out, the Hawks will need Kris Versteeg to step up, along with Patrick Kane. Together, they can pick up the slack.

But perhaps the blue line is the problem. Matt Walker and Brian Campbell have been playing extremely craptastic, even by their lowly defensive standards. Neither are taking the body, and Walker appears to have added an extra dumbell to his ankles. What’s worse, Walker is coming up on the rush, no longer content to shoot worthless slapshots from along the boards at the blueline. Campbell is working his powerplay magic, but is in the funk that plagued the Hawks before the All Star break and at the beginning of the season. The Hawks don’t win if Campbell is not maintaining a similitude of defensive prowess. Meanwhile, Cam Barker has become the Blackhawks number one defenseman overnight, with Seabrook and Keith being an interchangeable 1a and a1. If Campbell can get back to the point where he isn’t an out of place forward, and Walker can again play like the sixth, stay at home defenseman that he is, the Hawks should be a-okay.

Carolina should be the perfect test, a playoff team that the Blackhawks, if they play their game, can defeat. It’s a strong enough opponent to be a confidence boost, weak enough to be pushed around. It’s one of the definining games each season brings, for the Blackhawks, Wednesday is another of those opportunities.