CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
General manager Mike Smith is quick to peg the source of last season’s rot: Theoren Fleury.
“Clearly, it was the defining point of our season,” Smith told the Hockey News, referring to the famous squabble involving Fleury, a couple of team mates, some strip club bouncers and the cops. “That incident was devastating to our team,” he added, in a Canadian Press article.
A substance abuse cripple and his bonehead accomplices make handy scapegoats, but surely there’s more to the misery in Chicago. Who let Tony Amonte walk away for nothing? Who gave up on emerging defenseman Brian McCabe? Who traded Michael Nylander to Washington – where he recorded 56 points – for a pair of guys who lasted less than a season? Who decided to give Fleury $8.5-million over two years?
That would be the GM, backed by the venerable Blackhawk brain trust, Bob Pulford and owner Bill Wirtz.
With excuses for last year looked after, the ‘Hawks forge ahead. In Eric Daze and Alexei Zhamnov, they have a pair of gifted but maddeningly unpredictable forwards. Mark Bell and Kyle Calder are strongmen who could score 20 goals each. Otherwise, it’s a patchwork of the too young, too streaky, too small, or simply not very good. The hero – and it’s amazing such a story even has one – is goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, who threatened to drag them all into the 2003 playoffs.
Chicago was among the league's oldest teams last season. But a hoard of veterans have been ditched since March, most of them failed Smith acquisitions. So what are they left with if Daze pulls up lame again, Zhamnov goes into another funk and Bell stalls? The final refuge of the incompetent: Youth, in all its unspoiled potential; speedy young men named Radulov and Vorobiev and McCarthy, and the early favorite for rookie of the year, Tuomo Ruutu.
"Basically we're implementing the plan we put in 3½ years ago when I got hired. There's been no deviation in that,” Smith told CP. Whatever you say, Mike.
Trouble: The defense is an injury or two away from AHL calibre.
On the Spot: Whenever Thibault slips a little, the rest of the team is exposed for what it is.
The Forecast: If Ruutu’s knee injury is fully behind him, he should make a very impressive debut. The Blackhawks will ride that precious good news for all its worth.
The Call: 14th the Western Conference.
Who's in:
Center Tuomo Ruutu (rookie from Finland)
Defenseman Deron Quint (free agent from Phoenix)
Left winger Ville Nieminen (free agent from Pittsburgh)
Center Scott Nichol (free agent from Calgary)
Who’s Out:
Defenseman Todd Gill (free agent to Florida)
Center Mike Eastwood (free agent to Pittsburgh)
Left winger Chris Simon (free agent to New York Rangers)
Center Andrei Nikolishin (trade to Colorado)
2002-03 Regular Season Numbers:
Payroll:
$44,525,000 12th overall
(Hockey News, November 15/02. Bonuses not included.)
- Record: 30-33-23-6 for 79 points.
- At home: 17-15-7-2.
- On the road: 13-18-6-4.
- Finish: 17th overall, 9th in the Western Conference, 3rd in Central Division.
- Goals for: 207 (2.52 per game), 19th overall.
- Goals against: 226 (2.76 per game), 17th overall.
- Goal differential: Minus-19, 18th overall.
- Power play: 12.7 percent, 28th overall.
- Penalty kill: 84.8 percent, 11th overall.
Goaltending:
- Jocelyn Thibault, 62-26-28-7, 2.37 GAA, .915 SV PCT, 8 SO.
- Steve Passmore, 11-2-5-2, 3.70 GAA, .866 SV PCT, 0 SO.
- Michael Leighton, 8-2-3-2, 2.82 GAA, .913 SV PCT, 1 SO.
- Craig Andersson, 6-0-3-2, 4.00 GAA, .856 SV PCT, 0 SO.
Leaders:
- Scoring: Right winger Steve Sullivan, 82-26-35-61.
- Power play points: Center Alexei Zhamnov, 74-2-17-19.
- Game-winning goals: Center Tyler Arnason, 6.
- Ice time: Defenseman Steve Poapst, 22:51 per game.
- Plus/minus: Steve Sullivan, plus-15.
