CHICAGO, Ill. – The defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks are ready to put their title defense on the line as they begin the season on the road tonight against the Colorado Avalanche. During the off-season, there were a lot of changes needed to get the team under the salary cap since we all know that each member is deserving of a contract of a champion.
The deals started pretty quickly and some were dealt before they had a chance to celebrate their time with the Cup. The first big deal was when the team made a transaction with the Atlanta Thrashers who named Rick Dudley as their general manager. Dudley was with the Blackhawk organization previously and very familiar with the team. Chicago received two draft picks, along with forwards Marty Reasoner, and prospects Jeremy Morin and Joey Crabb for forwards Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Akim Aliu and defenseman Brent Sopal. The next major deal was with Toronto as forwards Kris Versteeg and Bill Sweatt went north for forwards Viktor Stalberg, Phille Paradis, and Chris DiDomenico.
Atlanta was at it again as they acquired veteran Andrew Ladd for a draft pick and prospect defenseman Ivan Vishnevskiy. With all the players exchanged in this deal, the Thrashers can be called Blackhawks South as they are very hungry to get to the next level in making the playoffs. As the Thrashers got bigger the Blackhawks turned into a much faster team.
One major peg in the salary cap was what to do in goal. It was known that Cristobal Huet needed to be moved because of the high salary. No trades worked for the team so Huet was eventually loaned to HC Fribourg-Gotteron SA of the Swiss National League. That left Stanley Cup Playoff goaltender Antti Niemi who was a free agent. He knew the writing was on the wall when the team signed Marty Turco who was with Dallas for his whole career, to a contract much less that what he was making because he wanted to come to a winning team with a chance to get a championship. With this happening, Niemi went to San Jose which was one of the teams he defeated in the playoffs.
After all that was said and done, the team lost ten players that were with the team last season. For what they lost in size, they gained in speed. That speed will be very helping as you have a goaltender in Turco who likes to be in the play. His passing ability on the transition game will definitely help with the offensive numbers for the team as a whole.
Even though the team has lost a big percentage of players from last season, they kept there core with the likes of team captain, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa and at the blueline with Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. The team has a solid two lines and knowing what Head Coach Joel Quenneville can do, he can easily place his players in a lineup that can work well in most situations.
Defenseman John Scott brings his 6’ 8”, 258 pound frame to the Blackhawks to try and make up for the physical differential with the loss of Byfuglien and Adam Burish, while defenseman Brian Campbell can’t seem to stay away from the injury list to start the season. He will be out for about a month with a knee injury. That paves the way for 19-year-old Nick Leddy to get into the lineup on opening night. Leddy was one of the pleasant surprises in camp and Quenneville like what he sees when he plays defensively five-on-five along with playing on the penalty kill.
One thing that is good about opening on the road, there is nothing to worry about except for how you play on the ice. Pardon the pun but it is a great ice-breaker way to start the season to get a game under your belt and then come home to the craziness of having the banners raised of your previous season accomplishments and then play a game right after. It’s a good thing they got their rings earlier.
Change is always difficult especially after a year of success, but this is pretty traumatic because of the salary cap; guys deserve what they should be paid for being on that team. Shock could be seen on faces after the first deal was made with a fan favorite being traded away so close after the Celebration party happened and then one by one they begin to disappear. As the season begins though, giddy excitement is in the air as the Chicago Blackhawks will start the season as Stanley Cup Champions.
Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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