Playoff Hopes Growing Dim For Blackhawks
By Tim Bearden in News on Feb 12, 2012 9:00PM
It's been nothing short of a Greek tragedy for the Blackhawks this season.
The season began with so much hope for a repeat of the Stanley Cup championship, but the Hawks have started a downward spiral going into the second half of the season. They have lost eight straight contests, 10 straight road games and have fallen to sixth in the Western Conference and fourth in the Central Division.
On January 20, the Blackhawks led the league in points following their victory over the Florida Panthers at the United Center. On January 24, the Blackhawks lost to the Nashville Predators to enter the All-Star break and begin the league's current longest losing streak.
It seems the mighty have fallen—weeks ago the former league point leaders were competing for a top conference spot, and now are just battling to stay in the playoffs. Seeding in the playoffs is based on your point standings in the conference. The Blackhawks are sixth, with 65 points overall, and the top eight teams in each conference go to the playoffs. Closely behind the Hawks are the Los Angeles Kings, who have 63 points, while the Phoenix Coyotes, who shutout the Hawks Saturday night, are nipping at their heels with 62 points. Just outside of the playoffs are the Colorado Avalanche and the Calgary Flames with 60 points apiece.
With only 26 games remaining in the season for Chicago, there are a maximum of 52 points left to be had going into the post-season. Each team gets two points per win and one point for tying and going into overtime. The Blackhawks are currently three points, or two losses in conjunction with two wins from Phoenix and one from L.A., from falling into eighth place and five points, or three losses and either Colorado or Calgary winning three in a row, from being eliminated from the post season all together.
It's been a tight division and conference all season and the Hawks hit their slump at a bad juncture following the All-Star break. While all is not lost for the Blackhawks, it's starting to look scary heading into the post-season. All three "on the ropes" teams—Chicago, L.A. and Phoenix—have 26 games left, which puts Chicago on a level playing ground. If they can win on Valentine's Day against their conference rival Nashville, the Hawks have a good chance of remaining ahead of the curve, assuming they can continue that upward trend.
However, they don't have a lot of room for error in the final weeks because 19 of those 26 remaining games are against conference and division rivals.
It seems that the Western Conference has handed Chicago a Pandora's Box in which fear and other emotions have been let out, leaving only hope remaining.