Zawaski: Welcome To Hockey Season, Cubs Fans
By Jay Zawaski--
(CBS)Cubs fans, welcome to hockey season.
After an incredible and thrilling 97-win season, a wild-card victory and NLDS win over their most hated rival, the Cubs' season came to a screeching and disappointing halt Wednesday night when they were swept out of the NLCS by the Mets. Suddenly, Cubs fans find themselves looking for something else to root for.
Enter the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Let me get you caught up on the season so far.
Zawaski: Blackhawks begin life without Duncan Keith
First of all, there's the ongoing Patrick Kane situation. The Blackhawks star is being investigated for sexual assault near his home of Buffalo, stemming from an incident in August. Aside from opposing fans deriding him with some chants, not much has seemed to have an effect or cause much of a distraction. Blackhawks fans have cheered him with gusto, and he's tied for the team lead the in scoring. Of course, in an investigation like this, anything can change in a hurry.
On the ice, the Blackhawks season has been "meh" so far. After six games, they have a 3-3 record. Half of those games, they played well. The other half, well, not so much. Chicago has struggled a bit out of the gate, likely due to the new faces on the roster. The Hawks have seven players on the team who weren't Blackhawks last season: forwards Artemi Panarin, Viktor Tikhonov, Ryan Garbutt, Vincent Hinostroza and Artem Anisimov and defensemen Trevor Daley and Viktor Svedberg. In turn, they've struggled to find the cohesion necessary to make their system work at the level we're used to seeing it work. That will come in time, hopefully.
How have the new faces fared? Well, it's been a mixed bag.
Panarin has been electric. After missing all but one preseason game, Panarin has jumped into the NHL as smoothly as any European player I've ever seen. He's tied with linemate Kane for the team scoring lead with seven points. He's also tied for the league lead in rookie scoring. At times, he has looked like the best player on the ice. We'll see how he adjusts while teams learn more about his game, but so far, so good. The line of Anisimov, Kane and Panarin has been the Hawks' best by a mile.
Anisimov's presence has been big for Panarin, who speaks little English. Anisimov and Tikhonov have served as Panarin's translators, and having Anisimov as his center has only eased his transition. Panarin commented early in the season that if those guys hadn't been here, he likely would have opted to return to Russia.
Garbutt and Tikhonov have been in and out of the lineup, bouncing around all of the lines. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is trying to learn this roster. Expect this sort of juggling to continue until Quenneville finds the mix he likes.
As for the new defensemen, Daley has struggled. He's spent the majority of the season paired with Trevor van Riemsdyk. Quenneville has done his best to protect these two defensively. Van Riemsdyk and Daley begin 64 percent and 67 percent of their starts in the offensive zone. Daley has admitted to struggling to pick up the Hawks' system. With Duncan Keith out four to six weeks after knee surgery, he's going to have to get up to speed quickly.
Svedberg has spent most of his rookie season paired with Brent Seabrook. The big Swede has been pretty decent mostly, but has had three or four heart-attack turnovers. He seems to be improving with every start, which is good news. The Hawks may rely on him to pick up some of the minutes slack.
Now on to the really bad news. With Keith set to miss in the neighborhood of 13 to 18 games, blue line depth will be a problem.
Overall, it's been an average start to the season. Fortunately, the Hawks have 76 games to get on track. They'll have to do it without the services of their best defenseman for the near future.
Welcome to hockey season, Cubs fans. It's time for a whole new season of drama.
Jay Zawaski is the executive producer of the Spiegel and Goff Show on 670 The Score and the Blackhawks columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayZawaski670.
