BlackhawkPaul
Indian Head Nation
Hawks were just bad and cheap. Luck was involved for sure.
Don't think this was tanking as the Sabres did or Leafs do.
Nothing compared to NBA tanking.
We were just bad, got hit by injuries - even without would have been mediocre at best
When Wirtz was hitting his twilight years, the team did sign some bigger contracts in Theo, Khabbi and Havlat. They had to overpay to get any "talent" into Chicago.
I really do think that they were trying something the year Handzus signed, but the D core was young, and they didn't have the experience that they do now (both 7 and 2 were young, but promising).
The Hawks weren't built for tanking on purpose.
Crap management and the realization of a post lockout NHL was not in the mindset until the Hawks could completely clean house of upper management.
Injuries to Daze, an aging Amonte, a streaky Sullivan, then mix it with the hopes that a 3rd line ABC combination playing the first line was going to amount to anything.
Some of those teams were a hot mess, but the 2002 team was actually very good. If people remember, they were incredibly good at home that year. They ran into an incredibly hot goaltender in the St. Louis series (getting SO 3 times). If not for Johnson, the Hawks could've probably won that first round series in 02, but would've been crushed the following round by the Wings.
2003 started off well, but Thibault got injured a few times and fell out of contention. I do believe if he stayed healthy, the Hawks would've squeaked in at a 7 or 8 seed that season, but the downward spiral was in full effect.
