Blackhawk Down: The Purging of Chicago’s Roster
August 4th, 2010 by MJ Kasprzak Leave a reply »The war of attrition may be drawing to a close. But what a destructive path it has left through one of the world's great cities.
Losing Adam Burish, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, and Jordan Hendry is one thing. All of them played in the playoffs for the Chicago Blackhawks, but the sum of their six to 12 minutes each could be gobbled up by minimum wage players without the Blackhawks losing their status as the team to beat.
Losing Nick Boynton, Andrew Ladd, Kim Johnsson, Brent Sopel, probably John Madden, and now Antti Niemi means a little more. They would feel the loss of any one of those players a little, and the sum of them hurts.
Ladd and Madden were key checking-line forwards, but there are always players able to step into those roles at a discount on the market. Boynton and Johnsson combined to play just a few games in the finals so the team won without them, and Sopel was important but not huge.
Many would find Niemi's loss more significant. True, he was great against the San Jose Sharks, but many of you have read my many accounts of how shutting down the San Jose offense in the playoffs is standard (click here to rea ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by MJ Kasprzak
Advertisement