HOCKEY'S HERE: CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

It's time to air out your gear, sharpen your skates and tape your stick -- it’s hockey season. Sure, your team flat-out ached last season, but there's hope, unless you're an Islanders fan. In that spirit, Out of Left Field offers looks at all 30 NHL teams. Presenting: The Chicago Blackhawks.

Last season: 65 points, fourth in Central Division; missed playoffs
Coach: Trent Yawney
Young gun: Rene Bourque
Store this name away: Tony Samlelainen
Hey, get a load of the new guys: Martin Havlat, Bryan Smolinski
Blogs (including but not limited to): The Blackhawk Experience
Pop culture moment: Stan Mikita's Donuts in the movie Wayne's World; former 'Hawk Eric Nesterenko played Rob Lowe's dad in the kitschy '80s hockey movie Youngblood

The Blackhawks wouldn't be in such a dilapidated state if Bill Wirtz was still alive.

That's an old joke (literally, since the team's crusty old crone of an owner turns 77 on Thursday), but it's cruelly accurate. It wasn't so long ago that there were high hopes for the Hawks. Actually, that was last year: Sports Illustrated, that bastion of hockey insight, picked the Hawks to make the playoffs and at least one prominent puck pundit (here's a hint: he wears high collars and really, really loud suits) predicted Chicago bench boss Trent Yawney would be coach of the year.

Fool me once, shame on you. It's depressing to talk about what's happened to this once-proud franchise. That's one of Gary Bettman's many sins -- letting Boston and Chicago, two U.S. teams that really mattered in their cities, steadily go in the toilet. Hey, it's not like the NHL could stand to have the team in the third-largest U.S. market actually remain relevant. Oh, but you should see the revenue produced from their new buildings!

Screw dat. The Blackhawks were once Bobby and Dennis Hull, the Pony Line and Denis Savard jitterbugging through entire teams to score goals with a 9.3 degree of difficulty and setting off the foghorn at Chicago Stadium. (As a kid listening on the radio to Leafs games in the '80s, sometimes I would turn the volume up a notch when Chicago scored, just to get the full breadth of that foghorn.)

It almost breaks your heart to see a team that represented all that fall so far that the minor-league Chicago Wolves taunt the Hawks with billboards throughout Chicagoland area reading "WE PLAY HOCKEY THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY... WE WIN."

There's not much to say about this year's Blackhawks, other than Havlat isn't worth $18 million U.S. for three years, unless he can figure out a way to pass the puck to himself, which he's going to have to do on this team. There's some young talent here, but there isn't much for them to pick up except bad habits and broken dreams.

Oh, there's a 10-15% chance the Hawks could surprise and be a playoff team, but even allowing for that feels like whistling past the graveyard. They're much, much more likely to finish dead last.

Also in Central Division: Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues

Related:
Sens Trade Havlat (July 10)

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