from Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times,

They are one of the few teams in sports that can be better than everybody else simply by deciding to be. They are capable of acing a test without studying for it, and, as galling as that might be for the schoolmarms and hockey purists among us, it tends to come in handy when you’re where the Hawks are now....

The truly great teams push through weariness. If the Hawks, who have won two of the last four Cups, want to be considered a dynasty, they’ll have to overcome sore bodies Wednesday and the rest of the playoffs.

The Kings are very, very good. Let’s not lose sight of that. They’re almost as deep as the Hawks and just as resilient, as their first-round comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the San Jose Sharks proved. But the Hawks are better than this. They’re certainly not as bad as the Kings are making them look.

We’ve been told that their abundance of talent might be the problem for the Hawks, that they rely on it too much. It’s only a problem if you prefer your teams to look like the Buffalo Sabres.

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