Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Chicago Blackhawks Are What They Are At This Point

07/17/2018 at 5:48pm EDT

from Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times,

Bowman is “really optimistic” about the coming season, but didn’t exactly insist that he’s put together a playoff-caliber roster. He’s content with the moves he’s made, but sounded like he’s come up empty in making any bigger ones. He left the door open to a late-summer or early fall trade — once teams learn in the preseason what they have and don’t have — but acknowledged that he might not be able to make immediate use of the cap space opened up by the Hossa trade.

So here the Hawks sit — still counting on Corey Crawford to be healthy and his old self, still counting on Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad having monster bounce-back seasons, still counting on Duncan Keith to find the fountain of youth, still counting on a shaky defense to find its footing.

“We’re looking forward,” Bowman said. “We’re really optimistic about the group. We know that we have some really motivated players who have accomplished quite a bit already in their careers, but [who] haven’t had the recent success that they would like. When you’ve been there and you’ve been able to reach the ultimate, you know how great that feeling is, and you know when you’re not there, it’s not a fun time. We’re very excited to get back to the playoffs.”

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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