Ok fine...I'll Do A Hawks Season Preview...

I guess I'd better, right?

We obviously don't need to stick to the preview format for this one. We know all about last season (shite!), we know what they added (nothing!), and we know what the outlook is (not great!). But we stand on the precipice of 82 more games being added to the Hawks annuls, in this their 100th season. There has to be a point, right?

I don't know that there has to be a point, honestly. The Hawks have made it clear they don't think there has to be a point to this season or quite possibly the next two or three. They seem to revel in that idea, in fact.

I'm not convinced they can get away with that, though. I don't know what the other end would look like, exactly. I don't know how ticket sales would drop. I don't know what their TV numbers look like, though I'm sure they're terrible. I don't know who can get fired at the end of all this.

But what I do know is that if the Hawks don't flash anything this season--if Bedard doesn't look like a genuine #1 center (or even winger), or if Sam Rinzel doesn't look like a future top-pairing player in any game that actually matters, or if Artyom Levshunov doesn't pop up all over the ice in a handful of games and simply dominate them, if Frank Nazar loses that swagger during the season (he's the only one who has it)--then whatever the Hawks have been selling is no longer sellable.

At some point, even the biggest Kool-Aid drinkers need to see evidence. They may have been making up the evidence the past couple seasons, but that type of delusion doesn't last forever. Another bottom-three finish with no green shoots, and I have to believe that the atmosphere will change, at least a little.

Which should give this season something we've been asking for from the Hawks for years and years, which is urgency. It's not urgency to win. Points-chasing and maxing out whatever they have won't get them anywhere near the playoffs, anyway. In a season where Hawks fans could watch the Ducks chase the playoffs and the Sharks zoom past them (not a guarantee), there is a feeling that something is riding on this.

So what do we watch for, if we're not watching for wins? At the top, there have to be nights, just a few, during the season where everyone can see what it will look like. Sure, the Hawks will catch a handful of good teams on nights in January and February where they simply don't care and the Hawks will get a 4-1 win. That's not what we're talking about. They need other wins, ones where all the kids play well and they genuinely catch teams by surprise. That can't come in April. It has to be in the season's first three months, really. Games where they play fast and squeeze the ice over all 200 feet and get on the rush from turnovers at both lines and save Spencer Knight some headaches. We need a glimpse, if only that.

Beyond that, it's not about what Rinzel does in the offensive end. It's about what he does chasing back towards his own end-boards under an interested forecheck from professionals. How does he get the Hawks out? How often does he get the Hawks out? The smooth skating and confident plays with the puck in the other end in April are one thing, this is another.

Levshunov needs a lot of leash to make plays, plays that if they don't work will leave the Hawks exposed. But plays that if they do come off give them an advantage. Levshunov's deal is his instincts, his aggressiveness in jumping at both blue lines to disrupt plays before opponents would expect them. If the Hawks are going to tame him into just being Robyn Regehr, there's no point. He also needs to show more with the puck on his stick.

Connor Bedard, quite simply, needs to find a hockey version of Steph Curry. Which is a funny comparison, given that Curry has some of the best handles in the NBA, and I've openly questioned whether Bedard's stick-handling is anything more than "pretty good." But what Bedard does need to channel is the lack of conscience when it comes to shots and where those shots come from, and some of them need to go in. From the corner, from the wall, with defenders on him, who fucking cares? Bedard's path to being a preeminent scorer in this league is scoring from places where other scorers don't have places.

If all these things come good, I really don't think the Hawks can finish as low as they might secretly want to. There's every chance the Sharks have a second-year flatten-out, just like the Hawks did. The Penguins and Predators might race to the bottom pretty quickly if they stumble out of the gates, and both probably should. I don't know why anyone thinks Seattle will be anything, and don't rule out the Bruins being piss-poor too, especially if anyone important gets injured.

The bottom of the league will certainly rise. It's hard to see any team being at 52 points, as the Sharks were last season. But with Gavin McKenna the prize, it might end up lower than we would say here in October.

As I've said repeatedly, Kyle Davidson cannot have it both ways. He can't talk about how special of a group his young d-men are, and then say they'll be terrible all season because of that and keep the Hawks at the very bottom rung. If they're special, they won't struggle all 82 games. If your coach is worth a shit, at least. This isn't 2005 anymore. Players come into the league, even on defense, more ready to play at the NHL level than ever. That is, if they're good. Not everyone is Gustav Forsling, and needs their brains beaten in for years before figuring it out. Most d-men who suck eggs in their first year in the league will probably suck eggs in their fifth. Look at Alex Vlasic, for fuck's sake. And he doesn't come with any of the billing of Levshunov or Rinzel (or Korchinksi, really, but let's not do that again).

What I'm saying is that here is a chance, a small chance, that this season is more entertaining than the Hawks are preparing everyone for. And in a way, it kind of has to be. Because if there is no promise, if there is no step, the Hawks can't sell anything. And if they can't sell anything, that's when the higher-ups might actually notice. It only took Davidson some 30 games last season to use the lack of growth or step to fire Luke Richardson. If there's another 82 of that? Well, Davidson already used that lever...

Note: For this season, I don't think I'll be doing game previews. I'll do the wraps the next morning as usual. What I'm going to try, at least to start, is probably a little blurb in the daily emails that go out in the afternoon, along with NHL-wide "Game To Watch" or something. Let's at least try it that way.