Stanley Cup Playoffs: How Much Should The Blackhawks Worry About Seeding?
With the regular season about over and the Chicago Blackhawks having already locked up a playoff spot, the hot topic surrounding this team is where they will end up in the postseason as far as the seeding is concerned.
The debate for quite some time has been which seed the Hawks would benefit the most in. Most feel that the sixth spot would be the best route to take, with a date with the Pacific Division champion, which has yet to be decided. The other beneift of playing a team from a division that has underachieved all year is the fact that it would avoid a potential matchup with the Nashville Predators.
The gritty Preds have become the team nobody wants to face, having added some weapons to an already impressive team, including Alexander Radulov, who recently returned from the KHL. This is seen as possibly the year that Nashville finally makes a deep run into the playoffs.
It’s easy to see that one spot is more favorable than the other, but should that matter to the Hawks, whose fans continue to repeat the mantra, “I hope we don’t play Nashville in the first round.”?
The way I see it, it shouldn’t matter. Yes, the Preds have the best defenseman in the league in Shea Weber, and one of the top netminders in Pekka Rinne, but it’s not like the Hawks can’t match up against them. This is an elite team when their collective heads are in the game, and they are healthy, as they are expected to be for the postseason.
Honestly, what would make the Los Angeles Kings that much easier than Nashville? They’re a team that allows less goals than 28 other team sin the National Hockey League and have the best goaltender in the Western Conference, if not the entire league.
It’s time to dismiss the notion that the Hawks meeting a team like Nashville in the postseason would spell doom for the feathers if they were to meet in the first round. They can compete with anyone in the league.
We do know that the Blackhawks are not going to have home ice in the first round. Nashville locked up the fourth spot in the West on Thursday, meaning that it’s either Nashville or a Pacific team. None of the options, even the San Jose Sharks or Phoenix Coyotes, led by Mike Smith, scream “easy matchup”.
They’ll meet the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday afternoon, in the matchup that will determine who will meet Nashville in the first round. I’d be very surprised if the Hawks packed it in and settled for sixth. Their mid-season struggles got them into the spot they are in now. Any way you slice it, the first round is not going to be easy, whether it’s Nashville, LA, or anyone else.
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