The Chicago Blackhawks can pin a lot of blame on Corey Crawford’s struggles. Joel Quenneville pointed to Marian Hossa’s injury. Still, any losing team ultimately must look to the mirror and Jonathan Toews told Adam Jahns about his regrets.
“It’s disappointing for this group,” Toews said. “We had so much more than we ended up showing.”
If you want to spread the blame beyond Raffi Torres’ controversial hit and Crawford’s softies, chastising the power play is a good direction to go in. Despite being loaded with high-end talent (Hossa or not), the Blackhawks went 1-for-19 on the man advantage in the series. Here’s what Toews told Jesse Rogers about it:
“A lot of skill out there and we couldn’t get it done,” Toews said. “It was kind of that way all season and we can’t just come into the playoffs and expect to turn on the switch.”
In a way, that “turn on the switch” argument might be trotted out quite a bit in regard to the Blackhawks’ late comebacks. To some, that might signify that Chicago didn’t put things together until they absolutely have to - and eventually couldn’t reach the switch in Game 6.*
The most haunting thing might be their home record in the series, though: 0-3. Quenneville’s reaction to that was simple and succinct: “That’s brutal.”
It’s also one of the reasons why Toews & Co. enter the summer with a feeling of regret.
* - I do not feel this way.