Chicago Blackhawks: Another Stan Bowman mistake shows in Semi-Final
The Chicago Blackhawks are, as you know, watching the playoffs from home. They have a bad roster that has some elite talent at the top. Guys like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Alex DeBrincat, and Dominik Kubalik are awesome but they have absolutely no help. Stan Bowman has made a plethora of mistakes. The problem with all of his mistakes is they keep finding ways to show themselves. One is now looming large when you watch the current Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Chicago Blackhawks have made a lot of bad moves lately and they show.
The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL’s Semi-Final to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. They are going to play against the winner of the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning’s game seven. It was a very fun game to watch as it ended in overtime. The final play was the cherry on top of a big mistake made by Stan Bowman.
Phillip Danault made the game-winning play to step up Artturi Lehkonen for the game-winning goal in overtime. It was the final play of the game to cap off what has been a very good run of play for Danault. The Hawks traded him to the Montreal Canadiens, along with a second-round pick, in exchange for Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weiss. If that jumps out as terrible trade for the Hawks, that is because it is.
Danault is not an offensive stud but he is one of the best two-way forwards in the National Hockey League. He came in sixth place for the NHL’s Selke Trophy in 2020-21 but he should have finished even higher. His points probably keep him a little bit down but they shouldn’t. He had five goals and 19 assists for 24 points in 53 games played anyway so it isn’t like he’s a bum in the attacking zone either.
He had a CorsiFor of 57.0 which is absolutely magnificent. Anything over 50, for those who don’t know, means that your team is better at controlling the puck when you are on the ice than when you are not. This man was a whole seven percent over 50 so you know the Habs had the puck a lot when Danault was on the ice. He is as good of a defensive forward as there is in the entire league.
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If the Hawks never traded Danault, their forward group would look so much different. If you put some offensive players that are also sound defensively on his wing, he could make some sweet plays too as you saw in overtime on Thursday night. This was a huge mistake in a long line of them for Bowman. To be honest, it is good to see it on display in the big moments because it may eventually lead to change.