No sadness here. Although the Hawks suffered a tough loss to end their season, a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals Wednesday night, I can't fault the effort.
Detroit wins the series 4-1 and advances to meet the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Hawks will shave their playoff beards and reflect on a very good season.
After seven straight years of no playoffs, the Hawks took a giant leap forward this season. They won two postseason series, and they put up a good fight against the defending champion Red Wings. Although the series lasted just five games, three went to overtime. That shows the Hawks are closing the gap between themselves and the NHL's top team.
Here's the reaction tonight from Hawks captain Jonathan Toews, courtesy of Sun-Times reporter Len Ziehm:
"We'll never be happy with the way we played because we didn't win,'' Toews said. ''But every guy on the team layed it on the line. They all tried to contribute everything they could. Unfortunately it wasn't enough.''
Not this year, but if the Hawks continue on this path there's no reason to think they won't be back in this spot again next year. And next time, they'll have the valuable experience they were lacking in this matchup with Detroit.
Even goaltender Cristobal Huet, who I bitch about all the time, gave a helluva performance in Game 5. Like Toews said, it just wasn't enough. For now, I can live with that. Thank you, Hawks, for a excellent season of hockey. It's been a long time since we Hawk fans have had this much fun.
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