Chi-Town Stand Up!

Just when you think it's okay to cue the laughter at the city of Chicago, you best check yourself.

In most cases, after the Bulls series loss to the Celtics, Windy City'ers would have no where to go but Wrigley Field to cheer on the Cubs until September (as much as it pains me to say it) or the woeful White Sox who can't seem to get out of the AL Central cellar once occupied by the Royals.

But in the words of Lee Corso, "Not So Fast My Friend". 

In 2009, Chicago has/can/will keep their red and black on because they have a hockey team that is torching the Western Conference on their way to the Finals to await the Detroit/Anaheim winner.

Listen, if you haven't seen the Blackhawks play yet, I can't blame you. Even I can't say I've seen them more than a few times all season. It's hard enough to catch a regular season game on television if you don't have Versus, and evidently even harder in playoff time. 

But I've done my best to keep up with what's going on on the frozen surface. And like I said from day 1 (believe it or not), if anybody is going to knock off the Red Wings from the Western Conference mantle, it will be the Chicago Blackhawks. 

This team continues to impress. Just when I thought the Vancouver Canucks could be the surprise team to beware of (crushing my St. Louis Blues in a clean 4-0 sweep), Chicago resiliently slides Vancouver out of the way and now has some time to wait on a Conference Finals opponent. 

You can look at the regular season or the playoffs as far as statistics are concerned. But either way you boil it, the result is the same- impressive.

Regular Season - (League Rank)

Goals Per Game: 4th

Goals Against Per Game: 5th

Playoffs - (League Rank)

Goals Per Game: 2nd

Goals Against Per Game: 10th (5 of which remain alive)

Then there are the individual statistics. 

Patrick Kane is 4th in the Playoffs with 8 goals. Martin Havlat and Patrick Sharp each have 5, while Jonathan Toews and Dave Bolland aren't far behind with 4 a piece. Kris Versteeg and Brian Campbell are among the leaders with 7 assists. 

Sure there are some question marks that loom over the future of the 'Hawks and just how far they can go, but they are slowly being answered.

Coming into the playoffs they were 3rd in the league in OT losses. So far in the playoffs, 2 OT games and 2 OT victories.

The power play and penalty killing percentage points were mediocre at best prior to the playoffs. But through 12 games, they are leading all teams in power play with 29.4% and a penalty kill of nearly 80%- which is pretty good when you consider Chicago is widely considered one of the roughest teams in the NHL, leading all remaining teams with 189 penalty minutes through the playoffs.

And that's exactly why they will be so hard for Detroit, assuming they slide past the Ducks, to defeat in the conference finale. Detroit is like the San Antonio Spurs or Los Angeles Lakers of hockey. They strive on finesse, speed, and the transition game from blue line to blue line. The Blackhawks...think more along the lines of the early 2000 Detroit Pistons (or if we wanna go way back, the Bad Boys in general). You'll get shots, but the minute after you rip it, you're going to get hit...hard. They are fast up front, but like a brick house on defense. They have a great mix of young talent, but have a veteran at the one position you need one most- goalie, Nikolai Khabibulin. 

Other than the Hurricanes, it's tough to find a team playing better. And so long as they don't have to meet the Penguins (who in my eyes is the best team left in all areas of the game) in the Finals, I dare say Chicago just may bring home a new friend...Lord Stanley himself.