Blackhawks were out of the POs for 4 years, then 96 points, followed by 79, 59, 61, 71, 88 and the rest is history.
Hawks didn't start rebuilding until blowing it up in 03-04
Season went down tubes quick with the GM (Mike Smith) fired in October, Daze injured in Oct missing most of season and Thibault injured in Nov missing most of season
They traded what little we had that people wanted
- Jon Klemm + 4th to Stars for 2nd round pick + D Stephan Robidas
- Steve Sullivan to Preds for two 2nd round picks
- Alexander Karpovtsev to Isles for 4th round pick (Hawks selected Niklas Hjalmarsson)
- Nathan Dempsey to Kings for 4th round pick
- Alex Zhamnov + 4th to you guys for a 2nd round pick (Hawks selected Bryan Bickell), Colin Fraser and Jim Vandermeer
After season they didn't renew contract of Brian Sutter
The Hawks at time actually thought Tyler Arnason, Mark Bell and Kyle Calder (The ABC line) were what they were going to build around going forward with Tuomo Ruutu... So yeah that was the actual plan
The 2001-02 Blackhawks had 96 Points in large part because Eric Daze looked like the next great power forward.
They had two pretty good lines actually that year (Mix or matching depending on how Sutter felt that night)
Calder-Zhamnov-Amonte
Daze-Nylander-Sullivan
And Thibault was playing great until his usual issues of losing weight thru season and struggling at end because Sutter would overplay him
I hated Brian Sutter coaching Hawks
Eric Daze. Now that’s a blast from the past.
I thought for sure when I went back and looked that would be a 20% Shooting year or something. Nope. He probably did play that well.
He was establishing himself as a star at that point and then his back issues destroyed his career
Ended up needing 3 back surgeries in a 5 year span and his comeback attempts all ended with him in pain/discomfort while trying to skate. He ultimately announced his retirement in 2010
6 years ago, he got a night in his honor at UC and got to say what he termed a proper final goodbye to fans and end of his career he didn't to go thru because of injuries
Lives out in Burr Ridge I believe