The Kings make the Blackhawks look bad

Steve Rosenbloom of the Trib nails it: the longer the Kings hang around in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the worse the Blackhawks look- and the more depressing it becomes that GM Stan Bowman apparently doesn't have a clue.

The Kings are everything the present edition of the Hawks stopped being when they had to take that salary cap hit after winning the Cup two years ago: proficient on special teams, large and physically dominating, defensively competent, and possessed of above-average goaltending. But after two years of finishing back in the divisional pack and then being eliminated in the first round, Bowman apparently hasn't had it sink in yet that the problem with the Hawks isn't that they underachieve.

It's that ever since the championship, they've lacked the talent to be a geniune Stanley Cup contender. Moreover, they've lacked it at easily identifiable places which somehow don't seem to appear on the Bowman radar screen.

Here, meanwhile, are ten free agents we should target. Wanna bet on how many Bowman will land?