The Chicago Blackhawks finished 4th overall in scoring last season, and made it to the last 4 teams playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The next Stanley Cup they win will be their 4th.

See a pattern here? All Hawks' coach Joel Quenneville needs to do is figure out how to send out 4 forwards instead of three. Instead, as you see in our snappy headline, the four forward positions will be...screw it, I'm not typing it out again.

Bottom line is, the Hawks are sending 16 forwards who saw time in the NHL to training camp. 15 if you don't count Marian Hossa, the flashy free agent pickup from the offseason who will miss the first two months of the season. So 15 for 12 spots. That's not even including prospects like Akim Aliu, Kyle Beach, Igor Makharov, Evan Brophey or Bill Sweatt. Although, the simple fact is that only Aliu and Beach have a ghost's chance in Hell of making the club. The others are at least a year or two away.

Quenneville has the luxury, as he had last season, of being to roll out four lines, and have each line know their role and perform it ably. The only downfall is not everyone has completely bought into the philosophy of handling their defensive responsibilities - neither Patrick Kane nor Kris Versteeg are in any danger of clearing their mantels for Selke trophies any time soon. But, they are each very capable of filling the net - Kane had 25 regular season goals, along with 9 in the playoffs. Versteeg had 22 in the regular season, and added 4 playoff goals. Because of this, it's somewhat easier to look the other way on defensive lapses.

The Hawks picked up three new forwards, however, who are all solid on both ends of the ice. Bringing the Slovakian Lenny & Squiggy, Hossa, along with Tomas Kopecky, over from Detroit is one of those things GMs love doing - make your team stronger while making the team to beat weaker...OK, that really only applies to Hossa, Kopecky will be replaced pretty easily by Detroit. They also picked up John Madden to replace Sammi Pahlsson, giving the Hawks a designated face-off man in the defensive zone.

Faceoffs. Yeah, we have to mention them. The Hawks as a team sucked on faceoffs. Only Jonathan Toews and Pahlsson had any significant amount of faceoffs and finished better than 50%. Compare that to Detroit (as we must do with everything, since they're the team to beat until they're not any more) where they had 7 players last season with at least 100 faceoffs and faceoff percentages over 50%. The key to offense is puck control, and it starts with winning faceoffs. In order for the Hawks to move past the Wings, they need Dave Bolland to step up. Kopecky? He wasn't one of the 7 on Detroit. This is the most glaring deficiency for the forwards.

Now, let's talk depth. Here's how we basically see the lines winding up, once Hossa is in the fold:

Line 1 - Bobbleheads (Toews, Kane, Patrick Sharp)
Line 2 - Bolland, Hossa, Andrew Ladd
Line 3 - Madden, Dustin Byfuglien, Versteeg
Line 4 - Kopecky, Adam Burish, Ben Eager

LEFT OUT: Jack Skille, Colin Fraser, Jake Dowell, Troy Brouwer

Now, keep in mind - this is before Training Camp starts, and there still might be a trade in the works.

With Hossa out until December or so, one of the two biggest battles (along with backup goalie) in Training Camp will be for the Right Wing spot left vacant until Hossa returns. This means Skille and Brouwer. Last season, Skille made the team out of training camp, but got sent back to Rockford in order to make cap space for Cam Barker. Skille is basically Brouwer with more speed and better hands.

Now, the Hawks have 2 players who scored over 30 goals last season (Toews and Hossa), and with Sharp scoring 26 while missing 25% of the season, he's a safe bet to score 30 if he's healthy. He also led all NHL Playoff players in castrations after spearing Niklas Lidstrom in the Swedish Meatballs. Not only that, he's a handsome man.

A very handsome man.

Toews is the Captain, rightly so. While it's fairly certain that the first time Toews goes pointless for a couple games, our pal the Wizard of Roz will start in with "Toews is too young to be Captain! Sign Chelli! Trent Yawney!", he's the leader of this club.  Besides, he already owned up to pressing early last season due to the Captaincy. By season's end, he was far and away the best forward on the Hawks. Besides, maybe only Pavel Datsyuk can go forehand/backhand/forehand/roof shot better than Toews. He's the one we'll tel lour grandkids about.

Kane, offseason garbage notwithstanding, needs to show himself to be better than a 25-goal scorer. With Toews, Hossa and Sharp (a very handsome man) ready to average a goal every other game or so, it's time for him to become the elite scorer everyone is certain he can be. And keep the damn mouthpiece in  your mouth - you look goofy with it hanging out. Or does Johan Franzen need to spike it to the ice again?

Hossa's signing is basically a trade for Martin Havlat. As great as Havlat was last season up (until Niklas Kronwall answered once and for all the question, "What does a pancake hit look like?"), the fact is Hossa is bigger, stronger, and a better all-around hockey player. While we certainly lose the perfection that is Havlat's beard, here's hoping at least one Hawk steps up and gives us a glorious moustache in the tradition of Dirk Graham. I'm looking at you, Toews. Put Minoxidil on your lip if you have to.

The size up front is Hossa, along with Byfuglien, Eager and Bolland. Byfuglien gave us a glimpse of what he's capable of late in the season, especially in the Vancouver series. He was able to parlay that performance into a spot in the Team USA Training Camp. If he can continue to channel Tomas Holmstrom, there's hope for him being a decent NHL forward.

Early last season, the Hawks had a little problem with role assignment, with Adam Burish as the 195-pound enforcer, and Ben Eager as the 225-pound instigator. They got it right once Quenneville came on board. Youngsters like Kyle Beach and Akim Aliu are still a year away, but they will add a lot of toughness once they show up.

The Hawks' forwards are their biggest strength, faceoffs notwithstanding. There's every chance they can lead the NHL in scoring in the coming season, and their depth means they can absorb an injury or two and still press an effective attack night in and night out.

When the United Center lights up this season, these will be the men throwing the switch.