Hey, did you know the Chicago Blackhawks had a good season? Yep, won the Stanley Cup and everything. First time since 1961, or so I've heard.

They had two first team All-Stars too, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. First time since 1972, when Bobby Hull and Tony Esposito did it. Hell, we haven't even seen ONE Blackhawk since Chris Chelios in 1996.

Speaking of Chelios in 1996, it was also the last time a Blackhawk won the Norris Trophy before Duncan Keith was awarded the jug last night.

So it's all blue skies and clear sailing in Hawk-land right?

Yeah, my ass.

Two weeks after the Hawks skated their victory lap around Wachovia Center with the Cup, the championship bloom is off the rose. People who couldn't say or spell "Byfuglien" eight months ago are now mourning the greatest power forward to lace up skates since Gordie Howe. Here's what happened, he had a monster postseason - just like the Great Rob Druce. Remember regular season Byfuglien. Otherwise, you'll keep falling in love with the smoking hot girl in the bar and forgetting about the Wonderbra and industrial-strength pair of Spanx on the bedroom floor.

Look, everyone in the world knew the Hawks were between a rock and a hard place with the salary cap. They lose $4 million in cap space this year due to bonuses being paid out to Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. They entered the offseason over a barrel.

But you know what? They are also the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. Stan Bowman is earning his pay doing what every GM in the NHL has to do - assemble a team that fits within the salary rules. Hell, after the Dollar Bill/Bob Pulford era, being tight against the cap with quality players to trade was unthinkable. But be happy that's the price of winning the Cup, otherwise we'd all be walking funny after losing the left nuts we all said we'd give. Shit, even the bonus cushion automatically gives the Hawks tagging room for signing Brent Seabrook and Troy Brouwer to new deals at some point this season.

So what happened? Forget about the playoffs for just a second...the Hawks gave up their 10th-best scorer during the regular season, Dustin Byfuglien. They gave up a third-pair defenseman who is an exceptional shot blocker, but was making second pair money, Brent Sopel. They gave up a fourth-line restricted free agent forward they weren't keeping anyway, Ben Eager. Oh, and a former first-round draft pick who was so impressive this year that he got sent down from Rockford to Toledo, rather than up from Rockford to Chicago, Akim Aliu. Don't get me wrong, I'll be forever grateful to Buff, Sopel and Eager - yes, even Eager - for contributing to the Championship. But they didn't trade Kane, Toews and Keith here.

And even with being as deeply screwed as they were, Bowman managed to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. He got a first and second round pick, giving the Hawks 5 picks in the first two rounds. Let me repeat that...the Stanley Cup Champions have five picks in the first two rounds of the draft. If that was all they got, that would be enough. Then, they got Jeremy Morin, someone I wasn't really sold on before he got drafted (full disclosure: I'm still only about 85% sold), and only went on to help Team USA win the World Junior Championship, and get two hat tricks in the OHL playoffs this year. He's going back to Junior for another year, and is in the Team USA camp for another run at the WJC. So there's a very real chance the Hawks have a stud goal scorer looming on the horizon. Then they got Matt Reasoner, who will be the Hawks third or fourth line center, depending on what QStache does with Dave Bolland. Solid checker, better than 50% faceoff man. Replacing John Madden for almost $2 million less. Then they got Joey Crabb, who will have to listen to all the same "Crabs" jokes he's always heard, just in Rockford this year.

Here's the other thing - you hear Hawks fans talk a lot about how much this team sucked. The Hawks sucked hard for a long time. They also got very good very fast.

What does this mean? It means the Hawks are not only the best team in hockey with an assload of draft picks, but there's a whole shit-ton of young guys that were drafted with high picks in years past about to show up in the United Center. The Hawks will be able to welcome back some guys who looked pretty good in trial runs this past season, like Bryan Bickell and Jake Dowell. Not world-beaters, but it doesn't matter. The Hawks have plenty of those.

So every young guy like Kyle Beach, Shawn Lalonde or Jeremy Morin who shows up in the next couple years with the Bickells and Dowells won't have the pressure of having to be "The Man". The Men are already here. They're young, they're good, and they're Stanley Cup Winners. The combination of talent at the NHL level along with these prospects coming in a steady stream means that there won't be any significant talent drop-off for at least the next half decade. In fact, there's so many promising players, with so little need for them to carry any big load, that we might be looking at a run similar to the Detroit pre-lockout run.

So everyone just kill the fucking motor. More guys will go. It happens every Summer, and when you have a good team, you lose good players. With the reality of the salary cap, it's going to happen to every team. Fortunately though, this team has a good solid core - you've got three players in their twenties (Kane, Keith, Toews) who are already well on their way to having their numbers in the United Center rafters. There are others (Hossa, Campbell, Bolland) who are around for another 4 years at least. Patrick Sharp has at least two more years of handsomeness in a Hawks sweater.

So for the love of God, please keep the caterwauling to a minimum when Kris Versteeg gets dealt.