It wasn't supposed to be this way.

When the Chicago Blackhawks were assembled before the 2011-12 season, they looked like they had reloaded for another year of playing until Memorial Day and beyond.

In the end, tonight's game was a microcosm of the entire season, wasted opportunities and careless mistakes. The Chicago Blackhawks threw low shot after low shot at Phoenix Coyotes' goaltender Mike Smith, and Smith stopped all 39 Hawks shots, resulting in a 4-0 Coyotes win, ending the Blackhawks' season with a 4-2 Western Conference Quarterfinal series win.

Let's get to this:

THE GOOD:

I'll give it to the Coyotes, especially Smith. They played their game all series long, letting the Hawks punch themselves out for 30 minutes, then just waiting for the inevitable Chicago fuckup. Smith was absolutely unconscious, figuratively. He was never unconscious literally, but that's a topic for another day. Still, if it weren't for Smith, the Hawks would have had 4 or 5 goals in the first two periods tonight.

But they worked Dave Tippett's system perfectly all series long, letting Smith carry a big part of the load on the back end, while waiting for their opportunity. When I say "their opportunity", I mean "when Johnny Oduya, Niklas Hjalmarsson or Old Donald were on the ice".

THE BAD:

Everything wrong all season was wrong tonight. No bodies in front of the net, a brutal power play, all of Chicago holding their collective breath whenever any defensemen not named Keith or Seabrook were on the ice. The lack of a second line center - look, Marcus Kruger would be a rather nifty #3 center, but Dave Bolland is already there. Just plugging him into a 2 spot was a dumb idea when it started, showed a slight glimmer of life for a brief period, then just...no. This had better be a productive offseason for the front office, since a team with holes this large can muddle through a regular season and squeeze into the playoffs, but now that there's a banner in the rafters that still hasn't yellowed with age, just getting into the playoffs doesn't cut it anymore.

THE UGLY:

A long fucking offseason.

Go get 'em Coyotes.