Black & blue

Kane’s no-show, lack of depth doom ’Hawks in shocking first-round upset

ONE goal in the playoffs for him last year. One goal in the playoffs for him this year.

First-round loss for his team last year in six games. First-round loss for his team this year in a four-game sweep.

But when Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said as he did on Saturday, in the wake of his team’s stunning first-round ouster by the Predators, that “everything is on the table,” you can be sure he was not talking about trading Patrick Kane, the winger who is responsible for the aforementioned puny production in each of the last two tournaments.

The autopsy will start with an examination of the Blackhawks’ top-heavy salary structure within a cap system meant to punish success, as if management had any choice other than to reward the players responsible for winning three Stanley Cups in six years beginning in 2010.

But it isn’t the salary structure under which Chicago allots a $10.5 million cap hit per to Kane and Jonathan Toews on top of $6.875 million to Brent Seabrook, $6 million to Corey Crawford, $5.538 million to Duncan Keith on a front-loaded deal that went into effect under the old CBA and $5.275 million to Marian Hossa, also on a front-loaded deal that has been outlawed under the current labor agreement.

It isn’t that depth rather than star power wins playoff games or Stanley Cups now, because for all of Pittsburgh’s impressive depth last season, the Penguins skated the Stanley Cup victory lap primarily because of Sidney Crosby. Who (and which) is why the Penguins could win it again this year.

But the stars have to produce, which neither Kane nor Toews could do in the series in which Dennis Rasmussen scored Chicago’s only even-strength goal in what became the first 8-1 firstround sweep in NHL history.

Kane scored 30 goals in 68 games in Chicago’s three Cup championship years. When the Blackhawks lost consecutive first-round series in 2011 and 2012, No. 88 scored one goal in 13 matches. Probably not a coincidence.

More than Kane’s production was missing against the Predators, that much is obvious. Supporting pieces were unable to supply the depth that had been a critical part of the team’s championship runs. The defense is a bit too thin. The cap system has inflicted pain the way it is intended on perennial contenders.

But as Bowman and his staff review the club’s demise following an unexpected 109-point season good for third overall in the NHL, there is no great need to overthink it.

The team’s most dynamic and productive player scored one goal. The team’s biggest stars — including Artemi Panarin and Ar- tem Anisimov — were rendered mute. That will do it to any team in the NHL the way it always has, even when there was no such thing as a salary cap.

Shea Weber has made more of an impact in the first round for Montreal against the Rangers than P.K. Subban did for the Habs against the Blueshirts in the 2014 conference finals, but the folks in Nashville are probably pretty satisfied with their end of the blockbuster swap of defensemen, wouldn’t you think?

So the Flames are gone after getting swept by the Ducks, which leaves Brian Burke’s teams in Anaheim, Toronto and now Calgary with one playoff series victory in nine years since the 2007 Stanley Cup championship in Orange County.

What is the market going to look like now for the Flames’ pending free agent goaltender Brian Elliott, who turned in a .880 save percentage with a 3.89 GAA in the first round, and with a glut of netminders that will include Ben Bishop, Steve Mason and Ryan Miller?

How much influence did assistant general manager Martin Brodeur have in the Blues’ decision to keep Jake Allen rather than Elliott after last year, and how much impact as the interim goaltending coach did Brodeur have on Allen turning around this season before carrying St. Louis to a 4-1 series victory over the Wild?

Columbus coach John Tortorella doesn’t need to overthink either following the Blue Jackets’ five-game defeat to the Penguins in which presumptive Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky turned in an arsonist-like .877, 4.02 performance.

If any team was more impressive in the first round than Nashville, then it was Pittsburgh, which didn’t seem to miss a beat despite missing Kris Letang, Carl Hagelin and Matt Murray.

The firing in Buffalo after just two years on the job represents a stunning fall from grace for Dan Bylsma, who not so long ago was at the top of the NHL coaching pyramid in Pittsburgh, but has now been dismissed twice within four years by separate organizations.