Dissecting the Blackhawks’ playoff demise — that’s hockey

This Blackhawks demise doesn’t demand an autopsy. A lengthy post-mortem will do.

You lose Game 7 when Troy Brouwer scores a greasy goal in the third period and Brent Seabrook hits two posts at the other end — that’s hockey. You lose four one-goal games in a series without home-ice advantage when two players hit both posts (Andrew Ladd did it in Game 3) and another had a puck an inch from crossing the goal line (Artem Anisimov in Game 4) — that’s hockey, too. The best team won.

“They’re a good hockey team,” Hawks forward Patrick Kane said of the Blues, who won Game 7 of their first-round series 3-2 on Monday night in St. Louis to oust the defending Stanley Cup champions. “I know they were looking for a long time to break through [after three consecutive first-round losses]. We were kind of worried about what we were going to do in here. [But] no matter who we were playing we thought we had a good chance to win. It’s just a disappointing, weird feeling right now.”

The Hawks were a flawed, salary-cap strapped team that certainly could have won this series, and reached the Stanley Cup Final. Instead, they were left to lament the little things that went wrong — like so many teams have done after losing to the Hawks in the last seven seasons.

So if you’re looking for culprits, here are a few to consider:

(1) Defensive depth: The Hawks never filled the hole left by veteran Johnny Oduya, but with Trevor van Riemsdyk playing better as the series ensued, a lack of depth ultimate made a difference. After veteran Michal Rozsival was benched after Game 4, coach Joel Quenneville turned to three players who spent at least half the season in Rockford or Europe for the three most critical games of the Hawks’ season: rookie Erik Gustafsson (41 regular-season games with the Hawks), rookie Viktor Svedberg (27) and David Rundblad (nine), who didn’t even warrant a bio in the team’s postseason media guide.

It made a difference in the end. Rundblad took an ill-advised slashing penalty early in the third period, robbing the Hawks of 2:00 of five-on-five time in a tie game. Gustafsson — who was chosen by Edmonton seven picks after defenseman Colton Parayko by the Blues in the 2012 entry draft — lost the puck as he started a rush, and the Blues turned it into Brouwer’s game-winner.

“Tough way to go out,” Quenneville said. “We had the perfect set-up there and we did exactly what we’re not supposed to do — or what we’re unaccustomed to doing — and it’s in our net. And it’s game, set, match.”

(2) Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane: The reality of the NHL in the salary-cap era is that highly paid players have an even greater responsibility to produce.

Kane, whose $10.5-million cap hit matches Toews, did that in a magnificent regular season. But he scored one goal in the playoffs — albeit a big one, the overtime winner in Game 5. Toews had six assists but did not score a goal in the playoffs. It’s the fourth time in 21 career postseason series he has not scored a goal, but the first in which the Hawks lost the series.

“We generated a ton of chances in the series, probably way more than we anticipated — maybe double the amount,” Quenneville said. “So we started getting to the goalie [Brian Elliott]. But he played solid in the series. Can’t complain about the generation of chances, be it off the rush or zone from everyone.”

(3) Teuvo Teravainen. The regression of the 21-year-old Finn was overshadowed by other issues in the playoffs, but a big disappointment in retrospect. Teravainen, who scored four goals and 10 points in 18 games in last year’s playoffs, was a versatile contributor in the 2015-16 regular season — 13 goals, 35 points in 78 games, averaging 15:21 of ice time. But he was virtually invisible against the Blues, with no goals and one point in seven games — averaging 12:05 of ice time. It’s hard to remember Teravainen even having the puck that often, much less a prime scoring opportunity. But he was credited with 13 shots on goal.

(4) The playoff format. Even in their Cup-winning seasons, the first round has been a warm-up for the Hawks, usually their worst of the playoffs. But the Hawks didn’t get a chance to ease their way in to this postseason. The Blues — who had the second-highest point total in the Western Conference — were the Hawks’ toughest first-round test since facing the top-seeded Canucks in 2011. And like this latest unpleasantness, the Hawks hit their stride too late and lost Game 7 on the road.

“In first-rounds, that felt like the conference finals,” Quenneville said. “That’s the division we’re in; the conference we’re in — the best in the game. We had the toughest match-up you could face in the first round. That’s the draw and we didn’t get it done.”

(5) The Hockey Gods. The Hawks have had their share of good fortune in the playoffs, but not this time — outside of the video review that nullified a Vladimir Tarasenko goal in Game 2 (not exactly a huge break — it was a close, but correct offsides call).

Each of the Hawks’ three previous first-round opponents lost key players to injury — the Wild in 2013 (goalie Niklas Backstrom), the Blues in 2014 (forward David Backes) and the Predators in 2015 (center Mike Fisher, defenseman Shea Weber), which helped the Hawks battle, sometimes slog, their way through. The Blues were intact and stayed intact. And then there were the double-post shots by Ladd and Seabrook and the close call on Anisimov. Those plays often have helped carry the Hawks through some tight spots. This time, they burned them. That’s hockey.

“I think in games we lost in this series, it seemed to be a story,” Toews said when asked about the Seabrook double-post in Game 7. “We mismanaged the puck and either got caught in long shifts or turned it over and they end up scoring.

“When we have the chances, they don’t quite go in. What can you do? Gotta give that group [the Blues] credit. But you also have to give this group of guys credit for the way they played, for giving ourselves a chance right to the end [of] this series.”