Rahul Sharma (Editor)

1983–84 Chicago Black Hawks season

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Division
  
4th Norris

1983–84 record
  
30–42–8

Road record
  
5-29-6

Conference
  
8th Campbell

Home record
  
25-13-2

Goals for
  
277

Offseason

The Black Hawks had a fairly quiet off-season, however, the club did complete a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. Chicago traded defenceman Doug Crossman and the Black Hawks second round draft pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft to the Flyers for defenceman Behn Wilson. Wilson had spent his entire five year career with Philadelphia, and in the 1982-83 he had eight goals and 32 points in 62 games, as well as accumulating 92 penalty minutes.

Contents

At the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, Chicago selected defenceman Bruce Cassidy from the Ottawa 67's of the OHL with their first round draft pick. Cassidy appeared in 70 games with Ottawa, scoring 25 goals and 111 points. In the tenth round of the draft, the club selected goaltender Dominik Hasek.

Regular season

The Black Hawks got off to a solid start, going 7-3-0 in their first ten games, however, Chicago would win one of their next seven games to fall below the .500 mark with an 8-9-0 record. The Hawks continued to struggle, as they team had trouble scoring goals, as they limped their way to a 30-42-8 record, earning 68 points, and the fourth and final playoff position in the Norris Division, seven points ahead of the fifth place Toronto Maple Leafs. Chicago's point total was 36 fewer than the previous season, and the 271 goals that they scored ranked them 19th in the league.

Denis Savard led the club with 37 goals, a career high, and with 94 points, however, that was a 27 point drop off from the previous season. Steve Larmer had 35 goals and 75 points while appearing in all 80 games. Doug Wilson led the Black Hawks defence, scoring 13 goals and 58 points, and Bob Murray had 11 goals and 48 points. Behn Wilson led the team with 143 penalty minutes.

In goal, Murray Bannerman became the number one goalie, going 23-29-4 with a 3.38 GAA and a .887 save percentage in 56 games. Tony Esposito became the backup, as he had a 5-10-3 record with a 4.82 GAA and a .859 save percentage in 18 games.

Final standings

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Minnesota North Stars 3, Chicago Black Hawks 2

The Black Hawks opened the playoffs with a best-of-five Norris Division semi-final series against the Minnesota North Stars, who finished the season with the best record in the division at 39-31-10, earning 88 points, which was 20 more than the Black Hawks. Chicago had eliminated the North Stars from the playoffs during the previous two seasons, in 1982 and 1983. The series opened with two games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Hawks, led by two third period goals by Al Secord and 34 saves by Murray Bannerman stunned the North Stars and took the first game by a 3-1 score. Despite heavily outshooting and outplaying the Black Hawks in the second game, Minnesota and Chicago were tied at three after two periods. In the third period, the North Stars put the game away, scoring three times, en route to a 6-5 win and tying the series at 1-1. The series shifted to Chicago Stadium for the next two games, and the North Stars easily handed the Black Hawks a 4-1 loss in the third game to take the series lead. In the fourth game, Chicago's Troy Murray scored a late third period goal, helping the Hawks to a 4-3 victory, and force a fifth and deciding game back in Minnesota. In the fifth game, the North Stars Dennis Maruk led the way with two goals, as Minnesota defeated Chicago 4-1 and eliminated the Black Hawks.

Regular season

Scoring
Goaltending

Playoffs

Scoring
Goaltending

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
      MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts;

References

1983–84 Chicago Black Hawks season Wikipedia