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Darryl Sutter never let this happen. Neither did Mike Keenan, Orval Tessier, or Eddie Johnston. It never happened with Ed Belfour in goal, or Murray Bannerman, or Tony Esposito. It never happened while Dirk Graham was captain, or Terry Ruskowski, or Keith Magnuson.

No, it took the special blend of talent and heart in the 1997-98 Blackhawks to break the longest postseason streak in professional sports.

Do you remember 1969? I don't. People tell me that the Cubs were pretty good and that you could have sex with whomever you wanted. Well, that bygone era was the last time the Hawks missed the NHL playoffs.

Granted, their playoff performance in those 28 intervening years was nothing legendary: two finals appearances and a bunch of first-round exits. But those Hawks teams were spared the ignominy of actually failing to qualify for the NHL playoffs.

How could this have happened, you ask? How could this once proud (or at least respectable) franchise have sunk so low? Perhaps a short trip back in time could help sort things out. Sherman, set the WABAC machine for July, 1997...

As it becomes clear that Chris Gratton will never play for Phil Esposito again, several clubs consider making a run at the big, young, talented center. The Blackhawks have long needed a big guy in the middle who can score, and they set their sights on Gratton.

However, instead of signing the restricted free agent to an offer sheet, GM Bob Murray spends days on the phone with Esposito trying to work a trade. Rumor has it that backroom meddling by Bill Wirtz and GM Emeritus Bob Pulford, both still uneasy with this newfangled free agency, are restricting Murray's options. By the time an agreement is supposedly reached, Philadelphia has tendered Gratton an offer, and the Hawks are out of the loop. After a slow start to the season, Gratton racks up 61 points and 159 penalty minutes for the Flyers.

If we can just slide the WABAC indicator up to October 1, we can see another bad front-office decision jump up and bite the Blackhawks as their season opens with a Jeremy Roenick-ful loss to Phoenix. Roenick assists on two goals and puts the exclamation point on the victory in the third period by simply undressing Chris Chelios before beating Jeff Hackett to make the score 5-2. Roenick's trade counterpart, Alexei Zhamnov, is held scoreless.

If we dawdled here for a while we could relive the next six losses in the Hawks' 0-7-0 start, including a 7-0 shutout at the hands of Belfour, now a member of the soon-to-be-President's-Trophy-winning Dallas Stars. But it's time to move on.

Perhaps a glance at November 11-16 would be instructive. The Hawks lose both ends of a home-and-home to the Toronto Maple Leafs, another Original Six team gone bad. The Hawks now account for one third of the Leafs win total for the season. On the following Sunday, the boys blow a 3-1 lead to Detroit, playing their most inspired game of the year so far, but settling for a tie.

Ah, November 25, I remember it well. What was originally thought to be a strained muscle in Bob Probert's shoulder turns out to be a torn rotator cuff, and Probie is out for the season. The enforcing duties are left to the undersized Jim Cummins -- who wins only one fight all season, the victory coming when he sucker-punches Anaheim's Mark Janssens -- and the "team toughness" promised by Craig Hartsburg to replace Probert never materializes. Probie attempts an inspiring early comeback during the stretch run, but the team is already too far gone.

Bad personnel decisions. Losses to inferior teams. Inability to win the close ones. No toughness.

All the signs of a team headed for a playoff absence were there early in the season, and little was done to correct them. And now the Blackhawk players, coaches, and executives find themselves wondering where they'll be at the start of next season.

Predictably, the end of this season brought promises of change from Messrs. Wirtz and Pulford. Whether anything concrete emerges from the rhetoric is open to question, but Hartsburg's job is almost certainly in danger.

While he appears to have support from the Chicago media and some players, he has unwisely antagonized captain Chris Chelios. Neither Hartsburg nor Chelios will publicly criticize the other, but sources say that the coach's attempts to reduce his star defenseman's ice time have caused tension, and that Hartsburg questions Chelios's off-ice leadership. And if the situation reaches "he goes or I go" levels, Hartsburg is gone.

Hartsburg himself has stressed the need for fundamental changes in the Hawks' makeup, consistently criticizing unnamed players who "don't give 100%" and publicly lamenting his own failure to take his star players to task during the disastrous season start.

If Hartsburg were GM, it appears that only Tony Amonte would be untouchable. "Tony shows up and works his butt off every night," the coach said. "I wish everyone had his effort and played with his passion." As it stands, the only people guaranteed a job with the Blackhawks next season are Chelios, Amonte, and Pulford.

Hawks fans, meanwhile, may consider the playoff vacation a blessing in disguise. As long as the Hawks continued to squeak into the postseason and lose respectably in the early rounds to Colorado or Detroit, there would be an excuse not to clean house. Now if Wirtz expects to fill the United Center with any regularity, he might have to make some bold moves.

The most anticipated of those moves would of course be the signing of Brett Hull. Throughout the season, Chicago scribes used Hull rumors to spice up slow news days, and even this publication reported that Hull was inquiring about downtown apartments in November. But the Golden Brett wants a mighty big contract, and throwing big money at star free agents is anathema to an old-timer like Dollar Bill. Still, the goal-starved Hawks desperately need a proven scorer (only Tampa Bay and Ottawa scored fewer goals this season).

Unfortunately, these Hawks need more skill AND more heart. In the past, when the Hawks were undertalented, they would regularly outwork and out-hit their opponents. As Wirtz put it: "Other teams used to walk out of Chicago saying 'Thank God we don't have to come back here for another three weeks.'" Now the Hawks don't scare anybody -- not with their skill, and not with their intensity.

Righting this ship seems like a tall order for one summer, and it may be a while before the Blackhawks start their next streak of consecutive playoff appearances.

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