I don't think they are thinking 'meh, im gonna half ass it in this one because we won the cup last year'. But I think its a possibility that they can't hit that same gear as last year for whatever reason. Last year was a dream season, and we managed to win the cup with a very very young team. I've said this before but when you are 23-24, a budding NHL star and you go out work your ass off and win the Cup, its like your greatest possible NHL achievement reached at such a young stage of your career, its tough to pick it back up 4 months later with the same intensity. The only thing that keeps teams like that on course is coaching and veteran leadership. The Hawks have a very young team still. There are some veterans but not enough in leadership roles. I don't think anyone is dogging it or anything. I think you can control 90% of your effort, but the last 10 percent comes from within and comes from the drive to achieve a goal. Sometimes, I think I see a bunch of Hawk players out there that figure they are going to have many more chances to win the cup. I dunno, I'm probably wrong, and the whole theory is laughable because its something you can't quantify. But one thing I've learned about sports over the last few years is that motivation (and coaching) is what seperates similarly taleted teams (and the deviation in talent for the middle 20 teams in the league is not big). So if I see a team that is not playing like I'd expect them to be, I can't help but think the team is not motivated for whatever reason.