Chicago Blackhawks Options

[aek66]

i agree with you and goonis, i think we each have a different opinion of what is actual quality/level of comfort for lines 3 & 4...for the regular season and then the playoffs.

losing john madden created 2 holes, as we lost a legitimate center and then lost a quality winger (sharp) in the process...as sharp was played at center to make up for madden's departure. that speaks to your (and goonis') points about losing depth...for the season and more importantly, a playoff quality 3rd line center.

in last year's playoffs, 4th line center colin fraser sat for most of the playoffs after playing 70+ games in the regular season. the hawks in the playoffs rolled toews/bolland/madden as centers of 3 lines and that's quality.

last year's pp against vancouver saw byfuglien create chaos in front of luongo, this year...the hawks are trying back-door tip-ins once they set up. the coaches can tell then until they are blue in the face to get shots on net, stand in front of luongo..but if they get that idea of pretty goals in their minds..not much you can do.

i read the hawks will have $8+ million cap space available for 2011-2012 with these players potentially freeing up space as restricted/unrestricted free agents (campoli $1.4 mil, frolik $1.275 mil, kopecky $1.2 mil, brouwer $1.025 mil, stalberg $850k, johnson $500k...then both goalies; turco $1.3 mil, crawford $800k).

i think that kopecky/stalberg/turco ($3.3 mil) are gone while crawford will get a chunk of the money saved by letting those guys leave. doesn't leave much for any big free agent center; so a ben smith/markus kruger/jeremy morin (mystery shoulder injury playing in world juniors)/kyle beach/brandon pirri might get roster spots.

[CPAO]

the only big name C is Brad Richards and he will be looking at getting 5-7 mil. You guys can have Gomez for a bag of pucks and some tape.

[aek66]

yeah, i'd have to take a look at a list of available centers...

i know that curtis glencross on the flames is an ufa and if the hawks take a pass on resigning left wingers pisani & stalberg & kopecky, i'd really like to see the hawks sign him...i rate him. wouldn't mind LW depth chart of sharp/glencross/morin/bickell.

glencross would probably ask for close to $2 mil and that would just about take us back to the cap.

i was/am also a fan of wisniewski and i think you guys only have him through this year. one way or the other, he'll be expensive and if campoli stays, no way we go after another expen$ive defenseman.

- i heard if lidstrom retires, detroit will have 3 zillion dollars to gobble up talent. look out..

- no thanx on gomez...a few years ago i would have tried to get d-man and pp specialist streit from you guys.

[CPAO]

Wiz is only signed until the end of the season yesterday lol. Its going to be tought to resign him because he put up a lot of points for us and will demand a lot, factoring that Markov , Gill and Georges are also UFA's. Hoping Markov stays at a discount due to being injured for most of the last 2 seasons.

[Ziaka]

Blackhawks start the playoffs against Phoenix Coyotes either Wednesday or Thursday.

Hopefully Toews will rejoin the team soon as he will be needed down the stretch.
Go Hawks!!!

[biganj]

We need to play a more physical game (especially our defensemen) and actually score on our powerplays.

Our 3rd and 4th lines are not strong and it will be up to 1st two lines to carry the load.

GO HAWKS!

[aek66]

the D-corps can't play physically and we saw the johnny canucks virtually beat the hawks' D-men to a pulp last year in the playoffs.

i think oduya was a God-send, but you'll still see keith relying on his stick and skating ability (how did that work out on detroit's tying goal last saturday?) and i'm fully prepared to see the overpaid hjarlmasson ($3.5 mill per year) turn his body away from 50-50 pucks/physical encounters on the half-boards and behind the net and use his stick to poke at pucks. the hawks matched the sharks offer sheet in 2010 because of hjalmasson's offensive abilites. what abilities? he rarely sees power play time and the hawks still use the failed - use a winger as a pointman - philosophy on the power play.

given all that, alot falls on crawford and who knows? great in shoot-outs, too bad it's playoff time and that attribute means zero now. too many soft goals to be very confident of advancing.

i think we'll advance.

- toews is a toss up. i guess he really got his eggs scrambled. i wonder if q would actually consider using him only on defensive zone face-offs and dressing 1 less d-man. the lack of physicality really shows up when d-zone face-offs are lost. 5x5 we are the better hockey club. if the power play does it usual malakia of trying to pass the puck into the net and crawford lets in a few soft goals, all bets are off.

[Ziaka]

Toews is expected to play tonight in the first game of the series.

GO Hawks.

[aek66]

tough result to stomach. once again, the club outshoots/outchances an opponent and lose due to a few moments of mental madness.

no real fault on crawford, poor games from oduya/hjalmarsson and o'donnell. o'donnell can't play anymore anyways, oduya looked nervous and should bounce back while the hammer was brutal. seabrook and keith looked like their 2010 selves.

the offense relied on toews with cuckoo-clock noises going off in his head for offense. good to see bolland come to life for his annual playoff renaissance and shaw came ready to play. hossa and kane were so-so, while someone needs to wake up the "all-star mvp" in sharp and tell him the playoffs started. unbelievably streaky player...when he's off, he's invisible and a liability.

the boys were poor in the face-off dot - we got into a lot of trouble losing defensive zone face-offs, got to do better. i think toews will get his timing back quickly.

the power play looked better with seabrook/oduya at the points. unfortunately, they play with 2nd & 3rd line forwards (kruger on the power-play???) for that 2nd power play minute. get sharp off the point. the hawks with mike kitchen will re-invent power play strategy with 5 forwards on the ice. good job, guys...haven't had enough of hossa/kane/keith trying to pass the puck into the net?

i think o'donnell is a scratch on sat and i prefer lepisto to the slow olsen. i also think that bollig will sit and frolik to take his place.

- so far, so good. playoff hockey. i can't believe that weber didn't get suspended.

This post has been edited by aek66: Apr 13 2012, 08:27 AM

[Ziaka]

Like you said the game was lost in our inability to win defensive zone faceoffs and getting the puck out of our zone. On the first Coyotes goal, we could not clear the zone for close to 2 minutes and it was only matter of time before they capitalized. Our lack of not converting on the power plays did not help either.

If we can improve our power play and get the puck out of our zone more efficiently, I think we have a chance to steal one in the desert. It will also help if the injury to Vrbata prevents him from rejoining the Coyotes soon.

[aek66]

absolutely.

i saw kane on the news with the old cliche talking about the power play: "we have to keep it simple...".

yeah, ok. you're one the biggest culprits who complicates matters doing figure-eights with the puck instead of getting shots on net.

the blackhawks are a hockey club that plays every 5x4 power play like it's a 5x3. too much perimeter passing with the purpose of passing the puck into the net. kane, hossa, sharp and keith are THE biggest culprits. keith and sharp are two pointmen who refuse to take shots from the point and always look to abandon the point, sneaking in to the far post...looking for the tap-in after 74 passes.

very irritating to watch. they want to play like the russians of the 1970's....when playoff hockey sees lots of garbage goals off rebounds or deflections. no rebounds/re-directs if you don't shoot the puck.

[aek66]

another late goal and lady luck turned it's back on phoenix.

the stiffs came through as the star players sputtered. when shaw leveled smith (embellished just a tiny bit), i had visions of dirk graham doing the same to jon casey of minnesota and the great 1st round collapse of a president's trophy winning club back in 1990-1991.

so far, so good, for crawford. the coyotes seem to be playing optimally (despite losing top players for amounts of time) and they have 2 o.t. games against a superior club to show for this colossol effort. the gap in offensive talent is wide and i say optimally - despite getting outshot 11-2 when phoenix scored to make it 1-1. as hawks fans, we have to accept this reality, we don't have brodeur or hasek in goal.

the backline fluctuated a bit from game 1 - hjalmarsson was better (personal battle with doan) and oduya wasn't as awful as game 1...though keith had a sub-par game and lepisto was very rusty. leddy is young and still learning, though defensively, he had a creme-puff preformance.

the creme-puff play doesn't help when the hawks defense corps are not very physical to begin with.

seabrook the best hawk defenseman in the 2 phoenix games.

the stiffs bailed out the star players and those star players better take their cues. if the hawks are relying on the bickells and bolligs to win this series, good night.

on the power play - when bolland's shot rebounded and bickell swatted in the 1st goal of the game, the $109 sears suit was more fashionable than the $2,000 hugo boss suit. shoot the puck. shoot the puck. shoot the puck.

[Ziaka]

Did not see the send half of the game, but my phone was overheating with the constant updates during the midnight mass at St. D's in Elmhurst. Caught the highlites later.

I like this kid Shaw. We really need somebody like him to throw his weight around. Agree about Seabrook. He has been great so far.

I think we are in the drivers seat going forward. All we need to do is win our home games and then wait for the next opponent. Speaking of that, I am quite suprised how easily the Canucks are being disposed of by the Kings. Not that I am not happy about that.

[Ziaka]

Shaw giot a 3-game suspention for his hit on the Coytes goalie.

I wonder what will happen to Torres who leveled Hossa with a shoulder with his feet leaving the ice when he hit him. Hossa had to be carried out on a stretcher. Hopefuly his injury is not as serious as it looked. Torres did not even get a penalkty for this hit.

BTW it's 1:0 Hawks after the first period.

[Giourkas]

^Torres should be suspended for the rest of the playoffs. Its exactly a year to the day he knocked out Seabrook while playing for Vancouver... Dirty player with history... He needs to be punnished severely...

[aek66]

Shaw giot a 3-game suspention for his hit on the Coytes goalie.

I wonder what will happen to Torres who leveled Hossa with a shoulder with his feet leaving the ice when he hit him. Hossa had to be carried out on a stretcher. Hopefuly his injury is not as serious as it looked. Torres did not even get a penalkty for this hit.

BTW it's 1:0 Hawks after the first period.

i hope you're right about hossa - i guess he was knocked out when his head hit the ice and he came to, a minute or so later.

as far as the game, i got to give kudos to phoenix and tippett has got it right. puck in deep - forecheck the hell out of chicago's soft d-corps.

leddy looks like a little kid when he has to defend. he won't hit anything and easily gets seperated from puck (goal #1), while hjalmasson did his usual 'turn body in corner to avoid hit and try to softly poke the puck' (o.t. game winner) and crawford took 3 games to allow a softie...killer goal. inexcusable.

nightmare scenario and this is phoenix, not st. louis...30 point a year forwards are blasting our d-corps and pinning us in our own zone for 80 seconds at a time. brutal.

seabrook is world-class, keith is sublime with stick and on his skates...they can manage. the rest are just too soft in their own zone. some offensive upside to oduya/leddy, but they, along with hjalmasson are current defensive liabilities. too early to tell about #1 pick olsen, but at this time, looks a tad on the slow side for a #1.

frolik was fantastic and now with no hossa, not sure if the hawks will go with morrison or use a pirri, maybe even a jeremy morin?

^Torres should be suspended for the rest of the playoffs. Its exactly a year to the day he knocked out Seabrook while playing for Vancouver... Dirty player with history... He needs to be punnished severely...

agreed. i believe you're correct and torres will get hit severely.

[RED DEVIL]

Here`s a little '2010 Chicago montage' from CBC the coolest canadian tv station that traditionally televises stanley cup playoffs. Unfortunately the current Chicago/Phoenix series is televised by TSN and not CBC so no cool promo montage for the Chicago series right now. Hopefully Chicago go through and CBC televises the next round.. you know very well what I will be posting for all of you

Always fun to watch an original 6.. especially CBC.. goes all out on the promos

open the volume.. good luck to the Blackhawks..

[Ziaka]

Hossa left the hospital and is recuperating at home according to an official announcement by the Blackhawks. He has been ruled out for Thursday's game.

Torres has been suspended pending a hearing with the league.

[PPFRESH]

Dirty hit, no doubt. But the floodgates were opened up by the hit put on Mike Smith. Tit for tat. Mike Smith has been dominant over the Hawks, so there is no denying that the hit was intentional. Hossa got rocked. If it was a bigger name star without a history, the league may have overlooked it, but it was a terrible hit.

[aek66]

Here`s a little '2010 Chicago montage' from CBC the coolest canadian tv station that traditionally televises stanley cup playoffs. Unfortunately the current Chicago/Phoenix series is televised by TSN and not CBC so no cool promo montage for the Chicago series right now. Hopefully Chicago go through and CBC televises the next round.. you know very well what I will be posting for all of you

Always fun to watch an original 6.. especially CBC.. goes all out on the promos

open the volume.. good luck to the Blackhawks..

nice stuff, i also like the same cheesy montages - gets one into the spirit; especially if your club is playing.

don't like cuthbert & johnson? i also like and would prefer cbc coverage (though i prefer tsn studio analysis), but hughson is so pro-vancouver, though he tries not to show it. doesn't look like the canucks will make the next round, so, sad days for hughson.

is bob cole still broadcasting? it seems he'd always arrange a canadiens game to make an early bed time, i beleive.

we have quality t.v. broadcasters in chicago, though the play-by-play guy seems to be a bit more reserved in criticism, after getting his job back. olcyk is also very good - wears his heart on his sleeve for the blackhawks, without being sappy about it.