thedatsyukian

Leino is having a miserable game. He looks like a toddler amongst lumberjacks.

This. Datsyuk has not looked dangerous tonight while Bert and Homer have... what the hell is going on.

I'm pretty sure it has less to do with him leaving as it does who he left for. Impact player turning around and signing long term with your biggest divisional rival... owie.

That's when you know you're reaching for the bottom of the barrel for a net presence.

:puke:

Son of a *****. Taking on maybe the most potent offense in the Nhl with 2 out of your top 6 defesemen is call for concern.

I see zero point in calling up Ritola if he's going to play on the fourth line which hasn't been a problem at all this season. How much are his offensive skills really going to matter when the players around him are Maltby and May? Secondly, I think we lose this in ugly fashion again unless Datsyuk has an incredible game as the team basically rests on his shoulders. We're going to live and die at the hand of Datsyuk until more people return from injuries.

Yes, before the season I expected Leino to be the next Selanne. My exact words.

Seconded

It seems the near unanimous decision is a goal scoring winger. Tyler Toffoli http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=115633 He probably fits the bill best and may be around by the time we draft assuming we finish in the 16-20 range. Most rankings/mock drafts I've seen have him going at around 16/17 although a strong finish to his season will bolt him up the board quick.

You're setting yourself up for disaster. Bertuzzi is a streaky scorer and chances are he's going to go on another extended scoring drought again.

If I'm not mistaken I believe that next year is Ritola's contract year so they're probably trying to see what exactly they have in him before they handle that this off-season. He's an investment and they want to make sure that their investment isn't wasted.

Ritola has the potential to be an important piece of the team where as chances are that Newbury is a career Ahler. Ritola - 22 Newbury - 27

It's this simple. Ritola's upside > Newbury's upside

So your point is that Detroit having a healthy lineup wouldn't matter because we won the first match when he had a healthy lineup. Terrific point. Join a debate team.

Eh. Ritola is having yet another mediocre season so perhaps this is to assess where he's at in his progression? Otherwise you would think there are better options to call up.

Yeah, I'm far more sour about the Dallas loss that this one. We should have won that game without question.

I liked seeing the fire in Bert and Abdel.

Did anyone expect anything else? Look at our second line... they barely have more career points between the 3 of them than Datsyuk has had in a single season.

I expected to get blown out. Looks like we're well on our way.

I have an interesting update on this for people interested. I had my first person correctly say that neither player was even in the league yet but the answer he gave afterwords is nothing short of genius - Chris Chelios. So I told him he was right and enjoyed listening to him brag to his friends about his immense hockey knowledge as we walked away. "That ****** wings fan must feel like a jackass". Jokes on you my friend, jokes on you. Blackhawk fans are now 0-15. My colleague is going to the game tonight so he's going to keep track of how many answers he gets.

You'll never escape it. I'm actually posting from a hotel in Chicago right now and let me tell you, you CAN'T escape it. I have a standard question that I ask every Blackhawk fan when they say they aren't bandwagoners. Who led your team in points in the 06-07 season Kane or Toews? Not one person out of the now 11 people have said the right answer. Neither player was even in the league yet.

We all call him flintstone. Take one look at the guy and it becomes pretty obvious why.