Supertack

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/Stories/2015/SEP22/Kane.html

Absolutely agree. From this Hawk fans perspective it would far and away be the best Cup of any Eastern team. That series would be epic, and it has a legit chance of happening this year....

Rolling Stones play the UC on Friday night.

Columbus won't make it in. Not enough games vs too tough of competition. Dallas is your only worry, but both teams have 2 games that wash (vs Van, vs LA) in terms of schedule. From this vantage point, it looks like game 48 determines who goes.

They've got an excuse for being bad for so long.

Most teams with periods of sustained success will go through periods of down years. The key is to limit those years. Detroit has done that remarkably well the last 20 years, but definately had some lean times in the 70s and 80s. I dunno that those bad years were a spring board for the success they've had since, as the draft is much more important now than it was then, but your team has also been privy (because of their success) to being a destination spot for high profile free agents as a result. This is the thing, you can piss on the Hawks all you want because the had a downtrodden decade and stocked up with good players as a result, but keep in mind when Chicago was going deep into the playoffs every year in the 80s, the Wings were completely off the map. It goes in cycles, and most seasoned hockey fans know that.

If you look at the remaining schedules for the Wings, Preds, & Avalance, there is no reason why your boys don't move up to 6th, with Nashville and Colorado finishing 7th & 8th respectively. I wouldn't even worry about Calgary, they still have Boston, Washington, Phoenix, Colorado, Chicago, San Jose, & Vancouver left on their schedule, are 4 pts back and have played 1 more game. That team is done.

Toews, Kane, & Keith will all get deals similar to Hossa. Really long terms with similar cap hits. Rational would suggest that although young & talented, Toews and Kane are not proven like to the extent of Hossa, & therefore would accept similar yearly amounts. Say the Hawks offer Toews & Kane 15-18 year deals at 4-5 mil a season. The total contract would be between 60-90 million for players who would still only be in their late 30's when it expires. Hossa just signed a 62 million dollar contract & has had 100pt season, & 2 SC appearences. However, with cap hits of 4-5 mil per year for Toews, Kane, Hossa, & Keith it leaves the team with enough room to fill the rest of the roster.

Speculation is that Khabibulin may have re-injured a groin (injury from earlier in the season) on Detroits OT game winner in game 2. It may have been masked a little in game 3 before your team decided to turn up the heat in the 2nd period.

Sorry, not road attendance, the Hawks led the league in TOTAL attendance.

Q's a good coach, & a stablizing presence for a young team. He's gotten a lot more outta them than the "rah, rah" Denis Savard, or Trent Yawney was able to. The Wings just have more talent on their roster. Put Q on Detroit & Babcock on the Hawks, & I don't think it changes much.

Intelligent. Why don't you go photo copy your ass cheeks, or have a spit wad fight in the frat house while your at it. Why is big ratings for this series even a surprise? First off, the Hawks led the league in road attendance this season, & set a record for home attendance, so their obviously a draw. Then you got them matched with the defending Cup champion, a fierce rival, & division opponent in a Conference Final. I wouldn't expect anything different.

"Defeated" no, dejected yes. Look, he knows damn well what the Wings are all about. As it's been illustrated over, & over again, he has always had a problem with your team in the playoffs. He also got enough Wings up his ass in the 6 meetings of the regular season to know what you can & can't do against them. Being ready to play & compete, & being able to win are two different things. The thing about your team is, they don't make mistakes, & they always seem to capitalize on their opponets mistakes. The Hawks had them on the run the first 10 minutes of the 1st period, & if not for a couple breaks (cross bar, re-direct open net) it coulda been 3-0. However, Cleary jumps on a turnover, & scores a goal that shoulda NEVER gone in, & it's 1-1. Vintage Red Wings. That's what they do, & the Hawks have been privy to it for a while. I don't wanna change gears, but this goes all the way back to the '95 Western Conference Finals. The Hawks didn't trail the Wings more than 20 minutes of that entire series; however they lost in 5 games thanks to (3) OT losses, two being double OT. Your team certainly makes the most of it's opportunities, & it really gets annoying gettin' beat by the same team every year.

Nope, just saying that the Hawks can play the physical game, & have done it better than their competition in the playoffs. As for the goaltending, Khabibulin has been up to the task when it counted. If you were to rank Osgood, Hiller, Khabibulin, & Louongo in order of being able to stand out in a playoff game, I'd put Khabibulin right with Hiller (behind Osgood), with perhaps a slight edge going to Bulin concidering he has won a Cup. Louongo is dog s*** in the playoffs.

I kept hearing this mantra of 'style of play'. I'm assuming the reference is in regard to lacking the physical presence that the Ducks almost took your boys out with. Well folks, the Flames play a physical game. They were supose to out muscle & hit the Hawks back to Chicago. Obviously didn't happen, as the Hawks adapted to that style. Vancouver (who was more physical than Calgary) was REALLY supose to run over the Hawks. They wound up taking more of the beating, which in turned opened up neutral zone ice. I think your gonna be surprised how physical the Hawks have become. This isn't the same team you saw in the Winter Classic.

Gentlemen, it's not a hard concept to understand. Your team has been the jewel of the NHL the last decade, ours has been the dog s*** in the back yard. Yours has beaten us pretty handily, ours has stuggled to beat the likes of Nashville & Columbus. Yours has raised the Cup 4 times in the last 7 years, ours hasn't raised it in 47 years. We've played in the same division for decades, are in close geographic proximity of each other, & even have the same frickin' team colors. The reason YOU guys don't hate us as much as we hate you, is that we've been irrealivant for the last 14 years. When your playing baseball in the neighborhood as a teenager, & someone's little brother is playing with you, ya arn't bothered much by him.

Awww go ahead, dream a little, we don't mind. Maybe Hawk fans can play too. How about a re-match of the '92 Cups finals?

Canuck fans couldn't conceive them being beat by the Hawks either. Hell, Flames fans were pretty damn confident too. Games are played on the ice folks. The #8 seed just took you to 7 games.

I'm assuming your finding those threads from the 'official site' boards. That's where your much more apt to find generalizations, misconceptions, & basic ill-equiped opinions on what will transpire. It's probably not much different fromt he 'official' Wings board. I think you get a much better read of fans honest opinions, backed up with logic, reason, & intelligent debade on the secondary type forums.

An arguement can also be made that it's tough for one team to continue to maintain that kinda dominance over an opposing coach/goaltender/player, ect. ect. Khabibulin was 6-16-2 life time vs Vancouver, & that seemed to flip this year. At some point things even themselfs out.

You should be pleased by it, cause Hawk fans hate for the Wings is a compliment of sorts. Your team has been the measuring stick by which a championship calibre squad has been compared for a decade & a half, while the Hawks during the same streach have been a debacle of a franchise. During the 80s, when the Hawks were a premiere franchise, & the Wings were crap, Hawk fans didn't hate the Wings, they hated the North Stars. It wasn't until the 90s, when the Wings became legit, that the growing hate for the team to the north grew. In recent years there has been a lot of reason to hate your team. Cups, media bias, players, Bowman, & not being able to beat you, are just a few. But I think things really intensified the last few years, where we have taken the season series (perhaps being over looked), only to be beat in twin shoot outs to start this season, then to get beat in the middle of the season when we were hot on your heels in the standings, & squashed on Nation TV in the Winter Classic. If roles were reversed, I'd relish Wing fans hating on the Hawks, cause it's really a head nod.

Hmm, sounds like the same kinda stuff Hawk fans heard from Flames & Canuck fans as well. -Lack of experience -Khabibulin's play -Lack of size/physical presence -Lack of defense -Lack of coaching Perhaps you folks are right, but most of those notions have been dispelled so far in these playoffs. Sure Khabibulin is 15-21-4 w/ a 3.21 gaa in his career vs Detroit, but he was 6-16-2 w/ a 3.39 gaa life time vs Vancouver, & that didn't seem to matter. The Hawks out-hit both the bigger/more physical Canucks & Flames. Defense is a misnomer, you look at the goals against vs Vancouver & think, crummy D. However, they only gave up 9 goals in the middle 4 games of that series. Coaching? I know you've got history on Quenville, but he's mixed & match lines on the fly with tremendous resluts so far. Exerience? Throw that out the window at this point. Obviously the Wings are a premiere team, & the Hawks would have their hands full, but this wouldn't be a short/easy series for your boys by any streach. I saw one prediction of Wings in 4, wow.......laughable.