Sarava

Refs sure are trying their best to give this game to the Wings

The Hawks announcers are gushing over that move Datsyuk just pulled off.

Agree..that goal only happened because the period was ending. Seabs wouldn't have pinched like that if it wasn't in the last 5 seconds of the period. Kinda bad luck for you guys I guess.

Good game so far. Marian Hossa is the best player on the ice so far IMO. Go Hawks!

I don't know what this Hawkey-town that you speak of is...it has nothing to do with Chicago. But umm, thanks for playing.

Well then, I thank you for calling this. Because we've seen the atrocious accuracy rating you guys here have with predictions about the Hawks. I would have been worried if you predicted a repeat.

Breaking the long drought? The Hawks did have some good runs at times. Unfortunately there was this team called the Edmonton Oilers that kind of ruined it for the good teams we had back in the 80s. And of course, running in to Mario Lemieuex in the 92 SCF was a bit rough. Not speaking towards you on this hillbilly. But I can not wait to see how all the spindoctors on this forum handle it when they find out the Hawks are actually going to be really good again this year. I imagine the spindoctors will laugh it off initially saying the Hawks are just hot. Come around Decemeber or January though, it will be impossible to deny the truth as Wing fans stare up to first place and see Chicago sitting there once again. The strength of the team (defense) is as good as last year, and very well could be better. Remember the Hawks have kept their best defensive forwards as well (Bolland, Toews & Hossa). The goaltending should be as good, if not better. No Huet for 40 games....and Turco's puckmoving style fits the fastest team in the NHL to a tee. Yeah, yeah. yeah...Turco has sucked against Detroit. I get that. I want to see that continue with him as a Hawk before I declare this as a big problem. The question is how guys like Stalberg, Skille, Makarov, Dowell, Vishnevskiy, Lalonde, Pisani...how those guys will replace the 3rd and 4th liners (plus Sopel on D) that the Hawks lost. Sopel is terrible at even strength and only was an asset when he blocked shots on the PK. I think they will be fine replacing him and probably will find an overall improvement there. I'm strangely confident that the voids will be filled. No the depth won't be the same. But at the same time, with so many of the Hawks good players being so young, it would be strange not to expect a little improvement out of Kane, Hjallmarsson, Bolland and Toews. Bolland might be the guy to jump out the most this year. He seemed poised to jump out last year, then missed half the season with his back injury. He never seemed to be back healthy until the playoffs started. And IMO he deserved the Conn Smythe as much as anyone.

Huet is better off with going to Switzerland than getting bought out. He gets every last penny that's owed him. Even if he's bought out, he probably wouldn't ever make up the lost difference by playing in the NHL. Because do you really think any team would pay him more than the league minimum as a backup...and even that happening is questionable. As a Hawk fan even if their cap hits were the same, I'd rather has Crawford backing up Turco than Huet. Huet has shown over and over that he can go on decent runs, but when something rough happens, his confidence gets shot and his play goes to hell. The only real evidence one way or another we can look at is Marty Turco. He took far less from the Hawks than the Flyers supposedly offered him. So if another goaltender not only doesn't hold the Huet situation against the Hawks, but takes less money to play for them...I think we all have our answer.

There's absolutely no ill will from the Huet camp towards the Hawks. In fact, his agent has gone out of his way to compliment the Hawks for trying as hard as they could to make it work for Huet. As has been said, the CBA doesn't allow contracts to be ripped up or renegotiated, and Huet's agent says Huet would have done that to stay in the NHL. Now whether they really would have done that if allowed is anyone's guess. But this will have zero affect on the Hawks and getting free agents in the future.

You're absulutely right. We are hoping....it could be worse though. The Hawks could be in this situation with little to nothing left to replace these guys. There's reasons to have hope for a lot of these guys. Remember, Versteeg wasn't highly regarded 2 years ago. He finished 2nd in the Calder voting out of the blue...it can happen again. But yeah I agree, there will probably be struggles this coming season. If any Hawk fan says the Hawks won't miss a beat next year, they aren't telling the truth. The bulk of the hurt will probably be felt in the playoffs, because we've seen over and over that teams can still excel in the regular season with just 2 strong lines. It's in the playoffs where that often gets exposed (see Vancouver and San Jose for example). The potential struggles ahead doesn't mean we Hawk fans have to act like sourpusses over it, though. I'm excited to watch this team try to defend the cup...even if 1/3 of the cup winners are gone. The future is still bright IMO. With prospects like Jeremy Morin, Kyle Beach, Dylan Olsen, Marcus Kruger, Kevin Hayes and more...there's a lot to look forward to in Chicago, besides what currently is on the roster. The guys I just mentioned are all at least a year away from the NHL, with the possible exception of Kyle Beach. He may or may not play with the Hawks this year.

Only 3 Hawk threads on the first page? Haven't seen it this low in a while. Is it safe to say that the Stanley Cup envy is finally wearing off around these parts?

John Madden was out of gas the latter part of this past season. Like many Hawk fans, I thank him for his contributions towards winning the cup, but there wasn't a need to bring him back. The guy is about done. I wish him well in Minnesota.

Nah like this:

The Hawks made the right move today. Niemi was offered contracts both for 1 year and multiple years, and turned them all down. If they took him back for 2.75, it would have put a ridiculous crunch on the salary cap in 2010-2011 and then he would have left after that season for a bigger contract. Now the Hawks can comfortably ice a 22 man roster and have the freedom to bring anyone and everyone up, including the more expensive young players like Kyle Beach. As it is now, they have a good goalie who has never played on a team this good. I expect good things out of Turco. No Turco hasn't done well against the Wings. But the Hawks can't worry about how he matches up with teams that can't even advance far enough in the playoffs to reach them

Hey if you think Toews didn't deserve the Conn Smythe, I actually would agree with you there. Overall he played very good in the playoffs, but I thought other guys were more deserving. I've gone back and forth for who I thought deserved the award, but in the end I usually come down to Bolland or Sharp. Sharp was the Hawks most consistant forward in the playoffs from beginning to end and I think he had the best +- among all forwards on the Hawks if I remember right. And Bolland...wow what a playoffs he had. He spearheaded the checking line that shut down the Sedin twins, the Thornton line and then the Richards line. While doing that he also managed to get under the skin of Daniel Sedin and Thornton, forcing them to get out of their game and take stupid penalties. The only flaw in Bolland's game throughout the playoffs was his faceoff %. Overall the dude was awesome. Heh, it was just a friendly little poke. The Tigers did get to the World series that year while the Sox choked in the 2nd half of the season.

Well I can say this. If it's anything like how it was in 2006 with the White Sox, who dissapointed as defending champions....I strangely was able to live with it just fine. It was sort of like...ahh well, we got it last year. You can't win it every year. Wasn't 2006 the year the Tigers flubbed in in the series to the Cardinals (a .500 team pretty much)? That being said, I think most diehard Hawk fans feel 2010-2011 will *possibly* be the roughest season over the next 4 or 5 years. The system is stocked with prospects, but it will take a couple years for most of them to have a chance at making the NHL. It also might take a year or two for Stan to clear up some of these cap problems. If you have noticed, Stan has not handed out a stupid contract to any player. And you're probably going to see that again when Niemi is sent packing tomorrow. Stan just has to clean up Dale Tallon's mess, which will take some time. So you're saying the Hawks should go the Leafs or Flames route of having sick depth, but very little high end talent? That's brilliant...

Yeah the Hawks are vulnerable to injuries. Moreso than last year. That's life in professional sports. I can't really think of any team in professional sports that can withstand major injuries to important players and get by unscathed. The Wings certainly couldn't last year. I do enjoy reading the negativity towards the Hawks from so many of you Wings fans here. The widely accepted predictions about the Hawks from LGW have been pretty much dead wrong on a consistant basis the past year. The Hawks couldn't afford to sign a big free agent last year...doh, wrong. The Hawks won't have the cap space to sign Keith, Kane and Toews...doh wrong again. The Hawks won't get past the 2nd round...doh wrong again. I love this forum.

Rocky Wirtz indirectly addressed that at the Hawks convention today. While he didn't mention a specific player, it was obviously about Huet. He said he is willing to bury money to keep the team in the best possible shape. Huet will be in the AHL or Europe this winter. He will not be bought out, though. The Hawks don't have the capspace to buy him out.

Not sure where you came up with those Hawk lines. You have 2 centers on the 2nd line, 2 right wings on the first line, no center on the 3rd line, the 2 offensive defencemen paired together and the 2 stay at home defensemen paired together. I'll admit one thing. If the Hawks did use your horrid proposed lines and defense pairings, then yes they would be in a boatload of trouble. Maybe that's why you're so confused? Anyway....the big potential problem for the Hawks will be depth at forward. I never said they won't miss a beat. There's a lot of unknown here. Luckily though, the depth of forward probably won't be a terribly big issue until the playoffs. The hope for the Hawks and us Hawk fans is that a few of these guys step up in a big way throughout the season. Also keep in mind that the Hawks will probably be able to make a trade or two to fill needs at the deadline. It will be much easier to fit guys under the cap for the last 1/4 of the season, and the Hawks certainly have the prospects and picks to get anything they need done, done. I think the 2 guys that have a huge chance to step up big this season are Jack Skille, and even more than him, Viktor Stalberg. Stalberg skates like the wind and is a good forechecker. I really think he's going to end up on the first line with Kane and Toews before it's said and done. The Hawks tend to put third liners with those 2 guys (see Buff, Bickell and Broewer from last year). This guy is going from playing with garbage in Toronto to world class talent now...he has the potential to explode IMO. As for losing Niemi? Yeah that will hurt if he leaves. And I think he will be gone. But he's young and it wouldn't be wise for the Hawks to invest too much in him. A lot of goaltenders start off their career hot...get figured out by the league and then they are meh. The Hawks don't need to be repeating their mistake with Huet again. I think they'll go the route the Wings have often go,...try to find sufficient and somewhat inexpensive goaltending, and put a great team in front of that goaltender.

I think you're in for a rude awakening. Do you have a magic crystal ball to know how guys like Stalberg, Skille, Bickel and Makarov will replace the lost players like Byfuglien, Versteeg, Ladd and Madden? No you don't. The Hawks have a very good core, and these guys coming in will be playing 3rd and 4th line roles. As a Hawks fan, my biggest concern is replacing Byfuglien. The Hawks just don't have anyone else on the team that's good at standing in front of the net irritating the piss out of the goalie during PP's. The good news is, the Hawks PP was lethargic for much of last year and the PP coach has been replaced. With the talent the Hawks have, it *should* only get better. I'm not saying the Hawks are favorites. I don't care who is the favorite. I like the Hawks chances better than the Wings though

No offense, but you don't know what you're talking about. While the Hossa signing can be disputed over whether Bowman or Tallon was behind it, Tallon was still the GM. Reportedly Tallon wanted Havlat back instead of Hossa, and that would have been a cap hit of at least 4 mil. Not much difference, though I think you all would agree there is a big difference between Hossa and Havlat as players. Tallon was also the GM when the restricted free agent gaffs happened. It was even cited as a contributing factor for him being fired by the Hawks. Beyond all that, I don't hink any Hawk fans feel Hossa is the problem with the cap. If he was, he could have easily been traded this offseason with his cap friendly deal. The problems were many and many came at once. Namely Kane, Hjalmarsson, Toews and Keith all emerging as stars and RFA's in the same year. Beyond that, two Dale Tallon signings are killing the Hawks. Cristobal Huet of course. And then there's the abomination of a contract that Dale Tallon gave to Brian Campbell. Campbell is ridiculously overpaid and is probably untradable for several more years. So to sum this up...the salary cap problems were mostly inherited by Stan Bowman from Dale Tallon, with some of them just being life in the salary cap era when you have a ton of good young players. The Hawks had to let go of big contributers to win the cup. There was no way around it. Unless you're suggesting they should have traded Toews, Kane or Keith instead of Buff? lol BTW Kane and Toews were #1 and #3 picks in their respective drafts. No other Hawks were drafted by the Hawks in the top 10 of the draft from the cup winning team. So your 'all these years of banking on top picks' comment is obviously silly.

You do realize Scotty Bowman is pulling the strings, right? Just about all of the contract mistakes were handled by Dale Tallon, who is the Florida GM now. Obviously they decided they are willing to eat Huet's salary. There wouldn't be enough cap room to have Huet on the roster and field an NHL legal team. If they weren't willing to bury Huet in Europe or the AHL, then another salary would have been traded. As for the rest...you guys understand what cooking the books or creative accounting is I assume? Wirtz owns 50% of the United Center, but it's not the Blackhawks that officially own the UC. So the Blackhawks pay rent to their owner to use the UC. Understand? This shows as a loss for the Hawks, but it's not. It's just Wirtz giving his own money back to himself via a seperate company.

I take it you didn't see much of the Hawks playoff games, eh? I'll give you a hint. Bolland spearheaded the checking line that shut down the Sedin line, the Thornton line and then the Richards line in the SCF. Oh and he's a good penalty killer too! Here's two examples:

Not saying they are trying to be like Detroit, though the Bowman's obviously brought their fondness for Swedes over to Chicago. I disagree with you on the cup thing. The Hawks are stacked with prospects and the core is set. While this upcoming season very well could be rough. In 2-3 years when these guys all come up it will be fun. There's a lot of top 4 defense and top 6 forward prsospects in the pipeline, and all of them will only need to fill bottom pair or 3rd or 4th line roles. The Hawks will be ridiculous in a few years IMO.

Eh, no. Hawkeytown sounds hokey to me. You won't ever hear me saying that.