Gordon Bombay

Yet again, some uses the WEAK TB/Anaheim comparisons. You named 3 forwards for TB and what D-man. So then who matches Sharp, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, and Campbell? Same for Anaheim. 3 forwards and a D-man The Blackhawks "core" is of 8 above average players (7 of the 8 well above average). You listed exactly four for TB and five for Anaheim. Nice comparison.

Why do you guys not understand that Niemi was an average goalie? Oh he won the CUp, so he must be great. Turco @ 1.3 m >>>>>>>>>>>>> Niemi at 2.75 and it's not even close at all. We replaced an average goalie with another average one. What devastation.

Niemi is pretty much an average goalie who got hot for a couple rounds. He's not worth 4 million. There won't be much dropoff in the regular season with whatever weak goalie they get (Huet started half the Hawks game last season and was terrible, Niemi started the other half and was average, and the Hawks still finished with 112 points). The postseason will be the difference. Is Marty Turco capable of getting hot for a couple rounds like Niemi did? Probably not, but whatever. Niemi is almost just as unlikely to do that again. It sucks, but it was expected. This is Niemi's chance for a big payday, so he'll have to take it. Whoever gives him 4 million is going to be disappointed though. I don't know, but Niemi has nothing to do with Sharp. Sharp is staying no matter what. Bowman already stated that he told Sharp that he's safe and won't be traded this offseason. I think Bolland would have been the next to go.

I can't believe people are STILL making these comparisons. What second line did those teams have that was as good as Sharp/Hossa/Brouwer What second defensive pairings did they have that were better than Hjalmarsson/Campbell. s***, what first pairings did they have that were even close to Keith/Seabrook. At worst, the Blackhawks will have 2 very good lines and 2 very good defensive pairings. That alone (barring significant injury) will get them into the postseason. The problem will be in the playoffs, but w have no idea what will happen before then and who will improve or get worse. Don't forget how young Toews and Kane are.

Niemi is pretty much an average goalie who got hot for a couple rounds. He's not worth 4 million. There won't be much dropoff in the regular season with whatever weak goalie they get (Huet started half the Hawks game last season and was terrible, Niemi started the other half and was average, and the Hawks still finished with 112 points). The postseason will be the difference. Is Marty Turco capable of getting hot for a couple rounds like Niemi did? Probably not, but whatever. Niemi is almost just as unlikely to do that again. It sucks, but it was expected. This is Niemi's chance for a big payday, so he'll have to take it. Whoever gives him 4 million is going to be disappointed though.

I love the talk about the Blackhawks potentially missing the playoffs. Talk about wishful thinking. They haven't yet lost a top 4 forward, a top 4 d-man, or their goalie. If you want to talk about how the losses will effect them come playoff time, fine. That's reasonable. But now people are questioning their ability to get into the playoffs after they've lost what they've lost? Sorry, but that's just silly. The Blackhawks finished the season with 113 points last season, and haven't lost anybody from their top 2 lines (forwards AND defense). If the Blackhawks second line last year was Versteeg/Bolland/Ladd or something like that, then it would be different. But no, Ladd/Byfuglien/Versteeg/Madden/Eager/Burish all played primarily on the 3rd and 4th lines. Like I said, talk about how the loss of those guys will kill them in the playoffs. FIne, you can argue that. But to say that losing your 3rd and 4th lines is going to take a 113 point team out of the playoffs is really silly to me. Also it should be noted that last season the Blackhawks had serious injuries from guys like Marian Hossa and Dave Bolland.... not to mention the fact that they had Huet start 46 games with his atrocious .895 save percentage. So yeah, sorry if I'm getting defensive, but I was open minded when people were saying they couldnt win another Cup next year because of the players/depth they're losing. But talking about them finishing out of the playoffs when they haven't lost anybody from their top 2 lines on either side? No, that's foolish. There is absolutely no reason to think they'll miss the playoffs other than pure bias.

Tell me the D pairings the Lightning have had over the past few seasons that are even close to as good as Keith/Seabrook and Hjalmarsson/Campbell. I would absolutely love to hear that. Don't try the "I'll throw out the Lightning as as an example and hope he doesn't know they aren't comparable" stuff with me. I live in St. Pete and I follow the Lightning. The comparison has no basis at all. None. It's a copout. I'm a troll? How? I've been pretty respectful, and most have been the same way in return. You just seem bitter. Why is that? Again, not sure why you think I'm all bummed out about any of this. I'm not asking for anything other than a competetive team and a playoff appearance next season, and we'll get that. There's being confident, and there's being cocky. We'll see about that when the season starts. You can go ahead and hoist your paper championship though I guess if it eases the pain of the Hawks winning a Cup. We literally are going to do that with ONE player. If any high-dollar player is afraid of sucking as bad as Huet and being waived, then I don't want him anyways. Oh well.. I guess I'll leave, since saying anything positive about a team other than Detroit is apparently "trolling". I understand this is a Red Wings board and some won't take lightly to saying that the Blackhawks are anything other than horrible, but I figured if I was reasonable about it I'd get a fair shake. Oh well. Good luck next season. I look forward to the Chicago Blackhawks doing their best to defend their Stanley Cup Championship. If it doesn't work out, oh well. I'll congratulate the Red Wings if they win the division, and I'll actually welcome Detroit fans on my board.

Exactly. I just think a lot of the time, people look down on organizations for not doing the same... instead of just commending the team that DID do it. I see people talking like the Hawks are regretting their decisions because of the players they lost this season, and I'm thinking "WHAT?!". No matter what happens over the next few seasons, it was ABSOLUTELY worth it. There are no regrets at all. If we had lost, it would be a different story. Luckily we took advantage and got it done this year. Anything the Blackhawks give us over the next few years is just icing on the cake to me. There's a grace period, especially in Chicago where championships are hard to come by.

I just don't understand why you're acting like the Hawks are going to suck next season. At the very least, they're going to have 2 good offensive lines and 2 very good d- pairings. You seem to have a very broad definition of "implosion". We're probably not losing a top 4 forward, a top 4 d-man, or our goalie. We're losing a whole lot of depth and skill, but not sure how you can call it an implosion when they didn't lose any of their top 4 on either side. Are we going to be a legit Cup contender when the playoffs come around? Maybe not, but we'll be there. And I don't get why some act like everything will be the same. Did they lose a lot? Sure. But what if other guys step up? What if Kane and Toews get better? I keep hearing "they don't sniff the Cup with Byfuglien, Ladd, etc.". This may be true, but that was LAST season. By that same logic, the Red Wings won't sniff the Cup this season because they didn't come close last year and haven't improved. Next year is a different year. Let's not act like there aren't all kinds of variables. Are they a lot weak eron paper right now? Absolutely, but "on paper" is just that Anyways, I expect about 95 or 100 points next season, depending on what else happens. And that's fine with me. Just get into the playoffs and you never know what can happen. First of all, exactly how did he cripple the nucleus? nu·cle·us 1. A central or essential part around which other parts are gathered or grouped; a core: We have not lost ANY of the nucleus. Not sure how you can possibly say we lost any of our nucleus when we havent lost a top 4 forward or a top 4 d-man. We've lost the complimentary players. Are those guys key to a cup run? Absolutely. But we haven't lost any of the nucleus. Unless you consider an 11th or 12th best player on a team part of it's core. (in which case, you think a core is half the roster) Except, you know, helped us win a Stanley Cup (I'm aware he didn't score many goals. He still was extremely valuable in the playoffs and we wouldn't have won without him). Does that make his contract good? No, but I don't understand this thought process of "I hope it was worth it Hawks fans, because you're paying the price now" that I see a lot. Hell yeah it was worth it. If you told me "we can go back in time and take away the Hossa signing, then let thing play out", I'd say no. We probably don't win the Cup if that's the case. So I'd say it's worked out pretty well, even if it costs us in the long run. I think Red Wings fans are so used to winning, that they forget what it feels like for normal organizations that don't have this kind of sustained success. If you told Blackhawks fans before this season "You can win the Cup this year, but you'll be mediocre for the next 5", they'd have all said YES without any hesitation. Not every organization can do what the Red Wings do, and that's ok.

Yeah, the Thrashers are definitely helping us out. Apparently they put a lot of stock into Stanley Cup experience. I think Thrashers' fans are going to be pretty dissapointed with Byfuglien in particular.

This is pretty much the way I see it. What made us so great last season what the amazing depth. We're definitely losing that. We'll still be good, but we can't afford any injuries like we had last season. One big injury could be big trouble. If we stay healthy we'll be fine (at least for the regular season). Hopefully the young guys continue to improve. Don't forget Kane/Toews are still only 21 and 22. After the news of the Kane/Toews bonus cap hits came down, I said the priority should be to keep our top 4 forwards and top 4 d-men. We're likely going to do that, so at least we'll have 2 good offensive lines and 2 good d pairings. They key is Hjalmarsson. We absolutely cannot afford to lose him. People I talk to pretty much knew Lad was gone. There was a little glimmer of hope when there started to be speculation about not all 4 mil of bonuses counting against the cap, but we were expecting this.

I'm definitely really happy the way this offseason is playing out, all things considered. I was worried that the lack of leverage would cause us to give these guys up for nothing. I really like the quality we've gotten back. I mean obviously I wish we could have just kept the team the way it was, but this isn't the worst thing in the world. We're getting back several QUALITY pieces and doing a great job of insuring that we're good for the future. Of course there are the bandwagon fans who don't understand what's going on and are bitching about Bowman (I actually saw some guy threatening to stop watching again because we traded "the future best power forward in the game" in Byfuglien), but the knowledgable fans are very pleased with how this is turning out.

Huh? I don't understand your point. For forwards, we have Kane, Toews, and Hossa all locked up long term. We don't need to produce star forwards for a while. All we need is to produce quality forwards to pair with them, and we're setting ourselves up great for that. No offense, but I kind of feel you you're the one who isn't seeing what's happening with the team. At the same time we're losing these guys, we're getting back guys who should be just as good as the guys we're giving up in a few years. I think the future looks very good for us. We may not win the Cup in the next couple years, but we'll still be good. Then in a few years, we'll have a bunch of these Ladd/Versteeg type forwards producing in the NHL. Also, Kane and Toews will just then be hitting their primes. In fact, I think these moves are helping us long-term, not hurting us.

Meh, not really. We knew this was coming even before they won the Cup. The Cup made it pretty east to swallow. We're going from a powerhouse to a team that is still good. We'll still finish with 95 or more points next season and we're stacking our farm system with quality forwards for the future. Not stars, but we'll be churning quality Versteeg/Ladd type forwards for a long time, and considered we already have the star type guys locked up long term, we're in good shape for the future.

Either Bowman knows something about the bonus situation everyone else doesn't, or he's on crack. It's one thing to say "we don't have to make any more moves", but it's another to flat out say those guys will be back. I don't know if that could even be considered posturing. Really weird.