Rhah

Sheldon Kennedy was a beast for me in 94 sega hockey. #15.

I agree with this... I felt as playoffs got tougher basically he was a black hole with puck, if it got passed to him even if he was at the far edge of the circle on the boards, he would just spin and shoot puck into goalie's pads. And not with traffic in front, the rest of his linemates hadn't even entered into the play yet or were just starting to cross blue line as they passed it to him.

80 Dean Chelios * F 6.02 185 — Michigan State (NCAA)

This just proves with the shrunken cap, these guys aren't going to get what is being announced they are looking for...he went through 3 or 4 serious suitors before having to settle for a crapheap of a team and they are giving him less and he had to pry a NMC out of them. These UFAs are going to have to seriously reduce their expectations or end up on s***ty teams... I fully support Holland only offering reasonable contracts to these guys (Clarkson, Horton, Ribiero, etc) and if they say no, they can enjoy losing for the next 5 years.

I don't get the class and love for Hawks players (front office, yeah...)... but other than a few players like Hossa, Sharp (a tad questionable saw a few dirty hits but its the playoffs)...their whole team plays dirty or cries about s*** (Toews)... actually on ice this season Kane was actually one of the more level headed people which is actually amazing.

Hawks already deviating from their previous formula... now hopefully Bickell blows up to 300+ pounds like Buff.

Now I see why he needs another big pay day... gotta keep that happy as hell.

Yeah I am sure for those few its fine... why don't we ask the other 99% of vets who aren't Chicagoans?

AusWings, is that you?

I guess you guys are right. Stars will continue to make big bucks and the lower tier players are going to get their salaries cut to fall in line with new salary cap. I was dumb to think it would be across the board for teams and not mirror reality where 10% of the people continue to make all the money and increase their wealth the last decade while the rest are stagnant or losing... My bad.

Um, if you have financial issues then isn't having a young prospect from draft a little more desirable than trading pick for some established guy's bloated contract?

I am starting to be fine with how things went down... even if they went to OT and won (highly unlikely with the Hawks luck this year in late 3rd period/OT situations)...the chance they win in Chicago? Low... This was best we could hope for, Hawks have to win at opponent stadium and we don't have to hear that obnoxious song. Nor hear another disrespectful national anthem (in a finals game 7 too)... I really don't understand how all year Hawks D-men could cheat and pinch forward and their forwards cherry pick so much and teams couldn't take advantage...it just blows my mind that this strategy couldn't be exposed. Maybe Wings were best chance to beat them with skilled passing and discipline (only team to take them to game 7 OT). But Wings really didn't end up with many odd man rushes... or if they did, they had their sticks ripped out of their hands by the trailing D-men and it would go uncalled.

These FAs need to dial back their expectations a bit... with salary cap getting across board reduction it basically equals a salary decrease vs value for all player contracts going forward.

I'd love to see a montage put together of all the Toews crying during this post season and mouthing What the F to the refs while on national TV and smashing his stick going to the box. I guess they could end it with him and cup, which would just make his crybaby act even more poignant, like the refs gave into his bitching.

Hrm, you are right... I could maybe stomach 17 D-bags with a Cup and 3 Captains and Alternates who exude class... I couldn't handle a crybaby captain though. Kronwall's skate should have gotten the Conn Smythe, without it, Hawks may not have gotten out of Round 2. On a more serious note, without Crawford, Hawks do not for real get out of Round 2. I was impressed that other than the 6 to 5 game in Finals, there didn't seem to be one game where he imploded even after letting in a weak goal. I was waiting for it all post season, a total implosion game.

Because up until this point we have managed to keep a roster free of d-bags... even Abdelkader is a pest with class.

Guy threw horseshoes at a dart board to set his lines throughout this whole offseason... he had no clue how to even strategize matchups until Babs schooled him.

Thank god the nightmare is finally over. I have never seen a team get more puck luck in OTs and less than 5 mins to go in period 3's ever... Shaw play should have never been whistled dead while Boston had a scoring chance unless the guy was about to be carted off on a stretcher. Dude only missed like 2 shifts. Wings get a guy boarded into oblivion and the puck in wrong end and the refs let the other team go all way down ice 5 on 4 to score a goal. That is really my only complaint about the officiating (although the blood thing is a good point but apparently in this post season unless its too many men on ice or delay of game puck over glass... the refs are going to have zero consistency. I hope consistency is preached to their asses this offseason).

I honestly think that Wings next year are a huge X factor. We are either going to dominate Eastern conference playstyle and take them by surprise in regular season play, or we are going to get crushed... 50/50 chances. I think there is no middle ground. We either are near conference leaders in points or we might miss our first playoff year and break streak (and I will have to add more asterisks like this year because of the unbalanced 16/14 team thing)

I'd really just like to keep every young guy we have so that then we are guaranteed to get the ones who turn into eventual superstars, not gamble with possibly trading away a future top player. Only let them go when they are so good that their salaries demanded are going to outweight the cap and then possibly try to do that just 1 year left on contract and trade for value... I just don't think any team is going to give us any veteran players that are actually worth what we believe the potential of all these players are. Let the other teams come calling to us begging and offering the world, don't shop these young guys around like we are some cheap insurance salesman (no offense to regular insurance salespeople ) EDIT - Oh and if I had to choose, I'd say Nyquist... his skills seem more smooth and classy that fit into the image of the Wings a bit better.. Tatar seems more like a fire every puck on net, clean up garbage type guy (I don't have good grasp on him, I could be wrong)... I just love that most of our playoff goals seemed to be laser cannons shot with pure skill versus just garbage or bad deflections (that is just my perception, I do not guarantee that is reality at all)

I think I might stop watching. I stopped watching last game when it was 3 to 1 Hawks and it turned into a barn burner but Boston still had coin flip chance in OT. My favorite part of game so far is Emrick getting Eddie to admit his opinion that dives should be only penalty called, not the original hook/trip etc (which I agree with) but for Eddie he had to agree with it against his Hawks. Haha.

Marchand. Shaw is a dirtbag, Marchand less of a dirtbag. I still can't believe there isn't a pic online somewhere after Shaw took a run at Mike Richards his first game back and Richards barely dodged the check. The cameras showed Shaw on bench, he turned to teammate to his side and stuck his tongue out and smirked/laughed (I hope that doesn't sound silly, it hard to describe a dirtbag tongue out, smirk... its like saying you saw the Devil and then trying to describe it to somebody)... I asked a few people if they noticed and of course nobody did making me feel like maybe I imagined it all and was looking too closely trying to find evil. And that isn't even counting the two flying elbows he delivered on Wings during our series...

I have no words. /sigh

Why would you sit Stahlberg for starting games of a series just because he made a comment on playing time and make your team less skilled? Oh, because you think the Wings suck and you are full of yourselves and can beat them with worse players in the lineup. That's my point, these guys are d-bags and Q isn't as smart as most people make him out to be. His line changes seem more random and guessing than strategic. But yeah in regards to the salary thing I was mostly just being a doof suggesting that

Reports today say Bickell will be on top line with Toews and Kane. We will see what he can do. Honestly, I have yet to be surprised by Hawks attitudes, I wouldn't doubt that they were purposely keeping Bickell on lower lines to try to make his FA offers reasonable so they can keep him. He performed with top talent in our series, then disappeared when he had to do more work for a lower line... see if he shows up.