NeverForgetMac25

Guys that kill PK's as effectively as Lilja, block shots, steady the ship playing alongside youth and come for $1.25 or less don't really grow on trees. He may find a replacement, but I wonder how much more it'll cost us or (if the price tag ends up being the same) how much less effective the new guy will be.

If we lose Lilja, Holland better better ink a veteran to ease the blow. Not only that, locating a veteran that provides everything Lilja does for his price tag will be beyond tough.

Roddick bows out. F.

Wimbledon 2010 started two days ago and its already been crazy. In Federer's opening match, he was down 2 sets to none and was down 4-4, 0-40 on his serve in the third. He fought all the way back to take the Game, Set and Match. Now, Isner is playing Mahut in what's now the longest game in Tennis history. Currently, the fifth set is at 36-36! Unbelievable! Go Roddick!

<----Check my location jerky, I'm from Green Bay, WI. I couldn't care less about any Detroit team aside from the Wings. Although, I do enjoy the Packers embarrassing the Bears year after year. For the millionth time, *no one has said they will be a cellar-dweller!* Every rational fan here has stated ad-nauseam that the Blackhawks will take a step back. Nothing crippling, but larger than most after they've won the Cup. How do you continue to argue with me when I've consistently stated this over and over again? Lastly, until your roster is rounded out I wouldn't claim the Hawks have atleast as good of a chance as the Wings next year. The Wings are coming off one of their most injury-riddled seasons in recent memory and when they finally got healthy they played like the team they are, which (FYI) also happened to be the best in the league. Now, the team is coming back healthy, with more cap room and with the dead-weight cut (I.E. Lebda, Williams).

Italy......

As Broken 16 stated, not only are you not factoring in the chemistry lost, you're missing the boat on other key factors as well. Chiicago is gonna have to deal with another challenge next season that they haven't had to deal with in almost 50 years. Every team that plays them will gear up for it simply because everyone wants to play well against the defending champions. As I've mentioned before, Chicago is most certainly not going to be a cellar-dweller next season, far from it. However, everything is not going to be as rosy as most Hawks homers seem to think its going to be. There's so much working against them next year given their horrid cap situation, the mental toughness of playing teams gearing up for them, playing on a short Summer and the fact that the chemistry they worked so hard to attain is about to take a massive hit.

Teams that are *successful* in the playoffs typically roll them the first couple periods atleast. If you don't see how valuable the bottom 6 are just wait until April/May rolls around and we'll continue this conversation.

Then you're wearing colored glasses. The point is the bottom half up-front is going to struggle and that's one of (if not) the most important things come playoff time. If you're satisfied with a team that going to compete in the regular season, make it to the playoffs possibly in the top 4, then bow out because their bottom-6 up front not only can't keep the puck out of the net, but can't put it in....be my guest. Red Wings fans who've been around for a while know all to well about a team that does well in the regular season and bottoms out once April rolls around. The roster the Blackhawks are going to have next year is a spinning image of that.

No one's denying its a workable roster. The point is the Hawks are not going to be nearly as strong next year, especially come April/May when secondary scoring becomes absolutely crucial. Hell, look up and down the roster you just posted and notice the incredible difference from last season.

Stating a player "couldn't be worse than Williams" isn't exactly a great way to sell them.

And its finally over.....Isner wins 70-68! Incredible! Total match time: 11 hours 5 minutes.

You might want to check your numbers again.

And realistically, it only provided $200,000 worth of cap "relief" given roughly $550,000 will have to be used to replace him in the lineup.

Yeah, the bonuses slipped my mind. I thought I added Marty in to the calculations but somehow the numbers got mixed up.

This now puts the Blackhawks around $8 million under the cap, still needing to sign 4 forwards, (now) 4 D-men and Niemi! A lot more work to do in Chicago.

Sucks to be Bufyglien, but *hard* decisions had/have to be made. This is just the tip of the ice-burg on that front in Chicago.

Does anyone know when the last service break was between these two? I believe it was atleast 144 straight games between the two of them *without* a break! Mind-boggling!

Words can't describe what was witnessed today! Tennis will never see anything like that again. Records shattered all over the place.

This was bound to happen sooner or later. Currently, STL only has 12 players on their entire roster for next year!

It wasn't meant to be a discussion on that front. That could happen just as well.

No one's saying the Wings wouldn't benefit from another tough forward, but moves already need to be made to round out the roster. Again, not an argument for not bringing in an upgrade, but noteworthy nonetheless. The Wings top three lines are likely going to consist of Z, Dats, Franzen, Homer, Hudler, Cleary, Filppula, Bertuzzi and one of Helm, Eaves or Miller. That's three solid scoring lines which only leaves one line to round things out. It's looking like Eaves and Abdelkader will be a part of those plans and Miller is the wild-card at this point. If Kenny's gonna add a guy, its going to be a fourth liner that can actually add something to this team not only in the physical sense, but offensively as well. That's where if I feel if he's going to go that route, it should be for a guy like Asham that actually has offensive talent and *has shown it*. Boll hasn't. Sidenote: I gotta run, but I'll continue with this discussion with you guys tomorrow if you're around.

Comparing the two in regards to hitting/fighting wasn't my objective and my message got lost in the translation as a result. The point is Boll isn't going to score more than 20 points in a season (hell, last year he only scored 7 all season), which was my argument against him. Adding a player like him doesn't provide anything of *great importance* the Wings haven't already had the past few years in the players they've brought in to protect the stars. The other things he brings to the table besides fighting are overrated. Now, a guy like Drake in his prime is what I'm arguing for. Obviously not a solid comparison given the difference between these two, but that's my argument for Asham (the offensive side of his game) if the Wings are gonna bring in a guy like that. Both Abdelkader and Helm hit and their skating (Helm's especially) are top-notch as well. They don't fight, but my point is bringing in a guy like Boll is a waste given his sole difference will be that he drops the mits. And no, at this point in his career he's not good defensively.

May wasn't the best skater, but like Boll he fought all the time and hit people. The point is, that type of player isn't needed.