110 replies to this topic

[Heroes of Hockeytown]

Top 6- Franzen, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hudler, Fillpula, Cleary

Top 6- Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hossa, Brouwer

Edge= Chicago- 4 of those guys are still in their early 20's

Age will matter later, but right now all of Detroit's guys are only around 30. These top sixes seem pretty comparable to me, although there is some question as to whether or not that will actually be Chicago's top six when the season starts.

Top 4- Lidstrom, Kronwall, Rafalski, Stuart (Last years whipping boy)

Top 4- Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Hjalmarsson

Edge = Hawks D is much younger, skilled and faster, but the Wings, barely, only because Lidstrom is still better then all of them combined.

This is where age is actually a factor. Although despite their elderly qualities Lidstrom-Rafalski is still a quality top pair that I think is only bettered by a couple of teams, Chicago among them.

Goalie- Niemi
Goalie- Howard

Edge= Niemi. Stanley Cup.

He of 3.5GAA in those Finals? He wasn't very impressive in the playoffs, but don't worry, neither was Howard. Considering they're both going to be playing in on their second NHL seasons this year I'm going to reserve judgment on this one.

In any case I don't know why you would say neither Chicago nor Detroit have the depth to be Cup contenders this year. If not them, who do you have coming out of the West? In my mind these two teams are still among the front runners in the conference.

[mindfly]

Need I make the list again?

Byfuglien
Versteeg
Burish
Ladd
Eager
Boynton
Sopel
Fraser

Possibly Seabrook/Niemi

Chicago's a bunch of dumbf***s.Case closed.

Add Reasoner

And then John Madden is gone too...

[Heroes of Hockeytown]

and that them losing to the wings the prior year was actually the best thing that could have happened to them

I'm going to go ahead and put forth the notion that winning would have been the optimal outcome for them, actually.

[HankthaTank]

Most of that core is still 3-4 years from hitting their primes.

Goodness. Since Stan Bowman came out and talked about this team's "CORE" that is really all I have heard from this s*** "fan" base lol. If he hadn't said it I think all we would hear is "nannaananhana we won the cup!" lulz. A thread without a troll is certainly a less entertaining one I will say that.

Edited by HankthaTank, 22 July 2010 - 04:49 PM.

[hockey23]

I suppose you believe Drew Miller, Patrick Eaves, an aging Draper, Bertuzzi and Holmstrom are as good as any of Versteeg, Byfuglien, Ladd, Burish, Eager? They sure proved it this past year didnt they?

2 of those guys 3 years ago or beyond and I might agree with you.

What is worse for you? That the hawks won a Stanley cup, or that they Wings and their solid depth had to go 7 with the coyotes, and then got smoked by a Sharks team that in turn, got swept by Chicago?

How is losing 4 one goal games to the Sharks after bs 5-on-3s and Lidstrom's unfortunate broken stick getting smoked? The series was very competitive and the Wings lacked a Dan Cleary that could walk and Hudler. Add Modano to that duo and you have one of the best third lines in the league. The Wings didn't have solid depth last year and that's why they didn't go far. But to ignore adding a 57 point 26 year old and getting back a healthy Cleary is just blatant homerism on your part.

[cjm502]

Why is that funny? The wings struggled to finish off the Coyotes and then got creamed by San Jose, and they have done exactly what with their roster that is going to put them over the top? Hudler? lol

Its kind of funny when Hawks fans pretend they aren't completely screwed. First off we picked up Eaves and Miller. Two awesome penalty killers, especially Eaves he is one hell of a grinder. Abdelkader is up full time next season. Maltby is gone. Lebda will not be our 5th-7th defenseman. Huds is back. Howard has solidified himself as a starter. It is pretty reasonable to expect half our forwards and defense to not get injured at the same time for a very large part of the season. The team has not been this healthy in 3 years. You act like your core has the edge because it is younger. With age out of the picture Detroit clearly has a better core, and in 3-4 years when our cores age will actually start to affect their play the next crop will be ready to take over. (Jarnkrok, Ferraro, Tatar, Pulkkinen, Macek, Sheahan, Smith, Nicastro, Nyquist, Lashoff etc.).

Edited by cjm502, 22 July 2010 - 04:53 PM.

[Broken 16]

Words can't describe the mess that's over there. Every time I think, "nah, its being exaggerated a bit, they'll be fine," Chicago pulls another desperation deal to free up seemingly irrelevant slivers of cap space.
Had they not won the Cup I would feel sorry for them.

This. I was just thinking the other day that I'm really glad they won the Cup now. Not winning the Cup and then dealing with this s*** is too much to wish even on s***hawk fans.

Edited by Broken 16, 22 July 2010 - 04:54 PM.

[titanium2]

This. I was just thinking the other day that I'm really glad they won the Cup now. Not winning the Cup and then dealing with this s*** is too much to wish even on s***hawk fans.

Eh I could definitely wish that and then some. Especially after this clown showed up on these boards.

[Superman54]

Why is that funny? The wings struggled to finish off the Coyotes and then got creamed by San Jose, and they have done exactly what with their roster that is going to put them over the top? Hudler? lol

Top 6- Franzen, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hudler, Fillpula, Cleary

Top 6- Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hossa, Brouwer

Edge= Chicago- 4 of those guys are still in their early 20's

Top 4- Lidstrom, Kronwall, Rafalski, Stuart (Last years whipping boy)

Top 4- Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Hjalmarsson

Edge = Hawks D is much younger, skilled and faster, but the Wings, barely, only because Lidstrom is still better then all of them combined.

Goalie- Niemi
Goalie- Howard

Edge= Niemi. Stanley Cup.

As far as depth, well, to start, any team that has Todd Bertuzzi is only going to go so far, you can make up your mind as to who is better amongst the rest, Ritola, Dowell, Skille, Meech, Lalonde, Miller, Eaves, Kindl, Kopecky, Stalberg etc.

thats why there are 4 lines in hockey, not 2.
Shall we look at depth
Holmstrom has more points then both flip and cleary, but its ok he can be in our depth list. Along with Bertuzzi who again, had more points then both Flip and Cleary (not saying he is better). For youth we have players in Helm, Abdelkader, Ericcson, Kindl, Eaves, etc. Then the possibility of Modano, and if not the mouse then Miller, and Ritola come into play. Hows the Hawks depth look, remember injuries exist too. Stuart was no whipping boy last year, he was one of our best defensemen for a good portion of the year, with all of Detroits injuries. "Hudler? lol", will get us 70 points.
I don't think hawks top 6 is better then Detroit's either.
But its alright, your keeping "the core".

Edited by Superman54, 22 July 2010 - 05:01 PM.

[Original-Six]

Add Reasoner

And then John Madden is gone too...

oh god not madden...wait what?

[Superman54]

Helm for you
(since this vid has been popular lately)

[Tommy_Like_Wingy]

All I can say about Chicago....................... LOL

Because they traded Reasoner? I don't get it.

[mindfly]

Because they traded Reasoner? I don't get it.

Because they're going DOWN, and they're not done yet, they still got the Niemi, Huet dilemma, they gotta make more trade(s)

[Original-Six]

Because they traded Reasoner? I don't get it.

More like half their team...and their not done yet.

[Shaman464]

Why is that funny? The wings struggled to finish off the Coyotes and then got creamed by San Jose, and they have done exactly what with their roster that is going to put them over the top? Hudler? lol

Top 6- Franzen, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hudler, Fillpula, Cleary

Top 6- Kane, Toews, Sharp, Bolland, Hossa, Brouwer

Edge= Chicago- 4 of those guys are still in their early 20's

Top 4- Lidstrom, Kronwall, Rafalski, Stuart (Last years whipping boy)

Top 4- Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Hjalmarsson

Edge = Hawks D is much younger, skilled and faster, but the Wings, barely, only because Lidstrom is still better then all of them combined.

Goalie- Niemi
Goalie- Howard

Edge= Niemi. Stanley Cup.

As far as depth, well, to start, any team that has Todd Bertuzzi is only going to go so far, you can make up your mind as to who is better amongst the rest, Ritola, Dowell, Skille, Meech, Lalonde, Miller, Eaves, Kindl, Kopecky, Stalberg etc.

Ok


Lets break it down further

Dats>Kane (Last year was a fluke, Dats will be over 90 points again)
Z>Toews (Z is a better leader and had more points last year and is only 30)
Franzen=Hossa (he may have gotten a ring last year, but, I can name peewee players that would have done more for Chicago on the line he played on)
Hulder=Sharp (Hudler is epic, and sharp will be traded more than likely)
Flip>Bolland
Cleary< Brouwer

So I'd say our top 6 is better than theirs and given a healthy season it will be shown.

Our bottom 6 >>>>>>>> theirs

Our defense... hard to say, our second pairing is much better than theirs on defensively, and Kronner if he continues what he was doing beginning of last season could easily have a better offensive year compared to soup. The first pairing is hard, I'd still argue if I had to pick one defensemen to play only next year to win it all id take Lids first and foremost, now Keith would be my choice to build a defense around for the next 10, but just for next year (and youll call me a homer) I still believe Lids will quietly be the best Dman in the league. Now youll say 'but Keith won Norris... well you can tell by who was nominated how well people knew defensive play in the NHL).

So heres my point, the reason why Chicago dominated wasn't because of a great top 6 and top defensive pairing alone (if that were the case Tampa would have been in the cup running, not the draft lottery), they won it because they had amazing depth in their roster. Guess what Chitown losers, your team lost its greatest strength.

[Tommy_Like_Wingy]

Because they're going DOWN, and they're not done yet, they still got the Niemi, Huet dilemma, they gotta make more trade(s)

Well Huet will be off the roster. I really don't see why they're bothering with Niemi either. He was average at best in the playoffs and a little above average based on his regular season numbers. They'd be retarded to pay more than $2m for him.

[Shaman464]

Well Huet will be off the roster. I really don't see why they're bothering with Niemi either. He was average at best in the playoffs and a little above average based on his regular season numbers. They'd be retarded to pay more than $2m for him.

Ok, heres the bottom line they need to sign Nemi and 5 other players for 5 million dollars (they can only exceed the cap by 10% till puck drop 2010-11 and can't put Huet on waivers till that day.

[mindfly]

Screw hawks top6 it's their depth last season that won it for them in the long run, now they don't have the depth and will most likely will their bottom 6 with scrubs

[Original-Six]

Well Huet will be off the roster. I really don't see why they're bothering with Niemi either. He was average at best in the playoffs and a little above average based on his regular season numbers. They'd be retarded to pay more than $2m for him.

I think people are underestimating Niemi. Sure hes no Patrick Roy but he had a solid regular season and playoffs(even with a shaky finals). Who are the hawks going to replace him with? Someone from their farm system with next to no NHL experience? Turco might be a slight upgrade but sounds like he wants more than the Hawks can afford. Théodore would be a downgrade imo. Not to mention they will have a scrub for a back up regardless of what happens. Its such a mess.

Edited by Original-Six, 22 July 2010 - 05:55 PM.

[Broken 16]

Goodness. Since Stan Bowman came out and talked about this team's "CORE" that is really all I have heard from this s*** "fan" base lol. If he hadn't said it I think all we would hear is "nannaananhana we won the cup!" lulz. A thread without a troll is certainly a less entertaining one I will say that.

Wow. You're right. I never heard one of them ever mention the core before that. I knew I was sick of that word for a reason.