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.