agreed. i don't want to lose any d-man, but, like you, i'm resigned to that fact. if vlasic played to his talent and physical levels, i'd be ok with giving murphy away. if i judged kaiser on last night's game, i'd waive him. has had strong games too...these guys are still young and inconsistent.

they may not make any move to resign kaiser and crevier...allow other clubs to offer them a contract, not match...and based on the money in the contract, they'd get draft compensation. will the draft picks be good ones? no..but, i believe these guys will give the club D depth at relatively lower salaries and help with spending money on FWDs, the next 2-3 years. you can't have guys like murphy and brodie earning over $8 million combined as 5th/6th or scratched d-men. kaiser and crevier combined, would likely cost the club 60% of that. GM kyle has to be smart.

smartest thing i ever heard olcyzk say: know your own players before other clubs know them.

game against las vegas tonight. knight given every opportunity to settle in and be the #1 G. korchinski in, crevier out. looks like nazar won't play with bedard. bedard playing with donato and mikheyev.

levshunov will be on the #1 PP, korchinski, the number #2 PP. vlasic off the PP. i believe las vegas is the least penalized club in the nhl and the blackhawks don't draw penalties. we'll see how many PPs the blackhawks get. if they don't move their feet, won't draw any penalties.

quick first period. kaiser was bad on wednesday, all-star 1st period today. poor guy has to play with murphy. las vegas - no penalty on maroon's backhand, obvious penalty on levshunov. they do get all the calls.

I think Korchinski is gonna be a stud. I can't want for Rinzel.

i want to say on vegas' 3rd goal - pang spent time pointing out korchinski's bad read that turned a likely 2x2 into a vegas 2x1 with only del mastro defending. yeah...mistake. what panger didn't tell us is the comedy that slaggert and foligno played at the vegas blue line, failing to get the puck in deep - after each had 1 chance to do so. this failure led to confusion, korchinski's bad defensive read and a vegas goal. this club loses more puck battles than any other club i've ever seen. times when 2 blackhawks lose the puck battle vs. 1 opponent.

all in all, a tough loss. hill stopped mikheyev and nazar breakaways and nazar had another breakaway where he lost control of the puck, trying to deke hill.

bottom line is that knight allowed 1 super softie and was outclassed by the vegas G. congrats to donato on his hat-trick.

I really hope Foligno comes up with an "injury" in the offseason and doesn't play anymore. This guy can not be here anymore. They need to name Vlasic the captain and start the next phase.

yeah, i've never been the biggest fan of his. the blackhawks did this nonsense to themselves - trying to market him as a loveable, skilled, and tough-as-nails, C. saw the dumb puff-piece yesterday, having fun with his bald head. dumb shit for ray raynor, with tyler macgregor reporting from cuddly-dudley's doghouse - not blackhawks pre-game. yeah, the guy is clearly on the downside, deserves 4th line time. skills and athleticism fading quick. under contract for one more year.

u of minnesota got eliminated, snuggerud signed an ELC with the blues - waiting for moore and rinzel...we'll see.

I think Moore stays in college one more year. He needs to transfer out of there. I would like to see Rinzel signed. If he signs and plays less than 9 games, does he burn through a year of the ELC? I think Nazar played like 2-3 games and did. I am not sure I am doing that unless I am sure he plays with the big club atleast half the season next year.

i believe if the player signs an ELC at age 20 or older (nazar), the first year burns - whether the player gets to 10 games in the nhl or plays every game in the ahl. the fact that dickinson had a down year after the extension, foligno is a C...we need as many Cs as possible. maybe you're right, moore could use another year at the u of m.

i believe levshunov is at that stage (nhl games) now - if he plays against utah tomorrow..his first year burns.

watching the zawaski/boysen/tirabassi podcast. some interesting comments about donato-bedard and then donato's contract.

I've gotta say, if they want this Blackhawks stuff on CHGO to work, Tirabassi needs to start having opinions rather than just filling dead space with words. He really just says things but doesn't actually say anything.

as far as the podcast:

- they really need to get a loveseat when vlasic (frequent guest) is on. i know they want to cozy up next to him. really need to ask alex, "what happened?"

- complimented bedard's play when shrugging off a complaint that bedard had no shots on goal against vegas. then, they both agreed that donato is the blackhawks offensive player of the season. the gen. talent behind donato? bedard needs to shoot more, case closed.

- agreed with them that the issue with donato will be term. boysen said $5 million per? see you. i agree again. boysen told us that donato is modest...

blackhawks signed both moore and rinzel..3 year ELCs, $941k, $1.34/$1.36 million, AAV. looks like rinzel got a bit more money than moore.

both players are 20 or older, so, first year will burn for both. starting next season, each has 2 years left. we'll see...don't expect much off the bat, hope they feel and look comfortable on the ice.

reading that moore will likely play tomorrow.

Moore needed 1 more year in college, but if they think they can develop him in Rockford, go for it.

Bring Rinzel up and lets see what he does.

Boston U won.

I guess Ryan Greene isn't signing...

both should play tomorrow.

looking forward to this utah game..

rinzel paired with kaiser on the 2nd d-pair. i guess the minnesota thing clinched the pairing for the staff. we actually have RD & LD combos with every D-pairing. the 3rd pairing is slow/not the best skaters.

moore will play wing on the 3rd line with veleno centering. ok. we'll check it out.

more seravalli predictions...he's the jon heyman of hockey, only better.

bold prediction that rinzel will never play an AHL game. hope he's that good.

fairly good first period for both. most shakiest D moments were with the $4.4 million/most experienced murphy on 'patrol'. u of Minn kids nearly flawless, rinzel with a soft backhand pass in the o-zone that saw a utah breakout and subsequent chance. bedard set him up nice.

on the PP, bedard needs to stop the nonsense figure-8s, looking to make a pin-point pass for a tap-in. shoot the puck. you have an elite shot. 5x5 bedard, still with the blind backhand passes at the blue line.

after getting 3 straight PPs, you knew that even a vicious slash to vlasic's calf wouldn't get called - just the unwritten bad rules of hockey. more good stuff from the u of Minn crew. rinzel did get smoked on that hit and you knew that the blackhawks would get an additional minor in an attempt to balance the calls.

poor korchinski, thinking that at times, he creates his own bad luck. utah getting easy deflections for goals, the backhawks have to climb two mountains and swim one ocean just to get an open look in the slot.

hopefully, they come back in the 3rd. bedard was the catalyst for utah's first goal. another hot dog attempt that failed, just inside utah's blueline. the pond hockey comment is a good moniker.

all in all, enjoyable game to watch. the club is their own worst enemy, a few players that hurt the club 5x5 - from bertuzzi to murphy to bedard & teuvo. when they need offense at 5x5, they are probably the weakest club in the league when it comes to forechecking - soft players that even panger noticed today and commented on what i have said: 2 blackhawks and 1 opponent on the boards, the opponent usually wins the puck. small players. the club can generate offense from the neutral zone and then they need to move around, not stand still.

PP entries embarrassed them today, fans let them know. won't change anything.

have to like the speed factor going forward.

they gave us a list of the 1st rounders in the past 3 years. i'd say korchinski is easily the most disappointing, followed by captain pond hockey. i was told that bedard has a super high hockey IQ, and he makes numerous dumb and dangerous plays/mistakes, every game. will he ever clean that up?

I would agree. There is no need for him to.