no worries.

i wonder if a few more goals may have brought a 2nd rounder - but, then maybe they would have had to retain some salary??

blew his knee out, still seemed rusty at times this year - fumbled a lot of pucks. lots of rushes blew up the other way after fumbles and stumbles.

So they are eating 5 mil or half of 5 mil of Miko's salary but getting a good 3rd rd pick this year since its their original 3rd rd pick.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Why do we need a 3rd rd pick? I get you have to get rid of him.

Jones to Colorado imminent?

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

Where are you hearing this? For what? Retention?

A couple of clowns (not Shakes) on the HF Boards...

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

the salary retention favor the blackhawks did for carolina and colorado is only for this year - seems like a big favor for 2 clubs with cup aspirations. no retention, no rantanen for necas/drury and picks.

2025 nhl entry draft - blackhawks have 4 picks in the first 2 rounds and another 5 picks between rounds 3-7. not sure what the long game with the picks are, but, rockford is losing a handful of players after this season (will they resign perpetual AHLers seney, sanford, guttman and AA gone) and maybe used to stock rockford with some hopefuls.

overall, just like the carolina game, blackhawks hung in there with a club they are obviously overmatched with. benefitted from the bolts' #2 goalie. bedard had an assist, but looked like he was sleepwalking after getting crushed, face-first into the boards. i thought dickinson was poor, later read he was dealing with a virus going around the club. lost too many key face-offs late in the game, kucherov 3 points, PK was bad. decided not to pressure the puck and tampa scored within 30 seconds of each PP. won't stop the BN guy pushing dickinson for the selke. his offense has really tailed off.

del mastro was good, soderblom was very good and we move on. hopefully dach and especially nazar can get more points. with hall gone, wonder if slaggert will get a call-up or joey anderson comes back?

From the Athletic…
Maybe the most puzzling part of this trade is Chicago’s role in all of it. Sure, the Blackhawks got back their own third-round pick, which can be viewed similarly to a late-second. But that alone doesn’t feel like an adequate cost for Hall, one of their best trade assets — especially when looking back at some of last year’s deadline deals, like Tyler Toffoli, Anthony Mantha, and Vladimir Tarasenko.

And Hall wasn’t all the Blackhawks gave up in this deal — they retained 50 percent of Rantanen’s cap hit for the rest of the year to facilitate this deal. Cap space is one of a team’s most valuable assets (especially for teams that want to acquire players on multi-year deals ahead of the cap rising this summer). Management did an awful job of leveraging it in this situation.

Hurricanes grade: A+
Avalanche grade: B-
Blackhawks grade: F

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“How do you get to be president and you’re stupid?” Donald J Trump - 4/10/25
When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus. - Turkish Proverb

not sure if i'd give the blackhawks an 'F', but i'd give colorado the 'A+' because: they were never going to resign rantanen for more than mackinnon money, got younger with necas and drury and didn't have to give anything to the blackhawks. the hurricanes got a likely rental for this year, get a rusty hall, gave up 1 star in necas and 1 decent NHLer and gave the blackhawks their former 3rd round pick back.

again, no blackhawks salary retention, no deal for either carolina/colorado and seems to me that colorado would have been most anxious to get this done.

hmmmm....hopefully, the blackhawks are all in on rantanen after this season. believe he'll be 28/29. he wants $14+ million per. maybe teuvo can work on him a bit.

looks like pettersson won't happen. canucks trying to trade miller and keep pettersson. kaprizov isn't a UFA until 26-27.

I think it's a good trade for the Hawks. There's no guarantee Hall will be healthy at the trade deadline. And even if he is and there is some sort of bidding war the best they are getting is a 2nd rounder. So they took away the injury gamble and unloaded him for a very early 3rd rounder. the salary retention doesn't mean anything or affect the team going forward. Plus it opens up a spot for a young guy. I'd give the trade a solid B+ for the Hawks.

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2 periods of a lot of nothing and another mrazek softie against minnesota - a 3-0 minnesota lead. the next thing you know, it's 3-2 minnesota and there's a chance for a point in a 5th straight game. some would say it's important to win the face-off if you pull the goalie. dickinson couldn't win key d-zone face-offs against tampa and last night, foligno couldn't win key o-zone face-offs. there goes the homestand.

got this from the BN guy before the minnesota game:



now, if he would have written that in early december, sure. no, not anymore. mrazek is 40th in save percentage, under .900% at .895%. that is not superb goaltending. the club has to work on resigning the much improved soderblom (.906 save %) or we'll get more mrazek and the unknown brossoit next year. looks like in a perfect world, mrazek gets traded and we can work on soderblom/brossoit as the G tandem for next year.

he also writes about the hawks and marner. the leafs are over the cap...i doubt they resign tavares ($11 million per) and allow marner ($10.6 million per) to walk. i expect tavares to be available, but at 35? no thanks. leafs easily use tavares $11 million money to give marner a raise and they're comfortably under the cap. rantanen is basically, "pay me $14 million per, and i'll sign".

Elliott Friedman discussed the trade on the 32 Thoughts podcast. Said the Hawks still saved about $500,000 even with the salary retention. Also said that as the draft pick they received was originally their draft pick, they can use it like St. Louis did in signing the Oilers' RFAs in the offseason. Said that St. Louis had reacquired a draft pick that had been traded to the Penguins so that they could make those deals. Depending upon what the Hawks do, Friedman said this trade could look a lot different down the road.

Not unless they need more than one new D man. They just got Necas from Carolina in this deal.

impressive result on the road, can't say they were 3 goals better. fantastic game from soderblom and hawks not really respected with tampa's #2 goalie, again.

soderblom's goals against under 3 and save percentage at .910. does this mean we'll get mrazek on thursday?

1 PP goal, 1 empty-netter and 2 goals off the rush. in my opinion, this is how they should play. really need to patch up d-zone coverage. tampa is a strong club, really had the blackhawks reeling in their d-zone.

the snipe by Bedard was amazing. Top 3 goal of his career so far. Off the top of my head the other two are the Michigan and the short side snipe on Bobrovsky.

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Tampa's #1 goalie was a scratch due to an illness, announced during the pregame.

I was at the game, about a third of the upper deck was Blackhawks fans. One of the things to impress me was that Andres played Jones and Vlasic as the #1 D pairing for the entire third period, with Martinez and Crevier as the #2 pairing and Brodie and Del Mastro firmly glued to the bench. Del Mastro isn't yet used to NHL opponent speed and made a couple of bad mistakes in the first period.

Also, Bedard's goal was ridiculous. And up 4-1, Andres put Bedard's line out there to play some defense, which I thought was a good move.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Loved the energy Slaggert brought. I liked him last year as well. It's amazing what happens when guys bust their asses. I can't believe stick check Seth has put together 3 games now where he is actually using some physicality. He must want to shine things up for the deadline.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Even when they are ahead in games, they are getting out shot by a wide margin. But last night was a nice win. but I suspect it was mainly because of the goalie situation for Tampa.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

He made some amazing saves but I think they also complied a shit ton of those shots will the net empty at the end of the game. I think they ripped off 6 before the timeout. Thankfully that mustachioed dipshit decided to board Bedard after Bedard's penalty. That could have easily turned the game upside down with a late power play.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Why isn't Bedard better? I was told he was a can't miss superstar.

he's been fairly good, so far. yes, not the greatest skater, still poor balance and agility. nearly broke both of his ankles as paul blew by him in the 1st period, but soderblom saved the day. he does bring size and fighting ability, hasn't fought yet. prob has a grand total of 35 minutes in the nhl and handles the puck, fairly well. seems confident and knows what to do with the puck - especially in the o-zone. needs to be very, very careful at the opponent blue line. any turnover, will get cooked on the turn, before the straight-away.

will say that all is not well if he's in the nhl and KK and kaiser are stuck in rockford and allen is eating popcorn in the press box. looking more and more like some of the young D will eventually get traded.

nice 2024-25 debut for slaggert. yes, jones recent play - has either had an epiphany or almost afraid this is all temporary. he's picked it up in lieu of vlasic going through the doldrums. really in a funk the past month.

Remember Trevor Van Riemsdyk? He's having a damn fine season with the Capitals. 33 and thriving. I remember complaining about him all the time when he was a young Hawk. He's had a nice career.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

believe it's a good thing that anyone can pick 7-8 issues to talk about after this 3-2 loss to carolina. to me, the alarm bells are starting to ring for vlasic, he's really in a funk, stuck in the doldrums. 21+ minutes, 0 hits. seth jones 25+ minutes, 0 hits. ok, we know sorenson isn't going to bench either of them. aside from that, i had no problem with jones' game against carolina - playing his best ever hockey with the blackhawks since hitting rock bottom against calgary.

speaking of sorenson, have an issue with his PP units and who plays. seemed to 'punish' nazar, moving him. good message, nazar was hot for over a week, can't get complacent.

nolan allen, this guy is deadly. 4 hits, including the pulverization of svechnikov. allen times his hits perfectly, to maximize the pain of his body hitting you and the boards not giving you an inch of relief. crushed svechnikov and the russian waited forever to get revenge. threw him off his game. after svechnikov took his revenge, allen challenged him to fight, the russian said no. the shitty part here is that murphy will return, likely a young d-man will sit and brodie doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

kurashev was brutal. what the fuck was he doing on the PP? then, glided to seemingly check slavin, which never happened and slavin scored. likely in the press box saturday. dach robbed of a goal, slaggert with a another good game and still haven't said anything about soderblom.

D'oh! Necas is a forward. So Colorado still could be in play for Jones.

dallas all-world D-man heiskanen out 'week to week' with a knee injury after getting submarined by stone of las vegas.

problem here is jones' salary and the blackhawks don't have any salary retention spots open for this year. not sure davidson would pull any trigger, really should, if given a chance. sell high? perfect example here, jones has been very good lately.

nhl and players' assoc. gave us this memo today:

going to watch today's matinee with florida - mrazek in goal, murphy back, which means allen (i believe) is out. not a fan of this, but one guy is getting paid to make those decisions. will just keep an eye on tomorrow's club.

canucks finally unloaded miller, pettersson stays in vancouver. looks as though the penguins have called it quits on the season..for sure, now out of the market for a G, may make a move for RFA soderblom if the blackhawks don't resign him. qualifying offers (good for only 1 year) by end of the june, if no offer, RFA on july 1.

Fuck Murphy and all of these has been hacks on D. 19 fucking shots in 10 minutes. That has to be a record.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

yeah, brutal 1st period. in their d-zone - guys soft on the puck, lots of soft lunges, soft in 1x1 battles, doing figure eights, while florida is making quick, tape to tape passes. not sure if lunging with no power, is an acceptable defensive move. blackhawks seem to think it is.

mrazek was very good, but, sorry, kinda at fault for the 1st goal. couldn't corral the puck in the crease, while making casual saves on shots from 15 feet out. seems to be getting a rep for complaining about interference after every greasy opponent goal. complaint failed.

2nd goal, 3 filters and the puck still got through to reinhart. 1 filter was murphy, last filter was bedard. reinhart had the perfect opponents out on the ice defending. give credit to slaggert, skates his socks off every shift. had the turbo going on his goal.

still not sure why donato is on the PP, if sorenson has to play jones, then use vlasic at the other point. florida didn't mess around on their PK, these guys pressure the puck immediately. aggressive. can't be nervous or hesitant. blackhawks PK is polar opposite, very passive.

Murphy on the ice for all three goals (so far). He’s horrible. Just waive the guy.