Huh?

The Celtics are defending NBA champs.

_________________

playing a stinker, offensively tonight. one shot and out. no real forecheck tonight. PP goal against was aggravating. hawks had possession on the wall, no pressure, hawk player shoots puck into the bench. subsequent face-off, in hawks zone, jones had possession, turned the wrong way and couldn't clear. that PK unit was on the ice for awhile, they reaped what they sowed.

guys like bertuzzi, mikheyev, dickinson...etc..haven't been bad over 3 games, but these guys need to start producing. can't rely on bedard cherry-picking and getting breakaway goals every game.

Brilliant... I watched the first three games on ESPN+, and now tonight I'm in Chicago in a hotel and can't watch the game because I'm in-market. Like the hotel has antennas in the rooms.

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

you didn't miss anything. aggravating defeat.

meh game from a meh team.


I've only seen him play this season, but I'm starting to come away with the opinion that Bertuzzi is a terrible hockey player.

_________________

last week, i thought i heard caley call bertuzzi an 'elite' free agent the hawks got. what?

deduced that her dad had to have influenced her in saying that, from his days with the red wings. today, chelios told us: "i coached bertuzzi at grand rapids...". ok, chris. said bertuzzi's top trait is being a disrupter, in front and behind the net.

guys like him, hall, mikheyev, dickinson, need to start producing. so far this season, nothing from them. i don't expect much from joey anderson, had a breakaway shorthanded...no shake and bake at all, easy save. anderson gets a huge pass from the bleacher nation guy - due to defensive analytics. i don't want donato or anderson on the 3rd line. the obvious choice is nazar, believe the blackhawks want him at C.

I give Anderson credit, he's a plug and he got a breakaway and rather than trying to do something above his pay grade he picked his spot and fired a shot. Can't tell you how many times I yell at unskilled players on breakaways who try to do too much. Goalie made the save, but it was the correct decision by Anderson.


Hawks management fell for it too with Bertuzzi. He was penciled in on that first line before he even got here and was given the first shot at in the preseason. Took about 1 game before coaches realized he was completely unworthy of playing alongside Bedard and moved him to a different line.


Hawks should put Kurashev back on the Bedard line alonng with 86. second line should be Dickinson line.

_________________

home opener...here we go.

impressive performance...home game after any road trip has possibilities for a trap game. PP did relatively better at 5x4 than 5x3, san jose missing some guys. 1st goals of the season for hall/bertuzzi/dickinson, 1st point of the year for anderson.

if donato gets to eat popcorn in the press box for a few games because he made a selfish play, mikheyev could be next.

sabres on saturday.

San Jose is not good...

Can't figure out their PP. They had a great passing play to start the second which ended in a tap in. Then can't do anything with two 5 on 3s. Seems to me like they were waiting for the perfect pass and not moving.

Can't complain about 2 points, though.

season has gone as expected, which is a good thing. we knew they'd be much more competitive...6 games, 18 periods & 1 ot and they've been the better hockey club in 14-15 of those periods. paying a severe price for being 1 step behind in those periods and ot that they have lost. thought taylor hall stopped skating on a potential vital backcheck on the sabers' 1st goal.

maroon and anderson out last night. the 4th line had 2/3 of my 4th line, reichel/anastasiou and smith. smith with 2 goals/reichel 2 assists and they were the hawks' best line in limited minutes. makes you look at lines #1-#3. where's the production 5x5?

kurashev made the cardinal mistake and skated with his head down in the neutral zone, trying to retrieve a just out-of-reach puck. got smashed. bertuzzi gets the extra minor, late in the 3rd period. dumb penalty. panger says bertuzzi was sticking up for kurashev and didn't understand why the hawks became short-handed at a critical time. hmmm....you've been in hockey for 50 years and you didn't know why the hawks were short-handed from the activities after that legal hit? is panger moving to ridiculous homer status?

the hawks had a shit roster last year and they cratered around this time last year and went on a prolonged bad streak after a decent very early start. hawks have a better roster this year and the club has to avoid a potential rut this early in the year. starts on tuesday.

Only part of this sentence I don't agree with is the first part. Nothing Kurashev could do other than get destroyed there. It was a suicide pass by Bertuzzi and had no other possible result than what we saw. 100% of the blame for that goes to Bertuzzi.

The part with Panger was very odd. Made me question if he had ever followed the NHL before.

_________________

Pang was a shameless homer doofus when he worked for St. Louis, so he's probably just keeping up the act here.

_________________

my thoughts were that kurashev's inner professional hockey body clock alarm had to be going off...he took how many strides in the center neutral zone with his head down? as far as berutzzi - yes, i don't think he's known for his vision and passing.

nhl network radio was actually talking about this last week. players aren't expecting to get hit under any circumstance and this is where modern day fights break out. the old days of fighting to change the tempo or intimidate are gone, the modern day fights are a result of former caged-helmeted kids now taking exception to being put on their ass. do i agree? not sure, but their point was taken. why did kurashev get angry? i get it, you're saying he should have been angry with bertuzzi.

yes. obviously, he knows his hockey and especially goaltending commentary...but he's moving the toggle switch to the homer-ism side. the kurashev hit - his whole defending bertuzzi and being incredulous to the extra minor on the hawks was embarrassing.

I guess you're asking Kurashev to bail out of the pass under the assumption that trouble could be lurking on the other end of it. Good luck getting most pro hockey players to bail out of a play because they hear footsteps. Not a good look for any player, even at high school level, who does that.

100% the blame goes to Bertuzzi. As the passer he has a responsibility to Kurashev to not put him in that spot, especially since he can see the traffic awaiting Kurashev whereas Kurashev is facing Bertuzzi waiting for the puck to finally arrive. Bertuzzi probably attacked the guy cause he felt guilty.

_________________

whether he took a wallop for the team or didn't pay attention to his hockey sense, it appears kurashev will sit out tonight's game with vancouver. benched. press box. popcorn.

to double check, watched the highlites from the sabre loss. 1st goal against. hall dumps the puck in. upa (of course coach luke isn't going to bench mrazek/soderblom, both are terrible at stickhandling/decision making with the puck - it would help lessen chaos) with a clean handle behind the net. moves puck to dahlin. kurashev forechecks to correct corner, bertuzzi goes to seal other wall. sabres' dahlin flips puck up to blue line, hall misses chance to keep the puck in and stops skating on sabre rush. kurashev and bertuzzi lag the play as they were to forecheck. the sabres C was deep and hustled to make the 3x2. 3x2, vlasic pokecheck puts puck on thompson's stick, quick shot - goal.

so, that's kurashev's fault? if anything, likes like hall is more of a culprit.

is coach luke looking at kurashev's assumed lack of production? kurashev has won the most face-offs of any hawk...not sure what's going on here.

ridiculous benching. How do you bench Kurashev, but keep sending Brodie out there every game?

_________________

agreed.

here's the lineup tonight:



mrazek in goal.

demko still out, shilovs can't replicate his playoff magic, ex-hawk lankinen in goal for the johnny canucks.

Ok ESPN+ broadcast. The lady in the booth has lotssss of makeup on.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

i'll check and see if caley sprinkled some glitter on her cheeks.

Pleasant voice. This Frank guy has an annoying voice.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Welp, I may not make it to intermission.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

This Haugh network is decent quality. Comcast Sports used to have so many audio problems and graphic errors. So I guess you could not get much worse.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Worst game they’ve played this year. So far.

yeah, looking bad.

discombobulated in their own zone..the carnival music played and played for a long time.

caley and rick got the message - don't blame foligno for anything. 10 feet from the blue line, couldn't clear the zone - 1-0.

vlasic needs to clear the house. he stands and plays stick games with the opponent in front of goal and his size 18 skates deflect pucks into his goal. push the guy away, dude. you're a millionaire defenseman now. this has happened 2-3 times this year already.

mrazek, losing his net... more lost at sea than the castaways on gilligan's isle. get it together.

dickinson made up for his lazy trip, fought hard and assisted on donato's goal.

- at least ball figured out it was an off-side challenge. vosters would have said they're challenging a pass attempt past the line of scrimmage.

pretty obvious the vets can do no wrong in Richardson's eyes. No reason at all that Foligno should be on the first line. He's fucking terrible.


TT isn't good enough to play with Bedard either, but unfortunately hes the best option we have. Loved it when Bedard took that offsides on purpose because TT didn't have the vision to see him cutting across the blue line. Definitely meant to send a message to TT.

_________________

yeah, these 2 last home games were no way critical, but....telling, in a negative way. the much vaunted challenge staff got the offside wrong (not sure how that was onsides), and they couldn't challenge (no challenge allowed) a too many men on ice situation, when the johnny canucks scored their 4th goal with 7 guys on the ice.

foligno fucked up in the first 20 seconds. couldn't clear his own zone when in possession, 10 feet from the blueline. ok, happens to all, usually, the opponent doesn't score every time they have possession in your zone. this time, they did.

caley the analyst, said nothing about foligno's failure to clear. jones was brutal last. bedard, no points, 2 for 13 on face-offs and a -3. goalies are waiting, glove-side, shoulder level, glove wide open.

Caley Chelios is so fucking terrible. Yes, she knows her stuff. But, her monotone voice and total lack of excitement are brutal to listen to. It's an insult to paint to say she is as boring as watching paint dry.

_________________

Her teeth are annoying. But I found her voice to be an easy listen.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You