Am I crazy to think that the 6th seed is actually better than the 5th seed for the Hawk? 5th seeds likely means Nashville, followed by the Canucks (the Kings have to be the underdog no matter what Central team they play). I think I would like their chances with the Kings followed by the Blues--neither team is playoff tested in recent years. Let the Preds, Wings, and Canucks beat each other up for a month and then take on whoever survives.

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"YOU GOTTA BE BLEEPING ME"

NHL playoffs reseed.

So if the Hawks are the lowest surviving seed after round 1 after knocking out LA, they then likely play another west coast series
vs the Canucks.

Wings beat Preds, or Preds beat Wings. The winner would likely play St Louis in 2nd round.

Nashville and St Louis are easier road games than LA and BC.

The 4 seed is the real prize among Hawks/Preds/Wings in the current standings. Get at least the 1st round at home. And if the winner of the other 2nd round ends up being the 6th seed who makes it to the conference finals, you get another home series. Which might be true of the 5th seed as well. But 5th seed doesn't get home ice in first round.

Nothing will matter if Toews is not back at 100%.

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They tied the season series with Dallas and San Jose, lost their quartets with Phoenix and LA.

The Kings can be had if Quick's tires are bald enough by then like they have been the last two seasons. He's fifth in the league in minutes, trailing only Hiller, Rinne, Kiprusoff, and Price. (Of those four, Rinne's the only one backstopping a team to the playoffs, so keep an eye on him, too.) It wouldn't be an ideal matchup, but they'd have a fighting chance. The Sharks are fighting for their lives right now and if they make it to third it'll be by beating the Kings twice, themselves scrapping away to stay in it. They have no depth and Niemi sucks. Promising match if they can get it. The Coyotes run a trap and beat guys to pucks, which is anathema to the coasting floaters on this team; our guys wouldn't stand a chance. The Stars are thoroughly mediocre and unwarranting of further keystrokes.

I would just go for the next two wins and see where life takes you. In all likelihood, we're looking at a first-round out, whether it's Detroit, Nashville, or whichever dead-ass team stumbles into winning the Pacific Division. The Hawks just aren't built for the lumbering, stupefying trap hockey that's so prevalent in the West now. I'm just glad they'll get at least two home games of revenue out of it and feel good about loading up for next year.

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This is a good year for a playoff beard. Untrimmed of course. I've already started mine.

/Cool story bro.

I'm with Hussra; It's kind of short sighted if you're just looking at the first round, between the way Detroit is flopping around of late, Vancouver not knowing who their goalie is/having a concussed star, and St Louis being St Louis, the upsets could be a thing this year, go as high as you can...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

I don't care who they get. Typically I hate Nashville games, but the last one was incredible in terms of action. Plus beating the Preds would be like winning the cup (well not quite). The Hawks are going to either bring it, in which case, they can beat anyone, or they will blow late leads and give up soft goals. In that case, they'll lose in the 1st or 2nd round.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Wow, if the Hawks were going into a series with the Preds, I'd expect them to win... pretty easily too, with or without Toews. Hornqvist and the flying Kostitsyn brothers don't scare me; regular season be damned.

Edit:
Detroit on the other hand...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

1 == False;
2 == True;

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

I think they have a shot. They are 1-1 since adding Oduya. Albeit one of those was a real 6-1 kick in the dick, that was also the first game without Duncs and no #19 obviously.

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Team Cutler.

You could argue that if Martin Erat didn't throw his feces into traffic, the Hawks don't win the Stanley Cup.

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Even as he's always good for an obnoxious goal a game against the Hawks, I'll always love him for the blind backwards pass into the middle.

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Team Cutler.

Is it really asking too much to root for St Louis to at least NOT give up the second point to Detroit, especially that cocksucker Bertuzzi in the shootout, for fuck's sake???

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Not a mult.

The Stars-Hawks 3-6 is off the table with the Stars' loss last night. Phoenix is on like a 200-minute shutout streak. Kings and Sharks are going to beat each other up for two games. I would start preparing for the worst.

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Jahns had a good point in the S-T the other day about how as mediocre as the Kings are, it can be discombobulating to not only have those west coast trips but to have them shoehorned into the Staples Center wherever they can fit them in between the Lakers, Clippers, and concerts.

My own thought on the Coyotes: as good as they've looked against the Hawks and as of late, they could easily run out of gas. Their whole model is based on not just trapping, of course, but outworking opponents, hoping to catch them on nights off, because God knows they don't have the talent on paper to hang with the Red Wings, Canucks, Blackhawks, et al. They can catch the Hawks napping on idle February Tuesdays because the Hawks float like they're in the Dead Sea, and they can bank points against bad teams just like anybody else. But when it's the playoffs and everyone is redlining it, the disparity in talent becomes much clearer. Shane Doan and Radim Vrbata trying hard can't beat Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg trying hard in a best of seven. I would like to think the same thing applies with Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews subbed in, if Toews plays again this season, which I'm not convinced he should.

I'm just trying to talk myself off the ledge here because I'm dreading the living shit out of a Coyotes matchup. At least it's now like 99% certain they're off to Quebec City, now that the mayor of Glendale almost started crying, talking about all the city workers she'd have to fire because of the enormous taxpayer subsidies she'd been giving a failing hockey team.

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