It has been a treat to watch these guys bust their ass and tonight the regular season comes to a close. If this team wins it all, they'll go down as a better team than the 09-10 team, in my opinion. What these guys have done in this shortened season is simply incredible.

Hawks @ Blues tonight. Who cares, meaningless. I'll be surprised if Hutton doesn't get the start in net. Pretty sure Toews and Kane are out. Hopefully Hossa too.

Race for Eighth:

7 ) Detroit - 54 points
8 ) Minnesota - 53 points
9 ) Columbus 53 points

Tiebreaker is settled by regulation wins. Both Minnesota and Detroit have 21 while Columbus has 18. Columbus needs to win tonight and have Minnesota lose, doesn't matter if it's in regulation or not. If that doesn't happen, they need to win and have Detroit lose in regulation. Columbus is the odd man out in terms of tie breakers against both teams.

Red Wings @ Stars - 6:00:
http://nutjob.eu/njtvx17.html

Predators @ Blue Jackets - 6:00:
http://nutjob.eu/njtvx11.html

Wild @ Avalanche - 6:30:
http://nutjob.eu/njtvx14.html

Minnesota are falling hard. A slumping team is always a perfect first round opponent. I wouldn't mind playing Detroit either while Columbus scares me a little bit. We'll see how this goes tonight.

oh dear this is ghastly. Shawn Lalonde at forward. Seabrook is dressed just so that someone is.

_________________

Glad for once it isn't televised here

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Just shows how far he's fallen on this team. He was once considered part of the core but no longer is. This basically says "You're not important enough to sit this game".

This game is really bad, by the way. It's like watching the Hawks from the early/mid 2000's again.

Other games are pretty interesting right now.

Looks like it's gonna be Minnesota in the first round.

_________________

Detroit up 3-0 on the Stars now.

BJ's losing by a goal, half-way through 3rd. Min up 2-1 on Colorado going to the 2nd intermission.

Columbus not done yet, they just tied it up on a PP late in the 3rd, 1-1.

BJ's go up 2-1 on Preds, 45 shots for Columbus to 19 for Nashvegas.

Columbus has to outpoint the Wild, as the Wild own the tie-breaker btw the teams.

Jackets win.

Avs are pushing the tempo vs the Wild.

Hawks vs Wild.

Guys on NBCSN trash-talking Blackhawks sitting all those guys tonight.

For what reason did they give?

Its a smart move if the Blues were going to cheap shot the fuck out of them. Its not like they took a week off.

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

Yea. I don't really see how anyone could have a solid counter argument.

H'LYAH, YA NAW, THIS ISN'T BASEBALL, YOU DOON'T WIN THE PENNANT AND REST UP. THIS IS HAWKEY. THEY DON'T EVEN WAWNNA SIT OAT. THEY LEARN FROM MIDGET TO PLAY HARD EVERY SHIFT OF EVERY GAME. THESE ARE GOOD WESTERN CANADIAN BOYS WHO WAWNTED TO GO OAT THERE AND PLAY HAWKEY AND THEY COULDN'T. THAT'S NAWT WHAT A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM DOES. THAT REST IS GAWNNA TURN INNA RUST, AND I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THEY GET CAUGHT PLAYIN' LAZY AGAINST THE WILD.

_________________

First guy, Keith Jones, said it was unfair to San Jose and the Kings (who I guess are screwed now b/c St Louis got 2 points tonight?) and that
Bettman needed to look into this and not let it happen again.

Milbury came back with "well, it's not hockey, but the Blackhawks had a streak like the Heat had and the Heat rested guys after that streak was up".

Then the 3rd guy asked if they thought Blackhawks did this because of how the Blues beat up Toews and the rest last time out when these 2 teams played.

Then Keith Jones said to bring up gorillas and beat the snot out St Louis in retribution but to still play the first-liners? Spread their time out, fewer shifts, yadda.

Probably be up on youtube before long.

Holy shit: an exchange involving Mike Milbury in which the biggest fucking idiot wasn't Mike Milbury. Yeah, it'll be on youtube; events like that have to be archived forever.

If San Jose doesn't like it, San Jose should have tried winning more than 17 games in regulation. There's no sense in bringing up goons to play with the first-liners because the Hawks barely have any goons -- certainly none of the calibre needed to dissuade David Backes from taking cheapshots on Toews. How do I know this? Because David Backes has been taking cheapshots on Toews for like four fucking years.

_________________

Jones and Milbury are both idiots. This isn't surprising at all.

They should shut the fuck up more often.

Hawks won the Jennings Trophy with 97 goals against and a 2.021 team GAA. What a difference a well-run possession offense makes.

_________________

IF seeds held, Hawks would have to deal with the Blues thuggin it up in the 2nd round. Stanley Cup playoffs rarely/if ever end up having all 4 top seeds make it to the next round.

Wings have been on NBCSN all week. They've been shutting down teams and scoring all of a sudden. They took 2 out of 3 from the Ducks
in the regular season--winning both out West. And they apparently have a couple of their veterans coming back for the playoffs, Bertuzzi and Samuelsson and 1 other guy, Helm?

Wings goalie got new paper a few weeks ago. He's been pretty good all season, but he's been lights out since signing on for 6 yrs/30 mil.

Would've been fun to have a Blackhawks-Wings Western Conference swan song 1st round matchup. Should be even more fun in a later round.

LAK take a 1-0 lead a minute into the 2nd period.

Blues-Kings would be a great series.

Couture just tied it up, 1-1 now

Wings/Ducks is a great series because Detroit can take them out.

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

Agreed, Ducks have been mediocre for over a month. I think we get Detroit second round.

_________________
Git on back there.

Minnesota and Detroit in rounds 1 and 2 would make for a light travel schedule for the team and likely mean a lot of Hawks fans in the stands in Xcel Energy and Joe Louis Arena. Chicago fans can some payback for all the years Detroit fans referred to the United Center as "Joe Louis West".

I don't know about Minnesota. They're really good at packing their barn. Might be hard to go behind enemy lines there.

One of the things that really struck me about the Oilers game the other night is how dead-silent it was when the Hawks scored. All year long we've gotten quite used to the traveling contingent making a lot of noise in Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, etc. They didn't make it to central Alberta. Chalk it up to remoteness, meaninglessness, and the Oilers uber-faithful doing a good job of packing the place (even when the games are meaningless).

No one goes to Wings games anymore, so we could make our presence felt there. It's part Atlanta Braves Syndrome, part Detroit Is A Jobless Hellhole. On second thought, too many Hawks fans at the game might make Rachel Shteir think that Chicago finally became Detroit.

_________________