thanks for winning us a Cup with the most stacked roster of the post lockout era, but the time has come for you to leave.

For 2 years the PP has been attrocious despite having arguably teh best top end talent in the entire league. That's all on the coaching staff. Same goes for the coma enducing PK.

Fact is Q has more talent ot work with than any team in the league. People rip on the bottom six and say we need one more top center or one more defenseman, but you know what, every team in this league has weak spots. That's what happens in the salary cap era. There's no reason a team with this type of top end talent shouldn't be able to contend for a cup, I don't give a shit who is on the 3rd line.

And that's another thing...Q is obsessed with having a good scoring 3rd line since we had one during our Cup run. But, that team was a fluke in the salary cap era. Yet, Q insists on spreading his talent thin over 3 lines rather than trying to have 2 great lines.

Enough is enough, its time for Q to go.

The team seems to like Q which is another good reason to fire him...send a message to the team, let them know that its their fault their beloved coach got fired, hopefully that will give them a kick in the ass.

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They should rehire Savard...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

Yes, do you have a problem with that?

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I'm getting closer and closer to this as well. You are 100% right about the cup team. It will go down as one of the, if not the, deepest cup winning team in the salary cap era. I mean, Andrew Ladd was playing 3rd and 4th line minutes. Insane.

He is trying to employ tactics that worked two years ago that simply can't work with the personnel on the team. There is no reason Lepisto hasn't been given a consecutive game sample. The power play is laughable. The answer why Nashville scores 5% more of the time? Coaching. 100%. Tell Patrick Sharp to fuck off and he's the 2nd line center. He's making a lot of money and he's the 2nd best center on this team and that's where he's staying for the rest of the year. John Scott should never dress. Ever. He seems completely unwilling or unable to execute any changes of game plans throughout the course of a game. His response to any situation is shuffle the lines and then shuffle again once that doesn't work.

His time in StL and Colorado ended with speculations that his players quit on him. Might be happening again.

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Team Cutler.

I have a friend who is preaching the same thing. You are out of your mind. He's a HOF coach that won the cup 1 1/2 years ago. You want Alpo back? Here's why:

1. The goaltending is atrocious. That's not even a strong enough word. That is not something he can solve. He has tried using both, giving them extensive work. They just suck. I know some people have this hope for Crawford moving forward, but I can't see it. They both suck, no team is gonna win with them. Please list the last time one of these guys "stood on their head" and stole a game that the Hawks had no business winning............good teams get that from their goalies every once in a while. The Hawks haven't.

2. When they won the cup, the defense was one of, if not the best in the league. Duncan Keith is a shell of what he was back then Hjallmersson has regressed instead of making progress, and that's just talking about two guys that were here back then. The turnovers in their own end, blown assignments, etc. are just too much for the team to overcome - when you have two shitty players in goal. Is Q really responsible for what has happened to Keith in your opinion?

3. Patrick Kane. You gonna blame Q for this disaster too?

4. There are a few players on this roster that wouldn't be in the league at all if they weren't signed here. Scott, Bickell, hell, even O'Donnelll - all of them would be playing golf if Bowman didn't have them here. There's more, I just don't feel like debating all of them.

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What about the concept of go fuck yourself?

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Point - counterpoint.

I've been saying for years that this guy is a one-trick pony. And when you aren't doing that trick (putting the puck in the damn net) - then you are essentially useless. He is not a core player on championship-level team. He is a nice add-on commodity that scores when the attention is on other, more skilled players.

Patrick Kane needs to be the guy drawing the attention, making plays, allowing Sharp to do his trick. That's not happening.

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Fuck it, what's Jacques Lemaire doing these days? Let's just turn the Hawks into a system team...

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

I think one trick pony is overstating it a bit, but I definitely see what you are saying. He's still the best option as 2nd line center on this team as he's more defensively responsible that Kane.

They are stuck with the goaltending as it is for the rest of the year. Q needs to be making every adjustment possible to sure up the defense and try to limit the goal scoring chances.

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Team Cutler.

I couldn't believe yesterday on the Mac show that Tim Sassone said Bickell would be picked up toot sweet if the Hawks were to waive him. It was said after a caller asked why Jimmy Hayes was sent down to Rockford. Sassone replied that guys like Bickell would have to clear waivers first and that other teams would basically be clamoring for a stiff like that.

Really? Bryan effing Bickell would have other GMs scrambling to put in a claim? In what reality?

Also, what's up with the goalie, Halak, in the minors? Too lazy to look up his stats. Why isn't he being given a sniff in the NHL? Wasn't the final decision to keep him or Emery pretty close?

He's been hurt. And then when he's played he's been bad. Sub 90% sv. The goaltending in Rockford all year has been not good.


Hindsight what it is, the decision to keep Hammer over Niemi might have been a mistake. I certainly would have made the same move though.

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Team Cutler.

Goal tending is bad but they hang him out to dry quite a bit. There is no help on defense.

I agree about Keith and Kane but what is the explaination for it?

I also agree, the lines can be weird a times.

It's sad to watch them play. Are they still trying to put things in place for next year though?

At least he's kind of responsible though, plus he's like a 42% face off guy I think, not too bad(I'm pulling that number out of my ass, but it feels so right). Depth wise, I'd love putting him at center and trading for a left winger, since there are more of them out there than second centers.

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

It all comes down to one thing...

Toews
Hossa
Kane
Sharp
Bolland
Keith
Seabrook

There might be a couple teams that can match that top seven, but most in the league don't even come close. In the salary cap era if you can't win with that top end talent then you are doing something drastically wrong.

Is the goaltending bad? Yes, won't argue with you on that.

But, the biggest problem with this team is special teams which is a direct reflection on coaching. And this team has been pathetic on special teams for 2 years now. Zero shots on 3 pps last night! There's no reason a team with this top end talent should be this bad on PP. That is all on coaching. Q loves to juggle his lines 5x a game, yet he has stuck with the exact same PP and PK system since the day he arrived. Still trying to force the backdoor pass on the PP even though that play hasn't worked in 3 years. And still running a passive PK even though aggressive PKs are becoming much more effective around the league.

And please stop the Kane nonsense. He's been the best player on the ice for the past week and yet we are still losing.

Q is a hall of fame coach, he's also a coach who's been run out of town at 2 other places despite success. There must be a reason for that.

The more and more inept this team plays, the less and less credit I give Q for the Cup win. Starting to appears as if that roster was so stacked it would've been harder to not win the Cup than to win it.

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I'd agree with this, but only with the understanding that it's due to the lack of centers on this team. Which, again, not a Q problem.

If there is an "arrow of blame" on this team, it needs to point at a different office in the UC.

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Defense is bad but they hang them out to dry quite a bit. There is no help from the forwards.

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

Exactly. My point on allowing 5 shots more a game than 2 years ago reflects on the forwards just as much as D

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Team Cutler.

1. You're right the core should be one of the best in the league, but at least 4 of them aren;t playing anywhere near as well as they did two years ago.

2. Kane may have been the best player on the ice for the Hawks in the last week - is that what you meant? Again - that's as much of a admission of the lack of production from everyone else as it is a compliment to him. Also, the season is 4 months old. I need more from him all year.

3. Q got "run out of town" in the other places. But he won a cup here. Huge difference.

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Sadly, it's probably split 50/50. You are right about guys who wouldn't be in the NHL unless Stan signed them, but the team should be better than what they've been this year with the top end.

I just hope I'm right that Stan mailed in this year a bit w/ the 1 year contracts until Pirri, Morin, Olesz etc are ready to contribute here full time. He must of thought that the coaching staff would get more out of this roster than what they have.

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Team Cutler.

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So Dale Tallon won that cup?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I haven't noticed, but are the Hawks still rolling out Sharp at the point on the power play? If not they, they should go back to that

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

No. Not unless you believe that Marty Havlat would've been just as helpful as Marian Hossa.

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There's also a gigantic player missing from the pp and from the cup team that no one has mentioned yet. I don't want to bring him up, but his absence has left a gaping hole on this team. And again - this will point back to Bowman.

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#1 in my heart always


Edit: Went with Burrish because a Google search of 'Kim Johnson Blackhawks' returned with 'this human does not exist'

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Team Cutler.

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Olesz... Ha! Remember when his presence was the only thing wrong with this team earlier in the season? Memories

Brouwer is doing well for himself in Washington. But I don't miss him...I think. Though the hits were soft, they were still nice.

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team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

Here is a post from HF boards getting into much more detail than I did...

It's time. There's a thread from a few years ago on the Colorado forums. You can pretty much copy/paste all the replies from that one, right into this one. It's a literal case of deja vu. I'll list just the major concerns I have with his coaching.

1) Mike Kitchen. This PK is his baby. Look up some youtubes of the Florida PK when Kitchen was there and you see the EXACT same passive, weak garbage. Same garbage results too. This 1+3 PK we've seen lately is an ABOMINATION, and it's the PK he ran in Florida.

2) Constant line shuffling allows zero chemistry to build. Perfect example last night. Was the team failing to generate offense in Edmonton? No, they generated almost 50 shots. But let's blow up the lines and start from scratch. When really, swapping Crawford for Emery is all you needed. That loss last night is all on Q. Instead of just letting the team forget it and move on, he stressed the "lack of defense". As a result, the team played scared and conservative hockey, with zero chemistry.

3) His obsession with line matching hinders game flow for the team. Instead of rushing the puck, they dump and change if the right "matchup" isn't out there.

4) His misuse of Nick Leddy. Kid is 21 years old. He should not be playing 25 minutes a night. He should not be killing penalties. He SHOULD be getting PP minutes, as that is his main strength. Total failure, and that's how you ruin a prospect.

5) His misuse of David Bolland. Bolland produces whenever he is given players worth a damn. There is absolutely no reason Bolland shouldn't have been given a 20-30 game stretch up with Hossa and Sharp at this point. Especially given the lack of a "second line center". Instead, he gets saddled with Frolik and Bickell or the rookies all season. Kruger, the rookie, and Morrison, the washed up has-been, get time with Hossa and Sharp ahead of Bolland. Nice.

6) His obsession with trying to recreate the mythical "perfect 3rd line". Newsflash Joel, lines like that only exist when you have superstars on ELCs, and can pay a third line 12+ million in salary. You aren't going to recreate Ladd/Bolland/Havlat or Ladd/Bolland/Versteeg anytime soon. Unless, of course, you look to point #5, and play Bolland with Hossa and Sharp. Any reason Sharp/Bolland/Hossa can't be a checking line? I see none. It's how Babcock(A REAL COACH) uses Datsyuk's line.

7) His overplaying of Keith and Seabrook. I realize that the bottom pairing for the Hawks isn't GREAT, but it's no worse than the rest of the NHL. Yet, the rest of the NHL finds ways to give their top guys around 25 minutes a game, their second pair around 20, and the third pair around 15.

Does Q hate Montador? Is there a reason Montador hasn't killed penalties at all this season? He killed them the last two in Buffalo... on a better PK than the Hawks have. Is there a reason that, when Leddy hit a wall, Montador hasn't been given a shot with Hammer in the top 4? He played top 4 minutes in Buffalo...

9) Don't dress John Scott on DEFENSE, if you aren't going to play him more than 5 minutes. All it does is burn out the other 4 defensemen.

10) The PP, despite a decent ranking, has looked like crap for two years. It is absolute clownshoes. The personnel makes no sense, and it stinks of overcoaching. Why does the offense look worse on the PP, than it does at even strength? Well, because you insist on playing guys where they aren't comfortable. Put Keith and Seabs out there on the point, and have them switch sides. Put Stalberg/Toews/Kane up front. Put Montador and Leddy out there for PP2, and have them switch sides. Put Sharp/Bolland/Hossa out there up front. Let them play their game. Poof! The PP instantly gets better.

There's more, but I think you get the idea. This team has a window to compete for cups. Having Q coach this team through that window will be a colossal mistake. Just ask Colorado.

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Hockey guys, correct me if this isn't right, but I'm sure I read this somewhere. One of the primary tenets of the Bowman team-building philosophy (particularly in the cap era) is the concept that goaltending is overvalued and money is better spent elsewhere.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don