Hawks are up in Calgary and I have nothing much to say about it, really. They're bad. Sean Monahan is good. Most scored on in the league. They're still missing Mark Giordano, whose name is obnoxiously pronounced "Giordanno" in that awful dead-flat honk of an Alberta accent. The Saddledome was almost destroyed in a flood this summer but evidently they fixed it up enough to get a few more years out of it. For the Hawks, Hossa should be back, Morin will be spending Thanksgiving at Beef-a-Roo, and you've gotta think Raanta will get the start tonight. Crawford hasn't had a full night off since the loss to the Bolts.

CHI: 17-4-4, 14-6-5 adjusted, 31.774 points expected (overachieving just a bit)
CGY: 8-11-4, 6-14-3 adjusted, 15.912 points expected (pretty much on the mark)

Hawks: 3.560 scored (1st), 2.760 allowed (19th), 0.800 differential (5th)
Flames: 2.696 scored (14th), 3.609 allowed (30th), -0.913 differential (27th)

Indian Head: 17/82 20.7% on the power play (11th), 53/72 73.6% on the kill (29th)
Flaming C: 12/78 15.4% on the power play (23rd), 54/70 77.1% on the kill (26th)

Look. Just try hard and they shouldn't be a problem, you'd have to think.

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If remember correctly the Wednesday before Thanksgiving the Hawks played the Sharks and then the day after would be the Ducks. I wish the schedulemakers had kept that.

Yeah, this is the first year in a long time without the Black Friday day game in Anaheim. No home game on December 26th anymore, either.

EDIT: I suppose we didn't have either one last year, either, lol

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Why is Handzus the 2nd line center again? Somebody fix this.

This is one of those moves Q makes that makes no sense and just pisses me off. They've been racking goals up at a league best rate since old aches n pains has been hurt and even before he was injured he wasn't good ( just ask Sharp how his production was with Zeus centering for him) but as soon as this fossil is healthy he plugs him right back in to where he wasn't effective in the first place

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Yup, this makes zero sense. Pirri has earned that spot full time.

Q does a lot of dumb things. I was surprised he used Crawford against a bad Oilers team. He is burning up Crawford.

His line shuffling is the most frustrating thing. He'll get a huge pass from fans because of the Cups, but I still think he is mediocre at best. He has been blessed with great top line talent and depth.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

He runs a really good system but he has a boner for vets and it leads to decisions like this. Pirri is stuck on the 3rd line now, why in the fuck? Just put Handzus on the 3rd line.

Raanta is in net tonight.

I just gave a donation to the Boners for Vets stand they had set up outside the Walgreens next to Salvation Army bell ringers .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Usually there's all this angst and then the guy in question gets busted down the depth chart within the game anyway.

Oh hey don't forget it's at 9 tonight despite being in Mountain Time, presumably to accommodate the CBC or TSN (fare thee well). Also, it's on channel 9, so I hope we get to see the end of the game this time!

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Watching.

Seebs just can't help himself on the power play can he? SHOOT MOTHERFUCKER!!!LOL

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

That was a nice PP effort despite coming up empty.

Too seebsey

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Flames goalie is way too floppy. Loves going padstack. Hawks should crush this chump.

They should, if they can get past the phalanx in front of him. This does not have the makings of a game you'll enjoy watching. Just shot blocks aplenty.

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how does the rookie look so far?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Due to rogue jrs spectacular projectile vomiting episode cleanup. I missed the 1st period but am watching the rest.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

He's holding it together. He's had a lot of good luck (almost gave up a last-second goal but for his own well-placed head), combined with the Flames not really putting much on goal. It's the kind of performance where as good as it's going, superficially speaking, you know sooner or later he's going to get beaten badly on one.

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Patrick Fucking Kane, huh.

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That was exciting

Was a nice one.

No way Hawks don't get the #1 seed.

Yeah, eventually. I wish the game had played out in reverse so that I could have seen everything I needed to see in the first 12 minutes and then called it a night.

Blues won, Coyotes won, Avs lost, Wild lost, still waiting on Sharks and Kings. I'll take it.


You'd like to think so, but the Blues are matching the Hawks just about win for win here and have had near-equivalent scoring with far superior goaltending. There are no more conference #1 seeds, by the way, so it's basically just between those two.

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They will be one of the top seeds, but in reality it does not matter.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I'm ready for Blues vs Hawks in the playoffs already.

I'm sure Stan never saw it coming, but it looks pretty damn smart to have extended Niklas Hjalmarsson early, well before he scored about as many assists in two months as he usually does in a full season. If he finishes with around 36 as he's on pace to do, we might not be talking about him going forward. Think about that, or better yet, don't.

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Did they change a major strategy because Keith is also an assist machine so far.

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Elections have consequences.

Yeah, they abandoned the "play Keith for 31 minutes a night" strategy. He's really upped his game; I don't know how much of that is spatial and how much is just him willing the team to score.

This team has so many good players on it.

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Well I can't think of another team that has an equal six defensemen top to bottom.

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Elections have consequences.