For game threads, I'm your man.

So hey! I'm actually going to watch a hockey game for the first time in 24 days! Let's never do this Olympic shit again.

So we're catching the Rags at an interesting time. They're not out of it, because no one is in their shit division -- they're in second place for now! -- but it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to trade captain Ryan Callahan (kind of like an American Toews without the achievements) and Dan Girardi at the deadline. Girardi is probably going to Anaheim, fuckin' great. But now the talk is that Callahan is headed to Tampa in exchange for, of all people, Martin St. Louis, who got butthurt that Steve Yzerman didn't put him on Team Canada at age 38, and for this has petulantly demanded a trade from a team that could easily make the conference final and beyond. His wife is from Connecticut, so he wants to play for the Rangers. I'm not sure if it would make the team better or worse. I don't know what the hell's going on.

This team isn't that great, they seem to be right around 10th or 11th in the league in record, goals, special teams. Really, the Rangers just get blowjobs for being from New York, even though the Rangers occupy a weird stratum where they can't be the Buy Everyone Famous All-Stars like the Yankees and Knicks (and kinda the Giants, who don't lack for star power) because hockey doesn't really lend itself to that, and they're not the most popular team in the league like other New York teams are for their leagues because hello, the Toronto Maple Leafs, perhaps you've heard of them. So I feel like there's always this push to make the Rangers something they're not, hence OHHH OHHH EDZO LOOK AT RYAN CALLAHAN HE HAS THE HEART OF A TRUE CHAMPION. No one gives a fuck about Ryan Callahan. They're playing fairly well as of late after shitting themselves to start the year, but I'm not really impressed with their roster. They also traded young defenseman Michael Del Zotto to Nashville for Kevin Klein, whom I loved in The Ice Storm.

Incidentally, there's this game, the Soldier Field game with the Penguins, two with the Beej, and I think we still have one each with the Hurricanes and Senators. Other than those, we're just about done with low-implication Eastern games, which you'll remember the Hawks had a ton of early. We're also completely through with the Pacific. That means lots of games within the division down the stretch. Really gotta get those points.

Let's hope our numerous Olympians got their rest and the other guys lost their rust. Sounds like Peter Regin is the #2 center for now, which I'm still a little skeptical of, but we're just never gonna have a real #2 center, I guess.

Hawks: 35-11-14 (84), 30-17-13 adjusted (73), 76.883 expected (underachieving significantly)
Rangers: 32-24-3 (67), 28-25-6 adjusted (62), 62.055 expected (right on the button)

Hawks: 3.367 scored (1st), 2.583 allowed (13th), 0.783 differential (4th)
Rangers: 2.559 scored (18th), 2.441 allowed (10th), 0.119 differential (10th)

Hawks: 42/190 22.1% on the power play (3rd), 145/182 79.7% on the kill (26th)
Rangers: 39/194 20.1% on the power play (10th), 144/174 83.3% on the kill (11th)

Jazz police!

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A somewhat tinny-sounding Stevie Ray Vaughan on this version.
What's with Cohen's songs always being sung by chicks.

Well Barry Rozner told us today in the Daily Herald that Marcus Kruger may be that guy based on his solid play at the Olympics.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Okay, maybe the ninth time's the charm.

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it probably doesn't help that when i read this topic i picture CH leading an army of CSFMBers into the storied chicago nightclub "berlin" on some random night at 1am like "WE'RE TAKING THIS MOTHERFUCKER RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. BACK OUT NOW IF YOU'RE NOT WILLING TO DO THIS"

also.... blackhawks. yeah i'll pretty much start caring about them when the playoffs start. the two stanley cups kind of do that to a super-casual (if that) like me when i dont have fantasy hockey interests or something.

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You guys do not understand how happy I am that Blackhawks are back playing.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I think its going to be a horrible game to watch tonight with lots o' Olympic hangover from both sides.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

I would like us to come out strong. Bickell, Shaw and non Olympic guys hit it.

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Elections have consequences.

That sucked.

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Elections have consequences.

Not a good sign seeing the rangers score first, Blackhawks have done very well coming from behind but their record proves otherwise when scores on first

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"If you're not first you're last"

Still gotta love Keith coming up with that big defense

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"If you're not first you're last"

Damn you're Boorish

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Talbot's shutting the door hard tonight. Might be a problem.

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Kane still missing by inches.

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Elections have consequences.

We need to come out strong in the second and score, if we can loosen up the lock that talbot has on us then we can pour it in, but we have also had a few close calls on us, it's a good game so far but we definitely need to get on the board

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"If you're not first you're last"

Kruger took one to the face.

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Elections have consequences.

Hawks need to just start firing at the net and hope for some garbage up front, they are making to many passes on a few of these drives

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"If you're not first you're last"

It would be wrong for me to make a Daniel von Bargen joke ....

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Getting kind of tired of the play where you send your winger to false-start on a faceoff after an icing, then have the center take the real draw. Time to think about calling delay of game on the first false start after an icing.

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You might be right .... there's 'gamesmanship' but there's also a point where it's just blatant .... at least Carcillo had the presence of mind to fiddly-fuck with his stickhead for a moment which somehow feels perversely courteous in a way, certainly when compared to the faceoff switcherooo.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I'm sure people would say that the risk is built into this play: the second man has to be extra-careful not to jump the draw for real and take the penalty, thus decreasing the chances of winning the faceoff. Fair enough, but we're seeing this gamesmanship more and more, and it is getting to be, quite literally, a delay of game. Don't forget that this play is traditionally preceded by other time-wasting shenanigans, like the goalie's skate lace coming untied or some such shit.

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Is there any referee discretion allowed?

Unrelated ... who gets excited at the prospect of maybe getting the chance to have another meeting about the chance to talk about maybe getting a raise in 6 months?

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Officials have a wide berth to toss guys out of the faceoff circle. A lot of the tosses are just players saying "that was a bullshit call" or something. They're also, to my chagrin, allowed to fake guys out on the drop and then throw them out for jumping at that. I'm really not a big fan of that; it gets too into No One Pays To See The Umpires for me. But I do think you have to double-fault to get the penalty for delay of game.

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Oh, no ... I get that ... I meant for the 'gamesmanship' like if Carcillo did his number and then the goalie says "oh, my mask fell off" or something like that ... the Al Czervik type shit.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

No, I don't think you're allowed to make that call. Too many guys do it too often for it to be against the rules.

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Ah ... well now that you say it that way, yeah there's almost certainly not.

Thank you for your kind replies.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

A couple really good looks in that second, if there were ever a time to start scoring it's now, hawks (most explosive offense in the league) have now gone 5 periods without a goal going back to the game before the Olympics

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"If you're not first you're last"

Just got back from dinner will tune in for the 3rd. Nice to see you in the hockey thread Don and welcome fflb.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

Should be a good 3rd, the D has been playing well since the goal, but we need that mark on the scoreboard to change the momentum, lookin forward to the last 20

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"If you're not first you're last"

I was just thinking of demoting the game to the secondary TV and firing up the xbox ... now I'll feel guilty if I do.


... lest we think I'm Mini-Mac, the two tv's in question are both SDTVs, a 25" Daewoo and a 21" Apex, and both are older than my cat, who will be 12 this summer ...

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George