Battle of underachievers tonight as the Stars take on the Hawks. Dallas has it even worse than we do, but their sitch is the natural conclusion of dumbass roster construction (OMG JIM NILL SMARTEST GM EVER THEY SHOULD HAVE TO COMPENSATE DETROIT FOR STEALING THIS GREAT MAN) whereas ours is just a bunch of great players playing like shit. Yeah, imagine that, when your best defenseman is Sergei Gonchar, you'll give up goals! Then you get rid of Gonchar to bring in Travis Moen at forward, who has been kicking around this league for darn near ten years doing who knows the fuck what, and now your best defenseman is Trevor Daley. Okay. Still, they have Benn, Seguin, and Spezza, who are very dangerous, and a coach in Lindy Ruff who doesn't let his players get bored. That's a novel concept. Dangerous offense, dangerous team, but the loss of Nichushkin and the cannon fodder on the blue line might consign them to spoiler status and keep them out of the playoffs. Of course, if the Hawks don't go on a tear sometime soon, they won't make the playoffs either.

The Hawks have two goals in their last two games. In the words of Courtney Barnett, they should amend that. Crawford surely starting, but Darling is back up, I guess.

This is a game the Hawks really ought to win. I went through all the numbers and this is basically a bottom-third team in uneven strength, shots for/against, adjusted points percentage, pythagorean expectation, goals against. And the Stars like to race up and down the ice, so the Hawks shouldn't feel bored.

Stars: 6-7-4 (16), 5-10-2 adjusted (12), 14.054 expected
Hawks: 9-7-1 (19), 6-8-3 adjusted (14), 20.854 expected

Stars: 29.4 shots for (20th), 30.6 shots allowed (20th)
Hawks: 37.4 shots for (1st), 28.2 shots allowed (T-6th)

Stars: 2.706 scored (T-14th), 3.176 allowed (25th), -.471 differential (24th)
Hawks: 2.471 scored (23rd), 2.000 allowed (3T-2nd), .471 differential (T-8th)

Stars: 10.7 PIM/game (14th)
Hawks: 7.9 PIM/game (3rd)

Stars: 10/62 16.2% on the power play (20th), 48/60 80.0% on the kill (19th)
Hawks: 12/69 17.4% on the power play (19th), 47/51 92.2% on the kill (1st)

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I was excited about this thread until I found out it was about hockey.

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Satan retired years ago

Why isn't our team good?

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I know I'm not supposed to like that, but I didn't entirely hate that.

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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

Looks like van Riemsdyk is hurt. Hawks defense in big trouble if he's out for any significant length of time.

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At least it's tied now.

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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

Bad day gets worse for Minnesota, the Wild blew a 3-0 lead to the Jets in the third period. Frolik and Ladd with one goal each, Byfuglien with an assist on Evander Kane's goal. Go Erstwhile Hawks!

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A Nu Shooz remix during a hockey game?

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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

Yeah, I heard that too. Someone must have accidentally loaded the Bulls game playlist.

Minnesota won 4-3 in overtime. I hope we can win this game and work on catching the Winnipeg Jets.

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Have no fear CH, I am taking a passive interest in this thread.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

At least you are not writing in the passive voice ...

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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

CH gets lonely. #dman readith

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Hawaii (fuck) You

When he's stuck with idiots like me, 'lonely' becomes the preferred emotion.

The Stars sure seem to want to give the Hawks a fair shake at taking the lead into the intermission ...

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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

Richards seems a lot more active lately.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

He needed some time to get situated, I guess. He still has me on high alert when his power-play unit is on the ice, however, and I'd prefer not to be on high alert during power plays, you know?

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If every guy played as hard as Saad, pro sports would be even better. Lots of energy.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

THAT is what I expect. Ty 19.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

When your stars play like stars, you tend to win. Game set match.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Sweet, sweet statistical correction.

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Maybe one day he'll be as good as that Tyler Seguin from the Stars. He scores LOTS of goals.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

#1D Trevor Daley is a -4 on the night. There is now a rule that you have to trade draft picks to sign assistant GMs because of the guy who built this team.

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Trevor van Riemsdyk is probably out a few months. That sucks a lot. I wonder whether Stephen Johns can come up. They're both on ELCs, so if you LTIR TVR it should work. Whoa, alphabet soup.

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What's up with Clendening (sp?).

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Hawaii (fuck) You

He's an option, but I don't think he's impressing quite as much as Dahlbeck and Johns. I think there's some concern that he might not have the size nor the hockey IQ to make it at the NHL level. I hope that's not the case. I already got burned once thinking Brian Connelly was a future Blackhawk.

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Two inches shorter than Keith and the same weight. I always felt he was a Keith comparable. Any thoughts?

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I haven't seen him play. He's supposed to be an offensive defenseman with some liability, more like Leddy than Keith (though I suppose Keith was a mess in his own end early on). I miss Leddy's offense, but I had come to like the balanced game TVR had. I hope Clendening pans out; we got his draft pick for Andrew Ladd!

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Stephen Johns gets the call. This guy, THIS GUYYYYY, was blowing people up in college. Just a big drooling ogre. I'm guessing Dahlbeck or Clendening will get a look on the second leg of the circus trip, but for now, Johns is the guy, and let's hope he performs, because the thought of a Roszival/Rundblad third pair is making me ill. Bold prediction: Johns will lay a bone-crunching hit that makes us all go WHOOOOOA WHERE HAS THIS KINDA GUY BEEN ALL THESE YEARS, and then he'll get caught woefully out of position and give up a goal to a fourth-liner, possibly in the same shift.

It sounds like van Riemsdyk has a broken leg. Fuck fuck fuck. What an addition he was.

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Out three months. I don't think we'll see him play another game this year. It was good while it lasted.

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I look forward to seeing the ogre on skates.

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Hawaii (fuck) You