Must-win game against Anaheim, though the Hawks tend not to beat the Ducks, and the Hawks tend not to beat anyone after New Year's (except for that marvelous short season!). The Ducks are damn near unbeatable in one-goal games. They either win small or lose big. They've overachieved a lot this year.

I'll try to stay up for this one but I've been under the weather since Wednesday and I might miss it. I just wanted to squat on the game thread to drop a reference to "A Love Like That," the best New Radicals song that never was.

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Hope you feel better CH. I was surprised you would imply alcoholic beverage consumption to excess in your thread title. I had you for being drier than Park Ridge.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

My New Radicals-loving sensibilities trump my alcohol-eschewing sensibilities.

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Damn you a have way with words.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Blues won tonight in the shootout, Perds are playing the Avs tonight and are down one after one, but that's been nothing for them. Not good. Starting to look like the Hawks are going to spend the final year of their championship window finishing third again.

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It was a shame that Gregg Alexander broke up The New Radicals and became a recluse. He wrote some great songs.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

We get it dude. Sheesh.


1-0

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Crawford with a good save and an even better stop on the rebound!

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Maybe 19 will one day be as good as Kopitar or gasp!! Corey Perry

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

Hawks look great tonight. CH cant be happy about this.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

No, I'm very happy. Always glad to beat the Ducks. Perry and Kesler annoy the shit out of me.

Still don't like the chances of leapfrogging St. Louis and Nashville, though, barring a great deadline pickup. Maloney is trying to get the whole farm for two months of Vermette, though.

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Your comment about this being the final year of the championship window....please expound. I assume you think the salary cap walls are closing in? Before PuckDaddy went under, I looked at 2015-2016 commitments, and I think the Hawks will be ok given a reasonable increase in the cap. Yes, they will have to make choices, but it was nothing drastic.

Hossa's age is my biggest worry. His contract bites.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Somewhere , the Curious Hair of the Southern California Sports Fan Message Board has declared the season over for the Ducks, they've packed it in as a result of losing consecutive games , that Perry and or Getzlaf are horribly overpaid per production and the best that they can hope for is that the mighty Blues and Preds face each other as they can't beat both.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

It's a few things. Hossa is facing attrition, Toews and Kane have 40% raises, they're leaving the peak-production years for forwards, and the cap is coming in at $73MM at the absolute highest. I don't trust it to stay there. The Canadian dollar is probably dropping more.

Aside from that, I'm starting to wonder if the Hawks are built with a winning formula anymore. Look at the teams that give us trouble: the Blues, the Kings, and now especially the Jets. Teams have synthesized possession control with physicality: the Kings have always been a dump-and-chase team, which sounds like the opposite of the finesse-based possession offense we know and love, but they turn out to be even better puck-controllers than the Blackhawks or Red Wings. Call it the "200-foot game" or whatever, but with a roster and prospect pool that are still heavy on smaller but agile skaters (Kane, Teravainen, pick any defensive prospect you like), I can start to see how the league could to pass our team by.

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*inhales*

i got nothing.

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I'm not too bummed. At the absolute worst, we'll have had two championships in four years and four conference finals over seven years. That's a great run. And it's not like they're going to tear the whole thing down and leave town after this year, they'll just keep churning on as a pretty good team, but will probably never be a prohibitive favorite again. The league cycles pretty fast now. Vladimir Tarasenko isn't going to get bounced out of the first round forever.

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