The 1st of the 1st round picks is apparently shredding for his OHL team.

I thought this roster looked horrible going into the season but these guys just play hard and come away with W's. The most sandpaper I have collectively seen on a Hawks team in about forever.

_________________
That's my purse! I don't know you!

Listened to a bit of the Hawks radio broadcast last night. Caley Chelios and Wiedeman were a good listen.

I think tomorrow night against Edmonton is gonna be a harsh reality check, but maybe they'll keep it sporting for a period or so and pick up where they left off. I think the floor for this team is higher than it may have been intended to be, and that's fine, because I don't think the market can really handle a full-on tank season after the last five years. Hockey is already back on life support here.

_________________

Seth Jones out 3-4 weeks with a thumb injury.

Hartman "fighting" Tinordi and hurting himself as Tinordi just pushed him once to the ice like you'd swat away a pesky 4 year old. Thank God he's no longer a Blackhawk

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Toews with his 5th goal...extend him!

_________________

What a goal by the Flying Greek! Too bad they coughed up the lead 20 seconds later…

Yeah that’s worth a link

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

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

swedish defenseman roos was horrible...hawks in double-trouble in their own end every time he was on the ice. hopefully, he's working the kinks out - i can't imagine he is that poor of a player. again, not enough offensive quality as the hawks outshot. we see them needing outstanding individual efforts to score goals, while minn scored as easy as can be, 1-2-3 passes and a goal in the hawk zone.

i'm thinking that the toggle switch is already moving slowly towards the direction we thought the club would be at. 2 points from a max available 6 points - out of the last 3 games, 2 of those games at home. not enough quality to get 4+ points.

Yeah, I think the goaltending is finding its true level right now. Stalock was playing over his head. Not so much now (not that it's all his fault).

agreed...with the talent on the club, the Gs would have to register hasek-type save %s for this club to make the playoffs. the front office needs to self-scout and recognize the few players who can be 2nd-3rd-4th line players-2nd/3rd D pairings when the club is ready to make a move in the conference.

we picked out kurashev, though he's been fairly quiet the past few games. need to pick them out and sign them ASAP to contracts that will behoove the club going forward. too bad jack johnson will be gone by that time, playing really well. still quality, very poised. tinordi has been good, hopefully he can keep it up. if so, tinordi, murphy, jones bros and mccabe are fairly good to very good 2nd/3rd D pairings...whenever korchinski/vlasic are set to join the club after adding strength and a bit more seasoning. not so sure about mitchell.

Mitchell started to skate so he will be back somewhere fairly soon. Seems like good depth with the D corps which can be traded away from forward/goal help. Now they have to work on the forwards/goalie depth in the organization.

i'm thinking the lack of quality at the forward positions is where free agency comes into play. with the $10+ million hits each in toews and kane, along with others in their last year (kusharev) or others on 1 year deals like athanasiou/domi/tinordi leave, hawks will have nearly $45 million in open cap space out of an $82.5 million hard ceiling.

decisions to be made, for sure. maybe they keep kane, athanasiou, domi, kusharev and tinordi. will kane sign a team-friendly deal? would you sign kane for $21 million for 3 more years? would kane accept that? hawks keep getting rid of his personal sniper - from panarin to debrincat.

bottom line, hawks will have plenty of money and plenty of decisions to make. if they get a high pick next year, they may go for an established european forward - no need for seasoning...ready to step in and join in with some free agent new talent.

I get the impression that Domi will be willing to stay as long as Richardson is there. In MLB you'd write that as a multi-year contract with a series of player opt-outs. Not sure how the NHL handles that from a cap perspective.

With the assortment of pieces they already have, a realistic short term goal would be to amass the best bottom six in the league. Find that Marcus Krüger type of faceoff/PK guy. Then spend the FA money on the top 6 and a defenseman to pair with Jones.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

They will flip anyone they can at the deadline. I'd keep Kane if he wants to be around. I'd say 3/21 seems fair. I think if he's interested in breaking all the Hawks records and he likes living Chicago, he'd do it. You're right, they will have tons of cap space so they should use it wisely. Not sure who's going to be a FA in the forward ranks next year.

Cat could come back. He wasn't interested in signing with Ottawa long term. He has 8 points in 8 games, 2 goals. I could see Kane and Cat reunited but I think you'd have to do 7/21 for Kane and maybe 6/54 for Cat? maybe 6/60? Not sure what the minimum he would take to come back to Chicago. But if you could limit the long term contract to Cat, it could be done.

I don't think they do opt-outs in the NHL. They would just do a one-year deal.

Wouldn't you kinda be extending the run of mediocrity?

You mean by extending Kane and bringing back Cat? Not sure to be honest. Seems like they have a better system in place with this coaching staff so maybe they aren't as far back as we all thought. But, if the D and goaltending trend like the last four games, won't matter who the forwards are.

i wouldn't feel that way. the club's issue is the attacking quality of forwards/scoring. resigning kane for lesser money/getting debrincat back isn't trying to get de haan and riley stillman back. tonight, we saw the hawks outshot basically 2-1, they can't generate offense. great game by the G soderblom, but i wouldn't expect a .950 save percentage going forward. the GM will be in a dream situation this off-season...a year of judging what he has - keep or discard along with acres of salary cap room.

looking poor tonight, against a club that has had a whammy on them. asinine play by jones on the canes' 3rd goal. poor jack johnson gets a minus as he was on the ice for that 5x5 nonsense. jones should get a -5 on that goal alone. PP is crap, no good entries...the pass backwards to kane has been seen before. the points are also a problem. roos has been playing better - especially in the offensive zone. getting more PP time on a point.

Yesterday was how I figured the season would go this year. They haven't had a clunker like that in a while.

would consider it a victory if the hawks; at home - get within 8 shots on goal of whatever the penguins end up getting. weakest offense in hockey, can't generate offense. will prob watch tonight, watch mitchell (-2 vs. bruins).

i'm thinking that we will have to come to terms with the fact that caleb jones is below mediocre, barely a D on a 3rd pairing, benched against the bruins after terrible games against the canes and blues. i have no doubt that this will jones' last year with the hawks, unless he agrees to a pay cut off his current $1.35 million contract that expires next year. D johnson will likely be gone, up to the hawks to promote a korchinski to cut ties with jones.

At least they fought back to tie it up.

They did a nice job on the Hossa number retirement.

True they played a full game. Goalie did okay but not enough.

_________________
Elections have consequences.

Approaching this season like I'm doing with the Bears- be competitive in every game but lose as much as possible.

_________________
Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

they played hard, outshot the pens, but, just not enough quality. the 3-3 goal from kurashev was a corey crawford playoff special goal. any doubt the pens would turn the switch on and pressure to regain the lead within a minute?

Nice 4 game losing streak to get closer to the bottom of the standing. Bedard, Fantilli, or Michkov will be worth the tank.

_________________
Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

The first goal he gave up, I am sure he'd like that one back.

I thought it was going to OT, given the Hawks had all the momentum. Not with this group, though. Someone else said it already, but Caleb Jones has had a rough stretch recently. I didn't think he was all that bad last year.

that was me. jones was struggling at the point on the PP, prior to his disaster week against carolina and st. louis. defensively, more scary at the point than an older seabrook, who needed 3 seconds to turn his body and had to take buckets of interference penalties.

hopefully, hopefully, just a bad defensive patch for jones. D roos, who is scary 5x5, appears much better at the point on the PP.