I'm thinking why the hell not an 8th seed? Hell, being an 8th seed doesn't mean your good. Just means you made it.

I don't care what the experts say, with this Baddard kid, you should at least be an 8th seed in my mind. And I don't even know hockey that well. But I know this should be the expectations.

And I think it will happen. They'll make the playoffs. I wouldn't consider it amazing like some of the experts.

What do you think?

Defense and goal tending was pretty bad. I'm not sure that situation has improved.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You're the absolute worst poster this board has ever had.

_________________

besides the obvious, not much to look forward to.

i'll try and be optimistic: hoping some of the D come through. they got size and youth, high picks. vlasic, korchinski and kaiser. further development of roos? he looked bad at times last year. zaitsev and tinordi (decent in stretches) are known products/roster fillers. young D crevier scored the only goal last night.

i believe the PP will be better, despite the fact that no one would rate perry a top 6 FWD anymore. not so sure about hall. 5x4 is a different game. should be a fairly good PP with bedard.

the GK is scary and FWD depth is still an issue. will try and watch as many games as i can.

Like so many here, you just can't admit you like me.

I don't know why this has to come up in this thread, though. This post was pretty damn innocent.

They have this generational kid who's gonna light the NHL up right away. Can't 4 or 5 of these other young players they have be decent to good to help him? Then the few vets that they have can just be decent.

That should be enough for an 8 seed.

yeah, he could be a 35 goal/30 assist guy in his first year with not much around him. i'm thinking a good chunk of those points will come from PP.

5x5 hockey - the G is shoddy, the D is very suspect and we don't have any top 6 FWDs...well, maybe bedard. if kusharev & reichel break out and hall plays like the #1 pick he was, maybe we'll win more 7-5 games than i think we will. hawks are high on C nazar, don't think he's 20 yet. we'll see what happens with him. corey perry and foligno are enjoying the sunset/one last contract. athanasiou, if his hands were half as good as his feet, he'd be a legit 25-30 goal a year player.

enjoy the PP. late in yesterday's game, it seemed to me that the red wing G goaded bedard into shooting high glove side - bedard accommodated and the G made the save. i know he loves shooting for top shelf/glove side. goalies know it too. may have to change things up at times and go low/stick side. most goalies (and people) are right-handed, so glove will be on their left hand.

PP looked good tonight, i believe bedard had a 3 point night.

despite having outshot detroit by 10-11 shots, it was only 1 goal game until bedard's empty-netter. he scored and told his teammates not to celebrate with him. more captain serious than toews himself.

liked the fact that gm davidson hinted that korchinski could start the season with the club. as far as the rest of the D, i thought kaiser was good, phillips was ok.

Idk much about him or his demeanor or the rest of the team. I think it's weird there is no captain. I don't love it and I don't hate it but I don't like it. I have no data to base this on but he so far from all the hub bub and from what I see is a cross between Kane and Toews.

That's a pretty good cross!!!

No shot at playoffs this year me thinks. Too young of a team.

Depending on how season goes (for Bedard) he'll be named captain later in the season or during the off season.

He may have more assists than 30. Teams will be keying on him and he's a good passer and will find the open guy. He did that on Perry's second goal on the PP. Picked up the puck and two guys keyed on him, he flipped it over to Hall who fed Perry for an open net.

Might as well give Korchinski the free 9 games and see where he is.

yeah, it was a good play by bedard. my reasoning for more goals than assists is all the deadweight he has to play with. at times - some of these guys need 2 seconds to corral a pass, others have a hitch in their shot, or, a mediocre shot.

given all that, PP hockey should be good to watch. i just hope he doesn't get discouraged if he gets off to a slow start, points-wise. one thing about kane, he was never embarrassed when he tried a cute move that blew up in his face. i hope bedard is the same way. i'm sure the staff has told him to just play his game.

yes. good on the rush when handling the puck...offensively dangerous (and risky defensively) when attacking without the puck. he seems good at knowing when to release at full speed and when to hit the brakes and defend when puck possession is lost/50-50. his attacking skills stand out by far when compared to the other young high draft pick defensemen on the club. vlasic 43rd overall player/kaiser 81st overall player. appears as only phillips, 141st player overall (mid 5th round), has the speed and skill to be a threat offensively...though, it seems phillips needs more work on his defense. i know he's only 21, the hawks put themselves in a situation where they can't wait 3 years for these guys to develop.

hawks traded away D mitchell (high pick), still have high-drafted defensemen rinzel and nolan allen in the minors. both of those guys may not even be age 20, yet.

Overshot it last night but I am excited to see somebody young with talent. He is a really good stick handler and seems a little tougher or something than Kane.

he's looked very good so far, definitely the #2 prospect behind Bedard this pre sesaon.

_________________

watched much of game #1 with the penguins. you can only pray the young D play like this forever. the rookies are 1/2 of the defense and hard to fault them with any of the pens' 2 goals..i know the pens' disputed goal started with veteran jones UNABLE to corral and clear a loose puck along the half board. korchinski, vlasic and kaiser had some moments, overall - looked good. thought korchinski was fairly strong offensively.

will they play like this every game? will mrazek play like this...etc...etc.

good start.

I wish Korchinski would shoot a bit more. He was in one of the circles and passed it out. He'll get more confidence as he goes along. It was his first game.

Otherwise, yeah, young D played well, goaltending was really good. They didn't panic when they pulled the goalie. The forwards controlled play more often than I thought they would, especially after the first.

The goalie was fantastic. Kept them in the game when it looked like it could get out of hand

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Contract year...defense was also better at clearing the puck, Murphy looks old and slow compared to rest out there on D.

_________________
An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

If the playoffs started today, the Hawks are in

Road to a Blackhawks Stanley Cup goes through gay butt sex with the video-tape rewind guy, y0:

What's a little gay butt sex among friends?

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

watched most of the canadien game...a microcosm of the hockey club.

just not enough talent at the top 6 fwd positions. mrazek played ok, the first goal was a softie. seth jones was slow to get back to his point position on the PP and the canadiens were off to the races - monahan scoring a short-handed goal. if bedard is going to miss the net on a blast from the slot, jones needs to rush back to the point. don't need him to dance the blue line.

the young D overall was good again. vlasic stepping up, seems to gain confidence with every game. korchinski is clearly the hawks best D puck-handler and attacking D-man. him and connor murphy seem to have a problem defending rushes. the D will get a good test against the leafs and back-to-back hat trick man matthews. the leafs don't rate the hawks and will start their back-up G on monday.

i do think kurashev will help reichel and bedard on the PP, but at the moment, reichel looks lost, looks soft as an overall 17th pick of a draft.

Might be time to put Reichel back on the wing…

we just don't have top 6 FWD talent. a good collection of 3rd/4th line players. the club still has a lot of stockpiled high draft picks the next few years. whether they trade them for proven FWDs or draft FWDs, the club needs FWDs. conventional wisdom says trade...everyone will be looking to take advantage of the new GM.

yeah, i hear you. hockey has changed, better sticks for one-timing and training...more and more players playing on their so-called off-wing. no real issue with right-handed shot t. johnson playing on reichel's left...but, the man is a center. i wouldn't say speed as a winger is his forte. no favors done for reichel, nor bedard, with bedard's wingers not having scored 100 career nhl goals combined. richardson will do the juggle and mix and match.

kurashev should be coming back within the week. well, another C? i do believe he'll help bedard and reichel on the PP. i do think that richardson will play him at all 3 FWD positions.

the young D has been great the first 3 games. it's the veteran D who have been shaky. G? soderblum made the club and the jury is out on commesso, while stauber will be watched closely.

goals #2 & #3 for the predators were originally shots that 'squirmed away' from soderblum, after soderblum made the original save on the shooter who ended up getting the primary assist. he's poor on rebounds/weak on corralling loose pucks in the crease. seen it time and time again.

too bad, former hawk lankinen was very good, superior to soderblum. i've seen enough to know that he seems to have a future at age 24, that future isn't right now. terrific H-O-R-S-E goalie, gives up way too many goals on rebounds.

almost 1/5 through the season....experts were likely correct.

watching this disaster roster getting crushed by minnesota.

finally....reichel a healthy scratch, beauvillie visa issues - should change his name to buenovillez and claim political asylum to get easy usa entry. hawks send D kaiser and phillips down, crevier and tinordi are now the #3 pairing. kaiser sealed his fate with the non-body defensive flop against fabbri of the wings. made fabbri look like bure by not taking the body - the easiest play for a D-man...and only defensive resistance offered was skating backward and giving fabbri more room.

PP is still terrible, despite a strong PP in the 1st period. more than likely, richardson will be a renteria type...will get fired when the sun finally rises in blackhawk world. PP is terrible and some of the D repeating correctable mistakes. that's on him and his staff.

vosters with nonsensical comments about the dickinson line creating fear amongst hawk opponents. hawk opponents want to play the hawks, because the hawk roster is mainly 3 week old dumpster juice. most of these guys wouldn't be in the league if they played on other clubs.

All that is true and their passing sucks. At least they’ll get a top 3 pick.

relax they never were supposed to be good this year