listened to tab bamford on nhl network the other day - relatively somber and short interview about the upcoming season, given his constant enthusiasm on bleacher nation about prospects/not-so-good players on roster.

i wouldn't put $$ on the club making the playoffs, but, there is a small chance. last year - they had zero chance. the hosts, mick kern and an l.a. kings hanger-on type, spoke definitively - this club is not a playoff team. bamford said nothing to challenge their take. bamford also talked about this being a big year for reichel and maybe korchinski gets sent down to the minors for seasoning. not much to take out of the interview.

the prospects just played 2 games against the blues and wild prospects. the biggest news is that levshunov didn't play after taking a shot in the foot.

I believe the team will be a lot more competitive.
I know that's not saying much compared to last year but with some good luck in the health department maybe we'll be in sniffing range of a second wildcard spot???

i think they have an outside shot at the playoffs if guys like hall/mikheyev score 20 goals each and athanasiou and reichel can score 15-20. i expect teuvo to get 15-20. the first 3 need to stay healthy for that to happen, while reichel...well, who knows? 15-20 goals isn't the highest hurdle. i'd bet the blackhawks score more goals than last year.

G broissoit is currently injured - expected back for the start of the season. it would be a mighty nasty coincidence if both Gs had crap seasons. if one does, i expect the other to carry the load. this combo of mrazek-broissoit is much better than last year's mrazek-soderblum. i'd bet the team GAA will be lower than last year.

which takes us to the D. i'm not a big fan of murphy, but the rest of the cast is better than the tinordis/zaitsevs/megnas of last season. really like vlasic and kaiser. phillips is a wild card and korchinski can't help but be better than last year.

- word is kurashev is being primed to play C and not sure what that's all about. i'd go bedard-athanasiou-dickinson-nazar. the fear of rookie nazar's D responsibilities as a C won't kill us when he's playing against the opponent's 4th line. as the 4th C, prob get only 11-12 mins a game. dickinson needs to be the #3, as in, he'll play way more minutes on the road, going against the opponent's #1 line and taking more important defensive zone face-offs. athanasiou may not be the best at the dot, that speed does make up for D positioning.

no one thinks much of them, no pressure on the club at all. the PP was disappointing, no heavy shot at the point - we'll see what the coaches come up with in pre-season.

craig button told us today that bedard will be at least a point a game player this season 35g/45a.

also said he expects celebrini to have similar stats.

2nd pre-season game. 5x5 hockey..watched t.j. brodie trip himself in the crease with the puck in his skates..resulted in detroit's first goal in their 2-0 preseason loss. on that play, no agility and a slow stick.

immediately thought of jake hahn's message to blackhawks fans about the ex leaf d-man.

the athletic predicts the 2024-25 blackhawks roster & projected point total.

they have the blackhawks at 77 points with a 3% chance at the playoffs.

roster:

https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2024/09/25121225/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-11.22.26%E2%80%AFAM.png

as far as the FWDs, slaggert got sent down. i don't believe athanasiou and maroon will be eating popcorn in the press box every night. could be a revolving door with those not cutting it every night. they also have korchinski in rockford. so far, he's played much better during the pre-season, t.j. brodie has been iffy. jones also iffy, though, he's in no danger of getting sent down. with the cap increasing and with another increase expected next year (4%, i heard), jones' contract could be more palatable for other clubs and maybe a desired asset at the trade deadline.

I was thinking that 75-77 points might be where they end up.

yes, same here, also had/have them in the 70s



i truly believe the surprise would be more points than less points. going to watch the game tonight.

nazar struggling at the dot...thinking this is where athanasiou should be a cinch as winger on a line centered by nazar.

we all know his hands are not even half as good as his feet, but athanasiou is very good at face-offs. playing the wing on nazar's line and takes face-offs....especially key d-zone face-offs. if kicked out of a draw, nazar can step in.

will look for stuff like this in tonight's game. believe both nazar and athanasiou are supposedly playing against minnesota.

linup I saw didn't have Nazar in it.

First game on the new channel, looking forward to seeing how awful the production is.

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you're right...no nazar.



that 4th line...jeez. we know spellacy has had a good pre-season run, will he make the club? don't expect smith and maroon to get more games than donato and nazar. hawks not getting into the 70-80 pts. range if that 4th line is indeed, the 4th line for 12-13 mins a game for 82 nhl games. same with that 3rd D-man pairing. kaiser still out, brodie sits. lots of players to watch.

great to watch blackhawk hockey again...top-class broadcast crew, not so sure about the production, as you mentioned. i'm sure they retained most, if not all of the production crew from the former network. we'll see.

the channel is as expected, content-wise. the outdoor segments have been plenty and something new, not sure who most of the 'talent' are. not interested in the debate of who is chicago's college football team. i like the drone shots of various chicago neighborhoods, dirty laundry and all. a shot of little village and thinking that maybe 2 households out of a 12 block radius will be watching blackhawk hockey. likely watching futbol central.

we'll see how well the game is produced.

Looks fine to me. The new pbp guy sounds like Weideman a bit. Huge upgrade over Closters (hard not to be).

Spellacy will be back in juniors soon. Handled himself pretty well.

Korchinski might be playing himself to Rockford. Rough game for him.

absolutely correct, thought the same thing on his first gaffe for a wild goal, a definite after his second gaffe for another wild goal. wtf. you're cheering for the guy, just makes one dumb mistake after another. bertuzzi with his dumb penalty bug-a-boo, murphy blah..bedard and co., silent until 6-1.

we're seeing the 97% probability of not making the playoffs.

First period was good. I thought yeah, much better looking team. And then came the second period and I thought yikes, here we go again.

And Reichel has been really bad, too. Wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up at Rockford, assuming he isn’t subject to waivers if sent down.

don't want to go overboard, the club has another week to clean itself up. outshot by 20, losing 7-2....they may as well kept last year's roster and played soderblom in goal. d-zone coverage and face-offs were terrible.

luc needs to get his and the club's shit together, i'm thinking he'll be gone by feb if the club's point total mirrors last year's. just like last year, minnesota gains the hawk zone and the carnival music starts playing, uninterrupted for 50 seconds.

Certainly, I wasn't expecting playoff hockey from the Hawks in the preseason (or in the regular season). The question I have is what happened in the 1st intermission? Did Minnesota figure out the Hawks? Did the Hawks stop playing? They went from an actual competition to being outclassed yet again.

Not sure Richardson's seat is warm yet and I think he'll have through this season but if things don't pick up in 2025, he'll be gone by Thanksgiving.

If the plan wasn't in place already to have Korchinski spend the year at Rockford, it sure is after last night's game.

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Judging from last night's box score doe not appear goal tending is promising.

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Elections have consequences.

you can't judge goaltending by looking at a boxscore.

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Aware of that. That is why I worded it the way I did. If it was defense or turnovers, penalties that would be an invitation to tell me so.

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Elections have consequences.

Nazar, Korchinski and Crevier sent to Rockford. Spellacy sent back to juniors.

I turned the game off at 5-1, but the first two goals were off of bad Korchinski turnovers. Didn't pay attention to the other goals. But, Hawks played their #4 goalie last night so doesn't really matter.

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loved what i saw from Spellacy in the 2 periods I watched last night. I could see him being a big time contributor down the road, even if it's in a bottom 6 role.


Crevier is one to keep an eye on as well. If he continues to improve he could really be something special with that size.

I'm gonna try and watch some Rockford games this year, they are gonna have a bunch of high level prospects on the roster.

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I agree, Spellacy looked good, especially for a guy who hasn't played hockey very long.

reading some really disparaging stuff about reichel and athanasiou from b.n.'s bamford.

i found this comment from coach luke: "reichel's skillset doesn't fit the 4th line", interesting. b.n. quoted coach luke and basically agreed with it.

i'm of the opposite opinion...especially when it comes to home games and the privilege of having the last change. i can see a reichel-aa-smith (R shot/RW) 4th line.

- most clubs are serious playoff contenders and there is a cap. the skilled players get paid - for the most part, their 4th lines are as pitiful as last year's blackhawks 4th line (and #2 line, for that matter). most nights, at home, the hawks 4th line should be better (on paper), certainly more speedier. i don't see a huge disadvantage of playing that combo as a 4th line at home, getting 10-11 mins a game.

reichel is signed for another 2 years at a friendly cap number. aa and smith will likely be gone after this season. what is the downside? other clubs have crappy players too, the hawks of all clubs, should know that. so, these guys are in the doghouse, what do you do with them? make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

so, a st. louis blues 4th line of toropchenko-faska-walker is to be feared if matched against the blackhawks' 4th line of reichel-aa-smith? i'd be more worried about united center hawks' #1 line x most opponent's top checking line, the #3 line, usually. bedard doesn't play defense and bertuzzi lumbers in the neutral zone.

The question I would have is this: Would that hypothetical 4th line's offense be good enough to overcome their lack of defensive prowess? Or do they play D well enough against a 4th line, assuming they don't go up against anyone else?

The Hawks 4th lines back in the cup days were tough to play against because they were relentless, played d very well, had enough offensive chops and were generally good at faceoffs.

sure, legit questions.

if you look around the league and the 4th lines of most clubs, their 4th lines are garbage. most other clubs have quality players with playoff aspirations and pay them accordingly. with a cap, this means that chances are their 4th lines are mix of youngsters/the not-so-skilled/slow.

with the last change at home, my contention is that the blackhawks 4th line would posses skill-sets that eclipse the opponents' 4th lines - especially with speed (aa and reichel). in an 82 game season,
you need to play a 4th line every night...10-12 mins a game. a reichel-aa-smith or even joey anderson at RW 4th line beats the hell out of 2023-24's 4th line of the likes of sanford/r. johnson/entwhistle..etc.

my thinking is that line should boss the play against most other 4th lines. at home, the hawks with last change can do an easier job of getting the right match-ups.

the argument is that a reichel won't develop and get into bad habits playing on the 4th line. he's in the doghouse, anyways.

i'll be watching tonight, certainly expect a better performance. here are the lines projected for tonight's game:



aa and reichel are both scratched for tonight.