tonight's lineup seems pretty close to what I expect the opening day lineup to be.

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yeah, looks like it's some 90% of it. for sure, reichel and aa will rotate at times with smith and maroon. if mikheyev gets off to a slow start and looks sluggish, he'll be next in the dog house.

martinez out again and kaiser still recovering from medical procedures that were clouded in something sinister-sounding, club says he's 100% healthy. i doubt allen breaks camp, phillips may - depending on what's going on with martinez (maintenance).

hopefully, they seal the wall when defending in their zone.

AJ Spellacy, in his first game back in jrs after training camp, with the Gordie Howe hat trick.

I'll be flipping the game on soon...

watched that slow carriage ride to the guillotine...slow, somber and brooding and then suddenly, it's all over. your head in a basket.

when maroon is on PP unit #2..

luke didn't sign all these free agents. everyone tells me that kyle from chicago wants the new blackhawks to have fast players. great. so, why did he sign berutzzi/maroon/smith? personally, i wasn't a fan of the bertuzzi signing (3rd line guy, maybe 2nd line when he's got a hot stick) and teuvo is a nice player, he's not a #1 line guy. given that, luke needs to figure out the line combos and quickly.

not sure if caley is hitting the crack pipe or listening to her dad's buzzed take about ex-wing bertuzzi. i believe i heard her call him an 'elite' FA or something like that, between periods. jeff spiccoli was a better surfboarder than bertuzzi is a #1 line winger.

we saw the same last year. minnesota is a death match-up for the chicago hockey club. they play fast and our slower D had no chance, last year or this year. they play so fast, we only blocked 8 shots...poor D stat. minnesota's D? 20 blocked shots.

mrazek didn't help matters anyways.

the failing line combos are telling. the special teams are more telling. luke needs to turn it around or he'll be gone, sooner than later.

well, at least our top ahl prospects + sprinkling of nhl players are better than the blues top ahl prospects and a sprinkling of their nhl players. bedard set up kurashev for 4 one-timers on a 5x3 PP, kurashev nailed the 4th. no maroon on today's PP.

panger is hinting that kurashev should play the wing on bedard's line. that brings aa back into the mix as a C, or maybe nazar.

so...blackhawks took a chance on not getting isaak phillips through waivers - and no one claimed him. D nolan allen also makes the club. soderblom breaks camp because broissoit is still recovering from knee surgery, should be fully fit in a few weeks. back to back games this week - fri and sat, will probably see each goalie.

the news today is no surprise. bertuzzi has underwhelmed so far and gets dropped to the #2 line, while mikheyev gets moved up and will play with bedard and teuvo on the #1 line. bertuzzi is on $5.5 million for 4 years.

not that mikheyev showed anything in pre-season, i believe more of a reflection on bertuzzi's poor pre-season play. let's hope he snaps out of it.

I went to the game Saturday. That is a phenomenal place to watch a game.....maybe they will get a team....someday. Phillips had to police all the shitbags on the blues AHL team. Bedard wasn't in the mood for their shit either and threw a punch while skating early on and then it looked like he tackled someone to start that brawl at the end. Frank looked great and I hope his stay in the land of the goons in the AHL is short. I don't have high hopes for the team at this point for the upcoming season with their slow and old D.

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

excellent.

contrast between ice/arena seats was perfect. panger had a photo of himself in milwaukee admirals gear during his 84-85 year there. believe he said he played at the mecca.

still feel as though they'll get into the 70s point range....likely get frustrated if they leak goals late in games, denying them points.

I like the move with Bertuzzi. He's looked awful and I thought Mikheyev looked pretty good.

As long as they don't throw rocks for brains Hall on Bedard's wing I'll be content.

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hopefully, mikheyev's knee is good and he'll be flying up and down left wing. tough for that line if bedard loses a face-off, can't score when your defending in your zone with 4 1/2 guys. bedard with the fly-byes at the blue line, always looking to cherry pick. in modern nhl terms, i believe that bedard is called a 'dangler'. he's not going to get benched, so, they'll need to deal with it.

as of 2 years ago, was known as one of the fastest skaters in the league, i believe he beat mcdavid over some 150-160 feet, when he was a leaf.

here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXLJMIrPuc

hopefully doesn't posses the aa syndrome.

At least we're 5 minutes in. The Yeti is going to get us.

Let’s hope Utah is really really good.

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Mulli is Howard Stern in his prime compared to Haugh.

Well 3-0 now, that was fun. Bedard has been invisible so far.

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

need to ask coach luke why non-skilled maroon and other 4th-liners on the PP. bedard can't win a face-off to save his life, teuvo has replaced him on face-offs and he can't win any either. i believe that yannick perrault is regarded as one of the best skill/face-off coaches in all of hockey...not sure what's going on.

team has been disciplined - no real bad penalties so far. love ferraro's PP criticism, "cover your eyes"...."too slow"...etc.

hawks had a good chance with dickinson at 0-0, ingram made the save. the first utah goal, the blackhawks goalie didn't make a save.

utah has skill. depending on who's on the ice, hawks easily get into trouble in their own end. let's see what the 3rd period brings.

Damn how many posts did they hit in that game?

Liked what I saw in the 3rd period and last half of the 2nd period.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

yeah, too bad. all in all, hawks had a good chance to claw back from a 3-0 deficit. first ever game for utah and they do have some good attacking talent.

i'd say most played ok, the club was disciplined. the PP was a shipwreck, one PP goal and the game likely goes to o.t.

mrazek should have done better on utah's first goal. smith with a major goof for the 2nd goal. mrazek no chance on the tip for the 3rd goal. they won some face-offs in the 3rd. foligno and mikheyev switched lines and there was a good response. on to winnipeg and edmonton, could be running into a buzzsaw.

Caught the first period to see if the team had made any progress, still tissue paper soft in the corners and look to have no structure on D, they are still a long way off from being competitive.

It would be 4-0 in the first ten mins if this team had to play the Secord and Clydesdale line back in the old Chicago Stadium, soft D men and not forward support when the puck is dumped in, physical teams will own this team.

If you only watched the first period you did not get a feel for how they played overall. First period was rough, but it got a lot better

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Great game! Hawks lose and Bedard gets 2 pts. Rinse and repeat all year, get the most lotto balls and I'll be happy.

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Is this the year that Bedard cracks the top 100 goal scorers in the NHL?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I watched part of the second and third periods. Everyone on the Blackhawks except Bedard played like they were slightly drunk.

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If he stays healthy, for sure.

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Yeah, I saw the first half of the first period and thought, Oh boy, here we go again, but looks like they played a lot better in the 2nd and 3rd periods.

one game in and already...



he was the worst blackhawk against utah in terms of analytics.



though i believe the article on bleacher nation is really lamenting brodie's 2 year deal. i didn't watch leaf games last year but i do remember leaf fan jake hahn telling us that brodie will have some defensive nights to forget.

the first goal seemed as though mrazek could have and should have saved it. the 2nd goal was a glaring gaffe by craig smith at the blue line/qick counter and the 3rd goal was a tip. mrazek or brodie weren't the reasons for the L.

PP was the problem.

Trying to learn anything on that stuff in one game is dumb.

Every player on that list will have a game like that.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

no argument, brodie wasn't clean and tidy with the puck and appeared slowest to react at other times. given that, he wasn't responsible for the loss last night.

the gist of the negative article about brodie is the length of his contract.

the coaches' in-game line change (mikheyev and foligno switched) seemed to work. was that luck or careful preparation? these are the same coaches with donato/maroon/smith as 3 FWDs on the #2 PP line. that's on them.

bertuzzi didn't do much, but was noticeably good a few times. going to be a rough test the next week.

Not sure how much Brodie played but if he's getting 12-15 minutes, that's probably where he needs to be. If he's getting 18-20, Richardson will be looking for a new job.

Brodie TOI 16:45
Start notes for resume...

16 is probably too much but who knows? Will watch him more closely tomorrow night.

excellent road first period against winnipeg. those formerly/currently in the doghouse had good 1st periods:brodie/athanasiou/soderblom. it was a jones or kurashev mistake that put the blackhawks under pressure/giving up a scoring chance. maroon with a loose stick and a penalty. team isn't good enough to be sloppy and kill penalties. maroon did make the D-man pay for the over-reaction.

face-offs still an issue. saw a stat where bedard was over 50% in game 1, thought it was an error stat. bedard looked like he lost 4-5 face-offs, just in tonight's 1st period.