it was a bit of an old style game, canadiens initiated the hits because maybe they felt a bit flat, almost the end of a very long road trip with one more game in denver (they won today). i did notice that the hitting may have 'disturbed' nazar. he missed one easy pass for an icing, seemed rattled, once the hitting commenced. roumeliotis and others losing their pants over nazar's 'speed' and another failed breakaway. sorry guys, where's the production?? save the sugarcoat shit for jones, mrazek, foligno and murphy fanboys.

canadiens had a high scoring D last season. this season, they have been red hot lately and their D and G play has been the key. montembeault moving up the ranks, now considered a top 3 canadian G and an invite to the 4 nations.

blackhawks playing the rangers this afternoon. looks like the rangers will gift us a 32 y/o rookie goalie - shesterkin out/quick, a chance for a breather against a lesser opponent.

have to chuckle at others lighting up the BN guy for his gagging propaganda piece about C foligno and the 4-2 win over the canadiens.



yeah. i hate picking on the guy. does a great job with the prospects. other times - just not good takes. connor murphy is not good. i know he tries hard. God bless him, was featured in the latest episode of the blackhawk mini-doc...goes to the firehouse and is friendly with the young son of the cook/lottery guy? a few days ago, made it seem like the blackhawks were going to need to climb 2 mountains and swim one ocean to beat the canadiens because murphy was out. you got to stop with the bad takes.

troy murray letting us know that the club is not competing today. waiting for those paying $$ for tickets - when will they start booing some of these slackers?? club is making the ranger G look like eddie giacomin.

don't need to see jones anymore. he's good for at least 1 fuck-up, every shift. crevier with the icings, all of the D failing to clear the hawks' crease. feel that jones coming back and walking into the #1 PP - took a lot of steam out of vlasic's game. bedard looks brutal this game - if the rangers didn't gift him a turnover for an assist, you wouldn't even knew if he played. the next time the sensitive dickinson whines about the club's fortunes, someone needs to remind him of his shit play in this game. smith, nothing. teuvo, icing for ranger goal #1. nazar, worried about scoring and brushing his hair, like damone, from fast times. donato, nothing. he better get going if he wants a better boat for his atlantic fishing during summer break - extra time for shit clubs. the kids got excited when foligno had a partial breakaway, a chance for redemption after his clear failure to get the puck deep on a line change - you knew he'd fail to get a shot off. yes, he failed to get a shot off. i guess he's not a leader. fucking brutal, all of them.

blackhawks playing colorado tonight - colorado had to upgrade it's G position and looks like it's been successful. all that, and once again, the blackhawks will face the #3 goalie tonight - miner. wedgewood out with injury. blackwood gets the night off.

last night, watched their former G georgiev with the sharks. tough opponent in las vegas, some good saves and a soft goal.

hawk media talk has shifted to trades. lots of addition by subtraction, instead of hoping for a #2 pick or better. maybe reichel can get another chance, not so sure about kurashev. looked good 2 years ago, showed some offensive game with bedard last year...this year, wow.

keep reading nonsense that the club wants to stamp an imprint of 'ferocious forecheck' club upon opponents. the club is being built talent-wise and size-wise, ala the wild. right now, more smallish than quick/skilled. i'm sure others are shitting their pants at the thought of bedard hunting them down behind the net or on the wall. this club will make a name for itself with quick entries, quicker passing to moving players and generate quality shots that way. just like the wild.

here's d-coach dean talking about korchinski's recent call-up and send down.



still have hope.

problem is jones. jones takes minutes away from vlasic and a korchinski on the PP. for what reason? prob the $9.5 million per year. jones will have a moment every other game on PP, where he forgets where he is in relation to the blue line. patrick kane thought that unforgiveable a few years ago. until the hawks get rid of jones and murphy, can't see the club turning a corner for the good.

Fun game. Getting out shot but lots of good play. Bedard scores and had one taken away on a kick. He also created the first goal. Nazar netted his first of the year.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

mrazek was sharp...too late for all that or will clubs with squirrely goaltending like edmonton and pittsburgh throw us a bone at the trade deadline? edm vs pitt tonight. skinner also unceremoniously dumped from canada's 4 nations team - could change with injury.

the club did get a lucky bounce on nazar's goal and the giveaway goal off bedard's stick, right to mikheyev. still due lots of puck luck. you want to see nazar go from strength to strength and he'll get a chance tomorrow. blackhawks in detroit.

read that jones got a few less minutes, no murphy and no maroon. in my opinion, this is how the club should 'trend'.

Your last sentence is key for them going forward, IMO.

Regarding Nazar's goal: Might not have been luck as it's always a good option to shoot low so the goalie has to make that kick save out to the right. Now, did the shooter (don't know who that was) realize that Nazar was going down the left wing or did he just get lucky? Not sure.

I wish they'd just put Reichel on the second line, probably wing, and let him play for the rest of the year to see what you have. It's not like the Hawks can get any worse with him there.

Totally agree on Kurashev. Not sure what happened. I think he was around 0.5 ppg last year but this year, he's nowhere to be found. I have been pro Kurashev up until this year. They have enough guys not producing and he adds nothing if he's not scoring.

They were fellating Vlasic a lot last night saying how big and fast he is. How valuable is he?

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Hawaii (fuck) You

yeah...the shooter was dach. my thought is that he wasn't shooting for the right pad for a rebound....shot appeared at gut-level, miner got down low and the puck flew out some 15 feet on the rebound, right into nazar's path to the net. seen plenty where the puck would go everywhere and anywhere, except into the path of the blackhawk forward.

i agree with reichel. poor guy looks like he's summoning every bit of strength and grit in his body for every shift he's on the ice. grimacing as he skates. i didn't have the foresight to prefer jake neighbors over reichel in 2020. blackhawks have a favorable contract with reichel for another year. after that, could be time to accept the loss. i just hope nazar doesn't mirror reichel's career. i'm afraid i've gotten the hint that nazar will shy away from a heavy game.

i go back to the wild and how they play. they have a lot of smaller, quick, skilled players - kaprizov, rossi, zuccarello, khusnutdinov. they don't dump and chase. they gain entry and then it's lights out, guys skating into space, one-timers..this is how i believe the blackhawks should attempt to play.

very valuable. best D on the club....almost done successfully fighting the consistency struggle. showed his dynamism on the PP, until the rug got pulled out from under him and jones was 'gifted' the only D spot on PP#1. signed a very club-friendly deal.

club really doesn't have a point shooter type for the PP. blackhawks use 4 FWDs and 1 D. he's better than anything we have now. should be korchinski's spot next year - as a QB type on the PP and vlasic should be on PP#2. let's alternate between korchinski and bedard direct entries. stop with the pass backwards.

not sure if ottawa will pull the trigger on anything, it's #1 goalie, ullmark, is 'week-to-week' with a back injury.



plenty of Gs in this area. if staios has a realistic view of his club and the playoffs, may just stand pat. currently, a few points out of the last wild card spot in the east.

zawaski and tirabassi had canadian prospect analayst steven ellis on yesterday's podcast. takeaways:

- LD schaeffer is a unicorn and must be taken, if you're drafting #1.

out of FWDs hagens/misa/martone, ellis prefers martone with bedard. misa disappears at times and hagens isn't physically strong - can be bullied off pucks and out of games. no where near of seeing enough of these players to make my own judgements.

hideous stuff for most of the game, guys breaking more sticks - they themselves are responsible for their own shittiness.

didn't take long for the fall-out. the BN guy wants kurashev on waivers and gone. got it, though, how serious can you be taken when you tell us at the same time that frank nazar is 'making plays'. no he's not. he's also been bad. what's scary about nazar is that he's a another small guy who shies away when the game gets heavy. hope i'm wrong. hall also playing shitty....this guys fumbles more pucks and falls down after a maintenance day of no practice. he already seems to be in trade-mode, plays unsettled. dickinson and foligno with shit games too, the virus spreads.

an interesting angle would have been that maybe, just maybe, the hawks didn't draft demidov because he's too russian, unlike the 'americanized' levshunov of mich st and the hawks have been burnt recently by euro softies reichel and fool's gold kurashev, of the swiss mountains. reichel is soft, kurashev to me, is the classic non-motivated guy. he'll smell points and skate harder in a 6-1 game, always a non-factor, a detriment in a tight 0-0 game.

with martinez coming back, jones going nowhere, brodie never sitting and murphy hanging around - no real room for korchinski. i'd bring him back up - this club is in desperate need of offense from the back and a PP qb on the point. looks as though phillips is done, not considered for anything and crevier above him in the pecking order.

guessing that soderblom plays today and hopefully the oiler goalie (skinner or pickard), plays like shit and turns the screws tighter on bowman to go out and get a goalie.

pretty good 1st period, helps that pickard is in goal.

hawk D looks much better with martinez there...classy. if i pick on jones' mistakes, need to give him credit for a desperate stick-check on mcdavid. still does things, every game, that make you wonder what is he thinking. had a senseless giveaway a few minutes later to remind us of who he is.

can only wonder if perry dedicated his goal to caley.

on his podcast, zawaski not happy with brodie playing/kaiser out. i do agree with him and i do like his argument that it's not about 'brodie sucks'.

at the same time, would love to have the same tech expertise where i could take bits and pieces of a game and use stills to prove a point. zawaski did so with an errant brodie pass to nolan allen.

i would have done that with jones and how twice, he pushed the puck to an area of a broken stick in the blackhawks d-zone and lost possession both times. you can do that every game with jones. for a guy over 30, years in the league, he continues to do things that boggle your mind. if given a chance to make a bad decision, he'll usually make it.

He is paid and lazy. He is a complete dead ass at this point and he deserves to be humiliated with multiple healthy scratches.

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

yeah, just a hot mess. the old regime seemed to promote vlasic to the #1 D on the PP....seemed clear to them who was ascending and who was declining - talent-wise. thought we got a glimpse of coach luke breaking that bad news to jones in one of the 'every shift' episodes.

some strange developments out of rockford. rockford defeats the milwaukee admirals 5-0, no levshunov, ludwinski and joey anderson. rockford also called up 3 corresponding players (D, C, LW) from the indy farm team. i've only seen highlites, read some from those who have watched levshunov play and they say that levshunov hasn't looked nor played like the #2 draft pick. ludwinski, so far, has been a huge disappointment.

unfortunately Schaeffer got hurt a game into the World Juniors, but the little I saw of him he definitely looked amazing. Hagans did good too, but was probably the 3rd best player on his own line. Matone barely got playing time with Canada.


If Hawks got #1 it's going to be a tough decision considering how much they need forwards vs defenseman, yet you can't pass up BPA when you're at the top of the draft. Could also trade down to #2 depending on the package.

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I was listening to the radio feed while texting someone about non-hockey matters. Turned it off at 3-1... WTH happened to this defense? Maybe LR knew something about how to keep games close by playing boring non-offense hockey.

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

I missed the 1st period but saw stick check seth opt to go away from the net to give the flames an easy put back. What an effort from such a great player.

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

yeah. again, i haven't seen enough of them to make a definitive statement - this guy, yes. no, not that guy.

we know in hockey trading up/down 1st round picks isn't the same deal as in the nfl. what we do know is that in recent years the canadiens had a deluge of 1st and 2nd round pick D-men and the sabres had a bunch of 1st and 2nd round pick Cs that they started trading away. i can see GM kyle getting nervous and wants to avoid the pressure of having the #1 pick. another d-man? if the sharks finish last and let's say get the #1 pick - yes, no brainer. sam dickinson and matthew shaeffer, great future defense (both LD) along with their FWD talent.

blackhawks need bigger FWDs.

kinda surprising that the dam seems to have burst, in regard to jones. to me, his play tonight, was the median from him. not for the first time, he's 30, been in the league for years - made the dumb-ass play on the PP for the flames' shorthanded goal. he did the same in calgary, gifted them a shortie. ignores his size and prefers the stickfights to hitting. i guess he fancies himself an ace stickchecker, which he is not. was known as a 'shut-down' D-man for awhile, which would be comical, if he wasn't on the blackhawks.

GM kyle needs to do all he can to get him off the roster. him and murphy - willing to deal with the young D and brodie in 2025-26. korchinski needs to play on the PP and needs to produce. no production? trending towards a bust pick. olczyk with the wise, 'you need to know your players before the other teams do'.

fresh article today about jones from the BN guy.



no shit? the elephant in the room is that whatever is left of the so-called media in this world, that covers the chicago hockey club - ignored the previous terrible hockey and defended jones. now, it's a problem? ok.

https://www.bleachernation.com/blackhawks/2025/01/14/the-blackhawks-need-to-stop-accepting-bad-from-seth-jones/

as mentioned many times, he has very little hockey IQ. in fact, just now in 2024: scouts are 're-imagining' the term and wishing it away to the new accepted term, 'hockey-sense'. iq or sense, has very little of it. will usually make the wrong play/decision, when offered the chance. given that, would be a much better defender if he used his body more, refuses to do so. for that, deserves some scorn.

the flames little goalie in wolf made saves, when he had to. we didn't get saves when needed. both mrazek and soderblom have tailed off since dec.

i've always liked pettersson, was hoping he'd come over last year, but, resigned with vancouver for $11.6 million per. now, the news is that pettersson and j t miller are feuding and the canucks are suffering as a result.

this writer from the hockey news, throws out 3 trade proposals for the blackhawks to acquire pettersson.

1)

2)

3)

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/chicago-blackhawks/latest-news/3-realistic-trade-packages-that-could-land-blackhawks-elias-pettersson

I'd be interested to know what the GAA under Sorenson with and without Jones in the lineup.

I'd do #3 for sure as you're only giving up one future piece. The other two, you're giving up two pieces and a first. I'd have to think about the other two...

I thought of that too. It all went to shit when Jones came back, but that would have also been enough time for other team's advance scouting to pick apart the differences between LR and AS's systems and be able to exploit it.

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

the athletic's prospect guy came up with his best NHLers/NHL prospects under the age of 23.

celebrini #1, stutzle #2 and bedard #3. not sure if i agree with his assessment of bedard's shot as 'high-end' and not elite. had a bang-on description of korchinski's skating:



great. he then proceeded to grade korchinski's skating as 'above average'. think he missed that one.

anyways, a few hawks and prospects on list. no nazar, commesso or lardis. no spellacy.