Yep, I knew he would be in here with an early post. Curious needs to do a better job, he's too smart to respond to that idiot.

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I don't think it's a blessing. The little I know, I think there's a big drop off from 2 to 3.

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Isles have a chance to draft a Suffolk County kid first overall, though, and with an unsentimental Lamoriello out of the picture, they might trade down to get him. Hawks could still get Schaefer or Misa.

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oh stop

How do you type this type of Blackhawks lottery fan fetish porn with just one hand on the keyboard?

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Talked to my Hawks guy today. He said, he and his dad(ex-player) went to the frozen four and chatted with Carle. Carle said it was about having kids and just having a newborn. There are 100ish NHL games in a season and about 40ish for college, so it wasn't really a choice. Said he could pick his kids up then go straight to the rink which is close to his house. It was about spending time with the family.

Same same but different.

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"Change has come to Amerika"-King Barky

You got it: Flyers it is.

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preparing to get underwhelmed. tocchet ended up getting $5.25 million for 3 years, as the flyers seemingly competed against themselves for his services.

appears GM kyle is kicking the tires on former oiler head coach woodcroft. former anaheim head coach cronin, is also available. fired last month after guiding anaheim to a 21 point improvement - from 2023-24 to 2024-25. i guess that's not good enough for verbeek.

I feel like all the old Hartford guys should be retired and gone by now, but the Kings just hired Kenny Holland and he's even more of a relic than Quenneville is.

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Sounding like Jeff Blashill might be the new coach.

wasnt he brutal with Detroit?

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

He was not great, but I think he also inherited the Red Wings right at the point of collapse after years of Holland delaying the inevitable. Still, though, we already had our own Jeremy Colliton, why go get someone else's? Unless seriously no one else wants to work here.

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no doubt q's and verbeek's careers intersected for awhile in hartford. q was on kouleas' nhl radio show the other day and called verbeek, 'beeker'. hockey comaraderie. said anaheim's current club reminds him of the chicago club he inherited from 'savvy'.

Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson were both ex-Whalers, too. Ron Francis keeps getting jobs for some reason. Dave Tippett had those insufferable Coyotes teams that just stood in front of the net and blocked everything. Weird little legacy for the team.

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I was speaking with my BIL about the draft as he is a big fan and it got me a little interested so I have looked up some mocks on youtube. No one has seemed to think Miese is a lock at 1

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

Yeah, I don't know why we'd be so certain that the Islanders wouldn't do something goofy. Who's running that team? Patrick Roy by default? Katie Ledecky's uncle? They're in a perfect climate for meathead pandering right now.

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once tocchet signed, i knew i'd be underwhelmed with the choice.

last summer, heard cooper on the radio clearly state that he'd stay coaching tampa, as long as the club wanted him to coach there. is this is the next best thing? vaguely remember him with detroit, believe he started coaching them after detroit was moved to the eastern conference.

believe he has a fairly good base of young players and will rely on GM kyle to spend tons of cap money available on some proven FWDs. as the former head coach and so-called young talent whisperer, sorenson either: A) truly believes C will be bedard's best position, B), was told by mngt. not to upset bedard and move him to wing.

nazar really blossoming as a potential #1 C, we'll see how they handle this. the coaching staff can't fuck up speed and his acceleration. if blashill's forte is coaching defense, i'm onboard and willing to give him a chance. the club, with much better talent at D and with a much improved soderblom, gave up almost the same amount of goals last season as they did, during their ugly season, 2 years ago. defensive coverage in their D-zone was terrible. D-men not moving players out of the crease and the FWDs were soft on the wall and confused on covering high/low.

Definitely underwhelming. Nice that they got a guy that has experience as a HC, but not nice that in that time he only went to the playoffs 1 time. I get that Detroit was a dumpster fire during that time and that had little to do with him.

Clearly will give him a chance. He has had a chance to be on the bench with a really good one lately. So hopefully that impacts things.

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

Blashill was the coach-in-waiting for years at Grand Rapids and finally moved up after Babcock left. Just like the many Red Wings prospects who sat in Grand Rapids for like six years before they got called up, he ended up being about 65% as good as Red Wings fans told us he'd be.

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He worked under Cooper, I'm not worried.

did some digging...he's going to get a lot of love from blackhawks full-time and part-time analysts granato and chelios - hired them as coaches at detroit. not that i would ever expect them to be as critical as part-time analyst colin fraser has been, even less so now.

heard some nhl insiders claim that blashill's forte is defense and that will be severely tested with this group. may have the worst top C in the league when it comes to defense. will he tolerate bedard's loose checking and frequent figure-8s high in his d-zone, always looking for others to win the puck and make a quick outlet pass to him, in his 'dangler' role? how many times has he been disappointed not to get the puck and then take a draw at center ice as the blackhawks just conceded a goal?

nazar and vlasic have been very good at the current iihf tournie. i was vlasic's biggest fan...soured me a bit, last year. can easily scoff at his current play against softer euro opponents. needs to get tougher...get stronger and tougher. looking more and more like the july 1979 penthouse pet, a big hairy pussy.

I think Bedard was getting better after the coach change. I think he is going to flourish. Kyle needs to make a trade for a line mate or make an impactful signing.

mike johnson scoffing at mikheyev getting one 5th place vote and finishing tied for last (37th) for the selke. johnson watched him for a few years in toronto, obviously, not impressed. barkov wins the selke with reinhart 2nd. great challenge for them starting this wednesday.

blackhawks part ways with assistants dean, king and plante. special teams were fairly good for the 2nd worst club in the nhl. 5x5 these guys were brutal; especially defensively, team defense...changes can't hurt. dean may get hired by adam foote in vancouver.

no movement on any of the club's RFAs or donato. donato trying to cash in, he shouldn't be pressing his luck with outlandish demands.