With the unofficial End of Summer now upon us all in the form of the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend, it’s no doubt time to get in as much outdoor grilling and beer drinking while the weather still permits, at least sans parka and toque.
Because our magnanimity here at Committed Indian HQ truly knows no bounds, we’re here to help you provide a soundtrack to your extended weekend.
With the 2013-2014 campaign finally rolling around within the next few weeks, we’re going to be starting our preview, which we’re going to try to make as mult-faceted as possible.
We’d like one of those facets to be actually telling you specific things you’re looking to know about the upcoming season, be it regarding the Blackhawks or any other issues league-wide. The intent of this is to be far more in-depth than merely just predictions, as predictions just end up making everyone involved looking like an asshole, and I certainly don’t need any help in that department.
So whatever you’d like to know about 2013-2014 that you think we might be of service in answering, drop it in the comments and we’ll start compiling a list for when all this starts in earnest.
Today, the hockey world began to stir anew with Canadian and American orientation camps hilariously practicing without ice due to insurance restrictions. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg (pun fully intended) as to why I really have zero investment Olympic competition.
With yesterday’s news that the Hawks have signed their 2012 first round pick Teuvo Teravainen to his entry level deal, both the franchise and the player are presented with some interesting options. The contract clock hasn’t started to tick yet, but the unwashed masses of Blackhawk Nation (including this site) are more than a little excited at what the future holds for the shifty Finn, and have been since he unexpectedly fell into Stan Bowman’s lap last June at the Entry Draft.
Because both the current roster and farm system are relatively stocked with talent, the Hawks have some options, which it’s now realistic to examine.
We’ll have more thoughts on this tomorrow, but feel free to discuss your Teuvo excitement and share grainy footage of Jokerit highlights complete with shouting Finnish announcers here for the time being.
This off season, there have been numerous teams debuting new threads. So far, the Hurricanes, Stars, and Sharks have shown what they’ll be wearing this upcoming season, with the Wild still yet to reveal their new road whites, and the Sabres bringing to the fore a new alternate third jersey. This also doesn’t even take into account the rash of one-time use sweaters that’s bound to happen for all of the outdoor games, some of which we’ve already seen.
There are so many new threads to be seen that even the Worldwide Leader felt it necessary to chime in with their all-important RANKINGS wherein the Hawks are completely erroneously left near the bottom of the top-10. And while it’s just one person’s opinion, to have it outside of the Top 6 (where honestly any of the Original Six could be used interchangably and any such ranking should have two seperate categories, such is the disparity between the flagship franchises and the rest of the league), we here at CI Headquarters have a few handy rules of thumb that work across the board, no matter the team.
Though things around here have been quiet for over a month, with the Hawks retaining their key young restricted free agents in Nick Leddy and Marcus Kruger, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Stan Bowman’s actions in building his team are the exception and not the rule. Bowman got burnt badly in the past when the Niklas Hjalmarsson signed an offer sheet with the Sharks, and if a couple teams around the league aren’t careful, they might find themselves in a similarly compromising position with this year’s diminished cap.
With the NHL season still about two months away from starting in earnest, and the the Olympics in Sochi still six months away, here in the down-iest of summer down time feels like a good enough time for this subject to be addressed now that the dust has settled from the release of the national team roster invite lists. It’s been bubbling under the surface for a while, and is only sure to boil over as time inches closer to the opening ceremonies, and that’s Russia’s flagrant LGBT rights violations, and how it’s going to affect the NHL’s participation in the Sochi games.
With the Summer Doldrums officially in full effect thanks in no small part to the League taking its sweet ass time to announce an agreement for Olympic participation in Sochi this coming February, and as a result its own regular season schedule, it’s time to take a spin into a couple matters beyond the Blackhawks.
But one local matter needs to be addressed first.
With Ray Emery’s understandable departure for a shot at the starting gig in Philadelphia and Carter Hutton signing with the Preds, that left a void that Stan Bowman would have to fill outside the organization in the form of a backup goalie. Antii Raanta and Mac Carruth both appear to have bright futures ahead of them, but need work in the North American-slash-Pro game respectively. Simply put, the Hawks needed a backup for Corey Crawford, who himself is entering a contract year.
I don’t think anyone thought it was going to mean the return of Nikolai Khabibulin.
