Well, Twitter started percolating a few hours ago, and now it’s official. Dan Carcillo — “Car Bomb” to some and “Gorilla Salad” to increasingly more — has been traded to the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional pick in 2015. I’m kind of amazed that you can get a draft pick for Carcillo that comes before the Earth is hit by an asteroid, but here we are.
Over the weekend, the Hawks pretty much wrapped up their offseason activities by re-signing Marcus Kruger for two years at $1.3m per. It’s another bridge contract, just like Nick Leddy received, however neither one takes Leddy or Kruger to unrestricted free agency. They’ll both be restricted in the summer of 2015, which is shaping up to be quite the eventful summer (though expect Toews and Kane to be locked up way before then anyway).
About the only thing left on Stan’s to-do list is perhaps a two-way deal for Drew LeBlahBlah, but that’s not a guarantee either. Seeing as how the Hawks chased Bob Loblaw for a couple seasons, I’d fully expect them to bring him back and stick him in Rockford as Pirri insurance.
So how did Stan do and where do the Hawks stand?
Quick note: As the summer winds on, I will be making updates as to what video game is in my PS3. My hope is this for to become a regular topic for me this summer. I rarely play sports games so there’s a good chance this will all be action/adventure games. (“AAAAAAHHHHH! TALK MORE SPORTZZZZZ!!!”) If you aren’t interested in this sort of thing, then you can go back to arguing about line arrangements that are going to be shifted after the third preseason game anyways. I’ll try to keep any spoilers to a minimum.
If you’re like 3.4 million other people, you’ve have entered a world unlike any other in “The Last of Us,” a Playstation 3 exclusive that involves a post-apocalyptic journey across what was once the United States of America. Generally when I beat a game that I find engrossing, it takes a couple days for me to decompress back into reality and remember it’s not normal to go around sneaking up on people and snapping necks. Games like Red Dead Redemption, the Batman Arkham series and the Unchartered series come to mind.
It’s a summer Friday, which probably means you’re already headed out of the office, and mentally you’ve already checked out long ago. And we’re about to enter the hockey doldrums, just as soon as Kruger’s contract is signed basically. But we really all could use a break, so before we break for the weekend let’s have a little fun, shall we?
As promised, it’s available today. And there are two ways you can get it. First, you can order a hard copy of it and have it mailed to you for $5 by hitting this button right here, and have something to hold and put over the mantle or roll it up and smoke it or whatever you want:
Watch it at CSNChicago.com.
So bets on who’s the most drunk? Whose name gets mispronounced by a civic dignitary? Which player absolutely tanks his speech at the podium? The Kris Versteeg Ill Flowz Award?
Stan is the man:TSN
Quenneville pushed all the right buttons: CSN CHI Autoplay
Bigger Plans:Daily Herald
This team! Cheer The Anthem
Welcome Home: Hockee Night
This is why you’re a fan: Bernstein
Can I get a ruling? PW MANIA
They deserve each other: TSN
10 years gone: Sportsnet.CA
It’s hard to believe something that started so innocently in the middle of January could end so abruptly and beautifully in June. Yet, that’s exactly what happened today (or yesterday). The Chicago Blackhawks captured their second Stanley Cup in four years in Boston on June 24. Yes, it’s incredibly hard to believe; even more so for the fans of the team since the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s but it is true.
This Hawks team, with a goalie as “incompetent” as Corey Crawford, a 3rd line not nearly as strong as the 2010 team and a top line that couldn’t nearly compete with the Western Conference’s best somehow found its way to the NHL’s top prize at the end of June.
Anyways, like we’ve always done, let’s move to the bulletos.
I’m not sure where to start this. I think the best place is to separate the optics of it from what the reality might be.
I understand what some people are seeing. Because the Bruins are bigger, their hits tend to knock Hawks to the ice, whereas the Hawks’ don’t. Because the B’s are so good defensively, even when the play is even the Hawks aren’t creating chance after chance (even though the B’s actually aren’t creating that much either). There’s this impression that it should always look like the 1st period of Game 2, but the Bruins are too good for that. The Hawks can’t get to rebounds that are there, Rask isn’t working all that hard, I can see where some people might mistake it for an ass-kicking. But it just doesn’t feel to me that’s what what we’ve witnessed here.
Let’s just get to the bullets and we’ll see if I can’t prove my point:
I suppose time will tell if there was something in the Hawks game that got to Jonathan Quick, or if the star goalie simply had a string of bad games at the worst possible time for LA. There seemingly wasn’t a lot the Hawks did to rattle Quick other than find ways to beat him. And Duncan Keith’s goal to open the scoring on Saturday is still pretty baffling to me. Either way, the Blackhawks were facing perhaps the best goalie in the league coming in at damn near the top of his game and they found a way to beat him.
They’ll need to find whatever charm they used in the WCF and bottle it to save over the next few games because it looks like they’re going to have to do it all over again as they face the young Finn Tuukka Rask.
