Well, at least the temperature is down this weekend, so the sweaty quotient of those piling into The Hilton should be lower than it has been in previous years. John McDonough’s lovechild of self promotion kicks off tonight and runs through the weekend. I used to do this in the Convention Issue of the Indian, but seeing as how I’m not doing summer issues this year I’ll take you through all the sessions all this weekend and get to the truth to what’s really going on.
12 minutes and more real questions than the last 4 years: 670 The Score
Lazy Summer days: HockeeNight
Pandering in its most simple, ugly and ignorant form: Suntimes
Ready to be Brooks Orpik? Daily Herald
Back with the Cats: FS1
I suppose that with it being summer and the Hawks having already made their signings and not yet a trade to clear cap space, we have more time than we should to study the narratives they are pushing. It’s not something I consistently want to do, but they keep putting this stuff out there and some of it is just wide of the mark. And those who are supposed to stand watch and call it out are once again passively accepting and even echoing it themselves.
During yesterday’s press conference, the Hawks and the sycophants who cover them couldn’t wait to tell us that Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane took less money so that they could keep the team together (even though the team is already over the cap). Their agent told everyone that they could have asked for the maximum $13.8 million per year.
That’s nice. I’m sure they could have asked. And Stan Bowman could have laughed them out of the room.
8 more years: Blackhawks (autoplay)
Thankfully Stan learned math before Common Core: ESPN Chicago
Pirri gets his shot: TSN
Yet Kane has to keep answering maturity questions: PD
NHL 15 is apparently awesome: SI
It’s always a weird mix at Prospects Camp. You have the made men of 1st round picks and this year they’ve added the spice of kids already in the organization. You have the mid-level picks who definitely have something to prove before they had back to whatever campus or Canadian backwater to work on their games. And you have the college free agents who very well may never wear a NHL logo on their chest again and are doing their best to make it count.
I don’t know how much you learn from any of it, especially with a team like the Hawks who have a pretty much set top roster and one in Rockford that will have a lot of returnees trying to move up the depth chart. But it can’t hurt to look. So I moseyed down there today to catch the scrimmage. Just some random observations:
Dineen joins the staff: Blackhawks
Clendening thinks he’s ready: PHT
TVR is thankful: ESPN Chicago
Uh no: PD
Somehow the name Kevin Dineen escaped our attention when we were speculating who would replace Jamie Kompon and whatever it was he actually did here. It probably shouldn’t have. After all, Dineen was a Whaler when Q was, and a very decent one at that. What Dineen didn’t have was previous coaching experience with Quenneville, so maybe that’s why we missed him.
Dineen has various head coaching experience in a lot of places. He was an AHL coach for six years in Portland, for both the Anaheim and Buffalo organizations. His record there was very impressive, as the Pirates amasses 39+ wins five out of six seasons.
He then went to Florida, to take over the Panthers in their Garage Sale Binge phase, where Dineen took all of their 11 signings and acquisitions in the summer of 2011 and got the Panthers to a Southeast Division title, even if that division was terrible. It took until overtime in a Game 7 for the Devils to eliminate them. But Dineen only got a season and a month after that, and was axed, even though the team was basically garbage.
In one place: ESPN Chicago
Determination: Chicago Suntimes
Its starts already:Chicago Tribune
Johns excited: Comcast AP
That’s a bad thing? Sportsnet AutoPlay
Common Sense approach: PD
With the Free Agency Faucet now slowing down to an annoyingly audible drip, there’s not a lot to kick around other than the looming trade the Hawks will need to make to get under the salary cap.
For the uninitiated, the Hawks are still approximately $2.2 million dollars over the NHL’s salary cap of $69 million. There have been numerous scenarios fleshed out both here and elsewhere for just how the Hawks can do that. And looming as always is annual self-suck known as the Blackhawks Fan Convention, where John McDonough and Jay Blunk are loathe to trot out players who will not be here come October.
