Everything Else

If You Smell What The Hawks Are Cooking…

By 1266

So our friend Greg Boysen, who works for about 45 different sites now, tweeted out this little nugget from EJ Hradek on MSG last night. Well, actually Hradek was on MSG on Monday but we got it yesterday anyway you get it shut up. It’s a quick story, but basically Hradek reported that the Hawks didn’t want Patrick Kane to attend camp and did try and actively keep him from attending.

That’s nice… except if you think about it for more than four consecutive seconds it pretty much seems like utter bullshit.

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Something In The Way – C.I.’s Season Preview: Andrew Shaw

By 1162

Should I add “if he’s here?” We’ll get to that.

We know that there are fewer, if any, more made men than Andrew Shaw when it comes to Joel Quenneville. Because the Hawks value versatility and grit pretty highly, as long as that grit comes with skill, Shaw is basically the light of their eyes. Shaw has been deployed in every forward spot on every line in his three seasons here (two full and two half-seasons), and while we scoff when he’s deployed at center up the lineup, it’s not like he’s a total embarrassment there. At least not all the time. It’s just that there’s generally been better alternatives around. And there will be when Shaw is playing third center instead of Teuvo or is on the top line left wing instead of Dano or something this season.

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Something In The Way – C.I.’s Season Preview: Finnish Baby Jesus

By 1255

If it wasn’t for all the bullshit that surrounds the Hawks right now, I would have to say the development of Teuvo Teravainen would probably be the most fascinating aspect of the Hawks this year. We have a player who took over a 3rd period in Game 1 of the Final at the age of 20 (and also the 2nd period of Game 5 of the Western Conference Final). He can play wing or center, and even the Hawks don’t seem quite sure where he should go. Once he was finally cemented on the roster, which took too long, he had one play each game where you weren’t so much blown back that he did it, but that he even thought of it in the first place. If the Hawks are intent on producing a new batch of a core to support their old one, or one to replace the one they had behind the old one (*cough*Saad*cough*), Teuvo is most likely the leading light of that.

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Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Marian Hossa

By 1618

In the words of Macho Man, “And the beat goes on….”

Much like Toews we did last week, doing a preview of Hossa almost seems folly at this point. You can pretty much bank on what you’re going to get in the regular season, and Hossa really is the barometer for the Hawks treat the regular season. He’ll look great to the new year, basically pace himself for the next couple months while picking his spots, close well enough. Then you won’t get eye-popping numbers from him in the playoffs (though he does seems to beat up the Wild ok), some national and even local writers writing one or two articles wondering where he is where we have to cite the underlying stats to show he’s been effective, rinse, repeat. Though I wonder if this season there won’t start to be something of an undercurrent that we haven’t seen before. We’ll get to that.

Everything Else

Nachos For Everyone!

By 1838

Isn’t it always odd when a national reporter like Elliote Friedman is breaking stories about the Hawks while the local media watches as the traffic goes by? Anyway, that’s another discussion for another time but according to the Big E Brent Seabrook is about to sign an extension, for eight years at an AAV of $6.85 per. That comes out to $54.8 million total. Good gig if you can get it, but thankfully for Seabrook there are only a few people in the world who can.

So, the first thing that jumps out at you is the length. It doesn’t even kick in until next year, when Seabrook will be 31. Which means this deal will take him through his age 39 season. Yeah… that’s not going to look all that good.

Everything Else

Lose/Lose/Lose

By 2007

This has now become the strangest, most poorly acted episode of SVU anyone has ever seen. And anyone taking to any form of internet commentary to celebrate a still-in-doubt outcome of this sickening display is only fooling themselves.

Everything Else

Something In The Way – C.I.’s ’15-’16 Season Preview: Jonathan Toews

By 1384 0

Let’s move from the new guys, some of whom come with a fair bit of mystery, to the surest bet the Hawks have among the forwards, and maybe the roster, in captain and #1 center Jonathan Toews. It almost seems silly to do a preview of Toews, because we know what we’re getting. He’s going to take on some of the toughest competition, he’s almost always going to outplay it, he’s going to score between 28-32 goals, 66-78 points, be a possession monster, and just when you wonder if he’s having a disappointing playoffs he’ll win a game by himself. And then Ryan Kesler will tell us this is the year he’s got him. At 27, Toews is certainly ensconced in his peak years, and should be for a little while yet.