Everything Else

Cleaning Up After The Furor

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Now that the siege of July 1 is over and the Hawks have picked their lot, we’re left to sit and wait out the rest of the summer as the Hawks bleed out the rest of the moves they’re going to make. So just want to clean up some thoughts as we begin to hit down time.

-The Hawks only made one move, signing Viktor Tikhonov, which is interesting if nothing else. He has first round pedigree, and was somewhat unlucky to be promoted to the NHL too soon and under coach Gretzky, which you’ll remember was not a very pleasant experience for anyone. That clearly stunted his development. I don’t know that his numbers in the K make anyone spit out their drink, and he may just end up Rockford depth. But it’s clear the Hawks are going to give themselves plenty of options on the wings.

The only wings for sure on next year’s roster are whichever of Teuvo or Dano isn’t used as a center, Kane, Hossa, Panarin and Shaw. Any or all of Sharp, Bickell, and Versteeg could be gone. And Danault (also could be a center), McNeill, Morin, Tropp, Tikhonov, Hartman and maybe one or two more are going to scrap for what could be as many as three spots open or as little as one, depending on who’s traded. Someone’s going to earn it, that’s for sure.

Everything Else

The Fallout

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It’s rare that the Hawks do something so large that we need a full day to clear out all the feelings and stories from it. But here we are with Brandon Saad’s trade to Columbus.

A day later, I think it tells us a lot when Stan Bowman comes out and says that they weren’t even close in negotiations. Because look at Bowman’s record on this sort of thing: Kruger (possibly twice), Hjalmarsson, Oduya, and even Sharp and Seabrook for what they are have all signed deals probably below market value to stay in Chicago (you could argue Kane and Toews as well, if you really want). When Stan wants to get this done, if it’s in any way possible it almost always gets done. When he tells you they were miles apart, they were probably miles apart.

Everything Else

So That Happened

By 1975 0

Ok, this won’t be too hard to try and get our arms around, will it?

Let’s all breathe. It’s not too hard to figure out what went down here. We said just a few weeks ago that hometown discounts are generally things agents and unions frown upon. Secondly, this is a weird kind of negotiation, where the Hawks wanted a bridge deal and Saad’s camp wanted long-term big paper. The problem with that is there really isn’t any middle ground. You can’t sign a four-year bridge deal. You don’t get much relief by paying Saad over $5.5 million for two years. It’ s kind of one or the other. The Hawks had an idea of what they wanted to do. It’s obvious Saad’s camp had quite another.

Everything Else

Where The Cup Should Go, Saad, Other Thingies

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A couple randoms while we wait for the draft to begin and the real movement to start.

-On Twitter this week, I’ve seen repeated calls for the Cup to be at Pride Parade again, as it was after the 2010 victory, brought by Brent Sopel and his family. I totally agree with this, of course, it would be a lovely gesture. I’ve also seen people just begging for the Hawks to bring it to any bar south of Roosevelt, and I get that as well. I think there’s a difference between where the players bring it on their nights out and where the organization has like, official visits or whatever. It would be great if the players brought it down to Beverly (I think I can think of one particular family that would be excited by that) or Bridgeport. But when they’re on their nights out and just looking to get drunk and party, it’s up to them what they want to do with it.

But you know what I really would have liked to see in the days after the victory? Rocky and McD bringing the Cup to one of our more blighted neighborhoods, like Englewood or Garfield Park (given its proximity to the UC and all). There’s a few reasons for this.

Everything Else

No Division – Game 5 – Hawks at Lightning Preview, Pregame Thread, Film Festival

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oldschool at 

Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: NBC, CBC, TVA, WGN-AM 720
Ache With Me: Raw Charge

And now the home stretch. With a win on Wednesday night, the Hawks now return to Tampa with the series tied at two games apiece. And in order for them to return back to the west side on Monday with the ultimate goal fully in reach, they will have to do something they have not done yet in this post season, and that’s win Game 5 on the road.

Everything Else

You’re Jammin’ Me: Lightning 1 – Hawks 2 (Series Tied 2-2)

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Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

Natural Stat Trick

That was something of a departure.

We saw last year against the Wild that the Hawks can struggle against a team that changes its style from a previous game (or in Minny’s case, the previous period). The Hawks probably expected the Lightning to once again come out flying as they had basically done in the first three opening frames of this series. Instead, the Bolts in trying to protect their rookie goalie being dropped into a near impossible situation tweaked their system a bit. Instead of those pinches along the wall being meant to keep offensive zone time going and force openings, the Lightning basically used them as time to get their forwards back to clog the neutral zone. If chances came they took them, but they certainly weren’t going to force anything that might leave them exposed at the back. Constantly, whenever the Hawks did actually manage to break cleanly out of their zone ( I think it was twice), they saw three or four Bolts simply lined across the red line.