Everything Else

If You Smell What The Hawks Are Cooking…

By 1272

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.

Everything Else

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

By 1167

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.

Everything Else

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

By 1259

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.

Everything Else

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

By 1632

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 1847

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

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

By 1393 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.

Everything Else

Let’s All Take A Breath… Including Me

By 1396 0

I absolutely promise we’ll get back to player previews later this afternoon. Right after I try out the demo of PES ’16. But this feels like a good time to try and maybe attempt to take some of the heat out of all this that’s been building. And some of it is certainly my fault and unnecessary. This is always going to be a passionate subject. There are a lot of raw nerves exposed for a lot of people on this. We can’t remove all of the emotion, nor should we. But as someone who likes to think of himself as somewhat reasonable, I really shouldn’t let trolls bait me into a pure rage or tweet or write things without trying to carefully parse out what it is I really want to say (so no more tweeting and drinking for ol’ Shmuel, at least not about this. Which basically means no tweeting). That doesn’t mean there aren’t times when anger and rage are called for, because there are. I can just pick my spots a little better.

I understand that basically at the moment, there are two warring camps. And on something like this, it’s damn near impossible to find middle ground (and probably not at all). What comes next isn’t addressed to the over-creatined, fanboy, fratboy jerkoffs with their backwards white hats spewing filth from just about every pore. I don’t care what they think and never will, and nor should anyone else. But there is a strong group not near the fringes but near the middle that I and we have sometimes lumped in with that lunatic fringe (no, not Dean Ambrose). Perhaps that’s not totally fair. While I’m not here to “convert” anyone, I think it’s possible to build more understanding between us. Because believe it or not, on some level I do understand where you’re coming from. Keep reading, I’ll explain.

Everything Else

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

By 1315

The Hawks have a couple gluts on among their forwards. And let me first say I didn’t know you could pluralize “glut,” so I’ve learned something today. They are no rife with smallish, shifty, playmaking wingers in Panarin, Teuvo, to a lesser extent Tikhonov, and others. They also are kind of bubbling over with fourth line grunts, with Ryan Garbutt joining Andrew Shaw (despite what the Hawks tell you, that’s what he is), Andrew Desjardins, Ryan Hartman (who will get a look at some point), Marcus Kruger (he’s more than that but that’s how he’s used), if he ever gets healthy Phillp Danault might sneak a look, and if the Hawks feel like being dumb they might try and sneak a jobber onto the ice in Mashinter or Tropp or some other dude who gets easily distracted by shiny things.

We’ll start with CatButt today (yes, that’s what I’m calling him all year. Just deal with it). Needless to say, a lot of Hawks fans weren’t exactly thrilled with his acquisition, as he’s spent the past two or three years annoying the piss out of everyone in combination with Antoine Roussel and The Ginger Ninja Cody Eakin. He’s probably not going to get less annoying here, but at least it will be for the right cause?

Everything Else

Beyond Belief

By 1363 0

I feel like I need to state at the top that I am hardly an expert. Not even close. What will follow, and really what will follow and pretty much has been going on here (despite whatever has been thrown at us) are simply fans like you trying to find anyway to get their arms around all this and comprehend what is going on. Today, that feels like a Herculean task at the very best.

By now you probably know the news, but a quick recap of the facts that we know. The lawyer for the accuser had a press conference, where he revealed that the rape kit, which is supposed to be sealed and inaccessible, was left at the accuser’s mother’s doorstep. The bag it was sealed in had been ripped open, which makes it clear (or very close to it) that it had been tampered with.

What all that means beyond… I and many others are having a hard time figuring out where the first step is.