Room to breathe: Comcast Chicago
Chicago needs more rinks: Chicago Tribune
Former Hawks get their rings: Blackhawks. Com
Luck breeds ineptitude: Backhand Shelf
Good for him: TSN
I heard you’re a farmer? NHL.com
Didn’t you hear? Hockeenight
Calm Down: Chicago Tribune
“Brutal Loss”-Q Comcast
You knew this was going to be written: TSN
First of the year: PuckDaddy
Let the games begin: The Globe and Mail
Hitch impressed with Kane: Comcast
Except the WIld have more talent: SunTimes
Now for that Penalty Kill: Comcast
I would assume not, since well you know: Daily Herald
This makes things a bit interesting: ESPN
The definition of the phrase “Fall Guy”Philadelphia Examiner
I was going to post a Central Division roundtable that I’d put together with our blogging friends from around the division. But I’m going to shelve that until tomorrow, even though I’m hesitant to pile even more onto what is admittedly a tired debate about the place of fighting and goons in the game. But it needs to be addressed, I think.
As you know, last night George Parros took a nasty fall and had to be stretchered off. He’ll be ok, as only his Princeton-educated brain was bruised. Or however ok you can be when you have a brain injury (which we really should start calling it, just like “Global Warming” should be “Climate Change.”) His face-plant into the ice didn’t really have much to do with fighting, and could have happened in any portion of the game. I remember Kevin Stevens taking such a fall and having a very nasty injury, and that was just a play around the net.
But of course, it’s going to engender a whole new round of furious discussion. My views are well stated, but just to reiterate: Though I’m not one who calls for the end of fighting, I recognize that there really is no way to keep the fights I can accept (two actual players spontaneously getting angry at each other) while getting rid of those I abhor (the staged ones between two slobs who serve no other purpose, and neither does their fight). So I would have to accept a total ban on fighting, and would be all right with that.
But it doesn’t matter where you stand, because fighting will be phased out. And it will be phased out not only because of player safety, but because of the evolution of the sport.
Continuing our look around the NHL, we continue to our own conference with a look at the Pacific Division. I have to say, I really liked the idea of having no conferences whatsoever and re-seeding for the last four teams, but understand why they scrapped it. When the NHL adds two teams — and you know they will — I hope they go back to it. Anyway, let’s look at all the fodder for the Kings.
We’ve been looking inward for a bit now, and you know what happens when you look inward for too long. You start thinking you have complexes and shortcomings that aren’t there, and deciding this or that is the reason you can’t love or can only get off by being spanked with a cricket bat and then you dump all your money to some therapist before you end up sitting on the floor in your apartment with a bucket of chicken wearing nothing more than your underwear as you smear the grease on your chest and….oh, wait, this was just my Saturday night. Ok then…
But sometimes, it’s best to look at everyone else and point out their faults. Well, maybe not best but it sure is a hell of a lot more fun. And it’s easier to blame others for your problems than yourself (unless you’re Catholic). So let’s start that process today by examining what should be the Adams Division or maybe the Northeast except for that thing where the two Florida teams are involved because Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa fans love to go to Florida in the winter if they don’t live there already. Seriously, have you been to that stretch between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami in January? It’s lousy with French-Canadians. They’re everywhere, interspersed with the old Jewish men who constantly looked bewildered. Probably because they are. Oh, and Scum. Because Detroit is so far Northeast.
We’ve been looking inward for a bit now, and you know what happens when you look inward for too long. You start thinking you have complexes and shortcomings that aren’t there, and deciding this or that is the reason you can’t love or can only get off by being spanked with a cricket bat and then you dump all your money to some therapist before you end up sitting on the floor in your apartment with a bucket of chicken wearing nothing more than your underwear as you smear the grease on your chest and….oh, wait, this was just my Saturday night. Ok then…
But sometimes, it’s best to look at everyone else and point out their faults. Well, maybe not best but it sure is a hell of a lot more fun. And it’s easier to blame others for your problems than yourself (unless you’re Catholic). So let’s start that process today by examining what should be the Adams Division or maybe the Northeast except for that thing where the two Florida teams are involved because Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa fans love to go to Florida in the winter if they don’t live there already. Seriously, have you been to that stretch between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami in January? It’s lousy with French-Canadians. They’re everywhere, interspersed with the old Jewish men who constantly looked bewildered. Probably because they are. Oh, and Scum. Because Detroit is so far Northeast.
Hoping for a healthy happy Hossa Comcast
Bickell too: Chicago Tribune
This is only here because it made me laugh, guess why: Fox
What’s that cliché about athletes after they sign big contracts: CSN
For pro athletes he is kind of right: TSN
This makes no sense: Sunbelt Hockey
Geno is on the right side of history: Pitt Trib
This off season, there have been numerous teams debuting new threads. So far, the Hurricanes, Stars, and Sharks have shown what they’ll be wearing this upcoming season, with the Wild still yet to reveal their new road whites, and the Sabres bringing to the fore a new alternate third jersey. This also doesn’t even take into account the rash of one-time use sweaters that’s bound to happen for all of the outdoor games, some of which we’ve already seen.
There are so many new threads to be seen that even the Worldwide Leader felt it necessary to chime in with their all-important RANKINGS wherein the Hawks are completely erroneously left near the bottom of the top-10. And while it’s just one person’s opinion, to have it outside of the Top 6 (where honestly any of the Original Six could be used interchangably and any such ranking should have two seperate categories, such is the disparity between the flagship franchises and the rest of the league), we here at CI Headquarters have a few handy rules of thumb that work across the board, no matter the team.
Though things around here have been quiet for over a month, with the Hawks retaining their key young restricted free agents in Nick Leddy and Marcus Kruger, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Stan Bowman’s actions in building his team are the exception and not the rule. Bowman got burnt badly in the past when the Niklas Hjalmarsson signed an offer sheet with the Sharks, and if a couple teams around the league aren’t careful, they might find themselves in a similarly compromising position with this year’s diminished cap.
