Blackhawks '18-'19

#76      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Not sure about next Thursday. I’d say by end of the month for sure. Really need Forsling and Murphy.

Q has repeatedly said October 18th. As of today, Crow is on track for the Coyotes (fingers crossed).
 
#77      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Yesterday's practice: Q sending a not subtle message to Saad - demoted to the 4th line. Fortin elevated to the 2nd line. I like that. Giving him a good chance to see what he can do. Should be an intense game (as all Hawks-Blues games are) tonight.
 
#83      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Looks like Crow's gonna start tomorrow night. Fortin with another 2nd line opportunity.
 
#87      

Illiniaaron

Geneseo, IL
There's just so little speed on this team. Before it's all said and done I think they will be in the bottom three in the Western Conference.
 
#88      

Neale Stoner Fan Club

Tailgreat
Chiraq
Stan Bowman sucks. The Bryan Bickell contract was dumb. Never give a guy a phat contract off a playoff run when he's been mediocre in the regular season. That contract forced them to dump Teernavinen for salary cap reasons. The Seabrook contract is one of the worst in the NHL. Trading away Panarin for the great Brandon Saad? And I hate to give Chicago Cubune turd Steve Rosenbloom credit for anything, but he's right about this: the Blackhawks have so many guys under long-term contracts with no-trade clauses that you can't do a total rebuild. It'll be like watching the White Sox until recently, not rebuilding but trying to get lightning in a bottle and make a run with veterans and a mish mosh of kids.
 
#89      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Crow looked pretty good tonight. Nothing he could do about the 3 goals he let in; just like Ward, he was hung out to dry.

Next two games at Columbus and against Tampa will be tough. Time to find out if this team will do anything this year.

Also, Kunitz has either been completely invisible or played poorly; he basically ended the game with that horrible giveaway in the 3rd.

Raanta stoned them (with an assist from Fortin). Kunitz wasn't great, but he had an excellent tip off a point shot (Raanta with the miracle save). Yes, this weekend will be a good test. And, yes, it's great to have Crow back.
 
#92      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
he contracted MS when he signed the contract in 2013? He had never scored more than 17 goals in the regular season up to that point.

Bickell actually took a small haircut to stay w/the Hawks. Yes, extremely fortuitous timing (for him). He was the only power forward on the team. There is absolutely no telling how he would've fared had he not contracted by MS.

And, oh yeah, quoting Rosenbloom (for anything), hurts one's credibility.
 
#93      
The Bickell contract was stupid, he was never going to perform well enough to make up for his AAV. It was obviously worsened by his MS. It's easy to critize Bowman now, but he was in win now mode for like 6 years (and still is, sadly). We got three championships with him at the helm. You can argue Tallon built the foundation and Bowman was more so re-shingling the house every year, but hindsight helps on a lot of contracts.

Saad's shooting percentage was way higher in columbus and when he was with the hawks previously than last year and this year. Why? Who knows, but it isn't age. Panarin is due for a mega contract, we couldn't afford it. That trade looks bad now because Saad is having a strange regression, at the time it seemed like at least a wash for us, with the hope he would revitalize Toews. Seabrook was a top 20 defensemen when he got a contract, he just regressed faster and sooner than expected. You don't let you're second best defensemen walk if you can help it and they got at least fair market value for him if not less.

His affinity for trading with certain teams (Arizona, Carolina, and Florida) is questionable, I never thought he looked wide enough for a better suitor. He's hamstrung the organization with contracts and loss of young talent for stop gap answers that rarely panned out. But, some did, and some certainly helped us win the latter two championships.

Honestly, I don't think I can ever call Bowman a bad GM. There were 1000 ways to screw up this team enough to not win any of those three cups. You can argue till the cows come home whether if we let Bickell and Seabrook walk the same way we did Niemi if we would be in a better place, or if the Saad trade officially closed the dynasty window, but at the same time theres so many moves he made that would've been just as if not more so detrimental to this team if he hand't done them. If I had to label him, over his tenure, you cannot thoughtfully label him worse than an average GM, and I bet if a poll of the other GM's was taken, he would fallen in the top 5 for that period of time. Way too easy to analyze the errors rather than praise the successes, be happy you experienced three championships in a decade, some teams don't get that in a century.
 
#94      

bdutts

Houston, Texas
Bickell actually took a small haircut to stay w/the Hawks. Yes, extremely fortuitous timing (for him). He was the only power forward on the team. There is absolutely no telling how he would've fared had he not contracted by MS.

And, oh yeah, quoting Rosenbloom (for anything), hurts one's credibility.

And fans would have been screaming if Bowman didn't sign Bickell after his playoff performance. Don't recall what he got, but you're right, there were teams that would have gone 1.5M to 2M per year higher than what Bowman extended him for.
 
#95      

bdutts

Houston, Texas
Stan Bowman sucks. The Bryan Bickell contract was dumb. Never give a guy a phat contract off a playoff run when he's been mediocre in the regular season. That contract forced them to dump Teernavinen for salary cap reasons. The Seabrook contract is one of the worst in the NHL. Trading away Panarin for the great Brandon Saad? And I hate to give Chicago Cubune turd Steve Rosenbloom credit for anything, but he's right about this: the Blackhawks have so many guys under long-term contracts with no-trade clauses that you can't do a total rebuild. It'll be like watching the White Sox until recently, not rebuilding but trying to get lightning in a bottle and make a run with veterans and a mish mosh of kids.

Guys can waive their no trade clauses. Happens every year at the deadline.
 
#96      

KBLEE

Montgomery, IL
ICYMI - Hinostroza (a 6th round draft pick by Bowman) put 2 past Crow last night.
 
#99      

Illiniaaron

Geneseo, IL
Hey, the Hawks already helped to set a record this season. The Lightning had 33 shots on goal in the second period last night which is the most in the post-expansion era in one period. :congrats: