Interesting how Paulsson gets 2 mins for roughing on a direct head shot to Filpulla there. Hilarious how Campbell calls Kronwall's hits gutless and dirty and they pull up clips of him doing the exact same thing. ****ing chump. Go Wings!

Kronwall is not dirty, that hit was clean.

I really thought this was the hawks game. They have momentum with the OT win and us not having arguably our 2 best players, Pavs and Nick. All it took was that 4th goal for this team to implode and lose all composure and maturity. good luck in game 5.

I agree. But Campbell is calling him gutless, cheap, etc. All this while Hawks parade into the box and dressing room. At least 3 misconducts I think so far. Separating the boys from the men today.

Probably a better question coming from someone else but I am curious what others think.

If the Wings win this series, does Joe come back next year? Do you want Joe to come back next year regardless of what happens. This team is young but needs leadership and yes i know Toews is the shit but he doesn't look to be the "captain" just yet but where is the leadership coming from Joe? He needed to reign these kids in and get them focused on what getting back in the game. I watched a lot of Hawks games this playoffs and they have come back from 3+ goals more than once so they should have the confidence to push hard and try it again. Plus they watched the Wings come back from a 3-0 deficit 2 days ago. I know that they didn't like the call at the end of the 1st but that is not a good reason at all to pack it in. Then you got Versteeg taking cheap shots to put you down 2 and then gets out of the box and goes and pulls another cheap shot for a penalty. Then gets kicked out later in the 3rd. Where is Joe, where is Toews? I have been doing a little research and it looks to me that Joe has never ousted the Wings in a playoff series and this is the 6th meeting I think...and he has lost his job after the Wings oust him most of those seasons. I think Joe needs to go to help this team continue to get better.

Oh and Campbell owes you some money.

Joe? Joel... Quenneville?

I'm lost too...

Sorry, Joel. I was a little drunk.

Q getting shitcanned in StL had precisely nothing to do with the wings. it was a last ditch effort by the owner to make sure the team made the playoffs before he dismantled the payroll entirely.

I was pretty unhappy with it at the time. Mike Kitchen turned out okay considering what he had to work with, but obviously andy is just a baller.

I was pretty sure that no coach has ever been fired for losing specifically to the Red Wings. I was drunk for sure but I didn't mean it like that. Just interesting info.

I want Game 5 tonight, I can't watch it tomorrow.

good season overall. I'm real pleased with bolland's 4-8-12 in 17 games.

Great season Hawks!

Overall, I would say this season was a huge success. They did much better than I thought they would, and given the fact that they are the youngest team and still made it to the conference finals, next season will be just as exciting. It is true, you have to lose before you can win. Now they get to understand the feeling of disappointment.

The off-season will be interesting. Will they re-sign Havlat or Khabibulin or both? Can they Versteeg under contract before the becomes a RFA. Will Beach and Aliu make the team next year? Imagine the possibility of Buff on a line with Aliu, and Beach on a line with Burrish and Eager.

Thought I would continue the discussion of the Hawks signing of Hossa here, easier to follow that way. I've been trying to access the nhlnumbers site all day, but I don't think it was ready for the FA signing day. I was able to finally get access and I think Zach is right, they aren't as bad as some people think. The contracts of Huet and Campbell weren't that bad last year when most people thought that was all they were going to do until they had to resign Kane, Toews etc. Now all of a sudden the Hawks can draw big name FAs. I like the signing of Hossa, and even though everyone bashes these FA day signings, you have to spend money to get what you want. Hossa should be the sniper that they lacked last year and hopefully take some of the heat off guys like Sharp, and Byfuglien.

It would be nice if they can move Sopel, but then they need to re-sign ( in order ) Barker, Versteeg, Brouwer, Crawford and maybe Johnson. Crawford is a question mark, and they might let him go if they think Niemi is the future. If they weren't so obviously committed to winning now then they could trade Huet and let the youngins battle it out.

Going forward, they currently have about 35 mil locked up for next season and they with Toews, Kane and Keith the big 3 RFA to sign after next season. So it really isn't that bad IMO.

The Hawks already signed Niemi, does that mean they ditch Crawford?

Probably depends on how much they can sign Crawford for, and how good he thinks he is. If he doesn't mind spending some more time in Rockford (AHL), then sure keep him.

I would much rather have Hossa at 5.230 per year than Havlat at 5 mil a year. Don't get me wrong, I liked Havlat, but even if he would have re-signed with Chicago for 4 mil I'd rather have Hossa. Thanks for 1 good year Havy, good luck in Minny.

I'd like to hear the real story. I kinda wonder if Havlat was offering a discount to Chicago.

yes, yes, yes.

I realize Havlat is a top talent, but I cant believe he is being talked about in the same breath as Hossa.

Kinda repeating myself over and over again, but this is a great move for Chicago. Im laughing everytime I hear that the best signing of the day was Gaborik.....its like no one ever remembers the injuries in July.

Im curious if there is anything to this talk of the other players being upset Havlat is not coming back.

I'm very interested to hear what russo says in a few weeks/months about it once he pries it from Havlat. you're right though, the Hossa signing was totally legit.

They only wanted to give Havlat one year. I assume because he's so often hurt. He had a solid year this year, but apparently Hossa is way way more durable, and they didn't want to gamble on Havlat for too long.

Who knows what Havlat is upset about. The Hawks gave him a gift when they overpaid for him, and didn't a good return. My guess is that the Hawks told him they would like to resign him, but a lot can change in the days/hours before July 1. Tallon might have thought they had no shot at Hossa a week ago because his initial asking price was too high. Since Hossa has shown that he would rather play for certain teams that go with the highest bidder, maybe he dropped his price to play in Chicago. At that point, if you were Tallon, would you say "Sorry, we promised Havy that we would go with him." Havy might of thought he was part of the revitalization in Chicago, but he was pretty far down a list of players that the Hawks would want to keep as their "core."

The only downside is that the Hawks were too good last year to trade Habby and Havy at the deadline. Who knows what they could have gotten. Hindsight I guess.

Oh yeah, the signing of Madden for 1 year at 2.75 makes me happy. I've liked him for a long time, feel like he's a bit underrated. He obviously feels like the Hawks have a real good shot this year.

I'm already going over potential lines in my head (how the hell am I going to sleep tonight?

Kane-Toews-Hossa
Sharp-Bolland-Byfuglien
Ladd-Madden-Versteeg
Kopecky-Burish-Brouwer

I guess Skille will have to wait another year, unless you trade Ladd or not re-sign Brouwer.

fu.

Ladd needs to be in the top 6 or fml.

The more interesting question is gonna be power play units. It's scary, you are lucky to kill of a minute against Toews-Kane-Hossa-Barker-Campbell, then you gotta kill of another minute against Sharp-Byfuglien-Versteeg-Seabrook-Keith.

The FCHL2 owner in me agrees.

Be ready to get someone up to replace Kopecky when he injures himself or you realize he just isn't that good.


Oh and just so everyone in Chicago will be ahead of the game when he comes to town, it's pronounced Kopetsky. There was a an uproar against FSN Detroit over them not pronouncing his name Kopecky and they had to do a piece asking him to pronounce his name and then ask people to stop calling and emailing complaints about it.

Depending on who we sign, it shouldn't be a problem. We still have Skille, and other guys who could fill in. Plus, we might re-sign Eager, Brouwer or Fraser.

We went through the whole mispronouncing name thing with Toews here, so I think we learned our lesson. Plus, we have Pat Foley, who is usually pretty good about that sort of thing.

sooo does Chicago have a bunch of unexpected UFAs to deal with or not?

tsn to see WTF I am talking about

They said it got handled. Paperwork got there in time.

I don't know a ton about it, but that's the last thing I heard.

As I write this, I have been unable to reach anyone within the Blackhawks' front office for comment, but I spoke with more than one affected player (or their representative). They had not personally seen the qualifying offers, but they had been informed that the league and the Players' Association had received all the qualifying offers in proper fashion, and that they expected to remain Blackhawks' property. One player even informed me that all the guys had talked about the situation, and that they all said they would re-sign with the Hawks anyway because they are so excited about what the team has done so far in free agency.

http://csnchicago.com/pages/hawktalk

trouble?

TSN: NHLPA files grievance, players should be UFA's

I had expected the PA to do this, bottom line is they want players to be paid as much as they can. It boggles the mind that a professional sports team could screw something like this up in the first place.

Except with the salary cap if one player gets paid more... then someone else is getting hosed.

seems to me that a player would just go elsewhere and soak up someone else's cap. they have a gentleman's agreement not to do that in this case, though...

Well, everyone except for Versteeg has signed a deal, so I guess this is a non-issue at this point.

Cam Barker - 3 years, $9.25 million

Terms for Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Corey Crawford, Aaron Johnson and Troy Brouwer haven't been released yet, but they've all signed.

Versteeg just signed a 3 year, $9.25 million deal, same as Barker got.

I wouldn't be surprised to see either him or Patrick Sharp traded in the next month.

cant believe Tallon got fired over the RFA thing... bit harsh.

I think the management in the organisation wanted to bring their own people and this was a convenient excuse.

I agree, especially since it's Scotty Bowman's kid taking over.

Still a pretty shitty thing to do to the architect that brought your team back from extinction.

Probably not over JUST the RFA thing, but there is a job opening in Florida heh.

i dont get it..Why do you fire your GM AFTER the biggest part of your season? The draft and free agency shapes your future for years to come...The Hossa signing can affect your team for many many years..

Its very bush league IMO ...

I think the word around the hockey world is that this was an undeserved and badly timed move.

Speculation is that getting Hossa was a Bowman move, not Tallon. Tallon wanted to keep Havlat.

I've heard this has been coming for a while now.

Looks like all they really did was switch titles though, to be honest.

Unless I'm mistaken, they gave Tallon the job that Bowman was holding before his promotion to GM. I'm guessing they continue to work as a team, but now Bowman has a bit more authority.

Well, if it is a 'bringing in their own guy' situation, it seems like the timing is really bad. Why not do it after the season ends, instead of after the draft, FA, etc... and then after the old GM makes a pretty embarassing mistake. I'm sure it won't matter much in the greater scheme of things for the Blackhawks.

I don't have the time to write out a big post, but I will try to later....

Also, was this a firing or a neutering? What i heard then read last night at like midnight was Tallon was fired, now I'm reading that he's just be kind of stripped of all of his power, but will still get a pay check. I'm not saying that its that much better, its still weird timing and rather unceremonious (and the Blackhawks are saying that the RFA thingy was a major contributing factor in his firing/reassignment), but atleast he'll still be gettin paid!

The official release has him being reassigned to Senior Advisor of Hockey Operations, which I'm pretty sure was Bowman's old job.

So I predict that after the next season Scotty will be coach. Not that that is a bad thing.

I would be in support of this plan, although I really don't think it will happen.

yeah, I kept hearing this was coming too. Just a guess from an outsider, I really dont think the RFA thing was the reason, I think Tallon would have had to have performed miracles the last few months to keep the job post playoffs.

Timing is odd though.

Firing a coach a few games into a year, then firing a GM right after draft+UFA signings. sounds like both were moves decided long before the trigger was pulled to me.