Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks Thread!!!!!!

[Drew Doughty]

My mind was blown when I realized you could pull the goalie for an extra attacker on a delayed penalty.

 

Yeah, it usually isn't shown on TV.

 

I remember the Wolves lost a playoff game on the delayed penalty back earlier this decade. They were on the good end of delayed penalty and as soon as the extra attacker went on the ice, they lost control of the puck and the puck found the back of their own net in OT.

 

i was just going to ask if anyone can remember this ever happening or if the goal would even be allowed.

 

i saw it in person once at a minor league game.

 

i'm pretty sure ryan o'byrne of the habs intentionally passed it into his own net on a delayed penalty, thinking the goalie was there.

[17 Seconds]

Eulogy: Remembering the 2009-10 Vancouver Canucks

 

wow, that was brutal

[gflore34]

Was watching the highlights (again) from game 6 vs. Vancouver - [expletive] the Hawks are good! This really is an elite team, I mean it really is, such a phenomena does NOT occur frequently amongst Chicago teams. Edited May 14, 2010 by gflore34

[Soul]

Yeah, it's pretty cool to take a step back and look at how far the Hawks have come from just a few years ago, when they weren't even worth watching.

 

Back in those days it would have been a joke to think they could even hang on the same ice as a team like the Sharks. Now they are in a do-or-die series with the Western Conference's best, and with a legitimate shot, too.

 

We've talked about it plenty here, but man -- what a turnaround the Hawks are as an organization. It's pretty unbelievable.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Almost every bad team in all of sports thinks their team has a good plan for the future. It's fun to see it actually pan out for one of our teams. They went from "awful with no clue" to "awful and drafting well" to "promising young team" to back-to-back conference finals (and maybe more).

 

This is like watching an elite Cubs team with a Hill, Patterson, Choi, Kelton top of the lineup and a Wood/Prior/Zambrano/Juan Cruz rotation.

[UMFan83]

Yeah, it's pretty cool to take a step back and look at how far the Hawks have come from just a few years ago, when they weren't even worth watching.

 

Back in those days it would have been a joke to think they could even hang on the same ice as a team like the Sharks. Now they are in a do-or-die series with the Western Conference's best, and with a legitimate shot, too.

 

We've talked about it plenty here, but man -- what a turnaround the Hawks are as an organization. It's pretty unbelievable.

 

I just hope we can sustain it. Our biggest advantage over the Canucks and the Sharks has been our depth. To be honest, the Sedin line and the Thornton Heatley Marleau is every bit as good as our top line, and the Pavelski line is as good as our second line for the most part. The key is when you get past those and you have players like Versteeg, Madden, Ladd, Eager, etc. Madden is a UFA, he's not gonig to be back, both Ladd and Versteeg are possibilities to be moved. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but do we have enough at Rockford to suggest we can survive a big loss of depth this offseason?

[UMFan83]

Almost every bad team in all of sports thinks their team has a good plan for the future. It's fun to see it actually pan out for one of our teams. They went from "awful with no clue" to "awful and drafting well" to "promising young team" to back-to-back conference finals (and maybe more).

 

This is like watching an elite Cubs team with a Hill, Patterson, Choi, Kelton top of the lineup and a Wood/Prior/Zambrano/Juan Cruz rotation.

 

I like to think of it as a Cubs team with Pie, Soto, Castro, Vitters, Lee (Hak-Ju), Jackson and a rotation of Zambrano/Cashner/Jackson/Carpenter rotation :)

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but do we have enough at Rockford to suggest we can survive a big loss of depth this offseason?

 

Yes. And with the Huet buyout and Barker being moved, we only need to move one of Versteeg/Ladd/Sharp/Byfuglien, etc.

 

The farm system lacks a true elite talent after all the elites they've promoted in recent years, but it has a *ton* of depth. Look at how well Bickell has slotted into those back lines when he's had to play, and he was rated our No. 16 prospect by hockey's future.

 

I'm not as versed as some on the farm system, but it seems as if Skille Sweatt, Bickell, and Dowell would be ready to move into third- or fourth-line rolls immediately if need be, and Kyle Beach has first-line potential and can't be that far behind. And they have a couple of defensemen who look ready to step in soon as well.

 

As long as the current front office remains intact and doesn't lose their touch, this team will never run out of NHL-quality farm talent.

[UMFan83]

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but do we have enough at Rockford to suggest we can survive a big loss of depth this offseason?

 

Yes. And with the Huet buyout and Barker being moved, we only need to move one of Versteeg/Ladd/Sharp/Byfuglien, etc.

 

 

Does that include a raise for Niemi this offseason? Because he's an RFA and I'd bet some team with some cap space and a need for goalie, or a need for the Hawks to get more strapped financially would make an offer. Especially if the Hawks won the Cup with him in net.

[UMFan83]

This is really random but I was just thinking about this. This is the first time since 1991-1992 our last Cup appearance that we are still playing and the Red Wings are not. Of those 18 years, 16 of them they played in a later round of the playoffs than us and 2 times we were eliminated in the same round they were (92-93 and 93-94 I think)

[Hairyducked Idiot]

RFAs are hard to move. If it's under $2.6 million, the Blackhawks can probably fit him in, and if the offer is $2.6 million, the RFA compensation is already up to a 1st and a 3rd, which I don't think most teams will be willing to give up.

 

Edit to fix: was using old numbers

[brinoch]

We have to do more than just buyout Huet and move one of Buff/Versteeg/Ladd/Sharp. There are raises coming to Hjalmarsson and Niemi that need to be factored in. Eager, Ladd, Fraser, Hendry and a host of Rockville players are all RFAs. Burish is an UFA. Madden is an UFA and needs to be replaced, which begs the question of centers. Bolland isn't a 2nd line center. He's a great 3rd, though. Sharp, who can be the 2nd line center, is a bargain at his salary, so I think he'll stay, fwiw. Who's the 4th? Bring back Fraser?

 

And I really think they can't afford to lose the $2M cap hit to buy out Huet. They need to move him or bury his salary in Rockford.

[brinoch]

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but do we have enough at Rockford to suggest we can survive a big loss of depth this offseason?

 

Yes. And with the Huet buyout and Barker being moved, we only need to move one of Versteeg/Ladd/Sharp/Byfuglien, etc.

 

 

Does that include a raise for Niemi this offseason? Because he's an RFA and I'd bet some team with some cap space and a need for goalie, or a need for the Hawks to get more strapped financially would make an offer. Especially if the Hawks won the Cup with him in net.

 

There are a lot of UFA goalies available this offseason -- it's one of the main reasons that Huet will be difficult, if not impossible, to move this offseason. I doubt that someone will spend what it will take to get Niemi in money and draft picks.

[Magnetic Curses]

we took jack skille over anze kopitar

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Let's just lay it out. Right now, they are more or less exactly at the cap for next season, presuming it stays the same as expected. It might go down up to $1 million, but I think it's more likely that it goes up by some pocket change.

 

RFAs (their cap hit this season)

Ladd ($1.5 million)

Hjalmarsson ($643,333)

Jordan Hendry ($625,000)

Antti Niemi ($826,875) * - arbitration eligible

 

UFAs (cap hit this season)

Madden ($2.75 million)

Eager ($965,000)

Burish ($712,500)

Colin Fraser ($700,000)

Kim Johnsson ($4,850,000)

 

RFA compensation for 2009-2010 (based on a percentage of the cap, so if the cap is the same these should stay pretty close to the same, and it looks like I was still using old figures earlier):

$994,433 or below - No Compensation

$994,434 - $1,506,717 - 2010 3rd round pick

$1,506,718 - $3,013,433 - 2010 2nd round pick

$3,013,433 - $4,520,150 - 2010 1st round pick, 2010 3rd round pick

$4,520,151 - $6,026,867 - 2010 1st round pick, 2010 2nd round pick, 2010 3rd round pick

$6,026,868 - $7,533,584 - 2010 1st round pick, 2011 1st round pick, 2010 2nd round pick, 2010 3rd round pick

Over $7,533,584 - 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 1st round picks.

 

You can place the players into the following categories.

 

Almost certainly gone:

Johnsson

Madden

 

Would like to have back at the same price, or could be replaced by the farm system at no loss imo:

Hendry

Eager

Fraser

 

Will try to keep and would hurt to lose:

Niemi

Burish

Hjalmarsson

Ladd

 

I think we can safely say that there's absolutely no way anyone offers a second-round pick contract for Burish, or a first and third for Niemi or Hjalmarsson. If they do, that puts you in a bind because they are good players, but that's very good compensation and you laugh all the way to the draft. I'd be surprised but not completely stunned if anyone offers 1st and 3rd money to Ladd, I think you try to match up to about $3.5 million, but let him go after that.

 

So at most, those three we would like to keep (besides Ladd) can make about $7.5 million next season. They made about $2.2 last season, so we'd just need to create $5.3 million in cap space in the worst-case scenario.

 

Sending Huet to Rockford and replacing him with Crawford would save you about $5 million, so that should get you there. But I really don't think they'd do that.

 

Buying out Huet replaces two years of $5.625 cap hit with four years of $1.875, a net savings of $3 million with his replacement at a low salary. That's the more likely scenario, imo.

 

Your other cap-saving moves available to you are:

Dump Sopel in a trade, if possible: Savings of $2.333 million

Buyout Sopel's last year: Savings of about $1 million, presuming a minimum-price farm replacement

Trade Versteeg: Savings of $3.06 million

Trade Byfuglien: Savings of $3.00 million

Trade Sharp: Savings of $3.9 million

 

 

Summing it up:

Definitely losing Madden

 

Will either have Eager back or get a 3rd rounder for him and replace him with someone equally capable from the farm system

 

Should almost certainly be able to keep Niemi, Burish and Hjalmarsson, and if not get a 1st and 3rd back (or a second for Burish)

 

They might be able to keep Ladd in one of the following scenarios:

Trade Sopel

Niemi, Burish and Hjalmarsson come in a little on the cheap side, and you buyout Sopel

Send Huet to Rockford

Trade one of Versteeg or Byfuglien (preferably Byfuglien, who is mostly worthless outside of British Columbia)

 

If not, they get back at least a 2nd rounder, possible a 1st and 3rd.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Hairyducked Idiot

[brinoch]

According to Bettman, the cap is slated to go up a bit, but not all that much. Rumors have it going up by as much as $900,000.

[Soul]

Sunday seems like it is so far away :(

 

You mean I've got to watch the Cubs all this time, waiting for the Hawks?

 

Oh my GOD.

[hawkeyecub]

Puck Prospectus' series preview:

 

http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=564

[kujay]

Almost every bad team in all of sports thinks their team has a good plan for the future. It's fun to see it actually pan out for one of our teams. They went from "awful with no clue" to "awful and drafting well" to "promising young team" to back-to-back conference finals (and maybe more).

 

This is like watching an elite Cubs team with a Hill, Patterson, Choi, Kelton top of the lineup and a Wood/Prior/Zambrano/Juan Cruz rotation.

 

I was thinking about this the other day. Just how many of these guys were brought up from the system, either drafted or signed from overseas. I count (and I could be wrong about a few of these): Niemi, Keith, Hjalmarsson, Seabrook, Hendry, Kane, Toews, Brouwer, Bolland, Byfuglien and Burish. That's over half the active roster on any given night that is truly homegrown.

 

EDIT: And there are still guys like Lalonde and Beach coming up. Obviously the days of getting blue-chip talent via the draft are over (thank god) though.

 

Then you add in the ridiculous trade for Sharp and I think an equally good trade, under the circumstances with Ruutu, for Ladd, and you've got some great moves. I've ripped Tallon for botching the Huet and Campbell deals, but he deserves some credit for all that.

[UMFan83]

I'm just now starting to get into some of these advanced stats like CORSI and fenwick%. Good stuff. According to that article's stat GVT here is how the Hawks and Sharks matchup (taken from the article)

 

Hawks offense: 3rd in NHL

Hawks defense: 1st

Hawks goaltending: 30th

Hawks PK: 2nd

Hawks PP: 12th

 

Sharks offense: 5th in NHL

Sharks defense: 21st

Sharks goaltending: 6th

Sharks PK: 5th

Sharks PP: 7th

 

Now look at them against each other:

 

SJ OFF vs. CHI DEF:

San Jose Sharks Offense: 20.6 GVT (Rank: 5th in NHL)

Chicago Blackhawks Defense: 30.2 GVT (Rank: 1st in NHL)

Chicago Blackhawks Goaltending: -20.7 GVT (Rank: 30th in NHL)

 

Total: San Jose Sharks +11.1 GVT

 

CHI OFF vs. SJ DEF:

Chicago Blackhawks Offense: 29.5 GVT (Rank: 3rd in NHL)

San Jose Sharks Defense: -7.1 GVT (Rank: 21st in NHL)

San Jose Sharks Goaltending: 13.9 GVT (Rank: 6th in NHL)

 

Total: Chicago Blackhawks +22.7 GVT

 

SJ PP vs. CHI PK:

San Jose Sharks Power Play: 6.2 GVT (Rank: 7th in NHL)

Chicago Blackhawks Penalty Kill: 16.7 GVT (Rank: 2nd in NHL)

 

Total: Chicago Blackhawks +10.5 GVT

 

CHI PP vs. SJ PK

Chicago Blackhawks Power Play: 0.6 GVT (Rank: 12th in NHL)

San Jose Sharks Penalty Kill: 11.7 GVT (Rank: 5th in NHL)

 

Total: San Jose Sharks +11.1 GVT

 

Based on that it looks like Chicago has the 5v5 edge and SJ has a slight edge on SP, but we're looking at 2 teams that are among the elite in the league at everything except 1 thing, SJ's defense and Chicago's goaltending, though I suspect if we had Niemi playing goal all season long, we'd be marginally better there, maybe 25th instead of 30th.

 

I still say Hawks in 6

[bukie]

Actually, Niemi has been average by GVT, Huet was awful.

 

EDIT: And one of the biggest stat guys in the NHL believes that the Hawks are by far the best team in the league. Via advanced statistics, they've played far worse than they did during the regular season, and still won the first two rounds, and if they ever wake up and play like they did prior to the Olympics, watch out (Note: Game 6 was a taste of that).

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Great site.

 

http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=558

 

That article outlines some of the things I've suspected about goaltending for some time.

[UMFan83]

Actually, Niemi has been average by GVT, Huet was awful.

 

EDIT: And one of the biggest stat guys in the NHL believes that the Hawks are by far the best team in the league. Via advanced statistics, they've played far worse than they did during the regular season, and still won the first two rounds, and if they ever wake up and play like they did prior to the Olympics, watch out (Note: Game 6 was a taste of that).

 

I agree...despite the results, there hvae only been a few times where I felt the Hawks were playing within the realm they were during much of the first half of this season.

 

When they were on top of their game, they would just destroy every opponent they played. Seriously, you couldn't catch this team on an off night. I remember a game against Boston this year where they were stunned by 2 quick goals on the road. Never flinching, the Hawks stepped up and scored 5 unanswered goals to win 5-2. And it looked easy.

 

Its amazing to think the Hawks have a very good shot to win the Stanley Cup while never finding that level of play again this year. What I've read suggests that both Nashville and Vancouver pretty handily controlled the play against us, and yet we've won both series in 6.

 

Is there a link to the stat guy you were talking about saying that about the Hawks?

[bukie]

Is there a link to the stat guy you were talking about saying that about the Hawks?

 

http://www.behindthenethockey.com/

 

As for the exact article where he says this: http://www.behindthenethockey.com/2010/5/10/1465873/chicago-blackhawks-corsi-by-score

[SpongeWorthy]

Those stats tell me that you guys are too hard on Duncan Keith.