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

[kujay]

In a perfect world they win it at home on Sunday night..

 

Not just calling you out, but everyone with that line of thinking. I've heard too much of that in the last 24 hours.

 

In a perfect world, the Hawks sweep the Flyers and win it on Friday. We're all Cubs fans here. Do I really need to say anything else?

 

But in a perfect world, losing is not an option. They will win in this perfect world and kujay thinks it would be perfect to win at home. In a perfect world, the Hawks play Game 4 at home.

 

Right. By no means am I rooting for the Hawks to lose one of these games so they can win it at home. That's insane.

 

Been listening to a lot of NHL Home Ice the last few days, the 24/7 hockey talk station on XM. They have been wearing out this whole deal with Pronger grabbing the puck. I hope if we get an EN to seal the win tonight whoever scores it grabs the puck and gives it to Pronger. What a douche.

[jersey cubs fan]

Been listening to a lot of NHL Home Ice the last few days, the 24/7 hockey talk station on XM. They have been wearing out this whole deal with Pronger grabbing the puck. I hope if we get an EN to seal the win tonight whoever scores it grabs the puck and gives it to Pronger. What a douche.

 

I hope nobody bothers with nonsense like that.

[UMFan83]

OK.

 

So the NHL just says "you've been around the longest" and gives him the job? He doesn't seem like a very good ref to me, regardless of his seniority.

 

Yes. It's well-known around the league that he can't skate at all anymore, but he keeps getting high-profile games.

 

on the bright side I am almost positive I read that he's retiring after the playoffs

[Banedon]

Been listening to a lot of NHL Home Ice the last few days, the 24/7 hockey talk station on XM. They have been wearing out this whole deal with Pronger grabbing the puck. I hope if we get an EN to seal the win tonight whoever scores it grabs the puck and gives it to Pronger. What a douche.

 

http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/469006/okz_medium.gif

[kujay]

Been listening to a lot of NHL Home Ice the last few days, the 24/7 hockey talk station on XM. They have been wearing out this whole deal with Pronger grabbing the puck. I hope if we get an EN to seal the win tonight whoever scores it grabs the puck and gives it to Pronger. What a douche.

 

I hope nobody bothers with nonsense like that.

 

Come on, the high road gets boring. :wink:

[Banedon]

Good catch from Pierre Lebrun on ESPN...

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2010/columns/story?columnist=lebrun_pierre&id=5240542

 

"I don't think we're playing bad. I think we outshot them again, outchanced them, but we're just not capitalizing. I think when you get to this point, everyone has a good goaltender. We're just not getting enough of the second chances we should be getting."

 

"I don't think there's any frustration, actually. We would like to be on the other end of this, but we're getting better. We're creating chances. I think it just comes down to bearing down in front of them and in front of the net. There's a lot of pucks that are kind of laying in the crease and laying around in feet, that if we start bearing down we're going to be on the other end of those games."

 

"I'm not sure we should be frustrated. I don't think we got outplayed. I think when you're at the end of the night, you're going to look at it again, probably outshot them, outchanced them a little bit and didn't get the results we were looking for. I thought their goaltender played extremely well in the third period. We had more than enough looks to tie up that game and opportunities to get out of it. It didn't happen. We have to go home and take a look at some things and come back. We have to win our home game."

 

Not that any of them are wrong...just funny how similar the assessments are.

[Banedon]

"We've got to put more pressure on their goaltender. He's a rookie goaltender playing in the Stanley Cup finals," Laviolette said Tuesday. "We have to get on the board here tomorrow night and put a little bit of doubt there.

 

"Our team is capable of scoring a lot of goals, putting a lot of pressure on him. It's a tough position, goaltending. He's representing a city that hasn't won a Cup in 50 years. We have to give him a crack of doubt. We can do that tomorrow night."

 

Hmmm...they gonna start trying to run the goalie?

[kujay]

"We've got to put more pressure on their goaltender. He's a rookie goaltender playing in the Stanley Cup finals," Laviolette said Tuesday. "We have to get on the board here tomorrow night and put a little bit of doubt there.

 

"Our team is capable of scoring a lot of goals, putting a lot of pressure on him. It's a tough position, goaltending. He's representing a city that hasn't won a Cup in 50 years. We have to give him a crack of doubt. We can do that tomorrow night."

 

Hmmm...they gonna start trying to run the goalie?

 

I get the strategy. Bumrush the goalie, get some retaliation penalties on the Hawks, etc. But that whole "50 years" business is nonsense. Like that adds any extra pressure to a 26-year old kid from Finland who had probably never even been to Chicago until about a year ago. I think they gave him a crack of doubt on Saturday night when the dinged him for five goals. And it did them no good.

 

I know it's all talk and a product of constant news conferences, it just gets tiring.

[jersey cubs fan]

"We've got to put more pressure on their goaltender. He's a rookie goaltender playing in the Stanley Cup finals," Laviolette said Tuesday. "We have to get on the board here tomorrow night and put a little bit of doubt there.

 

"Our team is capable of scoring a lot of goals, putting a lot of pressure on him. It's a tough position, goaltending. He's representing a city that hasn't won a Cup in 50 years. We have to give him a crack of doubt. We can do that tomorrow night."

 

Hmmm...they gonna start trying to run the goalie?

 

I get the strategy. Bumrush the goalie, get some retaliation penalties on the Hawks, etc. But that whole "50 years" business is nonsense. Like that adds any extra pressure to a 26-year old kid from Finland who had probably never even been to Chicago until about a year ago. I think they gave him a crack of doubt on Saturday night when the dinged him for five goals. And it did them no good.

 

I know it's all talk and a product of constant news conferences, it just gets tiring.

 

I don't think it's nonsense. I think it's a desperate strategy from a coach who wants the media to help him win. He's telling them to start asking Niemi about the pressure of history.

[UMFan83]

It's funny how many times we've been on the winning side of close games lately. Like we've won 7 in a row, but only 2 of those really were somewhat comfortable wins (Game 6 vs. Vancouver, Game 2 vs. San Jose). The other 5 games included 4 one goal wins, and the other one was a two goal win only because of a final minute empty net goal.)

 

We've won 7 in a row, but our goal differential is only +12. I think part of that might be a little luck on our side because you need a little luck when you are constantly playing tight games and coming out on top every time, but a lot of that is just because a team that does a lot of little things slightly better than the opponents. The Hawks ability to clamp down on a small lead in the 3rd period is really amazing. They didn't look great yesterday, but some of the other 3rd periods we just completely took a lot of the drama out of the game. The Hawks are a team that has the ability to turn a 3 period game into essentially a 2 period game.

[kujay]

"We've got to put more pressure on their goaltender. He's a rookie goaltender playing in the Stanley Cup finals," Laviolette said Tuesday. "We have to get on the board here tomorrow night and put a little bit of doubt there.

 

"Our team is capable of scoring a lot of goals, putting a lot of pressure on him. It's a tough position, goaltending. He's representing a city that hasn't won a Cup in 50 years. We have to give him a crack of doubt. We can do that tomorrow night."

 

Hmmm...they gonna start trying to run the goalie?

 

I get the strategy. Bumrush the goalie, get some retaliation penalties on the Hawks, etc. But that whole "50 years" business is nonsense. Like that adds any extra pressure to a 26-year old kid from Finland who had probably never even been to Chicago until about a year ago. I think they gave him a crack of doubt on Saturday night when the dinged him for five goals. And it did them no good.

 

I know it's all talk and a product of constant news conferences, it just gets tiring.

 

I don't think it's nonsense. I think it's a desperate strategy from a coach who wants the media to help him win. He's telling them to start asking Niemi about the pressure of history.

 

In response to which he will mumble some answer in broken English about "staying focused" and "playing hard" like he always does. I love the guy, but it doesn't seem like he listens to or understands any of the questions anyway.

[kujay]

It's funny how many times we've been on the winning side of close games lately. Like we've won 7 in a row, but only 2 of those really were somewhat comfortable wins (Game 6 vs. Vancouver, Game 2 vs. San Jose). The other 5 games included 4 one goal wins, and the other one was a two goal win only because of a final minute empty net goal.)

 

We've won 7 in a row, but our goal differential is only +12. I think part of that might be a little luck on our side because you need a little luck when you are constantly playing tight games and coming out on top every time, but a lot of that is just because a team that does a lot of little things slightly better than the opponents. The Hawks ability to clamp down on a small lead in the 3rd period is really amazing. They didn't look great yesterday, but some of the other 3rd periods we just completely took a lot of the drama out of the game. The Hawks are a team that has the ability to turn a 3 period game into essentially a 2 period game.

 

That was the biggest surprise to me about the game the other night. I expected a boring but beautiful (for us), methodical third period to bolt down a 2-0 win. Philly's constant pressure was just too much though and the Hawks couldn't dial it back up.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

You don't win seven playoff games in a row without being simultaneously lucky and good.

 

But I do think goal differential is a little suspect as a metric because, outside of Game 1 of the SCF, the Blackhawks' defense and goaltending has been outstanding. Small differences are magnified in a low-scoring environment.

[kujay]

You don't win seven playoff games in a row without being simultaneously lucky and good.

 

But I do think goal differential is a little suspect as a metric because, outside of Game 1 of the SCF, the Blackhawks' defense and goaltending has been outstanding. Small differences are magnified in a low-scoring environment.

 

Exactly. The Hawks have been extremely fortunate during this winning streak. But look also at the breaks the opponents have gotten. The giant disparity in penalty calls. The goal off Hammer's head on Saturday. The fluky bouncing puck goal Philly got on Monday night. So it's not a total "horseshoe up the ass" thing where every single break and bounce is going the Hawks' way.

[Banedon]

JVR and Parent out again tonight for the Flyers. Which means Carcillo will still be around.

[kujay]

JVR and Parent out again tonight for the Flyers. Which means Carcillo will still be around.

 

That makes sense. I actually thought Bartulis was pretty solid the other night, though I guess he was on the ice for Hossa's goal. I was sort of comparing him to Hendry, as both are #6 defensemen. He was clearly better, even though Hendry played a lot better in Game 2 than he has in the last several games.

[Banedon]

Ladd is on the ice for morning skate. But he skated in a line with Colin Fraser and Bryan Bickell...so I'm gonna go ahead and say he's unlikely to play.

[jersey cubs fan]

 

Quenneville just said Ladd not playing tonight. Still day to day

[Hairyducked Idiot]

 

Quenneville just said Ladd not playing tonight. Still day to day

 

Meh. We won't bench Burish for some reason and Kopecky has been great in the playoffs. No loss.

[Soul]

So close. So friggin' close....

[UMFan83]

 

Quenneville just said Ladd not playing tonight. Still day to day

 

Blah. We've been fine without him, but I would have liked to see him out there for his physical presence. I was going to say I would like to see him play some time in the series so he can get some SCF ice time too, but I forgot he has played in a SCF before, so while it's definitely a big deal for him to play, its not like he's missing a once in a lifetime opportunity.

[kujay]

Saw this on a (of course) Blues message board though it's a Chicago website:

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/and-then-what/2010/05/the-5-people-you-meet-on-the-blackhawks-bandwagon.html

 

Lots of #5s here, I reckon.

[Banedon]

Saw this on a (of course) Blues message board though it's a Chicago website:

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/and-then-what/2010/05/the-5-people-you-meet-on-the-blackhawks-bandwagon.html

 

Lots of #5s here, I reckon.

 

I'm a #1. I knew how the Hawks were generally doing, and had caught a couple games during the year, but it wasn't until about game 3 of the Preds series that I really started watching with any dedication. Wishing I'd been more of a fan all year now.

[Soul]

OK folks, Hawks will definitely lose tonight.

[UMFan83]

HAVE YOU SEEN THE FUTURE!?!

 

Did a cat leave tomorrow's newspaper at your doorstep this morning? (Early Edition reference)