Chicago Blackhawks 2013 Season

[UMFan83]

I suppose we might as well try to convert him to a Hawks fan.

 

Benefits of choosing the Chicago Blackhawks:

-Talented team with a good amount of young superstar players (Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith)

-Recent championship team (you don't have to take too much crap about futility....don't get me wrong the Hawks are the losingest team of the O6 and spent 20 years as a farm team to our archrivals, but having a recent cup in hand squashes a lot of that trashtalk)

-Original 6 team...tradition, rabid core of fans, respect amongst hockey fans

-Coach has a moustache

-Largest arena in the NHL, packed every night, electric atmosphere

-Will be on TV lots over the coming years

-Great if your a fan of ex-Scottish indie rock bands (the Fratellis' Chelsea Dagger is played after every goal, and while every team has a post-goal song and some even use Chelsea Dagger, its taken on a life of its own in Chicago, ask the Canucks)

-Team has a lot of personality overall whether you like drunken fratboys (Kaner), clean shaven super-captains (Toews), russian offensive skill players (Hossa), goons (Carcillo and Mayers), or toothless defensive players (Keith)

-Plays a fairly offensive friendly style a majority of the time. Can score goals with the best of them, especially on the first 2 lines

-Part of one of the best rivalries in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings. Also have a decent rivalry with the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks, although the Canucks rivalry is not a traditional rivalry and is based on playing in the playoffs 3 times in the last 4 years, and Roberto Luongo being a sissy boy who collapses in big games and is forever haunted by Chelsea Dagger

 

Cons:

-As mentioned above, the team has gone through quite a bit of futility in its past. Had a terrible ownership situation that led to their best longtime players getting dealt and/or alienated, no home games on TV regardless of whether the arena was packed or empty until 2008, recently had the longest cup drought in NHL history (broken in 2010). It hasn't all been bad (team holds (held?) record for most consecutive playoff appearances between the early 80s and late 90s and had some good runs including a SCF appearance in 1992, which although they were swept was a very close series

-The bandwagon is still packed with post 2010 title fans (see video for example:

)

-The horrible owner that had the Hawks stone age died in 2008, but his son Rocky is the current owner. Nothing wrong with Rocky and he has reversed a lot of the damage his father did in the later years, but he's still a Wirtz so you have to be slightly wary.

-Team still recovering from their post-Stanley Cup talent purge due to the salary cap/Dale Tallon. Issues with depth, although they have a promising group of prospects that are in various stages of development

-The jury is definitely still out on Stan Bowman, the team's GM and many are not exactly in love with him and his post Cup moves

 

 

I dunno thats all i feel like contributing. Go Hawks!

You forgot Jim Cornelison's National Anthem in your pros list.

Great jerseys

 

True...just the tradition of cheering throughout the National Anthem is awesome. Just watch this video if you want to be a Hawks fan:

Even though I think that's Mesmer pre-throat shooting and not Cornelison who wasn't a regular until much later.

[kujay]

They do in Detroit and St. Louis. Sellouts aren't guarantees in either city.

 

Red Wings sold 100.7% of their seats last year, 98.1% the year before and 97.4% the year before that.

Blues were at 98.2% last year, 100.0% the year before and 98.6% the year before that.

 

The Blues massage their numbers quite a bit. Weekend games are packed almost regardless of opponent. Weekdays, not so much.

 

Anyway, I don't really care except I'd like the Hawks in St. Louis three times.

[Old Style]

Great jerseys

Best logo in any sport.

[UMFan83]

So its looking like Hawks @ Kings next Saturday..

 

It's looking like they are trying to put together marquee matchups for most of the league...

 

Pens/Flyers

Leafs/Habs

Wings/Blues

Rangers/Bruins

Devils/Islanders (ok but 2 NY area teams)

Ducks/Canucks

Avs/Wild

[kujay]

Lots of road games early on the UC's calendar in February is packed.

[Guest]

I am completely open minded about this. Just thought it might be better to pick a team I could actually watch regularly.

 

Not sure if you ever get the baseball package through your cable provider, and not sure if it works the same everywhere, but when I purchase the baseball package, I also receive the hockey package because they sort of share the same handful of channels during the crossover from the end of hockey season to the first part of baseball season, which includes some playoff games.

[jersey cubs fan]

@ChrisKuc: UNOFFICIAL schedule making its way around Internet has #Blackhawks' home opener Jan. 22 vs. Blues. Again, unofficial. Once more: Unofficial.

[UMFan83]

@ChrisKuc: UNOFFICIAL schedule making its way around Internet has #Blackhawks' home opener Jan. 22 vs. Blues. Again, unofficial. Once more: Unofficial.

 

More...as expected:

 

@ChrisKuc: Same UNOFFICIAL schedule has #Blackhawks on road 10 of first 12 games while Disney on Ice and Lady Gaga occupy United Center. Unofficial.

 

Of course this means that 22 of the last 34 games will be at home.

[UMFan83]

And supposedly this is the schedule:

 

http://25.media.tumblr.com/dcedb1087cb9e9993c1fe13f538b7547/tumblr_mghzumKoxJ1r8ysyro1_500.jpg

[UMFan83]

7 straight home games after that 10 in 12 road start.

[UMFan83]

Divisional opponent count:

 

Detroit 4 (2/2)

Columbus 4 (2/2)

St. Louis 5 (2 home/3 road)

Nashville 5 (3 home/2 road)

 

Knew we couldn't get Columbus as a 5 gamer. Not looking forward to 3 trips to St. Louis.

 

Looks like we will be seeing the following NBC games based on the weekend afternoon starts:

 

1/19 @ LA

2/17 vs LA

3/3 @ DET

3/31 @ DET

4/14 @ STL

 

4 road games and 1 home game geez

[Guest]

11:30PM start in STL?

[Guest]

What, people in Hawaii can't have a prime time game once in awhile?

[Garwilly]

11:30PM start in STL?

 

typo. 12:30pm. Look at the other Sunday games.

[NewUserName]

So, I have spent some time looking at rosters. Not sure how the schedule is going to play out yet but decided I am going to make my central division picks. I am not going to give point totals or anything, since I do not want to do the work it would take to figure it out in a shortened season...yes I am that lazy. So here goes

 

Hawks

Blues

Wings

Preds

BJs

 

I think the Hawks are the safest pick. I think we pretty much know what they are, great core with potential to be an elite team. One of the main reasons for the Blues success last season was that they played every game like it was game 7 of the playoffs. I feel the shortened season will make most teams play with that level of intensity most nights. That being said the Blues still have less questions than Detroit and Nashville. Nashville's style with the talent they have will make them a solid but not spectacular team(yawn) again. Detroit will probably struggle getting the puck out of their zone. Howard is a good goalie, but will have to play on his head to make the Wings an elite team. Detroit may actually be better offensively this year, a couple of interesting young forwards coming in. Blue Jackets may set a record for least amount of points in a season. Hawks and Blues make playoffs easily. Wings and Preds battle to get in.

[kujay]

Schedule is official and tickets go on sale in about 15 minutes. Game on!

[bcl412]

The short schedule will add a level of excitement to the regular season that generally isn't there I would think. The NHL is a league where any seed can win the cup so every regular season game will really matter. Hope the Hawks can get out the gate fast.

[biittner77]

Looking at the schedule, the Hawks play on back to back nights 10 times. Assuming that most teams have similar schedules, it seems like that would benefit a team like the Hawks who have a young but experienced core. However, there are some important issues that need to be addressed that will determine how far the Hawks go:

 

1 The clown shoes power play will have to get better. The talent is there, hopefully the coaching change helps

2 How will they fill out the top 6? With Q preferring Sharp on the wing and the Kane to C experiment seemingly abandoned, who's centering Hossa and I guess Stalberg( if in fact he's not on the 3rd line instead?

3 How much will the Q random line generator hurt chemistry over a short season?

[UMFan83]

Further schedule analysis....here is the quantity of home and road games against the 10 non divisional opponents.

 

2 home, 1 road:

Kings

Flames

Sharks

Ducks

Oilers

 

1 home, 2 road:

Canucks

Coyotes

Stars

Wild

Avalanche

[kujay]

NHL Network has completely [expletive] the bed during the lockout and continues to suck. Nothing live at all. I heard somewhere that they couldn't run anything live until the CBA was finalized, but that doesn't make sense.

 

NHL Radio on Sirius is running circles around them.

[kujay]

I don't know if I believe this, though photos on Twitter are showing a mostly full lower bowl. Blues are saying 5,500 showed up for practice today at Scottrade.

[kujay]

Montador didn't pass his physical due to the concussion he suffered last year. This is really important because I think it's holding up a trade of Hammer or Leddy. Without Montador, they still have Keith, Seabrook, Leddy, Hammer, Olsen, Roszival and Brookbank. Trading one of those guys would leave them pretty thin. And I have to think if Montador isn't back by now, it won't be this season.

 

If they do decide to move a defenseman, they should look at Ottawa. They could use a 4-5-6 type defenseman and have three goalies. Robin Lehner has to be available, I'd think. Anderson is the starter and Ben Bishop is a more-than-capable backup.

[brinoch]

According to Cap Geek, the Hawks have $3.5M in cap space (whatever that pro-rates to over 48 games). With Montador apparently out and headed to LTIR, the Hawks can go over the cap by his $2.75M if they need to replace him.

[kujay]

Haha I subliminally forgot Oduya in my review of the defense. Even then I don't think the Hawks want to have to rely on Roszival and Brookbank with no room for injuries, especially in the short season.

 

And actually Olsen isn't in camp. Stanton is though.

[biittner77]

This is how they lined up today according to the Trib.

 

Toews with Hossa and Carcillo

Bolland with Sharp and Kane

 

I wonder if they go with Kruger with Bickell and Stalberg and Mayers with Frolik and Shaw. I'd much rather switch Stalberg and Carcillo. Or maybe put Frolik on the checking line and have the 4th be a real energy/ instigator line with Carcillo and Shaw with a little bit of Bollig mixed in.