2013-14 Defending Champion Blackhawks Regular Season Thread

[apete6]

khabibulin literally cost the blackhawks this game all on his own

 

He's terrible. Doesn't see the puck at all. We may need a new backup goalie before long because if Craw were to miss a significant amount of time we could be in serious trouble.

 

Who might be available via trade?

 

Raanta has been OK at Rockford. If he puts together a nice string, he could be better than Khabi by 2nd half of the season. If Crawford gets hurt, though, it could be ugly.

[Banedon]

khabibulin literally cost the blackhawks this game all on his own

 

He's terrible. Doesn't see the puck at all. We may need a new backup goalie before long because if Craw were to miss a significant amount of time we could be in serious trouble.

 

Who might be available via trade?

 

Raanta has been OK at Rockford. If he puts together a nice string, he could be better than Khabi by 2nd half of the season. If Crawford gets hurt, though, it could be ugly.

 

Oh, I thought Raanta was hurt.

[jersey cubs fan]

really annoying that we've had a cakewalk schedule so far and have only won 6 times out of 10

 

And only 4 non-shootout victories.

 

Call me crazy but I find it difficult to get annoyed at the Blackhawks just yet.

[Brian707]

really annoying that we've had a cakewalk schedule so far and have only won 6 times out of 10

 

 

Yet they still have 15 out of a possible 20 points which equates to 123 points at the end of the season.

[UMFan83]

really annoying that we've had a cakewalk schedule so far and have only won 6 times out of 10

 

And only 4 non-shootout victories.

 

Call me crazy but I find it difficult to get annoyed at the Blackhawks just yet.

 

I think it would be stupid for any team to complain about a 6-1-3 stretch, much less one that won the Cup last year with a dominating end to end season.

[bcl412]

I really don't get the point of getting worked up over regular season NHL or NBA.

[apete6]

khabibulin literally cost the blackhawks this game all on his own

 

He's terrible. Doesn't see the puck at all. We may need a new backup goalie before long because if Craw were to miss a significant amount of time we could be in serious trouble.

 

Who might be available via trade?

 

Raanta has been OK at Rockford. If he puts together a nice string, he could be better than Khabi by 2nd half of the season. If Crawford gets hurt, though, it could be ugly.

 

Oh, I thought Raanta was hurt.

 

He was, but mostly preseason. Played 4 out of 8 games, including 4 out of the last 6. http://www.icehogs.com/schedule/game/

 

And, he has just been OK, maybe a bit worse.

[Soul]

I really don't get the point of getting worked up over regular season NHL or NBA.

 

Just because it's kind of fun to bitch & moan about your teams. There's no real point.

[jersey cubs fan]

I really don't get the point of getting worked up over regular season NHL or NBA.

 

Just because it's kind of fun to bitch & moan about your teams. There's no real point.

 

It's more fun to enjoy a 2-time recent champ without getting annoyed at meaningless points missed.

[rawaction]

Yeah regular season is a lot less stressful when your team just won a championship and at the very least will have a legit shot to repeat.

[kujay]

Got my tickets for the game in Winnipeg next Saturday. Fuckin pumped.

 

I hear it's cold up there though.

[Guest]

really annoying that we've had a cakewalk schedule so far and have only won 6 times out of 10

 

And only 4 non-shootout victories.

 

Call me crazy but I find it difficult to get annoyed at the Blackhawks just yet.

 

not annoyed with the blackhawks, annoyed that they've basically dominated 8 of 10 games and things just haven't gone their way in-game. still, hard to complain about stuff surrounding this team in general.

 

after witnessing a cup run for the second time, i can definitely say it does diminish the enjoyment of the following season to an extent. it sucks accepting that we might not have the most totally awesome team on earth for eternity.

 

It's more fun to enjoy a 2-time recent champ without getting annoyed at meaningless points missed.

 

the playoffs are 2 months (if you make it to the finals), the regular season is 6 months. the reality is that most of the time we get to spend enjoying a sports team comes from the regular season. the only way you can get fully excited about fun regular season wins is if you feel [expletive] after bad losses. otherwise it's just boring and feels pointless to watch.

[Old Style]

Why no Hawks broadcast on Center Ice? I pay good money for this [expletive]. I don't want the Wild announcers.

[kujay]

Why no Hawks broadcast on Center Ice? I pay good money for this [expletive]. I don't want the Wild announcers.

 

It's a WGN game this is normal. Sucks, but it's always this way.

[Guest]

goal differential at +1. i'm convinced the cup hangover is an actual thing.

[UMFan83]

goal differential at +1. i'm convinced the cup hangover is an actual thing.

 

Probably is but the Hawks are still on pace for 112 points this season which would tie the highest point total for a "Cup Hangover" team since the 05 lockout (I get the goal differential thing and the easy schedule thing). Here is what I pulled together for the post lockout cup winners.

 

Carolina - 112 pts vs 88 points (DNQ)

Anaheim - 110 pts vs. 102 points (L 1st)

Detroit - 115 pts vs. 112 pts (L SCF)

Pittsburgh - 99 pts vs. 101 pts (L 2nd)

Chicago - 112 pts vs. 97 pts (L 1st)

Boston - 103 pts vs. 102 pts (L 1st)

Los Angeles - 95 pts vs. 101 pts (proj) (L 3rd)

Chicago - 132 pts vs 112 pts (both proj)

[Guest]

goal differential at +1. i'm convinced the cup hangover is an actual thing.

 

Probably is but the Hawks are still on pace for 112 points this season which would tie the highest point total for a "Cup Hangover" team since the 05 lockout (I get the goal differential thing and the easy schedule thing). Here is what I pulled together for the post lockout cup winners.

 

Carolina - 112 pts vs 88 points (DNQ)

Anaheim - 110 pts vs. 102 points (L 1st)

Detroit - 115 pts vs. 112 pts (L SCF)

Pittsburgh - 99 pts vs. 101 pts (L 2nd)

Chicago - 112 pts vs. 97 pts (L 1st)

Boston - 103 pts vs. 102 pts (L 1st)

Los Angeles - 95 pts vs. 101 pts (proj) (L 3rd)

Chicago - 132 pts vs 112 pts (both proj)

 

i can't tell if this makes me believe more in the hangover effect or just that the nhl playoffs are more of a crapshoot than we admit.

[Drew Doughty]

goal differential at +1. i'm convinced the cup hangover is an actual thing.

 

Probably is but the Hawks are still on pace for 112 points this season which would tie the highest point total for a "Cup Hangover" team since the 05 lockout (I get the goal differential thing and the easy schedule thing). Here is what I pulled together for the post lockout cup winners.

 

Carolina - 112 pts vs 88 points (DNQ)

Anaheim - 110 pts vs. 102 points (L 1st)

Detroit - 115 pts vs. 112 pts (L SCF)

Pittsburgh - 99 pts vs. 101 pts (L 2nd)

Chicago - 112 pts vs. 97 pts (L 1st)

Boston - 103 pts vs. 102 pts (L 1st)

Los Angeles - 95 pts vs. 101 pts (proj) (L 3rd)

Chicago - 132 pts vs 112 pts (both proj)

 

i can't tell if this makes me believe more in the hangover effect or just that the nhl playoffs are more of a crapshoot than we admit.

 

I think it makes me believe less in the hangover effect. Carolina got worse because the game shifted away from the hilarious 800 PPs a game we saw the year after the lockout and they had awful defense. Anaheim...not really sure. Detroit and Pittsburgh stayed identical. Chicago's cap problems are well-known. Boston stayed identical. Kings stayed about at their season-ending pace from the year before. Chicago wouldn't have come near 132 points last year in a full season (not slighting the team, it's just extraordinarily unlikely that they would've stayed healthy/consistent enough over an 82 game season to keep up the pace). 112 points would still be a great season, and it's probably about in line with last year's team's true talent level.

[kujay]

goal differential at +1. i'm convinced the cup hangover is an actual thing.

 

So is this a special kind of hangover that only kicks in around the third period of games where we are up 2-0?

 

This Cup hangover talk is lazy, broad-brush analysis.

[rawaction]

Makes sense that a team that played into mid June and then did the parade, travel, tv, cup circuit would wear down in the 3rd period of games just 4 months later.

[biittner77]

This team has a case of Dave Bolland syndrome. The symptoms are not caring enough about what happens in regular season games to dominate every night.

 

It's funny, some of the guys that have really mailed it in are ones that may or may not make their team's Olympic roster, by which I mean I hope neither Keith, Seabrook or Oduya make their respective Olympic teams. That would give them extra rest plus put a chip on their shoulder for the second half of the season.

 

Conversely, I could see Saad and maybe even Leddy playing their way onto team USA.

[Banedon]

Morning skate:

 

Patrick Sharp--Jonathan Toews--Marian Hossa;

Brandon Saad--Brandon Pirri--Patrick Kane;

Bryan Bickell--Andrew Shaw--Jeremy Morin;

Brandon Bollig--Marcus Kruger--Brad Mills/Ben Smith.

 

Handzus has an upper body injury, is not skating and won't play tomorrow.

[Butterscup1679666578]

ah the dreaded 2 goal 3rd period lead

[Butterscup1679666578]

wow Saad

[Guest]

that was [expletive] sick