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biittner77

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Everything posted by biittner77

  1. biittner77
    Exactly. The Crawford contract is not an albatross some make it out to be for one. It also just started. They have no one close to ready behind him- including Raanta- so they had to overpay. Perhaps the cap hit is a little high but that's what borderline elite goalies are getting. Off the top of my head, these goalies are making more than Crawford: Rask, Price, Quick, Miller, Rinne, Lundquist and Borat. That puts Crawford's deal in the middle third of goalie contracts which is where he probably is talent wise. This is like people that complain about giving a lock down set up man $4 million per for 3 years. It seems like too much money unless you need that guy to win. Yes, it is different in hockey because of the salary cap but I'd expect the Hawks have a plan to make up for that. The cap should go up which will help. It will cost them someone like Seabrook or Sharp in a couple years. At their respective ages, that might not be such a bad thing by then.
  2. biittner77
    Oduya? oduya was miserable down the stretch in 2012. it wasn't until the next season that he started playing well. I don't believe that's true. He was good down the stretch but got rag dolled by the Coyotes in the playoffs.
  3. biittner77
    The injuries are starting to pile up for Kesler. It would depend on the cost in terms of players but, more importantly, how do you fit him in under the cap? Trading Seabrook would be a pretty major shake up. I don't see that happening at this point. They need to see what Johns can do first. Seabrook is the only Defenseman the Hawks have besides Brookbank (who probably won't be back) and Roszival (who also likely won't be back) that provides size. I'd be surprised if they don't trade Oduya at the draft.
  4. biittner77
    I'll see your Byfuglien with a Hossa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC8-PTTee0 I still wonder who it was that was wearing Sopel's uniform during the 2010 playoff run because clearly it wasn't the same guy that had been so painful the whole season.
  5. biittner77
    dream scenario would be to get back an all-star forward and a top pairing defenseman that might one day be core parts of a championship team. I see what you did there.
  6. biittner77
    The Eastern Conference is almost unwatchable most of the time.
  7. biittner77
    either way, you don't deserve this team I was worried that if the Hawks did lose that people like this guy would embarass the entire fanbase by booing the Hawks or throwing stuff at the Kings.
  8. biittner77
    You misspelled bucket of Dicks. He tried to claim that his eyes were burning from backwash. Clearly a case where police brutality is justifiable.
  9. biittner77
    They also used the old "score more goals than the other team" trick.
  10. biittner77
    This video doesn't show Bryzgolov accidently stabbing Brodin in the family jewels with the butt end of his stick.
  11. biittner77
    I guess it depends on how you define "have a chance". To me, merely making the playoffs does not count as a legitimate chance to win the championship. Since 2006 (I chose to start there because I didn't want to list the 2005 winner. Also, someone mentioned the last 8 cup winners) have been the Cards twice, Giants twice, Red Sox Twice plus Phillies and Yankees each once. While baseball playoffs are pretty random, there certainly seems to be a pattern of well run franchises, that are always in the mix are the one's that win. I think that has more to do with how the NFL determines playoff seeds and the relative brevity of their season than it does with having lots of teams having a realistic chance. Football is also different since it's single elimination.
  12. biittner77
    That's true of any league, though. Entering the playoffs, you could have made a legit case for these teams winning the cup: Hawks: Defending champs Bruins: President's Trophy Pens: Best individual player Kings: experienced, goal tending, relatively healthy Ducks: best record in best conference Sha arks: talented team that challenged #1 status most of the season That's close to half the teams in the tourney once you throw in that unexpected team (or 2) that always show up out of *nowhere. The NBA, has maybe 3 teams with any shot at winning the finals. Are there more than 6 MLB teams that could win the world series? Maybe 4 NFL teams that make the playoffs have any real chance.
  13. biittner77
    The Wild looked awesome for large stretches of that game last night. They also kept getting burned by the speed of the Avs. The Avs defense was pretty bad so its hard to know if the Wild forwards are that good or just look better because the Avs weren't as good as their record. I'm not sure what to make of this series. If Kuemper can't go, Bryzgolov looked terrible the first 2 games of the series. I think the Hawks have too much talent and experience to lose this series.
  14. biittner77
    Speed and stupid good goaltending can mask a lot of flaws.
  15. biittner77
    I think if the Kings score first they beat the Sha arks. I'd like to see the Wild beat the Avs. There ought to be at least 1 upset in round 1. I don't really care about Flyers/ Rangers. Flyers / Pens is usually fun.
  16. biittner77
    Roy's been pulling the goalie early all year, apparently. Colorado's won two games in this series in OT after tying the game on empty-net rallies, so it's working. There's a great paper that was written a few years back which investigated this question... and concluded that Roy and the aggressive early pull is the right one. Similar to NFL coaches and going for it on 4th down, NHL coaches are too conservative with pulling the goalie. I think that decision is made too much on match ups for any study to be particularly useful. Pulling the goalie might work better against a team with less experience like the Wild as opposed to a team like the Bruins. The numbers are likely skewed by coaches taking into account who they're playing as well as the level of desparation.
  17. biittner77
    There ought to be at least one first round upset so why not there. Or #Lumbus. Either or both would be fine by me.
  18. biittner77
    The year Malkin won, Crosby had been hurt the entire year. The year Crosby won he was that good. Had Kane played the whole season he would be in the Hart conversation. Now that he won the Selke last year, that will be the award that hockey writers always associate with him. Just laziness on the part of sportswriters. Nothing new.
  19. biittner77
    I think his slash line will reach normal Baez levels within the next couple months. I'm not worried Triple-A pitchers will continue to have their way with him after he dominated Double-A at age 20. However, these extreme struggles beginning with each level could make them hesitant to challenge him and call him up midseason like we all hoped. If he doesn't change, his first go-around in the bigs will be scary bad. Maybe I'm overreacting to these first few weeks, but I'm getting to the point where I could see them keeping him in Iowa until May 2015 with Bryant. That saddens me because Baez was the most exciting part of 2014 for me. They could just wait until September when he could still get ~100 PAs and no one would be watching so it wouldn't really matter if he sucked.
  20. biittner77
    Is that "10 hole" if it went through the D man's legs too.
  21. biittner77
    Playoff Crosby and Malkin are happy people aren't paying attention to their [expletive]. Crosby career 1.4 ppg, barely over 1.1 the last 3 years in the playoffs and -9 over that time. 0 goals this series. Malkin's playoff scoring numbers aren't that far off from his career regular season numbers, but he's a perennial top 10 goal scorer in the league and only has 7 goals in his last 25 playoff games. 1.1 ppg is actually pretty good for the playoffs. I bet if you looked at the list of PPG that's near the top for anyone that's played more than 3 series. I wouldn't expect Crosby, Malkin or any other star to put up the same numbers during the playoffs since the top lines tend to cancel each other out. As for the plus minus. It can be a very misleading stat for a forward. It's a little like charging the 3rd baseman an error because the shortstop booted what could have been a double play ball.
  22. biittner77
    I'm having a really hard time caring about this at all. Was the 100th anniversary a big deal in Chicago? I haven't seen or read or heard anyone talking about it anywhere except here and then only afterwards. Has anyone considered the possibility that they invited Sosa and he told the Cubs to go pound sand? That would explain why he wasn't there and why PoorTomRicketts didn't say much about it.
  23. biittner77
    Matt Cooke gets 7 games for ending Tyson Barrie's season. That seems arbitrary. He should have gotten 25 like Torres.
  24. biittner77
    It's certainly worth a try but the league would probably be under a lot more pressure to not suspend guys. As a trickle down, refs might be less likely to make certain calls - like charging which is about as vague and open to interpretatin as any rule in any sport- for fear that it might get the league's attention. A borderline hit like Seabrook's on Backass would put the league in an awkward position. Seabrook isn't considered a dirty player by his peers. The opposing coach didn't even see it as that dirty of a hit. Denying the team the benefit of one of their better players ought to be punishment enough. Presumably, Matt Cooke is better than whoever it is that will replace him.
  25. biittner77
    not really a surprise though 23-19-20 was reportedly one of the lines as was 29-65-88. Of course with Q the line blender will be set to liquify.
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