sherwood921

gaborik to the rangers for 5 year $7.5 mil...didn't they just unload a similarly bad contract?

Rumored to be 4 years at $15 mil. I wouldn't have wanted that long of a deal for such and old goaltender.

I like Sharp a lot more than Versteeg, but you may be right. I know Versteeg is young and has great moves with the puck, but he coughed up way too many pucks around both blue lines. If he can eliminate that, then fine. Otherwise, he might be a great sell-high type of guy coming off a good rookie year. I wonder if anyone would sign him to an offer sheet now that it looks like we'll have to be tight with our money.

You might be right. Everywhere I read that has since been pulled. You think he goes to Montreal?

That's what I'm afraid of. In a perfect world we could send them Huet and sign Khabibulin to a cheaper and shorter deal. Hopefully he knows this and really wants to stay in Chicago.

So can you confirm that the cap hit is the average, $5.2m, and not whatever he is making in that year? Because if so, that is a good deal for both sides. Front loaded deals make sense for teams that can afford them, and the Blackhawks clearly can. Hossa taking up $5.2m of your space is better than Havlat taking $6.5m. Yep, it's the average over the course of the whole thing...so he'll be a cap hit of $5.2 for the next 12 years. The retirement thing confuses me a bit - apparently if they sign the contract before they are 35 years old, then they are not a cap hit if they retire...regardless how long the contract was when signed. The Kopecky deal also signals that Pahlssen is gone. Walker gone to Tampa for $6.8mil over 4 years is a lot for a guy who survives on heart alone. Things to look for now: - If Khabibulin signs somewhere, the Hawks will most likely be stuck with Huet. - If Heatley nixes the deal the Edmonton (as it has been on and off reported), then Edmonton might be willing to move someone like Penner for Huet. In which case I would love to re-sign Nik on a one year deal. - Barker is a bit more replaceable as his shot on the PP can potentially be replaced by Hossa. We may see him moved.

Upon some further review this is a perfect deal for both sides. Hossa will make $59.3 mil in the first 8 years and $3.5 over final four. Time value of money is on his side here. The Hawks are fine financially as they raked in quite a good bit of dough last year and will for the foreseeable future. Even though the deal is 12 years, I doubt Hossa will be playing for the Hawks at the end of the deal. If he retires (and he might, he will have most of his money by then anyway), the cap hit for the Hawks is nothing. If the cap is still an issue for many teams, he can be had by a smaller market team with cap space who can pay him little actual salary but take on the $5.2 hit (which, by then might be nothing, who knows). We just essentially out Detroit-ed Detroit. These are the types of contracts they sign guys for, and similar to what they were offering Hossa. They were offering less money and less years, however I think. Maybe just $40mil over 10.

Kane, Keith, and Toews will all need new contracts and that should cost somewhere around $14-17mil I'd assume. Hopefully Hossa's model at around $5mil will be the model they use, and not Campbell's $7mil. Man, that was a terrible deal that I wish we could have back. I'm afraid this move may end up costing us Keith, as I don't see the Hawks willing to deal Kane or Toews. I'm imagining some Kane saucer passes to a one-timing Hossa right now and it's pretty.

I'm ok with this. I think Hossa's a bit more of a complete player than Marty and comes with less injury history. I'd be absolutely floored if we could convince Havlat to come back on a 1-year deal, although it looks like he's gone to LA (rumored at 8 years, 64mil). He'd have to swallow some pride as well as he's essentially been replaced. It's going to be real interesting to see how the cap works out in the future. We're already pretty tight - which could mean so long to guys like Barker and Versteeg. We're also going to have to use our farm system to fill the last few roster spots. Of course, if Tallon were able to move Campbell somehow...

Hard to get your gloves off when you are jumped. He was able to throw punches though? He wasnt going to fight though...Malkin forced the issue. Probably lucky for Malkin he didnt get his gloves off. Still think Linesman should get a serious butt chewing for breaking up a fight by himself. I agree. It's pretty tough to stop 4 arms from flying when you've only got 2.

Hard to get your gloves off when you are jumped. He was able to throw punches though?

Bugs me that Zetterberg was fighting with his gloves on. Also annoying that Osgood dove back on Talbot's weak stick tap...on first glance I assumed he blatantly speared him, but it was nothing. I hate both of these teams, but man Detroit is just a machine.

I was at Game 2 in Detroit and thought we really had a shot. So sick of these odd-man rushes killing us after we're all over them. Sidenote - the Det fans were relatively sociable, minus the one guy who wanted us to "die in the Chicago Fire 2." Went again last night and it reminded me of Game 5 vs. Calgary. Started out all over them, got a couple back-to-back and the place was rocking. The poor power plays (5+2 minutes) late in the first really seemed to turn the tides, but the Pahlsson goal swung it back. The hit on Havlat was technically clean, just vicious. Marty saw that he was going to get railed, so he let the puck go through his feet hoping that would avoid the check. Didn't work. I don't see how he'll play Sunday, let alone the rest of the playoffs to be honest. It'll be interesting to see how this affects his UFA status. The goal by Sharp was huge, and even if we don't win the series, it proves that we can hang with Detroit. Going again Sunday, should be nuts. Hopefully the quick turnaround hurts Detroit as they did seem to be a little gassed towards the end. Sidenote - Steve McCarthy was sitting next to me. Interesting to see him at a Hawks/Detroit playoff game as he's been with both orgs. I didn't see him cheer, but apparently he stood up and clapped a bit after the OT winner. He said he's busy trying to get healthy as he had to sit out almost the whole year in ATL with an injury, but is a FA this summer, so he's looking to break back into the league somewhere he can get some minutes. Seemed like a pretty nice guy, as most hockey players tend to be off the ice.

Really glad we signed Bryan Berard to that massive contract. My god does he look bad all over the place right now. Saw that goal coming a mile away.

Completely disagree. Kane started it with an elbow then bailed and took a shot or two as he tried to get out of there. Disagree, the NHL teams have given Kane cheap shots when they can since he join the league. I do think Kane needs to grow up, but I don't blame him one bit if he feels frustrated that every team in every game takes their cheap shots at him. He needs to grow thicker skin, I know, but he also has to show he can't be bullied. So I don't have a problem with him throwing elbows. just play through it. if he reacts like that it just gives teams more incentive to keep doing it, because it takes him off of his game. all the teams are looking for is that reaction, and he's not showing that he can deal with physicality very well. the players don't care if he can be "bullied" or not, they're just trying to irritate him. Exactly. He has gone 9/10 games without a point now, and it's all while teams realized hitting him takes him off his game because he gets all bent out of shape. Oh, and Dave Bolland is fantastic.

I was going to say Kane hacks someone...then gets hit back and starts whining and backing off. I don't want him getting into it, but don't start it and then back away and make people fight for you. Ever since Cleary hit him he's been invisible IMO probably because he is playing with a high ankle sprain....and yes kane's way of retaliating and defending himself is to high stick/slash....what else is he supposed to do. Do nothing. He doesn't need to react every time he's hit.

Completely disagree. Kane started it with an elbow then bailed and took a shot or two as he tried to get out of there.

I was going to say Kane hacks someone...then gets hit back and starts whining and backing off. I don't want him getting into it, but don't start it and then back away and make people fight for you. Ever since Cleary hit him he's been invisible IMO

Kane ticking me off - I know he's young and being not handling being hit very well...but I'm sick of him doing NEVERMIND HAWKS WIN!

Really? Where did you hear this? Any more info regarding why?

uh, what are you talking about? richards is one of the best leaders in the nhl; that's not my opinion, that's come out of interviews and polls around the league. how many captains are willing to drop the gloves at all, let alone fight guys who are clearly bigger and better fighters than them? richards doesn't fight often but when he does it sends a message to the team; last night he fought to send the message that, while the rest of the team didn't give a crap last night, he sure did. Just not a big fan of two handing a guy twice in order to start a fight, that's all. If you want to fight-fine, I'm all for it. I just don't see the inspiration in two-handing a guy when down 5-1 just to get beaten up. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't get juiced up if the Hawks are down by 4 with 10 minutes left, Toews hacks someone and then takes a few knocks on the chin. I believe that Richards may be a great leader, and I think that Philly team is about 3x as good as they looked last night, but boy did they take some stupid penalties. Is this a regular problem, or was last night a fluke? We had been taking stupid penalties up until recently (seems like since Q benched Kane actually). Regarding the Adams/Gratton fight. Adams had a huge welt on his noggin, it must have hurt when he put his helmet back on. That said, Gratton was keeled over in the penalty box for a while after the fact. I think Gratton definitely got a few better blows in early, but I was impressed that Adams was able to hang with him for the most part. Gotta love bouts where the guys aren't worried about clutching and grabbing but are both just throwing consistently.

Heck of a game...the UC was rocking tonight. I love that we got a few "Detroit Sucks" chants in as preparation for the next home game. Moment of the night was easily Brouwer kicking the crap outta Richards. Atta boy Captain, take a hack at a rookie and then let him knock you around a bit. Great leadership. He was obviously frustrated because the Hawks totally dominated. It's just getting ridiculous at this point - they can do no wrong.

I got in for 2 obstructed at $325 each. I just couldn't pull the trigger - I can't eat that much $$$ if a complete moron doesn't come along and buy those from me. Please, if anyone is willing to sell any tickets to a poor college student at or around face value...please let me know :) I promise the Hawks will win if I go (there was a time where the Cubs were 13-0 over a 2 year span with me in attendance).

The nice thing to do would be to sell them to a die-hard Hawks fan (and Cubs fan of course!) who REALLY REALLY wants to go for face value :)

Nothing like getting through the VWR 4 times and typing in the code then selecting tickets to get pushed right back into the VWR. Argh :(