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the way eager is playing if I was a blackhawk fan I would be praying for a game misconduct. He isnt playing hockey, he is just looking to hit people. This will cost the Hawks eventually. by the way...just a great game to watch so far, wish I didnt have an emotional interest.

Good luck tonight guys, I will be staying away as usual. I really have the feeling the Hawks are going to play their best game of the series tonight.

Lets be honest now. You know darn well I could have gone to the United Center on Sunday and over 30% of the Blackhawk fans there could not have explained icing and offsides. Even on here several of you guys have said things about the Wings having too many men on the ice when they didnt control the puck. Also Cyno you edited this, it said Wings fans are morons.

How many years ago was that? He didn't have a lot in front of him the first couple years in Chicago. The perception of him was that he was finished though. Goalie is a very fickle position with NHL fans. Huet can easily become a fan favorite with a hot start next season. Personally I still think the Campbell signing is a much bigger future disaster for the Hawks.

crap, Lids is riding the bike

does it matter why he rests? he's going to get the rest anyway. i thought the announcers, especially pierre mcguire -- one of the biggest loons in hockey -- were ridiculously harsh on him. they have been since he was with Montreal. Most starting goaltenders get a game off here and there to rest. If Huet goes into a slump, does Crawford/Niemi start 4-5 games in a row? How does that work? And then Huet comes back and is rusty for another couple games until he gets hot again? Screw that. If the season ends tonight and Huet has a bad game, the Hawks have a big problem on their hands heading into next season. The diehard Hawks fans, the STHers, etc., hate Huet. Think everyone would have said the same thing about Khabibulin at this point last season.

To be fair this was Osgoods worst season of his career. He came off a season that he played way above his norm. I believe he is probably somewhere in the middle. I mentioned somewhere earlier that the Hawks should let khabibulin and havlat go. Try to sign Neidermayer. even at his best, I'll take Huet over Osgood. I think the Wings make a killing by playing average goalies behind their all-star team though. What a money-saver. agree...and as mentioned Osgood does seem to step it up in the playoffs

To be fair this was Osgoods worst season of his career. He came off a season that he played way above his norm. I believe he is probably somewhere in the middle. I mentioned somewhere earlier that the Hawks should let khabibulin and havlat go. Try to sign Neidermayer.

I completely agree with him. Well, presuming we are getting Huet's normal performance and not his awful one in Game 4. I also agree..I think Huet is every bit as good as Osgood.

So you're tellin' me there's a chance! In NHL playoffs, everyone is day to day. All the injuries are vague, like lower body injury. There is a chance he may play but reading anything into reports like this is useless. Rarely do you see a team just come out and say a player isnt playing tomorrow, especially a key player. I hope he does play. My feeling though is he, Havlat, Lidstrom and Datsyuk are all not playing tonight. I was being facetious. I know he's probably not going to play, which means we have no chance. sorry...I think they have a chance. I think if Huet plays and the Hawks do these things they will win. Get a fore check going, put pressure on the Wings dmen depth Dont play an up and down game that relies to much on Huet making big plays....Grind it in the corners, cycle the puck, have 3 back Quit playing for some "revenge" and just skate hard and hit when its part of the game Q should tell Campbell and Huet that they got paid big bucks for games like this...so quit being Detroits best players

So you're tellin' me there's a chance! In NHL playoffs, everyone is day to day. All the injuries are vague, like lower body injury. There is a chance he may play but reading anything into reports like this is useless. Rarely do you see a team just come out and say a player isnt playing tomorrow, especially a key player. I hope he does play. My feeling though is he, Havlat, Lidstrom and Datsyuk are all not playing tonight.

so mike north and dan jicketts are on during the Cubs rain delay talking about the Hawks...It is real embarrassing how stupid they are about hockey and should probably stop.

I am completely shocked that the Pens just steamrolled the Canes. I havent picked them all right, but havent been surprised by any playoff series yet. This one just stunned me.

Is Hossa definitely gone? I hadn't heard that, though I can't say I was really paying close attention. No more Cup discount? Seems the best way to keep him would be to NOT win the Cup. No chance to resign if the Cap comes down like its being predicted(realistically if it remains the same they would still need to trade someone like fillpula and let Samuelsson go to make it happen). His Cup discount was still the highest paid player on the team. The discount was that he signed for 1 yr instead of long term also. I think the main strength of the Wings is that their 3rd line is probably the best in the NHL, it would be silly to dismantle that to keep Hossa. Losing Hossa will still be a big hit though. I think if the Hawks manage their offseason well, this can close the point gap in the regular season. Wings will probably sign one veteran forward and let Helms and Leino become regulars next season.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=279927 Looks like Federov is going back to Russia to play. I was hoping the Wings would consider bringing him back for a year to center the 3rd line when Hossa leaves. Truth is his value is probably still higher than that. He probably would have been the Capitals best defensive dman.

It would be better if Eager did it to Franzen...who would be about as likely to retaliate as Hudler. quite true. My guess is Franzen will not be jawing at anyone with his mouthpiece sticking out though. I am sure that Eager will already be out there doing nothing more than looking to exact some "revenge" instead of playing hockey

I am going to post something that I already know will not happen, but........ Soriano is off to a good start. He has been healthy. We probably already have gotten the best years out of his contract. He will be a good bat for several teams looking to upgrade offense. I think if Hendry was serious about getting out from under a large portion of his remaining contract, now is the time. The return would not be great, but if he wanted out I think it could happen. It has already been mentioned, but I think San Fran sees themselves as a team that is one bat away from winning that division. I could easily see them taking Soriano and contract if we throw them 15 million. I already know this will not happen because, the Cubs are always in "contention". Just saying I think its possible if Hendry really wanted out.

OK, I am not trying to taunt, but this is funny. I think I would think it was funny if Eager did it to Hudler. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Kane-Quenneville-get-their-pacifiers-rip?urn=nhl,165651

Babcock didnt call out the refs...he disagreed with the call. He also didnt start his press conference with a rant about it. Q called it the worse call in history and ranted about it...huge difference between what they did. Also just because I know you have mentioned several times that the league has a Detroit conspiracy. You do realize that Bettman and Illitch are not friendly. Illitch has been very outspoken against Bettman and many of his decisions. Much more than any other owner. As opposed to the Wirtz regime who not only got Bettman hired but have supported him and his stupid lockout and many of his other stupid decisions. Bettman also threatened to take away the Red Wings franchise if Illitch did not support the lock out. If you're going 1 over the speed limit or 14 over... it doesn't matter... it's speeding and the same fine. If you want to say Q's comments were worse, go ahead and fine him the $10,000... however, Babcock still needs a fine no matter how much it is. Q got fined for "being critical" of the league. So was Babcock... he said the refs clearly had a bad game... not only that, he sarcastically danced around it. Babcock did dance around it, even mentioning that he probably should stop before he got in trouble. He also said that it isnt right that you cant say anything about bad officiating. My guess is if you fined Babcock for what he said, than you can probably fine just about every losing coach during the playoffs. I know Carlyle would have to be fined for every game, not just the games they lost. All of this goes back to the main problem. The NHL has terrible officiating. As we also have found out, the rules leave a lot of room for these terrible officials to be subjective in their calls. There is no consistency.

Babcock didnt call out the refs...he disagreed with the call. He also didnt start his press conference with a rant about it. Q called it the worse call in history and ranted about it...huge difference between what they did. Also just because I know you have mentioned several times that the league has a Detroit conspiracy. You do realize that Bettman and Illitch are not friendly. Illitch has been very outspoken against Bettman and many of his decisions. Much more than any other owner. As opposed to the Wirtz regime who not only got Bettman hired but have supported him and his stupid lockout and many of his other stupid decisions. Bettman also threatened to take away the Red Wings franchise if Illitch did not support the lock out.

at least it wasnt a five minute pp that the refs handed out 1 minute after the fact. It was a bad call, no doubt about it. This is were the Hawks needed their coach to show composure though and he completely lost his. Which led to several of their players completely losing theirs. Also to even come close to saying that the officiating was why the Hawks lost yesterday is totally insane and wrong. They lost because the coach screwed up and the goalie was soft.

I'm afraid that's not the case. however their salaries are close enough to make me very angry. hey hey...nuff of this baseball talk in the hockey thread

yes. Khabibulin started the season on waivers but no team would take his contract...funny because I think all the other team would have had to pay was half of it. I imagine several teams would have liked to have Khabibulin for 3.25 million. Huet was signed to be the starter. For all the good moves Tallon has made, I think the best you can say about the goaltending situation is that the Hawks are fortunate the Khabibulin played much better this year then he has in the past couple of season.

Anaheim, Boston...The Hawks/Huet big problem is that they are paying 10 million for goaltending. If you are paying that much, it should be better

Huet was bad today...but I think Q was just as bad. The Wings were missing their best d-man. Everyone knew that Chelios was not going to get many minutes. The Hawks should have been dumping the puck in and forechecking more. Would have worn out the Wings d-men. Also, Stuart and Kronwalls biggest weakness is that they have a tendency to cough up the puck when pressured in the corners. I know it isnt fun hockey to watch and is kind of against the Hawks style, but they would have been much better served to get into a grind it out game against the Wings today. This would not only have taken pressure off their goaltender, but would have worn on the Wings d-men. 2nd, right when the Hawks needed their coach to have composure, he lost his.