UMFan83

KEEP DRINKING TIM

We have entered your comfort zone! Yup I'm gonna turn this off and read a book now. Go Hawks! ;)

Dammit Richards you gotta see Saad streaking towards the net undefended

That's not actually a chart. Less posting more drinking :)

Ok I'm charting my comfort level vs time left 4 goal lead - immediately comfortable 3 goal lead - comfortable after 10 mins left 2 goal lead - comfortable after 3 mins left 1 goal lead - comfortable when the clock hits 0.0

Looks like the first 38 seconds of the period

Looks like we will get some 5 on 3 to start the 3rd

That's ok. They weren't gonna get shut out. Would have preferred it happening after the intermission though

Lmao http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/missouri-tv-station-airs-branson-country-usa-instead-of-1707975706

Well at this point we are either going to the SCF or we will live through a historic collapse we will be talking about bitterly the rest of our lives. I like our odds here

Holy crap that's awesome

You can tell how much the Ducks are pressing for that first goal. Odd man rushes all over the place for Chicago.

I know he didn't score there but there are very few things in sports better than seeing the Hawks get a breakaway and realizing its Kane that has the puck

Woooo Hoooooooo

Yeah Ducks were dominating. Nice! Don't let up...I'm sure they won't forget what happened last year (up 2-0 and 3-1)

Look I don't want to exaggerate or be overly dramatic but I think this is a must win for the Blackhawks

Also this makes the rescheduled game the new home finale (in the regular season)

Weird. Why does it seem like we never reschedule rained out games as a doubleheader the next day? I mean that's fine, a DH is more taxing and might require a Wood or Jaxon start, just seems like other teams do this all the time especially between teams that won't play again after the series

I...they're 3 games over .500 even if they drop this. Relax

Somewhere, most likely in Baltimore, Orioles fans are smiling

You'll definitely get a ticket unless you have a guest pass. There used to be permit-free parking near Barry and Racine but I don't know if that's still the case. Dang. Thanks. How far are you willing to walk? When I was younger and more broke I just parked sufficiently far from the park and walked. I know I had to go past Southport, but I can't recall how much further it was. Anywhere past the 7-Eleven store on that corner is free parking. It's only about a 10-15 minute walk from there. West of Ashland is ok for day games

Haha, ok lets talk about the offseason again.

In terms of building a roster, GarPax is solid for the most part. Definitely not perfect, but since the Baby Bulls arrived in 2004-2005 (im going back to then even though Gar wasn't the GM for part of it, just Pax), they've completely turned over the roster that started with a core of Gordon, Deng, Curry, Good Hinrich, Chandler, transitioned it to a core of Rose, Deng, Noah, and now Jimmy, Rose, Noah and maybe next year Mirotic. They've stayed competitive, making the playoffs in 10 of the last 11 years. They've had maybe 2 years where they were considered fringe contenders going into the playoffs (06-07 and 14-15) and 2 years where they were legit contenders (10-11 and 11-12), 4 years where they had scrappy bunches just barely making the playoffs (04-05, 05-06, 08-09, 09-10), and 2 seasons where they could have been contenders if their superstar wasn't injured (12-13, 13-14). They've drafted really well relative to position, very few completely botched picks (Tyrus and maybe Teague although he was a high risk/high reward gamble). Their FA signings have been a mixed bag..most of the good ones being scrapheap players that performed above expectations. Their highest profile FA signings (Ben Wallace and Boozer) have been pretty bad, Wallace especially because he was their top choice (as opposed to Boozer and Gasol who were backup plans) and it cost them a player who would be highly productive over the next several seasons (Chandler). Trades have been few and far between, several of them being simply salary dumps (Hinrich, Korver, Deng). The Curry trade to NY was an absolute steal that is still paying dividends with Noah, Chandler to NO for PJ Brown was half salary dump, have getting a backup big, and I really liked the Salmons/Miller trade even though they were both short term options. Also getting anyone to take Wallace even if it meant giving up a productive but useless in a down year Joe Smith was good. The biggest problem with GarPax comes from organizational culture. I think the Bulls have a bad perception among the league. Media guys openly call JR cheap despite the fact that Reinsdorf has killed their biggest arguments over the years (unwilling to pay luxury tax, unwilling to pay players/coaches not to play for him even if its best for the team), announcers like JVG are not afraid to rip the Bulls FO on national TV. There are reports of Pax grapping VDN by his tie, then you have the rather unprofessional press release (imo) yesterday announcing Thibs dismissal. And there are rumors floated around that the Bulls were willing to wait until all the openings were filled before letting Thibs go, which possibly/probably arent true but the fact that they were somewhat believable says a lot about the FO. I am still not 100% sure LeBron, Wade and Bosh to Miami was some blood pact that conceived at the Olympics. I think the reports about LeBron coming to Chicago were true, I think his first move was to convince him and Wade to come play for the Bulls. Wade was legit interested in coming to Chicago because of the hometown pull, but in the end couldn't pull the trigger and then made some quotes in the media about the Bulls FO being unloyal to their guys, etc. Once Wade backed out, LeBron met with the Bulls, who everyone suggests told him that his entourage wasn't going to get treated like they were in Cleveland, LeBron wasn't going to run the show, etc (I want to point out that none of this is proven fact, just speculation), people even joked that he wasn't going to be allowed to wear his headband. Whatever the case, after that, LeBron reportedly tried to get Bosh to come with him to Cleveland, but Bosh didn't want to play there, so LeBron decided to team up with the other 2 in Miami. I believe the Bulls FO reputation (going all the way up to JR) was what ultimately killed LeBron (and Wade) to Chicago. Maybe it's a crackpot theory, I don't know. But Wade did have questions about the Bulls loyalty. Other high profile FA's targeted by the Bulls have gone elsewhere. It could be the weather (Howard), it could be the money (Melo), but whatever it is they have chosen to play elsewhere. Small sample size, and I think the Bulls were right to go for it each time, but ultimately the Bulls had to settle for backup options. I am not even sure where I am going with this. I tried to show present both sides evenly, but there is probably an anti-GarPax bias in my ramblings. I am not necessarily a 'clean house on the FO' guy but there are some disturbing things going on inside the Bulls org, enough to muddy their pretty good, but not great, track record of building rosters.

Remember when we used to have AIM Group chat rooms during games? Those were the days.

I'm pissed I never got to experience polio. =D>