UMFan83

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>

If they weren't known as mettling backstabbers, they'd probably have the 2nd best opening after NO (simply because of Davis). It's a good thing Hoiberg is in bed with GarPax and so they probably won't have to see how much they've tarnished their name in the open market. To be clear, I am perfectly fine with Thibs leaving, but I am annoyed at how they leaked that multiple Bulls players 'killed' Thibs in their exit interviews. I'm sure it was just payback for Thibs leaking info for JVG to share on the air (I don't believe for a second that JVG shared that info independently), which was also sort of shitty to do, but Thibs' was more political in nature than a smear campaign.

Looks like the SCF would start on Wednesday night with game 2 on Saturday after the Belmont Stakes. If the Hawks can win this Saturday thats a lot of rest for the weary Hawks blue liners. And in case anyone is curious, the Hawks would start on the road regardless of who wins on Friday between TB/NYR. If the Ducks win, who the hell cares?

Was he the one that was asking if Keith has lost any weight during the playoffs? Not sure. I was busy listening to the PA in the background announcing the stars of the game and wondering if Keith would step away from the interview to acknowledge the crowd. Ahh, that question was asked during the press conference after the game. I thought it was a weird question...Keith was like 'umm...I'm not sure, I don't really weigh myself'

7:00 central. The LA media is pretty rough on their leaders this morning, Getzlaf in particular. They just got Kesler, and by no means is their window closing like San Jose's did and LA's may have, but this is big for them. They blew 3-2 series leads the last two years. That's in their heads. The Hawks having another gear is in their heads. Even though we lost Game 5, I think the way we stormed back plays into this too. They know they are playing a team that's been through it all. And they have to prove they can beat them. That's a lot of pressure. Problem is it's just one game and like last year with the Kings, anything can happen. This should have been a Hawks win in 6, and now it's a crapshoot. Their postgame quotes almost sounded like they were trying to convince themselves they were winning the series. Kesler repeated his 'we are wearing them down physically and it will will effect them in game 7' mantra. And there was another quote (cant remember who) who said because of the third period they proved that the Hawks cant compete with them when they are playing well. That third period looked like a lot of hockey third periods. I'm sure it's nothing more than a post game, keep your confidence level up quote but the Ducks comments and style of play still make it so I really want to beat them. Right....I don't take much from it. The Hawks were nursing a 1 goal lead, the Ducks were being aggressive and the Hawks were pushing on the counter, and at the end of the day thats how the Hawks put it away. I do wish the Hawks could have cleared it a few times instead of spending what felt like 10 minutes in the defensive zone without touching the puck but it wasn't anything I'm concerned will carry over to the first period of game 7.

Was he the one that was asking if Keith has lost any weight during the playoffs?

If you have the NBC Sports Live Extra app and pay for cable, you can stream the game on any device with cellular connection.

7:00 central. The LA media is pretty rough on their leaders this morning, Getzlaf in particular. They just got Kesler, and by no means is their window closing like San Jose's did and LA's may have, but this is big for them. They blew 3-2 series leads the last two years. That's in their heads. The Hawks having another gear is in their heads. Even though we lost Game 5, I think the way we stormed back plays into this too. They know they are playing a team that's been through it all. And they have to prove they can beat them. That's a lot of pressure. Problem is it's just one game and like last year with the Kings, anything can happen. This should have been a Hawks win in 6, and now it's a crapshoot. Their postgame quotes almost sounded like they were trying to convince themselves they were winning the series. Kesler repeated his 'we are wearing them down physically and it will will effect them in game 7' mantra. And there was another quote (cant remember who) who said because of the third period they proved that the Hawks cant compete with them when they are playing well.