UMFan83

I know you did, and I disagreed back then and now. You can match up last year's guys with this years guys, but it doesnt change the fact that this is a different team with almost half the regulars different than last year. There is much more depth to this team offensively and defensively and over the season this will be obvious. I am not really a hockey savant like prizefight, its more or less understanding what we lacked last year and putting my faith in Bowman that the players he acquired filled those holes. We didn't get any top line players except Brunette, so it doesn't look as flashy but we didnt need those guys. We needed to replace players like Pisani, Scott, Dowell, Hendry with players that deserve to be getting minutes in the NHL and I believe we did and that makes us a better team. Also I did like Campbell and appreciate what he brought to the table despite his contract but IMO Leddy, Montador, O'Donnell is as good to be as Campbell, Boynton, Hendry. Campbell is the best player in that mix, but he can't be on the ice the 10-15 minutes a night when Boynton and Hendry have to play. Leddy doesn't = Campbell but Montador/ODonnell >> Boynton/Hendry. Also I liked Chris Campoli but I find it hard to include him in a comparison between last years team and this years when he wasnt a Blackhawk the first 63 games of the season and only played in 19 games

It's amazing how 2 games has changed the outlook from "wow look at how awesome this team is" to "we havent gotten any better from last year"

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Webb has done nothing of late to warrant a benching. Like others here have already said, they should keep it as it is until someone else gets hurt or starts playing awful. Carimi can wait. Exactly. Carimi is a rookie and has plenty of time to be awesome for the Bears. I'm so scared to tweak even one thing on the line when its doing well. In no way is it a shot against Carami, who I think will be great.

You said we had the same team as last year, which I took as meaning all the key players were the same, save for the ones brought in to give toughness. Campbell is offset by the emergence of Leddy, who only played around 45 games last year playing 3rd line minutes. This year he's paired with Hammer and his 3rd line minutes are replaced by Montador, who is significantly better than (take your pick) Boynton/Hendry/Scott. Who else did we lose? Kopecky's 42 points from last year will easily be exceeded by Brunette, who has topped 42 points in 11 consecutive seasons. Other than that, its Skille replaced by Frolik, which is an upgrade for Chicago, Dowell replaced by Kruger, who should have more upside than Dowell. Brouwer is a bit harder to find a comp for, but you replace him for your "toughness" with Carcillo and Mayers.

And a full season of Frolik, Brunette, Olesz, a much improved Leddy, Montador, a full year of Ben Smith whenever they finally come to their senses and recall him, much less John Scott, a decent amount of cap space, and if you believe in abstract improvements a much more rested team that should actually be hungry this year. Sorry, I don't buy that this is the same team + toughness. Of the 18 players that have been playing on the top 4 lines and top 3 defensive pairings, 8 are players that weren't on those lines most or all of last year (Frolik, Brunette, Carcillo, Mayers, Kruger, Leddy, Montador, O'Donnell). Then you add in Lepisto and Olesz as players who have seen a decent amount of time this year. Not all of them have a big impact, but many do and provide the depth that we didn't have last year.

The WGN radio guys are ripping on the Hawks effort in this one. Too much individual play, not giving full effort on loose pucks, settling for low percentage shots from 45-50 feet away and not enough fighting for a spot down low to redirect/put in rebounds. Teams are really figuring out that we are not dumping the puck in the zone enough. Its usually one guy taking it all the way into the zone. Which is fine many times but if 3 guys challenge you in the neutral zone instead of dropping back and forechecking inside the zone, you need to be able to dump and chase.

Hawks have scored 1 goal in their last 30 power play attempts (3.3%). We're getting into historic territory here in terms of futility. It's not even a coincidence anymore or small sample size, something is unbelievably wrong with our PP.

These might be the 2 worst performances I've seen in a long time from the Blackhawks. Cause for concern rising slightly.

And taking really crappy low percentage shots. Hawks are outshooting the Blues 25-18, they have had 6 more minutes of power play time, and have won more faceoffs than St. Louis 22-20 and still they play a really crappy game and are probably gonna lose.

That's another 0-3 on the powerplay. Now 5 for their last 56 (8.9%)

Yeah, not really to enthusiastic about the team's play tonight.

That's always the risk of fighting, you could get your ass kicked.

Crawford just had it as he was pulling it from his own goal. 1-0 STL. Hawks not looking as bad as last game but still looking poor. Edit: Surprise, a Scott turnover leads to a goal

There were some clips of his PC on CSN. The PC are not really that big of a deal for the media, most of the clips I've seen is just the manager talking about his background and what kind of manager he would be.

He's just continuing the legacy of overpaying relievers that Jim Hendry left. Good thing I feel comfortable that the Cubs won't be overpaying for relievers (or paying at all) this winter.

Not a bad way to put it. I'm not sure the families of the victims feel that way, especially the families of the victims that occured after JoePa knew about it. But a PSU supporter like yourself obviously wants to put it in this light as its tough to see everything you've ever known about Penn State go up in flames, so there's obviously unintentional bias in your viewpoint. I could be wrong, but if this happened to Florida State and Bobby Bowden a couple of years ago, I'm not so sure you'd feel this adamantly about your viewpoint.

That Bears/Lions game is completely meaningless. Looking at the Bears schedule, that's really the only game I would think to put on that list. The Bears schedule after that is: 4 AFC teams, the Seahawks, the Packers and the Vikings. Were there any other week 10 games on that list? Maybe they thought it was too early to make that list.

How is that possible? If the Bears win next week, they tie the season series against Detroit 1-1, and their records would be tied at 6-3. However, the next 2 tiebreakers are division record and conference record. Bears would be 2-2 in the division and Lions would be 2-1, and in the confernece, Bears 6-3 and Lions 4-3. Bears would still have Seattle, Green Bay, and Minnesota in their conference schedule, Lions with Carolina, Green Bay, New Orleans, Minnesota, and Green Bay. I could see saying that the Bears would be in a good position for the tiebreaker over the Lions, but not claiming they would basically own the tiebreaker. In fact, if Detroit manages to win one of the GB games, it puts a big hurt on our tiebreaker chances because it would mean the Bears would also have to beat GB to win that tiebreaker. And week 17 is Detroit/GB in GB, with the Packers possibly having nothing to play for. So the Lions get to play them in Detroit for the game the Packers will actually try in, and then possibly get a disinterested GB team at home with the tiebreaker on the line.

If you take the games out that the Packers have played against their opponents to determine what they did against the "normal" teams in the NFL, the Packers SOS is 27 / 58 = .466. This is one area where SOS can be misleading. The Packers are naturally going to have a low SOS because them winning has affected their SOS by .125. And conversely, the Bears have the strongest schedule of teams with a winning record. They definitely have had a tougher schedule to this point. At the end of the season the only difference in the two schedules will be Packers vs. St. Louis and at NY Giants. Bears vs. Seahawks and at Philadelphia. Remove the Packers and Bears head-to-head games from the equation and the overall SOS will be very comparable at the end of the season. Yup. After their next game (Det),the Bears have 1 team currently with a winning record left on the schedule 4-4 San Diego 4-4 @ Oakland 4-4 Kansas City 3-5 @ Denver 2-6 Seattle 8-0 @ Green Bay 2-6 @ Minnesota Packers don't have a game against a team currently with a losing record the rest of the year: 4-4 Tampa Bay 6-2 @ Detroit 6-2 @ New York Giants 4-4 Oakland 4-4 @ Kansas City 5-3 Chicago 6-2 Detroit I'm know I'm really using the 4-4 teams to make the Bears seem easier and the Packers seem harder. Either way, the Packers are clearly better than all of those teams, and as much as I want to be a homer, I don't think any of those teams is particularly elite GB, NO, PIT, BAL and maybe NYJ and NE are the teams I'd consider elite. Packers should probably end up around 14-2 or 15-1 and hopefully the Bears can finish 10-6. I hope that SF keeps winning so that the Packers Lions game means something for both teams. If the Bears and Lions are tied at 9-6 or something, its gonna make it really tough on us.

don't ever stop being you replace the phrase "young boy" with "another woman" and take out the word anal, and that's an argument that many men have used and failed with in the past.

it's lovely. quite a bit better than milwaukee. you should consider a lifestyle change. whoa really? because the grand jury indictment includes only one sexual assault after 2002. if you are withholding information i suggest turning that over to the police immediately. He reported it to this board, fulfilling his legal obligation. That's not how it works, unless you're saying that the board administration is legally obligated to report it. So I hope Tim contacts the authorities and tells them that a member of this community has information on several incidents of child abuse during the past few years. I thought we decided we would just ban da Bum instead of reporting him and never bring it up again.

I think this is all about him getting a piece of "inside info" and him trying to force it to fit somewhere in his article.

Bucs play at home this week so it will probably be blacked out. Then again, the Bears are on at 4:15 so they might be on no matter what Yeah, I think only the Bucs game would be blacked out. Not all NFL games. I know. I was saying if there Bears were on at 1 you might have a chance because the Bucs will probably be blacked out. But the game is at 4:15, and there are only usually 1-2 games on at that time slot, and the fact that the game was moved there 2 weeks ago makes it likely its the premier game during that time, meaning you will probably get to see the game without having to go somewhere with Sunday Ticket.

I had the same thought.

Q is playing lineup shuffle again. Frolik is getting bumped up to the top line with Toews and Sharp. Carcillo is with Kane and Hossa on the 2nd line, with Brunette taking Froliks place on the 3rd line with Bolland and..Olesz. Stalberg, Kruger and Mayers fill out the final line. I thought Bickell was playing well so this kind of surprises me but I like the Frolik-Brunette switch. Frolik has had a really good all around game this season and will benefit from being on a line with the Captain and Sharpie. Whoever pointed out that Brunette was too slow for the top 2 lines was right. Ever since I read that on here, I can't help but notice it. I think the 3rd line will be a good change of pace line.