UMFan83

If you really think about it. Thinking of some great goalies of the 80's and beyond, how many have won a ton of Cups? Ron Hextall never won one, Belfour only won 1, Hasek only won after his best days were behind him with a great Detroit defense, Roy won 2 cups but none after 1993. I'm not saying you don't need good goaltending, but I think goaltending and the defense have to work in tandem to make a dominant unit. Dominant goaltending can mask a weaker defense, can win you regular season games when the intensity level isn't 100%, can keep your team alive in long playoff OTs when your defense is drained. But I think it's been proven quite a bit over the last decade that you can win with average goaltending if other areas are strong. But even if you are a dominant goaltender, if your defense sucks, you are going to give up some goals and look mortal. For example look at Brodeur this season. A more local example is Khabibulin. Coming off an amazing Stanley Cup, Khabi signs with the Hawks after the lockout and strugles behind a weak inexperienced defense (although I gotta say his first year was more than just a weak D. He was beyond awful). The move is widely panned as a bust. The Hawks defense improves from bad to pretty good in his last year hear and he has a "resurgence" and helps lead a really young team to the WCF and gets a pretty good contract in the offseason. Edit: I just looked up Brodeurs numbers this year and I guess I was wrong he didn't have a bad season statistically, I guess I just remember his Olympic and playoff performances.

Just thought it would be interesting to see who at this point (5/12/10) the general populace thinks that the Bulls will end up with in this offseason armed with spending money. Choose as many players as you honestly think the Bulls will end up with. Edit: I don't know why I thought Tony Parker was a FA this year. He's not so don't vote for him. *waits for his vote totals to go up*

Bingo!! I believe that's all were going to end up with, zero faith in Gar and Johnny. Actually, if you had zero faith in GarPax, you would expect them to not even get Joe Johnson, and have to pay some mid tier player tons of money to say that we got something. LBJ stays in CLE Wade stays in MIA Bosh signs with MIA Boozer sign and trade with HOU or DAL Johnson signs with NYK Lee goes to like CLE or stays with NYK Tony Parker signs with NYK (new rumor) Just a really not well thought out example, but there might be a point in the offseason where signing Joe Johnson would bring a sigh of relief.

A Sharks blog, Fear the Fin, has a detailed preview of the Sharks/Hawks series from a Sharks perspective. At some points he's pretty complimentary towards the Hawks, in other parts the writer does't seem to have as big of a grap on the Hawks as he pretends to. And I'm certainly not upset he picks the Sharks in 7. My two biggest gripes is that he mentions how inconsistent the Hawks are (beginning with the post-olympics mediocre stretch) even though they've really stepped it up lately and are playing well in non-stinker games, and also he said before this season the Hawks only had 2 playoff appearances in 19 years, when its more like 2 in 12. Nitpicking? maybe but whatever. http://www.fearthefin.com/2010/5/13/1469658/2010-nhl-playoff-preview-san-jose

Hawks over Sharks in 6. They split the first 4 and win 5 in SJ and 6 at home. Then Hawks over Mon/Phi/Bos in 5. I don't know if that's my prediction as much as reality based hope.

IDK what teams offseason games plans are. I wish I had a job that allows me to including in finding out, but alas it's not to be. But believe it or not, Hinrich only has 2 years left remaining on his contract ($17 mill left on his deal), and considering that teams like the Lakers (Hinrich would be much better then Fisher/Farmar) have shown interests in the veteran guard, I would say there is better then 50/50 chance of Hinrich being traded. I don't know who though, but I do believe there will be a decent market for Hinrich. Now if the Bulls do the unthinkable and sign Lebron, I could see Allen jumping from Boston to Chicago. Otherwise, I see Allen staying in Boston. Who are you gonna get from the Lakers for Hinrich though? I don't think it's gonna be anyone who is an upgrade. As you alluded to, his deal is only two more years, so you'd have a hard time justifying him for a downgrade. You need to get a deal that is fair from a talent standpoint, and I'm not sure you can, not from the Lakers at least. There's also the salary factor. The Lakers already have a ton of money locked up so the Lakers would have to trade $9M worth of contracts. So unless you want to take somebody like Luke Walton or Sasha Vujacic, a trade with the Lakers probably won't work. Note: This is assuming I correctly understand how trades work in the NBA, which is 50-50. All you need to do is find a 3rd team willing to get involved.

I don't think so. The Bulls barely have enough for 1 max deal right now. Hinrich is only due to make $9 million next year. So, no.

Wow, these playoffs have been fantastic. I used to only watch bits and pieces of the NHL playoffs unless the Hawks were in, but this year I dove right in and I am so happy I did. I was looking forward to watching these 2 games all day and they didn't disappoint.

Thats why the Hawks better come to play this next series. Absolutely, the WC Finals is likely the Stanley Cup Finals this year. The Hawks have an incredible chance to win the Cup this year, they just need to survive this series against San Jose. Either the 6th or 7th seed vs. the 8th seed, its the Eastern Conference Finals! If Philly somehow did the unthinkable, how bizarre would it be for the 7th seed to have home ice in the Conference Finals? The alternative, of course, would be the 6 seed Bruins having home ice twice. That's more amazing then when the 4 seed Arizona Cardinals had home field to play the 6 seed Eagles in the NFC Championship a couple of years ago.

Thats why the Hawks better come to play this next series. Absolutely, the WC Finals is likely the Stanley Cup Finals this year. The Hawks have an incredible chance to win the Cup this year, they just need to survive this series against San Jose. Either the 6th or 7th seed vs. the 8th seed, its the Eastern Conference Finals! If Philly somehow did the unthinkable, how bizarre would it be for the 7th seed to have home ice in the Conference Finals?

My response to reading this post was to giggle.

Hell Shawn Kemp was getting consideration for Finals MVP iirc even though the Sonics lost.

Everyone be on your best behavior, LeBron is going to look at us. That means no more punching subordinates Paxson.

the cubs won? how is that even possible?

What one Cav fan is thinking today:

For real. Those fans who say they don't want LBJ is one of two kind of people: 1. Those who believe LBJ won't becoming to Chicago, thus they will say they don't want him in case he doesn't come or 2: they are the same fans that would boo a rookie making his debut at Wrigley Field. Otherwise, I want LBJ in a Bulls jersey soooooo bad that I am having a hard time keeping my excitement about the possibility to a minimum. So those who don't want LBJ, needs to turn in their Chicago Bulls fans card, cause they don't deserve to be fans. There will be plenty of "Bulls fans" to take their place if they stop rooting for the Bulls because LeBron came here. Maybe I can pretend like I am one of the grumpy long time die hards of the Blackhawks who basically hate that the team is good because they can't get tickets anymore because bandwagon fans are snatching them up. That's what would happen if we got LBJ. Between both tennants, I would probably only be able to get inside the UC for Disney on Ice.

Not to overlook any opponents ahead of us, but in my opinion they are a 4-3 stretch from winning it all. Crazier things have happened though. If Montreal beats Pittsburgh tonight, I'll feel much stronger about that statement of course.

Yeah, I read the other day that Miami was option A, B and C for Bell, who is from the area, but if we somehow signed LBJ, that could probably change his view of the market.

Try back in mid-June and we'll see where we stand with that issue.

You gotta fit 5 minutes about Bartman in there.

Man these postgame quotes from Lou are sounding more and more like the previous Cubs manager by the day.

I read in the Redeye today that the Cubs have led the league in hitting since like April 21st with a .295 BA. How can that possibly be? In that 19 game stretch, the Cubs have been held at 3 runs or less 10 times. And yet they have a .295 BA in that stretch. How is the team collectively hitting so well, and the starting pitching has been at least average if not slightly above. Yet we can't score runs and lose more than we win.

Interesting, but I am not getting my hopes up until I see a smiling LeBron holding up a Bulls jersey with GarPax and Calipari grinning on either side of him. Until then this is a pipedream that I cannot work up excitement for.

How many more times do we have to beat the Canucks before they shut up about being better than us? We know how to win = you gave up 17 goals in 3 home games you idiot.