UMFan83

BTW, when did they start referring to our home as "United Center" instead of "the United Center"? I always remember hearing it called the latter in the past but lately I hear everyone say it without the "the". Maybe it's just a hockey thing.

I'm so nervous. I wish I didn't watch the local 30 minute pregame show. I don't need to hear about how awesome the Hawks are right before the game. I really hope being the favorite hasn't taken the edge off this team. I don't think it will but you never quite know. I am so pumped. I'm also really glad a week off has given me a ton of respect (deserved or not) for the Flyers. It will make it that much more awesome when we win. I love this team! I want to be entering the UC on Monday with a 1-0 series lead....I can't deal with another "waiting for something to go wrong" crowd.

Yeah I saw that on the ESPN ticker earlier today. Sucks, but not going to change the fact that we're going to win tonight! For anyone in Chicago, NBC is showing Blackhawks related coverage from 6PM until game time (aka 15 mins from now)

Why is Buck all the sudden having such trouble saying Z's name? He hasn't call him "Zambr-ANN-o" has he?

Has anyone ever seen a picture of Kane's sisters? http://thebiglead.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/otl_kane_600.jpg

Very classy move, but it just shows how little payroll room the Cubs have to get better. It really really scares me that the Cubs are obsessed with getting a bullpen arm and now have $3 mil more to play with.

Not off base at all but you express so much confidence. Not to be a huge homer, but I think people are going overboard on this "Hawks are going to get rid of half their team and not be elite next year" thing. I would agree that our depth is a big part of what makes us good, but I think we have too much top end talent that like mentioned here is still getting better, or at least at their peak level of performance to suggest that we can't compete for the Cup next year as well. I true those in charge to find a way to make it work. I think we have decent depth at Rockford to replace some of the production of a Sharp or Versteeg. Also, while the Wings will likely be healthy, don't forget we'd have a full year of Hossa and Niemi playing.

yeah, but didn't they have a ton of expiring contracts that year? that was the whole reason they could sign two max FAs. it definitely wasn't talent level. they were an average team that had to jettison most of their average talent. Looking at basketball-reference, it seems most of their expiring contracts were old junk, but they did lose Mercer and Maggette who you'd think would be seen as young talent back then. I'm trying to figure out how that team ever went 500. C'mon SSR you should know why they went .500 http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/81450224.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA548750ED991D500542DC864929D6040142FD33E1973771C2730

lol I came on NSBB to read about the Hawks or something, and I saw this thread was 6 pages only 30 minutes after the game started and figured we were either getting blown out or we somehow are blowing them out. And then I saw the pitching matchup was Wells/Carpenter, and I guessed 7-0 Cards. I was only off by 2.

That's how I got to goto a playoff game in 2008. So I al most wish I hadn't known that before. Meanwhile, every 5 minutes I'm running ticket searches on Ticketmaster hoping I pull off game 1 Blackhawks tickets hah.

Regarding Jordan I was listening to a radio show on the topic yesterday and they made some points that are likely true regarding the situation. First of all Jordan was offered a role in the organization when he retired for the 2nd time, but he declined (most likely because he wanted ownership stake and wanted to eventually be the majority owner of the team). After that JR and Jordan never spoke about it again because it was clear that Jordan wanted different things. And that's fine, who the hell said MJ HAD to work with the Bulls org. Also, JR paid Jordan's basketball salary when he was trying out minor league baseball instead of him getting a minor league baseball salary. This is said to be out of respect for what Jordan did for the Bulls (but could also be because there was hope or a pre-existing discussions that he might come back and they wanted him under contract). Since Jordan has retired, when not owning majority stakes in another team, he has appeared several times in luxury boxes when the Bulls were in the playoffs or having a good run. He has also been to several team events honoring other Bulls legends (Kerr, Pippen, Phil Jackson) and has spoken at a couple of them. He went in the Bulls locker room after the Bulls beat the team that MJ owns to congratulate them on making the playoffs. He has made an effort to get to meet and know many of the above average Bulls players to get drafted by the team and make an impression on them. After his 2nd retirement and before his 3rd, he could occasionally come by Bulls practice at the Berto Center and randomly challenge players to games of 1 on 1. Does any of this sound like a man who has been alienated by the team he played for? Would all this have occured if the Bulls werent loyal to him after he left the team? As for Pip, he too has been seen at many Bulls games since his retirenent through thick and thin. He at one point (or currently?) wrote about the Bulls on NBA.com and once lobbied for the Bulls coaching job (although I am not sure if the Bulls took it seriously). He has also been at many Bulls ceremonies honoring the Bulls. I don't get where the idea that these 2 are estranged from the team.

'67 expansion minus '42 contraction is only 25 homey. I didn't know what the actual time period was so i threw in a number and put "around" (don't worry I know "around" can't be used for a 15 year gap and make sense, I admit I threw an inaccurate number out there). And besides, 2 of their titles came outside that time range. They were in a 6 team league for 25 years and won 1 title.

I think the biggest problem for the Hawks is that for a decade or two they supposedly acted like Detroit's farm team, or so I've heard it told. Weren't they owned by the same people? Sort of....from wikipedia:

I think the biggest problem for the Hawks is that for a decade or two they supposedly acted like Detroit's farm team, or so I've heard it told.

All four of those cities have won the Cup more times than the Flyers. What do I win Philly? Yeah and it only took the Blackhawks 35 more years of existence in a 6 team league to get that one extra title! It still boggles my mind that the Hawks played in a 6 team league for around 40 years and only won the title 3 times.

Yay we should just give up on people whenever they have 3 bad weeks. Actually I'm kidding. If it wasn't Theriot we were talking about I might be serious.

http://sub2change.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/the_more_you_know2.jpg

JR should have stepped aside and let Jordan buy the team from him. And just to show even more loyalty, JR should probably have given him a nice deal too, because of all Jordan's done for the Bulls. And remember when Pip said he wanted to coach and the Bulls didnt take him seriously and hired VDN? Well they should have just hired Pippen on the spot when he made those quotes. Did Wade stop to consider that Johnny Kerr was the team's broadcaster for like 30 years, Norm Van Lier was a longtime pre and postgame commentator for Sportschannel/Fox Sports Chicago/CSN Chicago (while not directly affiliated with Bulls, I'm sure the Bulls had something to do with that), Bob Love still has a job with the organization, John Paxson was the radio color guy, then our GM and now a VP, Bill Cartwright was given a chance to be the coach, Scottie Pippen was resigned to finish his career in Chicago, Bill Wennington is the radio color guy, Pete Myers is a longtime assistant coach. I'm sure there are still some I am missing.

You can tell some of the hosts are really uncomfortable and it sounds forced when they bring up hockey. For instance Lawrence Holmes, he seems like he has to talk hockey and when he does, it's usually a very broad topic like "What does this Blackhawks run mean to you?" I'm not saying these people are apathetic to the playoff run, they just don't have as much expertise as others in talking hockry

Isn't it Lou's job to know stats like this?

oh im not saying i blame blackhawk fans at all. dollar bill did everything possible to alienate the fans. i'm just defending my team from accusations of bandwagoning - there really isn't much of that among flyers fans, certainly not as much as there has been with the sixers and phillies. the flyers have a fan base that's quite passionate, maybe it's not as big a base as the baseball and football teams, but it's there. the part that drives me crazy is that the local sports talk radio stations and other media treat the flyers like they're some niche team that nobody cares about. it's like they just discovered there's a hockey team in this city once the flyers made the conference finals. more people care about the flyers than the sixers and the flyers sell out almost every game, yet you turn on the radio this time of year and 90% of the talk is about which eagles are going to show up for mini-camp. when they do talk about hockey there's hardly any analysis whatsoever, the hosts just babble about how well michael leighton is playing and that laviolette has done an amazing job. thanks a lot. Wow that sounds exactly like Chicago sports talk radio. I love the Bears, I really do, but I am so not interested in hearing 2 hours of talk about Brian Urlacher's comments about Gale Sayers during the month of MAY, when there are 2 baseball teams playing, a basketball team rumored to get the best player in basketball, and the hockey team in the damn conference finals (at the time). Like the Flyers, the media started really talking about the Blackhawks when the conference finals came along. Before that it was sporadic talk at best for the rest of the playoffs.

People would start thinking that the Boston sports teams really did sell their soul to the devil to have the success they did in the 2000's. -The Patriots do not look the same as previous years, and lost a home playoff game in the first round. Tom Brady didn't look the same as pre-injury -The Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead for only the 4th time in North American sports history -The Celtics (hypothetically in this scenario) also blew a 3-0 series lead for 5th time in NA sports history. It's too bad the Red Sox got out of their early season funk or my theory would tie together.

Dammit Castro. Every time I think his ability to put the bat on the ball is going to be an advantage for the situation, he strikes out.

It was unfortunately hit just a tad too high and the wind got to it.

Dammit that almost went out. Oh well next best thing, both runs score, no out made, and batter ends up on 3rd. We're still in this.