UMFan83

Yes. And with the Huet buyout and Barker being moved, we only need to move one of Versteeg/Ladd/Sharp/Byfuglien, etc. Does that include a raise for Niemi this offseason? Because he's an RFA and I'd bet some team with some cap space and a need for goalie, or a need for the Hawks to get more strapped financially would make an offer. Especially if the Hawks won the Cup with him in net.

Someone on RealGM claimed that he heard LeBron say to KG when they were hugging post game "come see me in Chicago". But I don't know it's probably BS. Actually I'm sure it's bs. But it's fun to discuss little signs like this. As a Bulls/Cubs fans, all that's out there to discuss is the Hawks and this. And the Hawks don't play until Sunday.

I hate when everyone tries to compare a player to Jordan, they use Jordan's exact career arc for comparison purposes, like you have to win a title before your 7th year, or "Jordan's team never did this". Every career is different, and every players circumstances are different.

I'm just not sure what cap space does to help a LeBron-less Cleveland. Yeah they might get someone in a trade but they don't necessarily need cap space to make the trade. It helps them more than bringing in Luol Deng. Maybe if a lottery pick came with it or something, or even just Chicago's 1st that they could package it to get into the lottery, I don't know. They could also get a 3rd team involved that can use Deng, and get something better back in return. Either way, I believe the Cavs won't work out a sign and trade no matter how dumb it might be long term.

I like to think of it as a Cubs team with Pie, Soto, Castro, Vitters, Lee (Hak-Ju), Jackson and a rotation of Zambrano/Cashner/Jackson/Carpenter rotation :)

I just hope we can sustain it. Our biggest advantage over the Canucks and the Sharks has been our depth. To be honest, the Sedin line and the Thornton Heatley Marleau is every bit as good as our top line, and the Pavelski line is as good as our second line for the most part. The key is when you get past those and you have players like Versteeg, Madden, Ladd, Eager, etc. Madden is a UFA, he's not gonig to be back, both Ladd and Versteeg are possibilities to be moved. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but do we have enough at Rockford to suggest we can survive a big loss of depth this offseason?

Flyers or Bruins tonight? I'm rooting for the Flyers to do the unthinkable, but think the Bruins will somehow pull it off. I definitely think whoever wins this is going to lose to Montreal at this point. Both teams are pretty banged up, and Boston especially is having big issues scoring.

I'm just not sure what cap space does to help a LeBron-less Cleveland. Yeah they might get someone in a trade but they don't necessarily need cap space to make the trade. Either way, if LeBron left Cleveland, the pressure is on to do something with that team immediately. My theory is, even without LeBron the Cavs can still be relevant for 1-2 years just because of how in the spotlight they were during the LeBron years. If they can't make something of that team in that time frame the Cavs will quickly become Cleveland, wasteland of the NBA again (providing they don't strike it rich in the lottery). Grim assessment but that's what the Cavs would be looking at without LeBron IMO. That said despite everything that's been said and everything that's happened, I still think theres a good chance he stays after some reflection. His postgame quotes talked about discussing his situation with his teammates to help him make the right choice.

We are Cubs fans I dont feel sorry for any other teams Cleveland is so far below Chicago on the levels of sports hell. As someone who always bitches about how bad Chicago sports can be, I completely agree. Even though the Cavs losing could benefit us, at this point I almost feel bad for them, and I never take pity on other cities. Chicago might own the longest championship droughts in half of the major professional sports leagues, but they definitely don't have the longest city championship drought.

Do the Cavs think they still have another quarter to play. I know it's nearly impossible to come back from 9 down with 50 seconds left, but it's the end of your season, at least look like you care.

With that awful turnover he just had, he's 1 TO short of a "quad double"

I shouldnt be enjoying this as much as I am, but Im lmao at this board. Man it sounds like Cubs fans lol What board is this? I'm guessing www.realcavsfans.com

If LeBron is at the top of his game they are a tough team to beat. Varejao is really underrated, between Williams, Parker and sometimes Jamison they have a great collection of outside shooters. When they are playing well, they look like they can score every time up the floor, especially if you don't have a good body to slow down James. All he has to do is penatrate and kick out or draw a foul. If the shooters are hitting shots you have to decide weather to double LeBron and let him kick it out or single team him and let him destroy you in the paint. Of course this is a really simplistic way to analyze it, but you get my point. There are no stars on this team, but the team was designed to give LeBron shooters that could make teams pay for doubling him.

I know his numbers are better, but LeBron looks just as disinterested tonight, but I'm sure you guys all know that already. I don't think he's touched the ball the last 3 possessions. Against the Bulls in a tight game LeBron took the ball up the court and dominated. Now Jamison is taking the lead.

The Royals just got Yosted!

I'll be cheering for Rondo. I hope he does awesome and the Celtics win. And then I hope Shaq whips him into the scorer's table.

I know. It sickens me to know that SSR and I are sharing a common interest.

It's not just Cubs fans that rip every draft pick their team has and overreacts to every bit of success they have as well. I just remember thinking Casher, with luck, in the short term could be our 7th inning guy on the 2008 Cubs. Instead we had Jeff Samardzija. Either way, I didn't have much long term hope for him other than decent bullpen arm. Props to the Cubs. I don't participate in enough discussions around here. Does the 2008 draft's early returns suggest that Wilken might not be a bust?

No I agree, bring the bandwagon on. Put like you identified, my point was stop yelling things out like you know what your talking about. I still followed the Hawks during the bad years. I could name the top line and then some other players here and there on the team. I didn't go out of my way to watch very many of the games, but I generally knew how the team was doing on a week to week sometimes day to day basis, and I watched all sorts of hockey during that time (I went to UNH for a couple of years which is a huge hockey school who was really good at the time). But yeah, I can't confidently say "I stood by the team during the bad years" like I did with the Bulls, or the Bears in the early 00's, or the Cubs when they have a bad year. Does that make me less of a fan than those stodgy die hards? Maybe, probably. Does it make me enjoy it less knowing that? Not one bit. This stuff happens at every hockey arena in the USA. I've sat next to people in MSG who literally had the game explained to them the entire time. It's the nature of a major sport that is played by only a tiny fraction of the population. In Phoenix the only thing I heard the entire time was "HIT HIM!" when the Blackhawks had the puck, and "Shoot! Shoot it!" when the Coyotes had the puck. If I went to a futbol or cricket match, I'd probably spend the entire time asking people about situations. I totally understand that. It's when people try to sound like they are regular hockey fans and scream out when a team pulls off his goalie for an extra attacker on a delayed penalty that I can't stand. I'm guessing if you were at a futbol game and it was the 90th minute of a 1 goal game with the trailing team taking their time trying to set up their attack you wouldn't start screaming out "WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU NEED TO PUT THE BALL ON NET YOU ONLY HAVE 30 SECONDS LEFT", ignoring the likely presence of stoppage time. Or if a novice baseball fan was watching the Reds play and saw a player sacrifice bunt a runner to second. that fan wouldn't yell out "WHAT ARE DUSTY DOING GIVING AWAY AN OUT THERE ARE ONLY 27 OF THEM IN A GAME?" (oh wait.....im of course kidding on that last one) But maybe I did overreact a bit, I just don't like to feel embarrassed because we already have a bandwagon fan image. And knowing there are hockey mad Vancouver fans going back to canada after the game and telling their friends stories of the stupid chicagoans and their lack of hockey knowledge makes me embarrassed.

I think if you miss the penalty shot you should still get a 2 minute PP. The one thing that is supposed to separate a penalty shot from just a penalty is did the shooter still have a legitimate scoring chance. So if he has a legit scoring chance and doesnt score they still call the penalty. If however the player does not have a scoring chance then he gets the scoring chance with the penalty shot in theory, if he misses it..done. I think if a team could chose they would still take the penalty shot almost every time. My guess is successful penalty shot percentages are a lot better then even the best PP percentages. I think it would be fun if there could somehow be a way to line up the 2 teams on each side board inside the zone where the penalty is taking place, and after a shot it put on net, the teams are allowed to get into position if the shot is saved and rebounded, play continues like normal. Just like they do in soccer. That way not only do you get your breakaway shot again, you at least get some semblance of a rebound opportunity like you would on a traditional breakaway. It's a really far fetched idea, and the logistics might make it impossible to incorporate, but it would be fun to see nonetheless. Fake Edit: 3 players could either line up on each side of the side boards, alternating by team (like how they shoot FTs in basketball) or behind the net, and have 2 players on each team lineup outside the blue line, so you could put your D/Wings there and prevent breakaways.

by beating the Wings they already have kind of ruined it, could have been all 4 teams. If we wanted to have the most traditional semi finals and finals we would have something like Blackhawks/Blues, Red Wings/Kings, Rangers/Bruins, Maple Leafs/Canadiens, then the Blackhawks/Red Wings, Bruins/Canadiens in the semis and whoever wins those ones in the finals. What a great postseason for hockey traditionalists. I would replace the Kings with the Oilers. Sure, I just picked Kings and Blues becuase they (along with the North Stars/Dallas Stars) were WC teams that were part of the original expansion in 1967. But the Oilers were formed only a couple years later.

by beating the Wings they already have kind of ruined it, could have been all 4 teams. If we wanted to have the most traditional semi finals and finals we would have something like Blackhawks/Blues, Red Wings/Kings, Rangers/Bruins, Maple Leafs/Canadiens, then the Blackhawks/Red Wings, Bruins/Canadiens in the semis and whoever wins those ones in the finals. What a great postseason for hockey traditionalists.

No I agree, bring the bandwagon on. Put like you identified, my point was stop yelling things out like you know what your talking about. I still followed the Hawks during the bad years. I could name the top line and then some other players here and there on the team. I didn't go out of my way to watch very many of the games, but I generally knew how the team was doing on a week to week sometimes day to day basis, and I watched all sorts of hockey during that time (I went to UNH for a couple of years which is a huge hockey school who was really good at the time). But yeah, I can't confidently say "I stood by the team during the bad years" like I did with the Bulls, or the Bears in the early 00's, or the Cubs when they have a bad year. Does that make me less of a fan than those stodgy die hards? Maybe, probably. Does it make me enjoy it less knowing that? Not one bit.

I keep forgetting to mention this, so excuse the randomness of this post but... I went to game 5 of the Canucks series, and I swear, I was embarrassed at how dumb the fans around me were. The most glaring example of this was when a delayed penalty was called on the Canucks. When Niemi came out to get the extra attacker on, the person next to me tapped me on the shoulder and said "OMG WHAT IS QUINVILLE DOING, HES ADDING AN EXTRA ATTACKER IN THE FIRST PERIOD! WHY IS HE DOING SOMETHING SO RISKY?" I had to explain why the extra attacker was coming on. Then in the third period this happened again, and this time someone sitting 2 rows in front of me said almost the exact thing. Other than that, I heard people around me wondering outloud why certain whistles were blown (like not understanding offsides), booing the refs for not calling icing during a penalty, and one guy kept bitching about how the Hawks were spending the whole game back tracking when they had the puck, which could possibly be a valid point, but not when they are on a PK and trying to kill as much time as possible. Also not a valid point when it's either kicking the puck back when your in the neutral zone or turning it over and giving the other team an odd man situation. I don't think some people understand that plays are often set up and it's not just fast break end to end hockey all the time. Anyways, maybe I just sat in a bad section, but I was fairly embarrassed to sit with these Hawks "fans". I don't claim to be a huge expert on hockey. Sometimes I am unsure of why the whistle is stopping certain plays (like missing a hand pass or something), sometimes I blame a goal scored on Niemi, when the defense had a breakdown. But I try to keep stuff like that to this board alone, not at the UC, just as I don't go into a science lab and start ripping on the chemists for their work.

Except Jannero Pargo.