brinoch

It's very sad that there isn't a game tonight. That's the only downer, if one can call it as such, of winning the Cup. I'll take the Cup, thank you. I have that game on my DVR and can watch it at will (plus the Game 5 highlights against Nashville). I think if someone offers more than the 2nd round offer sheet (4 million), you have to let him go.

There's a lot more action in soccer than in football -- by time of play, at least. I think it has caught on here. It's not to the level of the big three yet, but ESPN wouldn't be doing what it is doing if it weren't popular.

Yeah, it was the right call. A good rule of thumb on handballs is to ask: if you take the arm away, what would have happened? If your answer includes hitting the potential offender's body, then you generally wouldn't call it.

There's the first red of the tournament. Hopefully our boys will see that and be reminded to be careful.

USA is better than either of these sides (France or Uruguay).

Wow. RSA hit the post in the 90th minute.

Mexico is even!! Goal!

I'm torn. I want Mexico to do well to help the Confederation in future Cups... but I hate that team.

GOAL for RSA!!!

Beautiful.

Yeah, ultimately I think it depends on how much Hjalmarsson and Niemi get. I think they'll keep Sharp and Byfuglien. Ladd and Versteeg will be traded. I could see the Hawks trading high on any of Bolland, Versteeg and Byfuglien. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

I wouldn't overreact just yet. Enjoy the moment. We don't know what Toews' actual bonus situation was, we don't know how much room was left under the cap, and we don't know what the cap will be next year.

I believe so. I think that Duffie is incorrect. Here's an HF Board thread that discusses Toews' and Kane's bonuses from earlier in the year: http://hfboards.ca/showthread.php?t=723475&page=6

You gotta be [expletive] me? How has no one thought of this/mentioned this before? From http://www.nhlscap.com/cap_faq.htm: BONUSES With a few exceptions, players may only earn roster, reporting, or signing bonuses under the new CBA. Entry-level players may earn bonuses for certain awards and performance (Exhibit 5) bonuses. (Page of those bonuses coming shortly.) Players 35 and older as of June 30 who sign a contract for the immediately following League Year may earn performance bonuses, as well as players with 400 or more games played and who spent 100 or more days on injured reserve in the last year of their most recent contract; however, in these two cases, performance bonuses are only allowed for 1-year contracts. If players in these two categories sign a multi-year contract, they cannot earn performance bonuses. When teams calculate how much room they have under the cap to add players, any potential bonuses that a player can earn must be included in the player's cap count. For 2005-06 through 2007-08, teams could exceed the Upper Limit by up to 7.5% [the "Performance Bonus Cushion"] in order to pay such bonuses (for 2007-08, teams could effectively have an Upper Limit of $54,072,500) with the provision that any team doing this would have its Upper Limit reduced for the following season by the amount it exceeds the current year's Upper Limit. If the bonus is not paid, no penalty is imposed. [As mentioned above, the Performance Bonus Cushion is not available in 2008-09.] As the season progresses, if a player becomes ineligible for a bonus it will come off the player's cap count and that amount will become available to the team - but only for that season. For bonuses contracted before the new CBA that are to be paid under the new CBA, those bonuses do not count toward the team's salary cap and are not considered in the calculation of a player's cap number. Only bonuses contracted under the new CBA will count toward the team's salary cap and will be considered in the calculation of a player's cap number.

DUDE!!! Roenick is CRYING!!!

Awesome. Just awesome. Thank you, Blackhawks, for a wonderful season. And a Stanley Cup. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, we were far, far better than Australia. Findley missed an absolute sitter -- seriously, anyone could have put that in. He also blew that 2 on zero breakaway. Plus the disallowed Dempsey goal was awful officiating (and Findley should have buried that, too). It really is no exaggeration to say that the US should have had 6. Because really and truly, they should have. Australia held possession sometimes, but to no real purpose. The defensive marking was tough and needs work. I think both sides had a hard time tracking the flight of the ball, and the sun made things tough for both sides. Cahill did what he does best. He buried his chance. Full credit to him. Just a quick comment about the Midfield: Bradley looked fantastic today. Clark was ... not good. The narrow field limited Donovan and Dempsey somewhat, but they still were dangerous and effective. Gomez and Buddle finished. Findley didn't. He's also not that confident on the ball -- he's much slower when he's dribbling than just running. Still, we ran a couple of nice counters that were very precise, with excellent vision and passing. Very pleasing to watch. Watching this game, I don't see Australia advancing. And I am much less worried about Slovenia and Algeria. They will be tough games, sure, but we should beat them.

Seriously, there was a lot to like in that game. The sky isn't falling. If they stop taking stupid penalties, the Hawks win. Two posts in period one.

You play kickball every week. The Blackhawks never gone for a 3-0 lead in the SCF in your lifetime. True..the tease is that I think I can do both. I always think I can do both. I say I have a legit 50% chance of making it home after the game without hearing the score. Once I get to that point I can fastforward through the commercials and intermission until I catch up, but I won't be able to be on NSBB or any other Hawks forums during the game. I do this all the time -- for a lot of games (including most of the Shark series and part of Game 2). The hazards of my job and a two year old.

I don't know any Philly fans personally, but this description definitely fits the ones I've come across online. blackhawk fans are probably not in a great position to talk about not paying attention until their team is good. I'm not going to judge Philly fans because, frankly, I don't know very many. But Truffle, this is a remarkably ignorant statement. There's a reason that the Hawks were drawing no one for years -- Bill Wirtz and the worst professional team in sports. Hockey is and was popular in Chicago -- the Wolves were outdrawing the Hawks because Wirtz spat on the fan base and many, like me, swore off the team until there was new ownership. I grew up a huge fan -- mostly listening to games on the radio -- but watching (err... listening to) Dollar Bill and Zombie Pulford dismantle the talented teams and trade off the expensive players was too much. This is a man, remember, who famously thought winning the Stanley Cup cost too much money.

Well, we suffered some real blows with the loss of Davies and Onyewu clearly hasn't recovered. We never really truly solved the LB problem, and our depth is poor -- particularly on defense. There are some bright spots in the midfield, but I think we're worse than we were last summer. I think the team will score goals, but with the defense as it is we're going leak goals as well. We should still advance from the Group, though.

I agree. The only thing I can imagine is that Ching is just not healthy enough. To me, that's the only acceptable reason to take Findley over him. Findley is unlikely to see the field, but Bob wants speed to counter-attack. Frankly, if is true that Ching is unhealthy, I probably would have taken Bedoya as an additional winger (moving Clint up top or into a withdrawn role).

USMNT Official World Cup Roster GK (3) -- Howard, Hahnemann, Guzan D (7) -- Bocanegra, Bornstein, Cherundolo, DeMerit, Goodson, Onyewu, Spector MF (9) -- Beasley, Bradley, Clark, Dempsey, Donovan, Edu, Feilhaber, Holden, Torres F (4) -- Altidore, Buddle, Findley, Gomez

I thought Ching looked very good last night. A year ago, I saw little use for Ching, but his game has strengths and I think he could play a role on this team.

That pretty much echoes what I thought of the game as well. I thought Torres, Holden and Edu did a good job. Beasley still has no touch. Ching added a very nice dimension in the attack, and seeing it after a half of EJ really highlighted his strengths. Gooch looked rusty and bad. Goodson was solid. Pearce, well, he was awful. I wasn't impressed by Guzan, either. I thought he was too reactive and should have cut off the ball on Pearce Goal #1.