brinoch

Keep hearing/reading tons of rumors that an end to the lockout is close. I'll believe it when I see it.

Ignoring the Purdue/Illinois game for a moment, I don't see how anybody disagrees that that B1G officiating is awful. I completely agree that the level of physicality in the B1G versus the NCAA tournament is a huge disadvantage to B1G teams. It's just a fact that home teams have a HUGE advantage over their visitors. I've only very rarely seen where a home team gets jobbed by the officials (usually in the form of Ted Valentine, but not always). How do you think Michigan St. has has such an enormous rebounding edge at home? Wisconsin's unbelievable home record? I could go on. It's been like this for as long as I can remember -- and that's longer than I care to think about.

Illinois is going to have an extremely tough time in the Big 10 if the refs let teams play this physical (read "foul constantly") against them. True, but when your offense is predicated on taking outside shots combined with no real inside threat, you reduce your chances of drawing fouls. Yeah, but again with our roster construction what choice do we reall have? The big thing is they have to call it even. You can't call us for touch fouls while allowing purdue to hold and grab every drive. B1G on the road team. It's pretty bad.

I'm very excited for the B1G season to start... man, the conference is really stacked -- going on the road is going to be a gauntlet.

While I agree with your overall point, that seems a rather natural match-up. We (every Iowa fan i knew as a kid) all hated Nebraska. That was the first cfb team I ever truly hated. I don't even know why. I get the geographic proximity but it was a team we hadn't played regularly in like forever. There are a number of Midwest teams that haven't been regulars on Iowa's schedule. Nebraska just isn't a fit for the big ten, outside of football. Just curious, how are they are worse fit for the big 10 than, say, Iowa? Seriously? You mean Iowa, the school with a top 30 law program and top 30 medical school? Located in a great college town? I think Nebraska is the only big ten school not in the AAU, right? That's correct. What's really ironic about Nebraska joining the Big Ten is that they actually WERE an AAU school when they joined the Big Ten, but lost the status shortly thereafter.

? Seriously, go away. Let me make sure I understand what you are saying... Theo, et al, get no credit for acquiring Rizzo? Because anyone would have done that? Man, you LOVE Hendry, don't you?

Move to the West Coast. After growing up in NW Indiana with the 12:00 PM/3:00 PM times ingrained in my head, and then living in Bloomington, Atlanta and then DC with 1:00 PM/4:00 PM start times, I LOVE the 10:00 AM start. And those 8:30 PM games? They start at 5:30 PM. Lovely.

I loved Dewayne Staats. Because, you know, stats. And the hair.

This cracked me up -- I'm reading the thread after the game and I was thinking the same thing until the Bears blew up in the second half. That first half was pretty awful.

Love it.

Terrible decision by the refs, though. Still dumb, regardless.

Great article. Thanks for posting that.

Beckerman starting is really all that you need to know. It was atrocious.

Spurs!!!

At least the third former Hoosier from the 90s to die. Really sad. Who else has died? Jason Collier and Will Gladness.

Fantastic.

That won't happen. The Hawks score plenty already. They really don't need scoring as much as defense/goaltending. With the contracts that are flying around out there for defense, I'd put a qualifying offer out on Shea Weber.

Not much you can do there -- they both went for a ton of money to the Wild. Hawks made a good run. But... the Wild. Weird.

And? I like this argument. Who is the best forward on the Hawks, Hossa or Toews? The fact that this could even be debated demonstrates seanimal's point. Frankly, the Hawks don't have any bad contracts among the core. They have some annoying overpays, but terrible overpays, for guys like Frolik, Olesz, and Hjalmarsson. And possibly Crawford.

Yes. This.

There are tons of rumors swirling that Hjalmarsson will be traded, along with pursuit of Ryan Suter.

I think if the Theo/Hoyer were interested in Headley this winter, they'll still be interested if he is, in fact, available. Ignoring the pitching for the moment, there are 3 trouble spots: 3B, C, and CF. Getting a guy in his prime, if you don't overpay for him, would be a great boon for the team. We've tried relying on hyped prospects before, and it's a crapshoot (though less of one now that competent people are in the front office). Yes, go build the pipeline and stock the farm, but also be willing to go out and get a really good player when you have the chance.

I haven't posted in a game thread in ... years? But Rizzo even has us left-coasters all hot and bothered.

He's not a 2-way player and never will be. He doesn't play defense at all and of course his scoring has dropped for 2 years. Not saying they should dump him, but see if someone will overvalue him and we could get some players. Kane's scoring dropped this year because he was asked to play center rather than wing. That was a huge adjustment for him, and naturally affected his scoring. But his defense was much improved -- when Kane started in the defensive zone, 54% of the time, play ended in the offensive zone. That's 37th among forwards in the NHL. For comparison, Toews was 13th with 56.2% and Sharp was 14th with 56.1%. For a guy you say isn't a two-way player, that's really damn good. I didn't have that stat to back it up with, but that was just my feeling from watching him at center. Sure he had his lapses, but for a guy who isn't a natural center, that's understandable. But I saw a whole lot of instances where he busted it to make a strong defensive play. The way the Hawks play you can't have a shy, tentative winger who is afraid of going in the corners. Kaner just hangs back too much. He's not a center but heard that Stan Bowman is pushing Q to leave him there. Big mistake. Oh well, time to get to Lawrence some time-get some Joe's donuts. Kane is anything but a tentative winger. He's aggressive and excellent with the puck. Kane looks tentative because he's such a phenomenal skater and elusive as hell. He's also durable, too. To give you a sense: Kane played more games this year (and last year) than Toews, Bolland and Hossa. Honestly, this conversation getting really meatball-y on the other end, with observations unsupported by stats or reality. Advanced statistics exist for hockey as well -- it's harder to measure, but they are there. And Kane is a guy you want on your team (particularly at his team friendly cap hit). The Hawks would be incredibly short-sighted to trade Kane for anything less than a king's ransom. Besides, one of the real reasons the Hawks struggled is the same reason that Vancouver and Detroit struggled this year (in the playoffs). The NHL is allowing more interference as well as clutching and grabbing go uncalled. Finesse teams suffer when they can't skate as freely.

Signing a huge contract for Pujols or Fielder didn't look to be a great deal, particularly since we were able to get Rizzo from the Pads. But making a deal now for Headley (with the big caveat that he's available for a decent price) gives you a chance to compete in '13 and sets you up very nice in '14. The unfortunate reality is that our system just isn't that great when it comes to pitching prospects. And it probably won't be in time to compete in '14 or '15. So why not go for Headley now and grab an arm or two during free agency? I don't doubt that Rizzo might struggle and that Soriano might regress -- but at the same time, you're asking for a lot of patience when you sacrifice the 2012, 2013 and potentially 2014 seasons. Adding a good 3B really makes CF and C the weak spots in the lineup, and if Soto can get healthy he's shown that he can be above average. I realize that, almost certainly, Headley isn't available for a reasonable price. But it could be a great move -- setting the Cubs up to compete fairly soon, with a talent pipeline giving consistent improvements to the team over the long-term. And waiting until Year 4 of the Theo/Hoyer regime to compete for a playoff spot is too long when there are ways to build a winner and set up the pipeline simultaneously.