squally1313

They decided to be bored in the first half of the game instead of the last half. Dude is pitching a shut out and still over 80 pitches. We'll be fine.

I'm on a flight back to Chicago, trying to keep enough juice to stream the Hawks when I land in an hour. Turned on the wifi and decided to just go through this instead of checking any score apps. I have no idea what the score is, but I was grinning like an idiot reading through this. I love this team so much.

[tweet] [/tweet] Back to the dongs.

Yeah, I think that's right. I vaguely remember that with Rose's first knee injury. The swelling in Rose's knee or vagina? Ha I get it, like he's a girl. Sick burn.

Seconded. You're the man Raisin, et al Agreed. While it's really nice that this is no longer my first stop on NSBB, the effort by the main few of you has been amazing over the years, and it'll be good to follow this as a nice side dish to the main course.

holy crap, i always figured him as a mouth breather but that surpassed my expectations I didn't like the "its just one win and we were partying like it was a playoff series win" He was great at the Convention though. Kind of a jerk to Lester, I mean really slamming him, but you got the vibe that they have the kind of relationship that could support it. I'm trying really hard to like him. A solid performance tonight would go a long way. I would have loved it if one of them would have been like 'well I/you saw first hand last October when the Cubs donged all over my/your face'

I guess we know who wanted Drake out of the clubhouse... [tweet] [/tweet]

Charles Nagy! Must have missed him last night. Those mid 90s Indians were so much fun.

Dong. And he knew it.

The lesson as always...

Pitches two good innings with only one baserunner. Still throws 33 pitches. Only downside is the three guys up for us next inning might be the worst first three combination we put out all year.

Let's go boys. Dongs away.

With Mr. Top of the Scoreboard sitting in the on deck circle and Mr. I reached base my first 37 plate appearances of the post season waiting after that...

For the game or the season? I think that's my prediction for both.

This might be NSFW, so apologies in advance to anyone who gets in trouble or needs some privacy after viewing this. [tweet] [/tweet] Edit: If anyone is a Katie Nolan fan, it's worth clicking through the tweet to see her responses.

The Committed Indian thinks he will get 7 games. http://thecommittedindian.com/way-run-railroad/ Reading that site over the last month has been quite depressing. Yeah it's been a tough read. I've paid for their program online the last few years because I really enjoy their analysis and pop culture references (plus it's a great way to kill an afternoon 41-50 times a year), but it seems like they've focused most of their attention to criticizing the organization over the last few months. Some of their articles as the Kane story were developing probably don't hold up too well in hindsight, and now you know if they're writing an article it's going to be critical, and usually not about the actual hockey being played. Not that they don't have a point to take the views they are, I just think at a certain point it gets to be a bit much, especially considering the owe most of their income to the team while appearing to try to drive people away. I agree on the 7 games though, which it this point might be a fatal blow to any playoff chances they had.

Revenge porn* prospect, just in case anyone reads that without knowing the background, but yeah, been a rough year all things considered. Wasn't the classiest move by the Hawks to drop the press release reinstating that prospect at around 10:30 last night, essentially on a technicality (was in Michigan where the crime occured, and it's only a felony in Illinois). No suspension or anything that I've seen as of yet.

From the NHL Website FAQ about the process (https://www.nhl.com/news/department-of-player-safety-faqs/c-738846): What is a "Repeat Offender"? A Player is considered a repeat offender for 18 months following his most recent incident that resulted in a suspension. His status as a repeat offender in this category is used to determine the amount of salary forfeited should he receive another suspension. It is important to note that even if a Player is not defined as a repeat offender, his past history may come into consideration when determining future Supplemental Discipline.

He should get more but unless the NHL deems this to be particularly brutal, I think the playoffs coming up plays a role in the length of the suspension. Either way, idiotic move by Keith. Honestly, other than the result of the victim, is this much different then Marty McSorley's slash that I believe got him arrested? This is a league that gave 10 games (They gave him 20 but reduced it to 10) to a guy that took out a ref with an elbow to the head. The NHL wants the Hawks to make it out of the first round. They can't do that without Keith so he gets the rest of the regular season. He's got priors (honestly, in hindsight it's pretty egregious that he only got 1 game for the Carter slash, but I guess that speaks to your point), and it was pretty intentional. What sealed it for me was after the play when he was making a falling motion, almost to imply that his stick flew up as he was falling to the ice, which clearly wasn't what happened. Either that, or he was intimating that Coyle was trying to sell the call, which is pretty ridiculous given that his nose is clearly broken. I'm guessing 7 games, and I'm already dreading the standing ovation he'll get in game 3 when he comes back. Probably the most important player on the ice over these years, but a couple too many really dirty plays to really defend him much here.

Yeah Q has been saying things like "he could be back by the start of the playoffs". Nothing definite. Could we win a cup with Darling and a deep defensive group? Yes. With 1.5 solid pairings? No way. The Hawks will not win a Cup with Darling as the main goaltender. The back end of their D, is slightly better this year than last, although that isnt saying much. The main difference this year and last has more to do with the lack of 5-5 production and puck possession. I don't know what to think, last year at the start of the playoffs I thought they were ripe for a first round exit, and they went and won the Cup. This year I feel they are ripe for a first round exit, but them winning the Cup as long as Crawford is back would not surprise me either. The bottom pairing is maybe slightly better this year than last year, but the middle pairing is significantly worse. Unless Seabrook has been seriously pacing himself all year for the playoffs, he's taken a significant step back, and forced Hammer up on the top pairing. Last year you had Hammer and Oduya to shut down the other teams top lines and let Keith have all the offensive freedom he wanted. Now Keith is having to shut down the top lines and we are getting no push from anywhere else. Last years bottom pairing was pretty terrible, but they also played about 7 minutes a game because all of the top four were playing 25+ minutes. Keither and Hammer can play those minutes this year (assuming Keith's suspension doesn't run into the playoffs), but no one else has shown they can handle that responsibility. Let's hope whatever is wrong with Crawford he's using the time to rest up, because we're going to need his best (and then maybe some more).

An Addison breakout offensive year would be extremely cool and also be a good offset against whatever sophomore slump we may end up seeing (not that we need an offset).

I'd love to see that second group get some time. That fourth line can hopefully play the shutdown line, or at least shutting down the other teams second line while Toews' takes out their top one. I still think if we fall behind in the series, Q is going to switch Anisimov and Toews. He kept Saad/Toews/Kane for desperate situations last year, and Kane/Toews/Hossa in the couple years before that. I think this year 72/19/88 is his ace in the hole. Leaving Fleischmann and Hossa with Anisimov isn't the worst situation then either. Not that this is news, but I think the pairings are going to be far more important. Need to find some way to cobble together an effective second pairing behind some version of Hammer, Seabs, and Keith. We've shown we can win with dead bodies on the third pairing, but need someone to step up and take 20 minutes a game.

Yeah then we'd be in trouble if that was the case. If NMCs are as prevelant around the league as they are for the Hawks (probably not quite to the same extent), there'd be a lot of young talent available. We'd be able to protect Panarin and Anisimov or Kruger, and not much else.

As someone mentioned above, this exercise gets a lot easier if they 100% determine that players with no movement clauses can't be picked. I don't know how common those are across the league, but that article made it seem like they were trying to get more talent to the expansion teams. If they can't pick no movement guys and other teams are similar to the Hawks, I can't imagine them getting many good players. From Capfriendly.com, Toews, Kane, Hossa, Seabrook, Keith, Hammer, and Crawford all have NMC or NTCs. Going by one goalie, 8 skaters, you'd end up with: Darling or whoever their best goalie prospect is Anisimov Kruger Teuvo Panarin (assuming KHL counts as professional experience) TVR Gustafsson Hartmann??? McNeill???

Awesome, definitely keep us updated.