squally1313

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.

That random dude on reddit who's probably an old NSBBer is going to be so happy. For reference:

So guys, for probably just my own benefit, I'm going to try and sum this up. We won 97 games last year. We replaced Soler with Heyward. We replaced Haren with Lackey. We replaced Coghlan with Zobrist. We replaced Denorfia with Soler. We replaced Herrera with Baez. We replaced Motte with Warren. Is this good?

Well damn...feeling kinda crummy for Cogs now. I thought it was widely assumed he had indirectly or directly asked for this. He's made it clear in the past he wants a starter job, and after last season he probably deserves one. This move is probably best for his career now that he would have been our fifth outfielder, but still a bit depressing if he didn't see it coming.

Eh, if Montero only ends up with 100 or so starts, that's not the worst thing in the world. He was on a skid going into his injury in July, and he didn't give us much of anything in the playoffs. Assuming Schwarber keeps developing behind the plate, giving him more starts and keeping Montero fresh for the stretch run works for me.

Not that I really care, but not sure how this works. If Dexter is the one that opts out, does he still get the buy-out money?

God I hope everyone else in baseball hates us soooo much this year.

SPORTS BONER ALERT Yeah, he screwed up. It's actually better.

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If this is a long way of saying David Ross shouldn't be on the roster, great, you're the first person who has ever had that thought. But he's the backup catcher. Yes, he sucks. So does pretty much every other backup catcher. If every team in baseball has the same 'problem', is it really a problem? And like others have said, you could make the argument that our starting catcher going down probably affects us less than most other teams, given that we aren't relying on him for much offense at all and have multiple options who can fill the spot.

When you have 2 of the top 5 players on Earth and evaluate talent well, it's going to be hard to be anything less. I've only seen them a couple times this year, but I think they are more explosive than they may have ever been. At times, yes, but there have been stretches where Kane's line was the only one scoring. Toews and Hossa are both having sub par seasons for them. Shaw is not the answer on the top line and the bottom pair on defense ranges from barely adequate to awful. Don't get me wrong, it's been a lot of fun to see them beat up on teams lately. To repeat, they're going to need another defenseman and a real solution at 1LW. The defense question will have to be addressed, unless Gustafsson far and away exceeds our expectations. Rozsival is an average third pair guy now, but we saw how much he wore down at the end of last season. Not sure what the solution is, but hopefully another Cup chasing guy pops up here in the next month or so, and works out better than Kimmo did (not that it ended up mattering). As far as the offense goes, I don't think you're going to an external solution for 1LW that's affordable and better than what we have now. Unless you're somehow able to fleece Tampa Bay for Drouin (and I think there are too many teams interested for that to happen), there's not much available with our cap situation. However, I think that line goes as Toews and Hossa goes. If this is really a step back year for them, we're in a lot of trouble. If they're pacing themselves during the long season and go back to normal in May and June...it doesn't really matter who is next to them. Yeah, it's not going to be Saad, but with our second and third lines showing the production they're providing now, we might not need that. We all know Q likes to hold on to 'trump cards' for the playoffs. There's been some talk lately about how the Kane line has generally been getting killed possession wise, but just been more than able to make up for it by capitalizing on their chances. I think if it gets dicey in the playoffs, Q switches Toews and Anisimov. Toews gives them a better face off guy, and a better ability to get the puck back. It's just a hunch, but I think Anisimov and Hossa will play well together, especially in the playoffs when space gets limited. Throw someone like Dano out next to them, and I think the offense will be fine.

Piscotty's 2015 Triple A OPS, which occurred with a significant sample size of over 300 AB's, was about the same as his MLB OPS. As for Grichuk his minor league OPS average was 818. His MLB 2015 OPS was 877. This again was with a nice MLB sample size of 323 plate appearances. And the increase was due to more power, which develops later in careers for many players. I don't think its beyond the realm of possibility at all that each puts together an OPS of around 850, which would be well above league average. That's not how that works. See Bryant, Kris and Schwarber, Kyle.

I know Coghlan makes a bit more money than you would like for a back up outfielder, but assuming we're alright on the financial side as things currently stand, I wouldn't mind him sticking around. If we are going to stick with Heyward in center, I'm still somewhat hesitant about handing over 600 PAs in RF to Soler. He's had lingering injury problems in the past, usually struggles in the cold weather, and really outside of the last few weeks wasn't entirely impressive in 2015. Keeping Coghlan around to spot start against the tougher righties, or as a pinch hitter late in games seems to hold a decent amount of value. Sign an all glove outfielder for the 5th spot and call it a day out there (unless Baez thrives there and can fill that role too). The only other variable with this is that Coghlan complained last year about how he thought he was playing well enough to be a starter (which, in his defense, he was). Joe/Theo would have to convince him to buy into that role.