Hairyducked Idiot

We are the Flyers of the World Cup.

So U.S. wins the group, I believe.

So deserved!

Handball.

Honestly? Not that much. FIFA doesn't care that much about money. Oh so there is a very good chance that we could get to host our 2nd world cup in 30 years because why? Because you are reading about it in the U.S. fanboi press. They aren't getting the World Cup.

Honestly? Not that much. FIFA doesn't care that much about money.

If this is how they go out, at least they looked the best I've seen them in a World Cup. Dangerous against anyone they played, capable of some nice play. Their luck has just been awful. That's just how this sport works sometimes.

The Italian feed I'm watching gave a pretty good replay that made me think he was offside by a hair.

Pierre LeBrun is reporting the Blackhawks want a first-round pick and a prospect for Byfuglien. Either Bowman is a genius or he is ridiculously overvaluing his players. I don't see how anyone will give him that.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nhl/news/story?id=5315836 Bowman doesn't say much, but basically confirms he is alive and not sleeping through this whole thing.

If anyone's ever met an athlete of any type, I suspect they'll have trouble believing those guys give two farts about the 100+ year thing. That's a fan issue, not a player issue.

Doing some fiddling right now on gapgeek. The official cap will come out later this week, likely Friday, but early reports are that it's somewhere between $59 and $59.75 million. I'm going to go with $59.5 million, and assume the Blackhawks will take a $3.5 million hit due to the bonus cap issues (estimates have gone anywhere from $2-4 million, only the NHL knows for sure). So our cap for next year would be about $56 million. I still think we'll have to choose between Niemi and Hjalmarsson. I'd prefer Hammer to stay and Niemi to go. There's a flood of goalies on the market this offseason and a lot of teams have some young guys they want to give jobs to. So I think it's very likely you'll see the Blackhawks wait till the end of the offseason and find some vet who has lost the musical chairs game and sign them to a cheap one-year deal. AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Patrick Kane ($6.300m) / Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) Marian Hossa ($5.275m)/ Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m) Kyle Beach ($1.171m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / / * Jack Skille ($0.950m) * Cheap F ($0.750m) /* Colin Fraser ($0.850m) / * Bryan Bickell ($0.650m) Jake Dowell ($0.525m) DEFENSEMEN Duncan Keith ($5.538m)/ Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) Brian Campbell ($7.143m) / * Niklas Hjalmarsson ($3.250m) * Cheap D ($0.900m) / * Jordan Hendry ($0.725m) * Cheap D ($0.600m) GOALTENDERS * Cheap G ($1.250m) / Corey Crawford ($0.800m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (no bonus cushion is used in these calculations) ROSTER: 22; CAP: $56.5m; PAYROLL: $55.977m; CAP ROOM: $0.523m Edit to move them around into actual lines

The NHL PA has voted to extend the salary cap by the 5%, and the official number for next season looks like it will be a little over $59 million, about $1 million higher than reported previously. This is *fantastic* news for the Blackhawks. Every little bit of breathing room helps, and I think they may even be able to qualify at least one guy without moving any salary (although they'd like to qualify all of them, so still expect them to move some guys in the next few days).

Finally! Someone who gets it.

They may still be hoping to package him in a trade with a valuable player. I just don't see how. He was completely awful in the second half, and there's a billion goalies on the market this offseason. Plus, I don't think anyone on the Blackhawks is *that* valuable. They have some nice players, but all of them are getting paid pretty much what they are worth, so there's no extra value.

Huet to the minors seems like a foregone conclusion, but nobody has actually confirmed with the Hawks that they'd be willing to do it. But it's hard to imagine them fielding a roster if they don't.

Mexico has to be getting nervous. Suck it, Mexico soccer team.

Capgeek isn't working for me right now, but I think that roster is doable *if* the players vote the escalator in and *if* Niemi and Hjalmarsson sign a little on the cheap side of projections.

Players association not saying anything about the cap vote. GMs getting nervous: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/gms-anxiously-await-next-years-salary-cap/article1612590/

Honestly, I wouldn't want to drop Campbell's contract for nothing. You can't win a championship without some overpaid players. There just aren't enough good players who aren't overpaid to be found. The cap issues should be much, much better next season. The bonus cap hit means we will have to deal with all the problems this season and should be in good shape next season.

No word yet. They voted, but I don't know when the results will be announced.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=325320 Sounds to me like they are trying to raise the price for Sharp. Playing hard to get. But if this is legit, I'd be fine if the only guys we lost were Ladd, Steeg and Buff. There's no way that can be all they lose. The math just doesn't work.

Ramirez is about to turn 32, is an infielder and has a history of nagging injuries. A lot of people predicted he could be a collapse candidate.

I guess their point is you get a servicable and cheaper D player back, as well as a forward with upside and also cheaper. There are 2 ways you can look at what the Hawks have to do, you can trade for slightly lesser skilled veterans for your younger and more skilled players, of you can try to use this situation to stockpile prospects draft picks and younger players that haven't reached their potential yet. I think the Hawks are looking more of the later. I just don't want to be trading $7 million defensemen for worse $5 million defensemen, or $4 million forwards for worse $3 million forwards. I want super-cheap young players or nothing at all.

http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=532168 Rumor: Kaberle and Grabovski for Sharp and Campbell. I don't like it, personally. I feel like we lose too much for not enough cap gain. We can save on the cap by moving guys like Versteeg and Byfuglien without losing near as much on the ice.