Saturday, May 30, 2009

What the Blackhawks need to do this off-season

1. Re-sign Martin Havlat.

A year ago, he wouldn't have been worth keeping. He wasn't producing as well as he should have and was constantly injured. However, this year, he ended up points-leader for the team and was the most clutch player they had, regular or post-season. Havlat is not only a good player, he's a veteran with tons of experience--something this young team needs. Get him back in the line-up.

2. Re-sign Nikolai Khabibulin.
Again, a year ago, I was pushing for the Blackhawks to dump out the trash. Nikolai, like Havlat, was injury-prone, and featured extreme streakiness (i.e. a 10-game losing streak last season). I was ecstatic when the Hawks signed Cristobal Huet last summer. He played well at the beginning of the year. Nik and Cris really battled it out for the starting job. Khabi seemed to get better, while Huet seemed to become an AHL-level goalie. Nik proved to be the Hawks most stable goalie, not to mention their best. And, let's not kid ourselves. If we depend on Huet to be our starting goalie, we'll have no chance next year. Keep Khabi around for a year or two more and see how long he plays at this level.
3. Work on the defense.
No doubt, the Hawks are deep at this position. The immaculate pairing of Seabrook and Keith; add to that, Cam Barker and Brian Campbell. Two others surprised us with their skill--Nicholas Hjalmarson and Matt Walker, called up this year. However, the defense was one of the biggest problems when playing Detroit. Seabrook turned the puck over twice in the series to give up breakaway goals. Campbell did the same thing to lose in overtime. The worst part? They were in their offensive zone when they turned it over. Work on passing on the blue-line.
4. I'm not clear on contract rules and such, but, if possible, give contract extensions to Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. They're your all-stars. Toews took a while to heat up this year, but once he did, he proved he was a big enough man to wear the "C" on his chest--the youngest ever to do so, in NHL history. Patrick Kane started hot, and then cooled off as the season wore on. However, he was a big part of the Blackhawks playoff offense. Scoring 9 goals--including 3 he put behind Luongo in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
I'm looking forward to a great season next year. Hopefully we can make it to the Cup next time around.

Friday, May 29, 2009

The Packers should trade Kampman.


Yeah, I said it. No, I'm not crazy. His trade value would be high right now after being voted to the Pro Bowl in '06 and '07. He's nowhere near the end of his career and is not coming off of a devastating injury.

So why trade him then? He's not transitioning to the 3-4 very well, evidenced by his multiple refusals to talk to reporters. Kampman is too high priced to have him struggle, he needs to be a standout for what he's getting paid. The defense is going to struggle horribly this year anyway because of the switch to the 3-4. It won't help that good 'ol Ted didn't get around to signing any veterans with 3-4 experience. It's doubtful that Kampman was really excited about the change anyway, according the the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Kampman is a creature of habit and has never liked change. Last season he was given free reign to switch from his normal left end spot over to the right side. Kampman only did so sparingly in one late-season game."

This also might be, or may become, a money issue with Kampman. According to a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article Kampman is in the last year of his contract and may not want his production to drop due to a new position at a contract year. I'd spin it the other way. I'd say why not trade him before we have to pay big bucks on the cap-less free agent market next year?

Look, I love Kampman. And I seriously doubt the Packers will trade him. Further, I really hope he's an awesome OLB in the 3-4 scheme. I just think he's getting paid a little too much for things to be this dicey, and it may be better for the team as a whole if the trade him and get a sure commodity in return.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Good one.


Pretty good parody of ESPN, and it makes fun of the NHL in a pretty hilarious way:

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/nhl_tries_to_woo_fans_by

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Monday, May 18, 2009

Gah...


According to my sources Brett Favre intends to have shoulder surgery. Which means he intends to return to the NFL, again. Which means that he intends to play for the Minnesota Vikings.

What does this mean? It means Favre still wants revenge on TT. It means Favre is gonna tarnish his reputation by playing for the rival, and having a terrible season. It means that it's gonna be way less enjoyable for me to watch the NFL this year.

Friday, May 15, 2009

The Table is Set

Make no mistake, these teams hate each other. I hate the Red Wings more than any other professional sports team on Earth. Now is the time when I will reach the peak of hatred: the Western Conference Finals. I thought that the Winter Classic was going to be the highest-prized match between the two this year, but there is literally no higher stakes that the two most-heated Western Conference rivals can play for; a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.


You thought their regular season meetings were tough? You're in for a surprise. I can only imagine the kinds of vicious hits and cheap shots we'll see starting Sunday afternoon.


Somethings to be hopeful about:


Osgood is not as good as Luongo

Let's be honest, we just faced one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. We still managed to produce games where we put 6 and 7 pucks in the net. Let's be a little more honest, Osgood hasn't played as well this year as he has in years past. For large parts of the season, the Red Wings used their back-up (former Penguins starter), Ty Conklin. When the playoffs started, everyone was asking, "Will Osgood start?" The Red Wings were forced to defend their veteran and announcing that they trusted him to do a good job. He played well enough against the Blue Jackets as the Red Wings swept them in 4. However, the Ducks weren't so easy to shut down, and they barely made the playoffs (much like the Blue Jackets). Granted, the Ducks were on a hot streak, but I think our forwards will have a better time against the Red Wings.


Detroit has to be tired.
They just got done struggling in a seven games series against the Ducks. They get two days rest and it's back to the ice. Meanwhile, the Blackhawks have been done since Monday, just waiting for the other teams to wrap up their series.


Experience vs. Youth?
So many people have brought this up in the playoffs already. The Blackhawks are the youngest team in the league. This means that many of them have not played in the playoffs before, with some exceptions (Andrew Ladd, Brian Campbell, Nikolai Khabibulin to name a few). However, when you point out their inexperience due to their youth, you must also account for the positive side of being a young team. They're fast! Vancouver even admitted that our guys can move. Yes, across the ice we see a very experienced team, but we also see an older, slower team. Beyond speed, the Blackhawks recover quicker. A day off is about all they need to re-energize for another game. We'll see how this compares to Detroit's recovery ability. Lastly, and probably most weakly, Patrick Kane has said throughout the last series that since they're so young, they don't know any better than to come back from game they are behind. I've already pointed out in past posts how the Blackhawks have come back from 1, 2, and even 3 goal deficits in games during these playoffs.

Special Teams
The Blackhawks have been awesome on the power play in the playoffs, scoring a little more than 29% of the time. If you don't watch hockey, I'll let you know, I don't think anyone was that high for a regular season total. Even though the Red Wings are good on the power play as well, their penalty kill hasn't been stellar. I think this might give the Blackhawks a little bit of an edge.


There's plenty that Detroit has to bring to the table, as well:


I'm going to go ahead and counter my last argument. The experience these guys have is ridiculous. I know I just down-played the Red Wings experience, but it does play a roll. I mean, we're talking about guys who have played in multiple Stanley Cup Finals series' and won. More importantly, they were together on this very same team while doing it. This poses a terrible threat to the Blackhawks.


The Red Wings are stacked. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Marian Hossa, Nicklas Lidstrom. I could keep going, but that's enough for now. And unlike the Yankees this year, who have all the right players, but no chemistry, these guys have been playing together and winning championships together (except for Hossa) for years and have plenty of chemistry.

They've had our number this year.
The Blackhawks were 0-4 against them this year until the final two games of the regular season, which was a home-and-home between the two where the Blackhawks picked up two wins. However, by the end of the season, the Red Wings had already wrapped up the Division and weren't really playing for anything. The only thing the Blackhawks really have to be hopeful about is that they know they can beat the Red Wings, and also, they went 2-2-2 against them, forcing the Red Wings to OT twice.

Series starts tomorrow in Joe Louis Arena on NBC. Let's Go Hawks!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ha ha ha ha ha ha



Funny.

If you don't have anything nice to say...


...then don't say it at all

I mostly just vent my frustrations on my blog. And then I was reading an interview with Chicago Bears general manager Jerry Angelo. He said some nice things about the Packers former, and current, quarterback.

Speaking about Cutler and the Bears lack of WR's, he said something nice about Favre:

“Our assumption is that it starts with the quarterback, and not the wide receivers,” he said. “All you have to do is look north and see what Favre did with his receivers in Green Bay. I don’t care who you gave Favre because they always looked good.”

And then he complimented Rodgers and the Packers draft class:

“Looking at Green Bay, I think Aaron Rodgers will make a jump this year, and they are a tough match-up on offense from a personnel and a scheme perspective,” he said. He’s also very aware of the additions Green Bay made defensively in the draft with their first-round picks, DT B.J. Raji and LB Clay Matthews. “You look at the Packers’ draft, and they are now a lot stronger up front.”

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Numbers don't lie


Gah, it's tough to admit. I actually don't want to admit it. But, these stats point to something really telling. I got this from ESPN, big ups to some guy named Robbiemustgo32 who came up with these stats. This gives Favre yet another reason to stay in Mississippi and stay away from Minnesota.

Ok, I can't seem to get the table to paste correctly, and I can't seem to delete it. Seriously, go to the link, the numbers are startling.


Breaking Down
Conditioning? Age? Weather? Whatever the cause, retired quarterback Brett Favre has dropped off considerably over the final five weeks in each of the past four seasons. Let's take a look:
Time Period Comp. % Yds/Att TD INT
'05 Games 1-11 63.6 6.77 19 19
'05 Games 12-16 56.8 5.67 1 10
'06 Games 1-11 57.1 6.54 14 10
'06 Games 12-16 53.8 5.96 4 8
'07 Games 1-11 68.5 7.90 22 8
'07 Games 12-16 59.1 7.26 6 7
'08 Games 1-11 70.6 7.09 20 13
'08 Games 12-16 56.1 6.03 2 9
Source: User Robbiemustgo32 (and double-checked by ESPN.com)

Leaky Lu



"We're going to come out Monday and play the hardest game we've played all year and bring us back here [for Game 7]."

This quote is from Roberto Luongo after losing Game 5. This fell far from the truth on Monday night. Not only did Luongo not play the hardest he played all year, he might have had the worst night of his career, giving up 7 goals and reluctantly leaving the net at the end of the third period for an extra attacker. However, I'm not convinced it's all his fault.

The game was wide-open. Lu wasn't the only goalie to give up a lot of goals. Across the ice, Khabibulin gave up 5. Was this like the two worst goaltenders in the league? No. Was it Pathetic Defense Night at the United Center? No. When teams get desperate, like both teams were, you risk a little more on defense in order to gain some offense. Both teams did this, and we got the results we could have expected to see. Sadly, Lu has taken it all out on himself.

Where was the rest of the team? Like a pitcher needs run-support, a goalie needs goal-support. Three names: Mats Sundin, Daniel Sedin, and Henrik Sedin. Where were they? I guess Mats and Daniel had some goals during games 5 and 6, but nowhere near the level expected of them. If you're a team leader, you need to show up on the score sheet in crucial games in a big way.

Finally,--and this is my favorite point--Willie Mitchell NEVER should have opened his fat yap. Listen to Kane himself in the interview I posted at the end of this post, Kane was fueled by Mitchell's comments and scored a total of 6 goals in this series, which includes a hat trick last night. I really encourage you to watch the interview, because Kane has some great thing to say.

So one more time, Willie Mitchell, shut up.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Dinner is Served, Willie

Vancouver's defenseman, Willie Mitchell,
thought it would be a good idea to play some head games with Chicago by taking a shot at one of their stars in the Vancouver newspapers. He claimed that Patrick Kane wasn't a guy worth worrying about when it was 5-on-5, that he was only dangerous when on the power play. He compared him to Sidney Crosby--of all people--saying that he was just lucky and happened to be at the right place at the right time on most of his goals. Here's some reasons that Willie Mitchell should eat crow and shut up.

First of all, don't compare someone to Sidney Crosby if you are intending to criticize them. Sure, Sid's not the face of hockey anymore, he's not even the best player on his team anymore, but that doesn't mean that he's bad. He's still incredible. Want proof? Okay, he put up a hat trick in tonight's playoff game against the Washington Capitals.

My next point is not my own. I have to give credit to Pat Foley and Eddie Olcyzk--Blackhawk's game-callers for Comcast Sports Net--when they asked something similar to: "Isn't being in the right place at the right time a skill?" Isn't that just knowing hockey? Knowing where to be is HUGE! I'll admit, a lot of Kane's goals are scraps from other player's shots, but he still has sick moves. Ever watched some of his highlights?

This next point is my favorite. And that's because Kane scored a goal in Game 2. This was because all 5 of Vancouver's skaters huddled around 2 of Chicago's. This included Willie Mitchell who let Pat Kane go. A quick pass to Kaner and deke one-on-one against Luongo lit the lamp to put Chicago up 5-2 on Saturday. A personal "Shove It."

Lastly, be a player of value yourself before you start talking about star players in the NHL. Until this series, I don't distinctly remember hearing about Willie Mitchell, and he's been in the league 8 years. So, unless you're really bringin' it, don't talk trash.

So, Willie Mitchell, do shut up.

5 reasons why Favre going to the Vikings is unacceptable


There's been some talk about Favre signing with the Vikings. This will ruin both Favre and the NFL for me for a long time. So, naturally, I'm against it. Here's 5 reasons why:

1. It's never awesome when the face of a franchise plays for another team. It's especially not awesome when he plays for a rival. Nobody wants to see Favre play for the Vikings. Except, maybe, desperate Vikings fans.

2. You gotta know when enough is enough. Favre struggled real bad down the stretch. Sure, he had the bicep tendon thing, but even if he got that repaired, he's still 39, 40 when the season ends. Just call it off, Brett. Keep what's left of your legacy in tact.

3. The Vikings don't need him. They have Jackson and Rosenfels. OK, not great options, but at this point Favre is such a wild card he's not really a great solution for them.

4. The Vikings can't afford him. The Vikings are a team on the way up, they need cap space for young players. They're paying Adrian Peterson, Bernard Berrian, and Jared Allen. Favre will take up too much cap space to be worth it.

5. He would just be doing it to get back at Ted. Favre has nothing left to play for. He's won his Super Bowl. He's got his MVP's. He's got his records. The only reason he would play would be to stick it to Ted. He wanted to be a free agent last season, and Ted was too big of a jerk to release him, so now he wants to sign where he wants to in order to whoop up on Ted's team twice a year. That's not a good enough reason to come back for another year.