Already the third game of four before Thanksgiving and the last trip up to Winnipeg. Rival, my ass; we played more games a year with the Jackets. Not much left to tell you about the Jets. You know they have good forwards, bad goaltending (yet they're allowing fewer goals than the Hawks...), and the Weakerthans are one of my favorite bands ever. That pretty well covers it, I think!

With Bickell hurt and Hossa questionable, Morin is back up, and Bowman has alluded to some ugly realities with the salary cap, so I'd expect Morin to do the Rockford Shuffle just to save a couple bucks. Hawks have given up >4 goals a game over their last five. With five points given to the West against six points taken in such time, that's practically a slump, but fortunately, the Hawks have shown they can beat up on poor old Winnipeg. Not gonna get any easier after this, and we're not exactly losing anyone in the rear-view mirror here, either.

Hawks: 14-4-4, 11-6-5 adjusted, 26.080 points expected
Jets: 10-10-3, 5-11-7 adjusted, 19.670 points expected

Hawks: 3.455 scored (1st), 2.909 allowed (22nd), .545 differential (7th)
Jets: 2.435 scored (22nd), 2.783 allowed (19th), -.348 differential (20th)

Hawks: 15/72, 20.8% on the power play (8th); 46/62, 74.2% on the kill (29th)
Jets: 9/80, 11.2% on the power play (29th); 74/90, 82.2% on the kill (15th)

Win, please

_________________

Just play Raanta tonight. Save CC for Saturday.

Hossa is a go tonight.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

hey now! if only there was some sports talk/ing-head in chicago who could interview hossa and ask him the questions that we need answered, such as if he works out... then maybe we'd have a glimpse into the wacky world of the guy who was stanley cup kryptonite for a few years b4 getting out of the eastern conference altogether and joining bowman's babes on the ice.

i'm a hockey ignoramus so i can't lean on any past experience to create gut feelings going forward, but from what i glimpsed of that shitshow against the avalanche the other day (i believe that was the 4-0 game where they had a great chance to go up 1-0 after a quick start, missed, and turned around and conceded a goal that "fuck [them] in the ass until [they] like it because [they] are gay and burrito[s]" - iron sheik and thus i reckon begins the toils that come from the annual circus trip for both tenets of the united center.

at least with the hawks it's more than likely that they're going to be able to weather these pockets of piss poor play and turn around and flip the switch "ON" come end-of-the-season-stretch/playoffs time and therefore no matter what seed they get it's long been proven that these guys can win a cup (see down 3-1 to detroit last year) so moreso than even the SUPER TRY-HARD BULLS(TM) the regular season is nothing more than 82 games you wanna get through without any season-ending injuries and then once the real games start you know this team is wholly capable of beating anyone out there no matter the home-ice situation.

so yeah, i can't give you any sort of statistical analysis and/or "i've watched the other team" insight that could be gleamed from rune glifberg's cube (darkslide for life FTW) however my gut says that the hawks are going to likely concede early and often so therefore it's gonna be a 3-4 type of game with or without the typical "i survived 60mins of NHL brand hockey and all i got was this damn point" newschool-NHL fare. i just think that it's been long proven that even teams with championship mettle/swagger such as the Jordan-era-Bulls would tend to have more trouble than usual on this trip, therefore I think the Hawks are in a position where it'll be that much easier to come out and get shellshocked if they go down early. So i'm thinking it's 1pt-or-bust tonight and i hope i'm wrong because I have a feeling that no matter what the Hawks do they're gong to have a harder time defending the title in a full season as opposed to stepping up and winning it in a shortened season.

I reckon within another game or two the Hawks will get back to their usual level (injuries notwithstanding) and then by the time the trip ends they'll be back home and remain in a position (3-points-from)atop their division/conference/whatever-they-got-now which will bode well going forward cuz i can't see this hawks team being anything lower than a 3/4 seed, which speaks volumes as to the competition they're facing (hello eastern conference!) and their ability to show us that all they have to do is get invited to the dance and there's a good solid chance they'll end up the prom queens @ the end of it....

which goes to reiterate once again that tonight is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. so that said take your point (slide) and rock on!

_________________

or well since this is a proper Curious Hair(TM) brand thread, perhaps my sentiments are best conveyed in a song-reference?

but then again that should be irrelevant as the MO i sought to establish in my previous post was one that might hearken an interesting JORR story from the halcyon days of legend and lore. that is, if JORR ever pops into these Blackhawks threads. I can't remember the guy ever talking hockey so maybe he's just a more accentuated version of me when it comes to this?

#CestLaVie #SaveTheDay cuz it's #DoctorWho50thAnniversary week! #ShomerShabbos

#sini, who btw needs a #ProperTeamOfLawyers to eventually reclaim @sinicalypse, which has been sidelined until i figure out what goofy e-mail/password combo i used for the account.

_________________

What the fuck is wrong with goalie lately?

_________________

I think it might just be fatigue. He's played almost every minute.
Gotta get him a blow for a game or two.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

This team will not win the Cup with the pk sucking as much as it does.

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Ah dude chill, it was a 5 on 3... that's gonna result in a ppg more times than not.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Welcome back Hossa!
Plus... wow what a pass from Toews. I guess he likes being back at home in the absolute middle of nowhere.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Good win, as was expected vs the Jets.

It's time for the Nucks. They treat every game vs us like it's life or death so better be ready.

Nice win that I did not watch very much of....I miss Byfuglien

_________________

Yes I had to google how to spell Byfuglien....don't judge me

_________________

These thread titles make no sense, much like the game of hockey.

_________________

It's a lyric from a song about Winnipeg by a band from Winnipeg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygzMqc7MUlo I don't know why it sounds like it's at a 16 kb/s bitrate here, but it's still a good song.

Anyway, solid game, I guess, but I'm still concerned about the goals being given up. And even though there's nothing the Hawks can really do about it, they still can't shake the rest of the West's elite: Blues won, Avs won, Sharks won, Coyotes got a loser point, Kings got a loser point, Wild won last night. Even the Perds are showing signs of life since their blowout win the other night. And just to put a cherry on it, the Oilers have won three in a row with a 15-3 aggregate score.

On the other side of things, with the loss, and barring some crazy winning streak fueled by having gotten Hiller, Miller, or Reimer to shut the door and double-lock it, the Jets are done for the year. Again. Despite all the points they've banked, they're one point under .500, while Dallas is three over, trailing fourth-place Minnesota by eight points, and there's not even a guarantee the Central gets to send a fourth team to the playoffs. It's over. Honestly, I thought this division would be the weakest of the four.

_________________

so wait with this giant goofy NHL point system you can be one POINT under .500? how does that work?

typically if you're, say, 13-14 you're one point under .500. but if each win counts as 3 points and losses can be worth a point, are you "one point under .500" if, say, you're 10-14-3 as opposed to 13-14? or like, how does it work? when you're talking about .500 are we looking at wins and losses without the point system, or are we looking at maximim possible points dividing that by two and then saying you're one point below having half of the possible points out there?

my head hurts. can you pass the 'tussin plz?

_________________

Yeah, this. 2 points for a win, 1 point for taking a long time to lose, so 23 points in 24 games would put you one point under the .500 mark.

A lot of us are really hoping that the new overtime rules that are supposedly coming down the pike will end this daffy bullshit once and for all, but the ever-unscrupulous NHL loves this shit because it artificially keeps teams in the playoff chase even when they're obviously bad and by rights should quietly dismantle themselves to play out the string by MLK Day. By my calculations, this scam has kept attendance for the perpetually-9th/10th Dallas Stars from dropping into the triple digits. Anyone with two eyes and half a brain knew those Morrow/Robidas/whoGIVESafuck squads from 2009-2013 were on the long road to nowhere, but they're just three points out of 8th place, you never know!

_________________