is baseball season officially starts tomorrow?

This series provided vivid example of where the Blackhawks must improve. Dale Tallon has work to do, but more importantly Kane, Toews, Versteeg and Bolland in particular need to take a page from the Detroit forwards and centers and shift their game to another level where they become legitimate two-way players.

I think we’ve seen the last of Habby. Which concerns me because I am not sold at all on Huet being the guy, and Crawford and Niemi do little to inspire.

Havlat will be the key player of the offseason. But hopefully Pahlssen won’t be lost in the shuffle and Tallon finds a way to bring him back. Pahlssen is a critically important player to bring back and showed his underrated worth in these playoffs.

I agree with all of the congrats to the Hawks; this was a great season. I know the breakdown of the game is sure to post soon, but I just wanted to say how disappointed I was with the defense just before th OT goal was scored. “The Mule” and that dude that scored the goal were standing; one in front, the other on the side of the net with absolutely nobody in sight covering them or god forbid putting a body on somebody. I realize it was a crappy bounce that ended up going in, but maybe if Burish or Barker turn around and put a body on somebody, it wouldn’t have been so easy to knock in. oh well, thanks again for a great season Hawks!

Hey look — how many of us would have figured, two years ago, that the Hawks would fill the joint every single night? It has been a while, but the Hawks are back.

Not that I can attest to years of fan worship of the Hawks, like some of you here. I just moved here in 2003 — from Wisconsin, where I got to see Burish in his brazen youth (oh, that was a joy and a half). But I am a hockey guy, and seeing these guys make a run… it was a sight to see.

The off-season banter awaits. Personally, the economics of the league make be believe that Khabby and Havlat are goners. If so, we will miss them dearly. But here’s the thing — the young guys just got a little older, and wiser. And maybe the front office realizes the value of prospects and young talent enough to know that they are great to get a hold of before they become famous. So a couple of young guns next year, combined with the crew we will retain, and we might make another run at it.

True story: the train ride home (after a wild scene at the Whirlaway) had a few guys in Sabres jerseys coming home from the Tragically Hip concert. (I was there last night.) Gord Downie was giving updates to the crowd and, purportedly, giving props. That’s saying something. Maybe.

Anyways — until October, you beautiful people. Unless you hang around and banter away in the off-season, in which case I may join you from time to time.

And remember: nothing ever happens on the power play.

i moved back to chicago this year and what a joy to be back for the first season that the blackhawks were relevant since i was a little kid….then found this blog and some well written analysis/fun trash talking/beers of the night ensued. i met a bunch of you tonight and for game 2 at the whirlaway and had a great time.

thanks for all the great articles this year, like you said i never would have thought they would get to the conference finals and bring detroit to overtime three times. we’re looking for some creativity from the front office to bring havlat back and not lose much else.

LOVE EVERYBODY, LET’S GO HAWKS and LET’S GO PENGUINS

We all knew it would not be easy, we all wanted the dreaded Red Wings. Better to lose in the conference finals to them than the Aniheim Ducks or whatever they call themselves now.

These young players and the Blackhawks management brought this team back from the dead. I haven’t heard people talking this much about the Hawks since the 60’s when I was a little kid, not even the Savard, Secord, Larmer years reveled the Hull, Mikita, Esposito years. It’s was a great year and I really look forward to next year.

This series was closer than the stats may say, if the Hawks pull out all the overtime games it’s 3-2 Hawks right now with the Hawks coming home, to possibly clinch. But youth was served , the Red Wings are deadly with the puck when they start cycling and our young players consistantly made mistakes in their own end. The Wings are all about puck possession, a lazy pass will be picked off and ultimately cost you. I think our boys learned a lot this season, noboy expected them to get this far. Calgary was favored, so was Vancouver we beat them both.

It was nice to see Kane score tonight, I absolutely had confidence that either him or Fraser would score the winner in OT, it did not happen, but Frazer played a hell of a game. I believe the goalie situation will work out, remember we ALL looked at Habby as a bust until he started to produce this year..it’s been what? 3 Years?

So relax, have a great summer and we can start this again in a few months.

I’ve unfortunately missed out on the Whirlaway nights after a change at work to the 2 to fucking 10 p.m. shift but I did stop by after the Game 6 Vancouver win hoping to see some happy drunkards but Sergio said they had all left…it was closing time and I had to head north to my friend’s 4 o’clock bar. I still have old copies of the Blue Line and it’s funny to read the Committed Indian now and not see the owner as a target in each and EVERY issue. I’ve seen some subtle jabs at McDonough and believe them to be just…thanks for bringing “premium” games and your fucking “W” signs to West Madison Street Dickhead. Anyway, it sucks that I have this etched into my mind to end the season at the UC this year…I saw Sam with his hand on his face looking iceward from his seat with that “what the fuck did I just witness” look on his face as I sat in 322. It was a hell of run this year, so thanks to the big three at CI and here…and thanks to all that made it memorable. I don’t post a lot because sometimes I read what is here and don’t want to be redundant. I do hope that Havlat comes back. If Khabibulin leaves that would free up some money so we’ll see. I would love for Kane to learn how to play defense over the summer…can you imagine his +/- if he did? The entire league is going to come to play against us every night next year so I believe Sam is right when he wrote in the last, and first “bootleg” copy as he put it, that there will never be another year like this. At the start of the season I thought we’d make the playoffs and win a series. After we beat Vancouver I thought it was up for grabs. I knew Detroit would be tough for us but thought we would turn it up a bit. We did at times but then we also dialed it down much to often and they capitalized when we did. Osgood really played well throughout the series and as much as people might be saying “fuck you” to me, Helm pretty much deserved the game winning goal after his PK display. How they let him dance around our zone on a power play is beyond me. All said, this was an amazing game, unfortunately we lost and I had to wait until 10:30 p.m. to watch it at home via TiVo, I bet Whirlaway was the place to be tonight…hope you guys had fun! Have a great summer!

….and this site is the needle.

The battle with withdrawal is not going well.

“364 days till next hockey season, I’ve gotta toughen up!”

Guess I’ll throw my kudos into the lovefest! Thanks everyone! Though, like many, I didn’t start posting until around April, I have been following SCH since about mid-season. Also loved the Indian. Great stuff guys! Hope there’ll be plenty to talk about in this offseason (which, thank God, is much shorter than what I’ve been accustomed to).

After the dust settled last night, I found myself very proud to be a Hawks fan. Unbelievable season! Should be a very interesting offseason!