Less Than Deep Thoughts

I think that’s a post-wrist surgery report.

he looks like he’s been working out. I assumed that’s what Jaeckel meant.

I’m not a baseball fan, and I don’t like football much. But I do like talking about hockey. I especially like it in hockey when my team wins the game.

Got a question for ya. Mind shooting me an email? jeffrey.bartl@gmail.com

I think you answered your own question. The minute Mayers was signed I think RJ knew his fate. Too bad. I really like that guy. I mean, Inner Me knows that we were going to be icing a weaker-than-desired 4th line if he’s there full-time, but I’ll miss him all the same.

but we added Brunette, so there’s only one top-6 spot open (vs. two last year.)

and, if Frolik signs, the 3rd line looks a lot more set than a year ago.

and, the people competing are a lot of the same people (Stalberg, Smith, Morin, Kruger, Beach?). Since they’re all a year older, it’s more credible, no?

finally, not singling you out, but there’s been a lot of “i’m gonna hang back on and suspend judgment. if this works out, i’ll climb aboard the express, but if it doesn’t, i’ll give Stan what for.”

To me, this feels like cheating. You must declare now!

would be covered in shit

or is there chatter on this somewhere?

Would shit their pants if Doan was on their team. Myself included

but Bob MacKenzie and Darren Dreger are the bees knees for news around the league.

@TSNBobMcKenzie
@DarrenDreger

I like the combo of Tracey Myers, Adam Jahns, and the official Blackhawks twitter as the team specific sources.

@TramyersCSN
@adamjahns
@NHLBlackhawks

does anyone else’s twitter feed get really laggy after some new tweets, ever since the site update?

of professional hockeys players on Twitter maintained by Hockey Broad. Right now, the only current Blackhawk on Twitter is Jamal Mayers (@jamalmayers). I’ve heard (but have no idea if it’s true) that the Blackhawks forbid current players from using Twitter.

Of course, Paul Bissonette (BizNasty2point0) is Twitter-legendary. Some other of my personal favorite players’ accounts are Bobby Ryan (b_ryan9), Michael Grabner (grabs40) (he tweets fairly frequently and seems to like to interact with fans), and the infrequent but crazy Ilya Bryzgalov (bryzgoalie30).

I know no one cares, but it took way longer than it should have, and I feel like I overcame some stupid obstacle. Hooray.

He was bought out, thus was healthy enough to do so. How bad the knee actually is, no one’s heard.

/whatevspelin

Because he’ll draw the important checking roles anyway?

you must be kidding.

but it seems incredibly doubtful that he will be on the opening day roster. He needs to pull his head out of one of his orifices quickly, and I think the best place to do that is in Rock Vegas. In addition our roster is getting pretty full without the inclusion of Beach.

but not be a downer or anything, it’s a lot easier to pull off that sort of move in a game when most of the guys that you’re playing against would have difficulty making a US high school JV team

After all this time in Michigan you still have your Chicago accent.

While I may respect the team, I sure as hell always have hated them. I was born and raised this way. While my hate for other teams (aka canucks,philly,blues) I just figured out more on my own.

in terms of placating their local fan bases. It’s “how easy is it for Detroit fans to root for the Red Wings as compared to how easy it is for Phoenix fans to root for the Coyotes”, not “how easy is it for a fan of another team to root for Detroit say, for example, if his/her actual favorite team has already been eliminated”. In terms of that, then yeah it makes perfect sense that the Wings would be the easiest team for a local fanbase to get behind given how consistently successful they’ve been for the last 2 decades

It also flies in the fact of what Q said the other day about the Hawks being a special team with Bolland on the 3rd line.

I just don’t coming in and stepping right into the #2 center role. Small sample sizes I know but Bolland has that checking line down and even if Sharp/hossa/bolland on same line and maybe they get that assignment. I just as of this moment haven’t seen him enough to feel he can do that role. 4th line center? now were talking or even 2 line center to start (sounds crazy but the “3rd line” center w/ the checking line role just doesn’t seem like a reality right now)

Did I miss something? On the Hawks’ website he is listed as being on IR. I don’t remember hearing anything about an injury; maybe I wasn’t paying attention with all the frenzy over Campbell leaving.

the idea of Bolland as 2C recently, too. But I remembered today that Q was quoted not too long ago specifically stating that Bolland is his 3C. If I remember correctly, he said something to the tune of “you’re looking good if Dave Bolland is your third center.” Until there’s some sort of indication that Bolly is gonna move up, I’d say he’s entrenched on the 3rd.

Someone strapped on his big boy boots today. Very poignant piece.

I read the comments

and I’m really happy to see such an article from a mainstream sports reporter. There is however one point he makes that I slightly disagree with. Rozner makes the comparison that using a homophobic slur is no different than using a racial slur (which I fully agree with) but his example is “what if someone called one of his black teammates the n-word” which I don’t think is an apt example. The thing is, in these cases that we hear about and turn into big news (like Guillen’s rant 5 years ago that Rozner talks about), the target of the slur is not actually homosexual him or herself and the offender can skate by with his superficial apology and claim that he meant no disrespect to the gay community.

One of the things Rozner does bring up is that many people are failing to understand why such slurs are hurtful or bad, which is why I propose that a much more appropriate rhetorical example would be to ask how we’d react if an athlete called his white teammate the n-word. The answer is pretty obvious if you think about it for even a moment – there would be just as much outrage over its use, and the athlete would certainly not be able to get away with claiming that he meant no disrespect to the black community. In my opinion, that’s a much better way to frame it to help people understand that Kobe Bryant calling a ref a f** is no less offensive or inappropriate simply because the ref isn’t actually gay than Ozzie Guillen calling Paul Konerko the n-word would be.

and owning it.

I mean, he scored 130 points in just 59 games – a very nice 2.2 PPG average – during his last season in the OHL. Of course, it’s not exactly uncommon for a player who was a scorer in juniors or in college to play a completely different role in the pros. For example, John Madden was a mostly offensive player in college, averaging better than a PPG for his final 3 years at Michigan before re-defining himself as a perennial Selke candidate with the New Jersey Devils. I think that’s the same thing that Bolland has done, but the difference is that he’s more offensively skilled than Madden ever was.

after school we’d all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he’d eat one of us. It wasn’t until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/blackhawks

It could mean that he’s closer to being re-signed than we’ve been led to believe and that he’s almost in the fold, it could be an attempt on his part to be like "check it out Stan, the fans love me, this is why you should sign me for “x” that I’ve been asking for instead of “y” that you’ve been offering", or it could mean something completely different, or it could mean absolutely nothing