Comments on: Blackhawks Post-Deadline: Cup Or Bust?

By: Dave Morris

Dave Morris — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:00:43 +0000

Lee>thanks for the kudos and for stopping by to visit.

Fork> agreed. As you say, the key is for the Blackhawks to play to the level of their talent. If Huet and Niemi can provide at least reliable goaltending, the Hawks should be able to maintain their 2nd seed…maybe get a 1st.

As Toews said in the Chicago Herald today, “Our goaltenders are the ones taking the heat, but we need to play better in front of them.”

I think it’s realistic to expect the team can go .600 or even .650, which would give them (I think) 115-117 points. Going .500 would give them 108, which is still better than what they earned last year.

By: Fork

Fork — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:13:37 +0000

The Hawks would never want Kiprusoff, because that would mean they would no longer be able to shoot on him.

I’m sure Stan did his due diligence yesterday, but the fact is, the only goalie who would have represented an upgrade (Vokoun) that may have been available probably carried too steep a price tag.

They’re 14 deep at forward as of Sunday, and plenty deep at the blueline.

If they play their game, as they did last night vs. Edmonton, keeping the puck in the offensife zone and using all 5 skaters to virtually eliminate shooting lanes, they’ll win the damn trophy.

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:02:05 +0000

Like your blog alot and have to agree with most all you have said

By: Dave Morris

Dave Morris — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:29:16 +0000

@Shreuw> you’ve made a number of excellent points.

When Huet was signed by Tallon, there really weren’t many UFA options available either…and Huet benefited from the organization’s largesse.

It might even be fair to say that the Hawks’ recent experiences with UFA goalies (Huet, Khabibulin) sum up the risks in signing ones with large contracts.

And for those who saw Vokoun as the savior, there are ample caveats. While Vokoun has played well this year, people forget last season that Craig Anderson successfully challenged him for the starting job. And that Vokoun was previously displaced in Nashville by Dan Ellis and Chris Mason.

There’s no guarantee he would have been worth the financial risk.

The most attractive aspects of Roloson were the price and his evident ability to deliver outstanding performances. But could he hold up in a playoff series? Who knows? After all, he went down with an injury in the run to the Cup Final for the Oilers a few years back.

Goalies, are, for the most part, a crap shoot.

By: shruew

shruew — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:10:57 +0000

I think it’s safe to assume that the Hawks explored options to improve just about anything.
I’m not disappointed that the Hawks didn’t make a move at goalie as I’ve been pretty consistent in saying that the names being thrown about did not really impress me. You don’t make a major goal tending move like that for, at best, an incremental upgrade. Sure, if you can land Ryan Miller, go for it…but for Turco or Roloson? Come on…
The talk of moving Huet to Rockford is nuts as well. Regardless of the salary, the simple fact remains that it doesn’t make the Hawks a better team. Who are they going to call up? The UFA goal tending list isn’t very impressive either. Heck, no gold chip goaltender hits the market until 2014 when Ryan, Kippa and Lundy hit the market. And Kippa would be at the tail end of the career. So who are you freeing up dollars for if you send Huet to the minors?
The tagging implications pretty much means that if Huet went to the minors, and his salary was backfilled, there’s no way he can be called up. With no sure fire replacement available in this season’s trade pool or the upcoming UFA’s… Putting him in the minors also makes him impossible to trade.
People need to stop smoking the crack rocks.

By: Dave Morris

Dave Morris — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:13:14 +0000

@Fifth Feather>ESPN Chicago didn’t go into exhaustive detail as to the hows and whys of tagging in regards to Huet’s contract.

But it appears, depending on one’s interpretation of Stan Bowman’s statements from his interview, that management did try to explore, without success, various options that would have allowed them to get Huet’s salary off the books in order to facilitate a trade.

It may or may not be signiifcant that Scotty Bowman gave an interview on sports radio 590Am in Toronto yesterday that said there was no chance the Hawks would deal for Vokoun.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/blackhawks/post/_/id/4662165/scotty-bowman-hawks-wont-get-vokoun

By: Blackhawks 5, Oilers 2 « Fifth Feather

Blackhawks 5, Oilers 2 « Fifth Feather — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:43:28 +0000

[...] for the rest of the year and thus clearing room for Vokoun, you say. Well, the omnipresent Dave Morris reminds us all about that whole “tagging” issue. Regardless of where Huet finishes this year, the fact that he’s playing on a one-way [...]