IlliniKrush

Buff hasn't played since the middle of the 2nd period. Benched to protect against an injury because they've agreed to a trade? I did not see any injury this game, and this is way too long to just be shortening the bench, nor do I see where he was god awful tonight. And we all know Savvy loves him. ???

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 07:26 PM) Almost as much as Illinois fans whine every game about the officiating, if that is possible. I believe the unbiased announcers did that for us today.

QUOTE(JFields27 @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 02:11 PM) Heres to the Blackhawks getting their first win of 2008 tonight and Nikolai's first shutout of the season oh boy lets just hope we pull this one out tonight Lalime's starting.

Last one he stole was probably the Ottawa game, maybe the Edmonton game. He's stolen all 4 wings victories, as he's been awesome in every one of them. How many games has the team come up and bailed him out to get a win? The dallas game on halloween? You can't bail a goalie out scoring 2 goals, ever. Kind of hard to steal a game when your team scores one goal. By definition, in order to steal the game he would have had to have tossed a shutout. From my understanding of the game, he made a ton of huge saves, and the game winner sucked. But again...one goal and jacks*** for offense, but everyone looks at the GWG because it's easy. The team is so bad in front of him right now that one bad goal is magnified to the point that it looks like it cost them the game, which isn't fair. My point is that it's both sides of the equation here, not one. I understand what you are saying and agree with it but it's become magnified on Habby because we can't score any goals. Scoring 4 or 5 goals at any time is impossible in the last month or so, which puts all the pressure (and focus of fans) unfairly on Habby.

Sigh. This is frustrating as f***. Yet another game where they outplay them, outchance them, and lose. Sopel gets on the board early after a bad turnover (though wtf was he doing as the 2nd guy deep there...). Habby gave it back on a terrible, terrible goal. Barker got beat to the puck, sure, but Barker didn't cost em the goal, Habby did. More on Barker later. 2nd goal was a bad turnover by Buff (seriously, he needs to be a forward, you can't trust this guy on the back line) trying to do too much and then bad read by Barker on a loose puck and then a bad job of cutting down the angle on Gaborik. But f*** if any goalie was going to stop that laser. Buff and Barker were brutal on that one. 3rd goal...where was Lang coming from/was it a bad change? I didn't catch it. But you see Lang coming into the play way late on the shooter because it was temporarily a 5 on 3. It was a laser between the rings, not really a weak goal, poor coverage/bad change again. 4th goal was more bad coverage as Sopel stood around for too long right in front of the crease and Ruutu was nowhere near the slot. Maybe the most stoppable of the 3 real shots, but you've got to have better coverage than that. Yeah, I just recapped the goals for a reason... I'm sure the average person will jump on the box score and be like f***, 4 goals on 15 shots? Must have been his fault. Sure he wasn't great, that first one was a f***ing joke, but not that simple. We had 43 shots and I think 6 power plays and scored...2 goals. That's I believe 14 goals in 8 games on this slide. Fantastic. Blaming Habby lets the rest of the team slide for a bunch of horse s*** play up and down the roster, or a lack of stepping up with a big goal, etc. He's at fault just as many others are at fault. I'm sick of hearing "Habby makes X money and sucks." It's lazy and ignorant. Again, it's like blaming Grossman for everything. And if you want Lalime to play 70 because he saves money, good luck with that. And Crawford isn't ready. When Habby is the ONLY thing holding this team back, which hasn't been the case for 3 years now, come talk to me. Onto Barker...definite step down tonight. Got beat on the first goal, which, while wasn't the reason for the goal, was indicative of his play tonight. He made a bad decision on the Gaborik goal (you can't play him and Buff together, sheesh). But what really irks me about him is why the f*** is he trying to finish so many hits and step up in the neutral zone as the puck is being dumped into his end or passed across the line? It's a terrible habit. I can remember 3-4 times where he essentially took himself out of the play by chasing a hit way too high. You'd think he'd show a bit more by now, but he'll be sent down as soon as Wiz is ready, if not sooner. Huge disappointment tonight, and I want to believe in the guy and give him every chance possible. Hopefully he has a better game Sunday. Versteeg still looks solid out there. Very composed with the puck and played physical tonight. Speaking of physical, I don't know who dressed in Bourque's jersey but I like that version of a hockey player. Havlat looked a bit better tonight, had a ton of shots on net and looked to carry and protect the puck a bit more. Apparently this trade that is looming won't get done until after the weekend, according to Tallon. I don't really know why he's talking this much, and making such a guarantee. It doesn't really add up to me I guess.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 11:37 AM) What's the general thought about Cam Barker? I thought he's played better the past couple games, but that comes with a few 'reservations' (for lack of a better term) -- first, I'm not the best at judging defensemen in the first place (positioning, decision-making and anything else) and second, it could just be that Richmond and Zyuzin have been SO BAD that just about anyone else back there is going to look decent in comparison to them. I'm not saying he's played great hockey by any means, but I thought he's gotten a bit better since when he was first called up. Yet he gets ripped at the 300 Level. So am I way off base here or is the general 'negative' attitude of the 300 Level wrong? He's played OK. Nothing great that shows his potential, nothing terrible that says he's only AHL fodder. For the most part his positioning has been fine and he's made decent decisions, unlike Richmond in the few games/minutes he played. Problem is he just looks like he's going through the motions out there - no intensity or drive - that's how it APPEARS. I know guys have different ways of playing their game, but it just looks to many of us that Barker could put forth more effort and play harder on some shifts. Sometimes it just looks like he's happy to be out there. I want him to have a shift where he goes to the bench and I say "s***, he just dominated that shift by doing ____ well"). People are going to dog him (and rightly so, really) because of where he was drafted. He should want to be more than just your average defenseman out there. And the 300 level is always negative, you know that

QUOTE(Mr. Showtime @ Jan 11, 2008 -> 11:23 AM) I'll be in the house tonight. Hopefully a victory is in store! Sopel back in the lineup tonight Me too. Hopefully I'm not stuck sitting next to some assclown that doesn't wait for a whistle.

Better not be Schneider. We all know what type of move this needs to be, I just hope Tallon doesn't reach to save THIS season. I'm cautiously optimistic.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jan 10, 2008 -> 11:34 AM) This is the best Hawks season since 96-97. There is a TON of hope for the future. So we struggle with injuries and get another quality player in the draft to help us down the line... I could not be happier with what has happened this season and all along we all knew this team shouldn't be ready for the playoffs just yet. The injuries have killed us... but next year will be very very very interesting. I'm aware of all these things. I say f*** this season because of how it started and how injuries f***ed it and then we have the huge winless streak because of it. With a healthy team there was no reason this team wasn't playoff caliber. They had the roster to do it.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 9, 2008 -> 10:47 PM) Maybe it's time to tank and keep developing the youngsters and to try and get a top 5 pick again. And I know people won't like me saying that, but for the long - term it could be what the franchise needs. I think at least people can see we're headed on the right path, but we just don't have to bodies and talent to contend right now. I don't know how good this year's draft is though. It's supposed to be pretty deep defensively from what I know.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jan 9, 2008 -> 09:58 PM) O-O!

f*** this season

Played a pretty good game against a tough opponent in their building, just fell short again. A semi healthy squad wins this game tonight.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 05:45 PM) This just happened at work: I just had a really neat racist guy just tell me to please pass on a message to my bosses about removing the “English” or “Spanish” option on the ATM because bi-lingual-ism is destroying America. Apparently it’s a “soft issue” that our programmers should be able to fix. Wow, who knew? Apparently, old racist guy did. I don't see how that is clearly racism.

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 06:29 PM) FYI, if the Plus 1 system was in place this year, the matchups would have been as follows: 1. Ohio State vs. 4. Oklahoma 2. LSU vs. 3. VA Tech USC and Georgia should all just shut the f*** up. I know they were playing well at the end of the year, but they didn't do enough to belong, even in the Plus 1 model. It's easy crowing from the outside. Correct, and I agree, because they had their chances. The one thing that SEC teams in general can 'b****' about is the fact that their conference is the best conference in the nation, pretty much year in and year out. Almost every game is a 'losable' one. And when it comes to bowl season and championships, they've really shown that they are elite. I'm in favor of a final four, but they need to fix the conference championship/no conference championship issue.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 8, 2008 -> 12:58 PM) Samsonov claimed by Carolina Which begs the question... What will you remember most about the Sergei Samsonov era?

Only 4 points scored in 2nd half for savannah state, wow: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280072306

So before this Florida won 3 straight championships...Ohio St has now lost 3 straight championships...kind of odd. I don't think Tressel had a very good game tonight, and I thought that could be OSU's biggest advantage going in.

QUOTE(Felix @ Jan 7, 2008 -> 09:38 PM) You can't complain about the calls, they were all good ones I think. I'm not.

And personal fouls end the national championship game...just great. I still don't have a clue how he missed the ball. Unbelievable.

Todd, Kirk, and Lee picked OSU

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jan 7, 2008 -> 07:08 PM) because FOX paid $1B for the rights to broadcast the BCS games Yet they have analysts that can't buy a clue.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jan 7, 2008 -> 06:30 PM) Let's place bets on actual time of kickoff, and final play. I've got 7:43 for start time and 11:51 for finish... 7:39 and 11:36

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jan 7, 2008 -> 06:30 PM) Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Yeah, I guess american gladiators is better than the biggest football game of the year.

QUOTE(almagest @ Jan 6, 2008 -> 11:55 PM) That old blonde guy really annoyed me. I'm glad he almost had a heart attack and lost. I also am amazed at how much they've improved upon the old show, in almost every aspect. And that was no small task, since the original show had the considerable force of nostalgia behind it. So who else will be watching it tomorrow night? I hear there's some sort of football game on.