Kuc is a mouth piece. Plus hes been friend zoned by Tracy Myers .
- mrpaulish

prolly a good thing for Kuc

Story on the 'Real Hockey Insider' from TSN, produced by an ole friend.
Piece is creating a good buzz. Highly recommend.

http://www.tsn.ca/video/t...eal-hockey-insider~745267

I will rephrase:

Given what I have seen the last few games I don't think he will be traded. The due diligence on the trade was done last year by scouting and I have not seen reason to reverse their thoughts on how he fits in Chicago.

Time will tell but I like how Daley is progressing in a new system.
- Colbyboy

Besides if Q had an issue with Daley, Daley wouldn't be that deep,Q's trying to teach the young ones hey if Daley is in deep you need to recognize and someone has to play his position, same thing Q did with Leddy

I don't get the Hawks, sometimes. Much like in the Blues game, after going up a couple of goals they just seem to coast. The whole second period was laughable, they could easily have been down 4-2 by the end of it if not for Crawford. I understand they're playing a lot of rookies but a team with that much veteran leadership shouldn't be letting their foot off the gas as soon as they find themselves leading by a couple of goals.

I'm impressed with Gustafsson so far. He isn't playing like a rookie who's got less than 10 NHL games under his belt. He seems to be getting more comfortable jumping into the offense, as well. I wonder, if he keeps playing as solid as he has, will he find himself getting some regular rotation as the #6 d-man when Keith returns? If so, who does he replace?

The minutes seem to be catching up to Seabrook big time. He's been making more and more uncharacteristic mistakes as the games pile up without Keith. There were a few really bad defensive zone giveaways by him last night. Keith can't come back soon enough to relieve some of the minutes that Seebs if having to play.

I've got a feeling that the Hawks will struggle to make the playoffs if they have to rely on Crawford playing the way he did last night. While he's certainly capable of playing like that regularly, every goalie in the league has their bad days, and there are very few who can put up consistent performances like he did last night. Not every game can be a goalie win.

FINALLY Panarin shot the damn puck! Something we've all been clamoring for, less dangling and more shooting.

Last, but not least, Teuvo isn't working out as a LW. Not yet, at least, and certainly not on the top line (as outlined by JJ). He just doesn't look comfortable at the position. Unfortunately the team is so deep at RW I don't see a place where he can fit now that Hossa is back. I think Dano is destined for the #1 LW and Teuvo will have to figure out how to make it work on the third line. As soon as Dano is ready, I think here's what we'll be looking at:

Dano-Toews-Hossa
Panarin-AA-Kane
Teuvo-Kero-Garbutt/Shaw
Desi-Kruger-Shaw/Tikhonov
- roots_gamble

At what point does Q give up on the TT at LW project? I understand the plan to strengthen the LW spots given the talent we lost in the summer. But if moving TT back to RW on the 3rd line allows Q to roll 3 scoring lines wouldn't that make the team better than TT at LW?

Is it just me longing to get Bickell back as the 1LW? Ok, maybe not!!

For one of my college psych classes we had to wear glasses for a day that flipped things upside down. It was an experiment to see how fast and how well our brains adapted. Watching TT try to play LW reminds me of that. He's flipped on the other side and his brain is just not adapting. Q should stop messing with the kid and realize he has a pretty good RWer and just let him play. And I really can't figure out why he doesn't play Tikhonov more. Guy is good.

Story on the 'Real Hockey Insider' from TSN, produced by an ole friend.
Piece is creating a good buzz. Highly recommend.

http://www.tsn.ca/video/t...eal-hockey-insider~745267
- philco28

Thanks for sharing that was good

Is there any way that Rundblad is not one of the odd men out when Keith gets back? It would appear he's at the bottom of the current NHL roster defensive depth chart.
- scottak

What I love about Gustafson is his attitude while playing. It is the opposite of Rundblad's. Where Rundblad generally just carries himself passively on the ice - it almost looks like he is expecting to screw up - Gustafson stays aggressive even after mistakes. That kid is definitely type A and Q has to like it. Loved the way he got in Pouliot's face after the contact with Crow last night. Looked like a vet doing it. Sveddy could use some of that attitude too. I hope Gus keeps it up and continues improving.

My thoughts are: I'm really struggling with the fact that we just Extended Seabs for 8 more years after this at 1 Mil raise. on the game Friday he misplayed a puck on the power play and the NJ player went buy him in Rozival fashion. This contract is going to make the Kane, Toews, and Craw deals look really good. I have a hard time thinking he makes it more then 2-3 years into the deal before he looks terrible over paid.

I thought Daley has looked better with Gus then Runblad by quite a bit. I also think Gus has looked better then TVR and Sved. Neither have looked terrible but I don't think I would say they have gotten better each game. TT is not a good fit on 1st line. Dano and him should switch with TT moving to the RT. I'm fine with Kero at 3C
and I think you will see Desjarden, TIKO and GArbutt doing some rotating.

At what point does Q give up on the TT at LW project? I understand the plan to strengthen the LW spots given the talent we lost in the summer. But if moving TT back to RW on the 3rd line allows Q to roll 3 scoring lines wouldn't that make the team better than TT at LW?
- DarthKane

I've never understood the plan to (try to) make TT into a LW, or more to the point, the continuance of he plan when it seems fairly obvious that TT plays better on his off wing, be it at RW or center. It's the same reason that Kane and Hossa play exclusively at RW (except the short lived experiment with Kane at center a few years ago). In addition, TT can't provide the board play required to make the Toews-Hossa line work the way it did with Saad or even Sharp on that line - he's just not physically able to do it. So either xx-Toews-Hossa line discards the "possession/cycle" game that has been so effective the last few seasons, of they need a LW that can play that style - and it ain't TT.

Panarin may be able to play that role because although he isn't big, he wins board battles with his stick and compete level. Likewise, TT may be able to be effective with Anisimov and Kane because his skill set is a better match for that line. But that means splitting up 72 and 88, so ...

Hopefully the "TT is a LW" experiment ends soon.

That absolutely does NOT look like the best defense in the league.
- AceRatbang

Defensively though that could be among the best top 4. Definitely not the best top 6.

Also have to worry about TVR's durability. If he avoids injury how will he look come PO time too? This is essentially his rookie season.

Is it just me longing to get Bickell back as the 1LW? Ok, maybe not!!
- Cmonalready

Look to the right of you. Look to the left of you. Look behind you. Yep, it's just you.

What I love about Gustafson is his attitude while playing. It is the opposite of Rundblad's. Where Rundblad generally just carries himself passively on the ice - it almost looks like he is expecting to screw up - Gustafson stays aggressive even after mistakes. That kid is definitely type A and Q has to like it. Loved the way he got in Pouliot's face after the contact with Crow last night. Looked like a vet doing it. Sveddy could use some of that attitude too. I hope Gus keeps it up and continues improving.
- tredbrta

I know Rundblad is bad, but he still needs to be more responsible with the puck and getting tired of him giving up 2 on 1 chances at least once or twice a game

I don't get the Hawks, sometimes. Much like in the Blues game, after going up a couple of goals they just seem to coast. The whole second period was laughable, they could easily have been down 4-2 by the end of it if not for Crawford. I understand they're playing a lot of rookies but a team with that much veteran leadership shouldn't be letting their foot off the gas as soon as they find themselves leading by a couple of goals.

I'm impressed with Gustafsson so far. He isn't playing like a rookie who's got less than 10 NHL games under his belt. He seems to be getting more comfortable jumping into the offense, as well. I wonder, if he keeps playing as solid as he has, will he find himself getting some regular rotation as the #6 d-man when Keith returns? If so, who does he replace?

The minutes seem to be catching up to Seabrook big time. He's been making more and more uncharacteristic mistakes as the games pile up without Keith. There were a few really bad defensive zone giveaways by him last night. Keith can't come back soon enough to relieve some of the minutes that Seebs if having to play.

I've got a feeling that the Hawks will struggle to make the playoffs if they have to rely on Crawford playing the way he did last night. While he's certainly capable of playing like that regularly, every goalie in the league has their bad days, and there are very few who can put up consistent performances like he did last night. Not every game can be a goalie win.

FINALLY Panarin shot the damn puck! Something we've all been clamoring for, less dangling and more shooting.

Last, but not least, Teuvo isn't working out as a LW. Not yet, at least, and certainly not on the top line (as outlined by JJ). He just doesn't look comfortable at the position. Unfortunately the team is so deep at RW I don't see a place where he can fit now that Hossa is back. I think Dano is destined for the #1 LW and Teuvo will have to figure out how to make it work on the third line. As soon as Dano is ready, I think here's what we'll be looking at:

Dano-Toews-Hossa
Panarin-AA-Kane
Teuvo-Kero-Garbutt/Shaw
Desi-Kruger-Shaw/Tikhonov
- roots_gamble

Few things. Other coaches aren't necessarily dumb and the Hawks have issues without Keith exiting the zone reliably. The nice part about Hossa back in the line up is he can essentially carry the puck from one zone into the other to at a minimum facilitate a change.

Outside of their engine being out of the line up, clearing the puck up the boards has been bad and the breakouts have been pretty pretty sloppy. Some has to do with overcompensating for having basically 3 rookies on the blue line right now. And some has to do with a bunch of new players trying to figure out their role.

Unfortunately most of that stuff just takes time to work out.

On the other hand regarding TT. Hossa and Toews play a very north south grindy cycle game that is ill suited to his abilities and that doesn't count playing on his off side. And as I have said on numerous occasions, I would really like to see Hossa get more left to right opportunities (like Panarin's first goal) and TT certainly has the skill to make that happen.

Anyway, I don't care how well it has worked the last 5 years, those two are going to have to change the way that they play because I think the rest of the league has figured them out and they don't have the horses to brute force teams anymore.

Last night I thought Hossa carried that line and Toews was rather substandard. I have also been disappointed with the play from Kruger to start the year, especially the last few games.

At what point does Q give up on the TT at LW project? I understand the plan to strengthen the LW spots given the talent we lost in the summer. But if moving TT back to RW on the 3rd line allows Q to roll 3 scoring lines wouldn't that make the team better than TT at LW?
- DarthKane

Before Garbutt got his run on the 1st line where he played very well, I was asking for TT to be the 3rd line RW, but I don't think that's going to happen now that Garbutt played as well as he did. He's going to get the RW priority on the 3rd line right now when he comes back. Until then I'd like to see TT play the RW on that line, he just seems way more comfortable there. It would be interesting to see Dano-Kero-TT, although then you don't have a LW on the first line unlelss you put Tikhonov back up there.

There's just no real way to play him in the lineup at RW right now.

Defensively though that could be among the best top 4. Definitely not the best top 6.

Also have to worry about TVR's durability. If he avoids injury how will he look come PO time too? This is essentially his rookie season.
- tredbrta

Then who, maybe Nashville? How many teams are better? Just curious

My thoughts are: I'm really struggling with the fact that we just Extended Seabs for 8 more years after this at 1 Mil raise. on the game Friday he misplayed a puck on the power play and the NJ player went buy him in Rozival fashion. This contract is going to make the Kane, Toews, and Craw deals look really good. I have a hard time thinking he makes it more then 2-3 years into the deal before he looks terrible over paid.

I thought Daley has looked better with Gus then Runblad by quite a bit. I also think Gus has looked better then TVR and Sved. Neither have looked terrible but I don't think I would say they have gotten better each game. TT is not a good fit on 1st line. Dano and him should switch with TT moving to the RT. I'm fine with Kero at 3C
and I think you will see Desjarden, TIKO and GArbutt doing some rotating.
- kmw4631

The window is the next 3-5 years depending on how Seabs, Keith, Hammer and Hossa hold up. All the deals will look terrible in 5 years. But hopefully that's a total of 8 Cups in the Kane-Toews-Keith era.

prolly a good thing for Kuc
- philco28

But its not for a lack of trying !!!

The window is the next 3-5 years depending on how Seabs, Keith, Hammer and Hossa hold up. All the deals will look terrible in 5 years. But hopefully that's a total of 8 Cups in the Kane-Toews-Keith era.


- DMChi2010

IMO, Seabrook's foot speed is a very real concern moving forward.

No, Oduya came from Winnipeg as a known quantity defensively, Oduya's compete level was questioned as he could be rattled with physical play and was prone to giveaways. Q's system was able to provide Oduya with more time to retrieve pucks and make plays allowing him to gain confidence. Daley's issue is he came over as a poor defensive defenseman and except for the odd shift he has shown no inclination to learn or play that style.

Agreeing to disagree kind of defeats the purpose of giving ones opinion does it not?
- paulr

Oduya never roamed like Daley and - as Jammer's research showed - Q was trusting him almost immediately with 20 plus mins a game. The guy most like Daley was Leddy that year and it was his mins that dropped after Oduya came in.

What bothers me the most is how often he gets caught in the OZ losing a board battle. Someone must have gone over tape with him though because it looked like he was definitely avoiding that constant backing in we've seen the last few games. He was making attempts to engage between the blue lines instead of watching and backing in. Not sure any amount of coaching will help that. Not a bad option at 5-6 though.

I know Rundblad is bad, but he still needs to be more responsible with the puck and getting tired of him giving up 2 on 1 chances at least once or twice a game
- BetweenTheDots

We probably won't have to see Rundblad doing much any longer. Q obviously prefers others. With Keith and Rosi back he looks like the odd man out.

IMO, Seabrook's foot speed is a very real concern moving forward.
- EnzoD

When the Hawks were finally able to move Campbell, Keith was playing 30 minutes a night and struggled as the season wore on, Seabrook isn't used to playing over 25 minutes a night. He'll be fine and all this trade talk is panic. I am surprised how some players get so much slack and others are magnified.

We probably won't have to see Rundblad doing much any longer. Q obviously prefers others. With Keith and Rosi back he looks like the odd man out.
- tredbrta

Sorry when I said he I meant Gustafsson. Yeah Rundblad can go don't care where but he can go

When the Hawks were finally able to move Campbell, Keith was playing 30 minutes a night and struggled as the season wore on, Seabrook isn't used to playing over 25 minutes a night. He'll be fine and all this trade talk is panic. I am surprised how some players get so much slack and others are magnified.
- BetweenTheDots

I never said trade him. I am simply stating that his foot speed appears to be diminishing and he was never fleet of foot to begin with. It appears that he is laboring out there at times. He is still very effective and a bona-fide #2 D on any NHL team. Though, he will need to slim down and focus on foot quickness if he wants to live up to that contract extension in 2-3 years.

I never said trade him. I am simply stating that his foot speed appears to be diminishing and he was never fleet of foot to begin with. It appears that he is laboring out there at times. He is still very effective and a bona-fide #2 D on any NHL team. Though, he will need to slim down and focus on foot quickness if he wants to live up to that contract extension in 2-3 years.
- EnzoD

I didn't mean to direct the trade talk at you just others are, I think Brent's burning out a bit, like the mistake he made last night when Svedberg was already along the boards and he joined him, he rarely makes mental mistakes like that, I love him at the point for the power play, the PP looks so much better without Keith in it