Yep. He never cheated a shift. He gave it whatever he had on every night. He scored so many huge goals in the POs.

Everyone recalls him talking to Toews in the penalty box but I recall reading around the time Seabs was constantly texting Toews between games and telling to stop thinking about anything else but scoring goals.
- Elbows15

I know we don't know a ton about these guys we watch on television; that said, it appears his family raised a really good person. It's been a pleasure to watch him play.

bobby Hull wore #7 one year, before Phil Esposito wore it.
- LAHawk

Also 16?

Biggest letdown was Sanipass.
Kyle Beech I was suspicious
Akim Aliu I was disappointed
But disappointed more with Makarov
I also had doubts that about Smith drafting Russians

I must be the only person that didn't know Gretzky has some Russian thought he was totally Polish.
- jhawk59

Cam Barker 3rd oa pick.

The team Dad, above all else

Kirby Dach
@kdach77
Seabs in the short time I have been in Chicago you have taught me a lifetime of lessons. You are one of the best to ever put on the Blackhawk logo and an even better person off the ice. I can not thank you and your family enough. Congrats on the great career.

and, on another branch of the Seabs Hawks Family Tree (Sharpy leads the other one), an essay on a topic of regular interest on this board, one Captain Toews:

https://twitter.com/BenPo.../1367970283404025861?s=20

The team Dad, above all else

Kirby Dach
@kdach77
Seabs in the short time I have been in Chicago you have taught me a lifetime of lessons. You are one of the best to ever put on the Blackhawk logo and an even better person off the ice. I can not thank you and your family enough. Congrats on the great career.

and, on another branch of the Seabs Hawks Family Tree (Sharpy leads the other one), an essay on a topic of regular interest on this board, one Captain Toews:

https://twitter.com/BenPo.../1367970283404025861?s=20
- pdx2ord

Regarding Morrisey's column, Jonathan Toews doesn't owe the fans a thing. Sure many have paid to see him play, and in effect have been paying for a portion of his salary, but in return, he's rewarded all his fans with his play and captaining 3 Cup winning teams over the past decade. If he wants to keep his health issues to himself, until he wants to discuss them, that's his prerogative.

Regarding Morrisey's column, Jonathan Toews doesn't own the fans a thing. Sure many have paid to see him play, and in effect have been paying for a portion of his salary, but in return, he's rewarded all his fans with his play and captaining 3 Cup winning teams over the past decade. If he wants to keep his health issues to himself, until he wants to discuss them, that's his prerogative.
- boilermaker100

That's what I got from the article. That we want to know because we care about him as a person, but that it's none of our business unless and until Toews wants to speak. (Even if the pressure is higher on any celebrity.)

Thank you, Mr Brent Seabrook
#7
Champion.

I know we don't know a ton about these guys we watch on television; that said, it appears his family raised a really good person. It's been a pleasure to watch him play.
- mohel

What an underrated comment that is....so true.

Lets also not forget he was the guy who came out when the Keith/Sharp off ice issues were ramping up.

Defacto Captain......reading about his friend/trainer who passed also was rough. Was very happy for him for making that Canadian olympic team

They need to retire a lot of numbers.

28
27
7
81
2
19
88

50,10,30 (eddie) are all debatable.

If the Hawks are smart they do 7,81,2,19,88 and 50/10 (if they make the cut)....all at once.....what a ceremony that would be.
- SteveRain

don't think Seabrook/ chelios number gets retired. Imo 88 19 2 81. Now that hawks have multiple players on LTRI how does it effect the salary cap going forward? Do hawks get full value of the cap it or a percentage of it? Its very complicated in trying to figure all the language of LTRI and how it works.

don't think Seabrook/ chelios number gets retired. Imo 88 19 2 81. Now that hawks have multiple players on LTRI how does it effect the salary cap going forward? Do hawks get full value of the cap it or a percentage of it? Its very complicated in trying to figure all the language of LTRI and how it works.
- Scott1977

[img]

How about instead of retiring numbers, the Hawks (or teams in general) just put names up in the arenas as a sort of "Ring of Honor". If teams play long enough, you just run out of numbers. I still think every team retiring 99 was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. The same with the blow up when Ho Sang wore 66. He's not on the same team. Who gives a poop?[/img]

[img]

How about instead of retiring numbers, the Hawks (or teams in general) just put names up in the arenas as a sort of "Ring of Honor". If teams play long enough, you just run out of numbers. I still think every team retiring 99 was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. The same with the blow up when Ho Sang wore 66. He's not on the same team. Who gives a poop?
- Chunk[/img]

Not a bad idea

[img]

How about instead of retiring numbers, the Hawks (or teams in general) just put names up in the arenas as a sort of "Ring of Honor". If teams play long enough, you just run out of numbers. I still think every team retiring 99 was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. The same with the blow up when Ho Sang wore 66. He's not on the same team. Who gives a poop?
- Chunk[/img]

I was thinking the same thing Chunk

Usually the Hawks play better the 2nd game vs the same team. Be impressive if they do vs the Bolts

Usually the Hawks play better the 2nd game vs the same team. Be impressive if they do vs the Bolts
- BetweenTheDots

I think theyll win. I liked the postgame comments. NO moral victories. Tampa looked gassed until they ramped up their next gear in the 3rd. Hawks saw their best.....younger legs, I expect a W for the boys tonight. 4-2.

What an underrated comment that is....so true.

Lets also not forget he was the guy who came out when the Keith/Sharp off ice issues were ramping up.

Defacto Captain......reading about his friend/trainer who passed also was rough. Was very happy for him for making that Canadian olympic team
- SteveRain

He came out?

How did I miss that?

Since it's a special (and melancholic) occasion, wanted to share the full tribute to Seabs from The Athletic (a subscription worth every penny). I'm sure Verdi's will also bring several tears to my eyes:

Blackhawks’ Brent Seabrook leaves a legacy that transcends any contract

Two summers ago, I approached Brent Seabrook in the corner of a ballroom at the Hilton Chicago and, once the throng of reporters had dissipated and it was just me and him, I asked a very proud man a very humiliating question.

You’re a three-time Stanley Cup champion, you’re an Olympian, you’re damn near worshipped by your teammates, but all anyone thinks of when they hear your name is “worst contract in the NHL.” Does that bother you?

I was goading him, of course. The Athletic had just put that very phrase in a headline in a ranking of the biggest albatrosses in hockey. Seabrook can be a wienerly sort, so it was playing with fire a little, but after all these years, I had earned enough rope with the guy to pull something like that every now and then.

He didn’t bite. He gave a smart, stock answer about how he doesn’t pay attention to what people write about him, that he knows what he can do and what he’s worth and the only opinions he cares about are the ones in the room with him.

But there must be some part of you that wants to just shove all of it back in everyone’s faces, right?

Seabrook smiled.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, letting on what I knew to be true, that he was well aware of every negative word written about him, every cross tweet about him, every what-have-you-done-for-me-lately rant from the 300 level. “We’ll get to that.”

He never did. His body betrayed him. Three major surgeries and months of grueling work in the physical therapist’s office, in the weight room, in Ian Mack’s gym, on the ice couldn’t get him back. Cruelly, it got him so close, as he wrapped up a surprise appearance at summer training camp not quite ready to play in the Edmonton bubble but raring to show the city and the hockey world at large that he was more than a regrettable contract, more than a cap hit. That he was still, in his words, “a great player.”

Then his back and hip gave out on him one more time. And now, his career is over, a decision — an acknowledgment, really — he made public Friday morning. Seabrook never made it back. He never got a chance to prove what he was so sure in his heart was true. He never got to shove it all back in everyone’s faces.

It changes nothing.

If all Brent Seabrook ever did was skate into the offensive zone on the east end of the United Center and fire that singular shot from the high slot — you know the one, the one that sent the hated Red Wings to the Eastern Conference, the one that sent referee Stephen Walkom into the dustbin of almost-history, the one that sent the Blackhawks into the 2013 Western Conference final — then he’d be a Chicago icon forever. That goal was that big. Without it, the Blackhawks might have been broken up, sold for parts, relegated to one-Cup wonders. Seems absurd to think about, but things really were that tenuous after two straight first-round exits, Presidents’ Trophy be damned.

But Seabrook’s career was so much more than that one shot. Hell, that wasn’t even his only playoff overtime winner. Mr. Big Shot also ended Game 4 in Boston during the Stanley Cup Final later that spring, as well as the triple-overtime marathon in Game 4 against Nashville in 2015. He came agonizingly close to extending the glory years in the 2016 playoffs, too, hitting both posts with a blast from the point in the dying minutes of Game 7 in St Louis.

Remember those moments. Remember the 28 minutes a night he logged during those final two rounds of the 2015 Cup run, at the end of a preposterous run of playing in 269 of 273 Blackhawks games between January of 2013 and June of 2015, only one of them missed for injury. Remember the bone-rattling hits, the big wind-up at the point on the power play, the best stretch passes maybe anyone’s ever made on the West Side.

Remember the way he indoctrinated newcomers and rookies alike to the Blackhawks family, immediately saddling them with a possibly ridiculous nickname and then inviting them out for dinner with himself and Jonathan Toews. Remember the way he brought Kirby Dach into his home to ease the teenager into life as a suddenly wealthy grown-up. Remember the way he fist-bumped every player as they stepped on to the ice, the force of each jab somehow perfectly calibrated to each player’s mental state. Remember the way he kept that locker room loose when it was unbearably tense, light when it was insufferably dark, serious when it was unacceptably unfocused.

That last part, that’s what I’ll remember the most. The voice. The thunderous boom of a towering manchild, somehow both endearing and intimidating, goofy and scary. Whether he was chirping the equipment guy or a reporter, a teammate in the room or an opponent on the ice, Seabrook’s voice always cut through the din. His was the only voice players would hear in the anxious moments before a game or late in an intermission, almost mindlessly blurting out things like, “Here we go, Red! We got this, Red!” Even this year, without playing a game, he was always around the rink when the Blackhawks were home, his presence still felt, that voice still heard.

I’ve run out of ways to convey his impact on the Blackhawks over the years. I’ve called him the team’s beating heart. The paterfamilias. The center of gravity for the greatest 15-year stretch in franchise history.

Some fans roll their eyes at this stuff. They hand-wave the “leadership” and the “intangibles” and all that hockey hooey and dwell on the precipitous drop in footspeed for a player who was never fast to begin with. On the defensive lapses when his savvy and experience couldn’t overcome two bad hips, a bad shoulder, a bad back, a body ravaged in the service of a team and a city that he struggled to use a toilet for years.

On that contract. That goddamn contract.

Yes, it was a bad contract. The moment it was signed, we all knew it was a bad contract. Too many years for a guy who wasn’t exactly built like Duncan Keith. Too much money for a guy who couldn’t possibly live up to it for eight years. Stan Bowman was guilty of being too loyal to one of his most loyal players, and Seabrook spent the rest of his career getting mocked and jeered and booed and hated for it. As if any one of those fans and pundits howling at and about him would have pushed the contract back to Bowman, leaned back, crossed his arms and said, “No, that’s too much.”

I’d bring up the contract — and the backlash Seabrook faced for it — a couple of times a year with him. Usually on the road where it’s quieter. Usually pulled into a back hallway outside the dressing room, away from prying eyes and ears. I hated doing it. He hated doing it. But we both understood we had to do it. Sometimes, I’d phrase it delicately. Other times, I’d ask him if it pissed him off that some fans had turned on him so harshly. He’d stop and think a long while, then give a very diplomatic answer about how much he loves the city (true), how hard he was working (true) and how it doesn’t bother him what other people say (not true). Sometimes he’d track me down a few minutes later and ask me if he had said anything people might take the wrong way, worried he would ever seem the least bit appreciative of the team and the city and the fans that made him — and that, let’s face it, he helped make.

Of course, he knew. Of course, it mattered to him. As one source close to him told me last year, “It eats at him.”

But it also fueled him. To get his hips and shoulder fixed when it became clear he was going to be the No. 7 defenseman in December. To work his ass off to get back. To prove to himself, to his teammates, to his fans, to the hockey world, that he was more than a bad contract. That he was still Brent Freaking Seabrook.

He never did. He never will. And it doesn’t matter.

Some day, Seabrook’s jersey will hang in the United Center rafters. Some day, he’ll be part of some sort of statue on the grounds commemorating The Core that brought so much joy and life to a city that hockey had long since abandoned. Some day, people will forget the contract the way they forgot Bobby Orr as a Blackhawk or Willie Mays as a Met. Time washes away the late-career blemishes, leaving only the pristine memories of one of the most successful and most significant careers in Blackhawks history.

True weird story :

Went to a nature park in Tampa today to get some fresh air and stroll the boardwalk trail. Came across a guy in a motorized wheelchair, by himself, wearing a Toews jersey and he was listening to "Fortunate Son" by CCR on a small radio built in to his chair.

I think theyll win. I liked the postgame comments. NO moral victories. Tampa looked gassed until they ramped up their next gear in the 3rd. Hawks saw their best.....younger legs, I expect a W for the boys tonight. 4-2.
- SteveRain

Hope you're right, i imagine they, Bolts, will be physical like the Stars were in the 2nd game.

Time to dig out of the hole.

Subban in a nutshell right there. Fantastic athletic save to steal one, followed by a routine save where he can't handle the rebound as he over commits and loses his net.

Subban in a nutshell right there. Fantastic athletic save to steal one, followed by a routine save where he can't handle the rebound as he over commits and loses his net.
- Fat_Tony_Amonte

Not much red sweater support, tho....

Not much red sweater support, tho....
- StLBravesFan

I think we are both right.

Stupid commercial interrupted a Seabs celebration.

Not much red sweater support, tho....
- StLBravesFan

That was on Highmore.

I think we are both right.
- Fat_Tony_Amonte

Sadly, yes.