Uh oh....looks like Toews is gone for a little while...center is the one position we could not afford an injury this season, let alone to our best player. This is gonna kill us if he's out a while.

It's still to be determined how long Captain Serious will be out for. Anything longer than 3-4 games could be a disaster.

What a horrible effort last night. Only Turco's brilliance kept that from being 7-1.

at this point last season the hawks had 55 points

Not really germane to anything, but thanks!

Black Hawks have moved up 5 spots in the TSN Power rankings.  Hawks (before last night's game) are now ranked number 4 in TSN's power rankings.  Behind Det. Van and Pit.  This is the highest the Hawks have been ranked all season.  All kidding aside, the Hawks have looked good lately.....

Dammit....Toews to miss two weeks.  It's amazing that we keep getting injuries to our top players like this.  Duncan Keith better pray to the Gods of health, because he's about the only star we have that's been healthy.

Maybe these are a blessing in disguise...Guys have finally started to step up. Perhaps having this adversity this early in the season will bring the guys together.

Turco vs. Niemi...

Neither goalie is having a stellar season statistically speaking.  I would not trade Luongo for Turco.  But I would trade Luongo for a bag of used hockey pucks cause the pucks are worth more than Turco....

The Hawks must be a frustrating team to watch on a nightly basis, they looked great last week when I saw them on TV.  Tonight, very average at best.  Keep it up and 10th place is yours. 

I still think you can finish as high as 4th, but NO FREAKIN way you catch the WINGS.

Worry about the teams chasing you.....They all have games in hand.

Easy to say when 3 of our 4 best players will miss a total of 40+ games from November to January.

Let me know if you still think that when the team is fully healthy and eliminating Bobby Lu in the 2nd round...again.

Turco was really good again last night, but those penalties....both the earned and the couple that were joke calls.....hurt.  Missing Toews after 1 1/2 games already hurts.

Toews has been the glue keeping the hawks together (and winning) despite the injuries.... this will be a real test of the teams character the next couple weeks w/o him. Last night they played like ****.... not a good start.

Posted by andru2797 on 12/31/2010 9:10:00 (view original):
Easy to say when 3 of our 4 best players will miss a total of 40+ games from November to January.

Let me know if you still think that when the team is fully healthy and eliminating Bobby Lu in the 2nd round...again.

Sounds like an excuse to me.  Remember when you had depth?  Every team has injuries. 

All of us (Canuck and some Flame fans) warned Hawk fans that any injury to key players would really hurt the team this season..........BECAUSE you traded away all of your depth players and replaced them with 4th liners and AHL players.  SHARP is minus nine.  I think keeping three of the depth players like Buff, Versteeg and Ladd or ??? would be better than keeping Sharp.  You need to find a taker for Campbell, and get some depth or ninth place or lower has your name on it.

juskay, I'll take Sharp over any TWO of the three you mentioned. You're a smart enough hockey fan to know that +/- is a joke of a stat. Sharp has been one of the most consistent scorers in the entire league this season. He can also play center and wing, win faceoffs, play the point on the power play as well as up front and kill penalties. Name one guy the Hawks traded that would have brought all that to the team plus leadership.

We're not dumb. I think every Hawks fan knew that injuries to key players would hurt, but what team is immune to that? The Habs lose Markov and suddenly their defense looks like swiss cheese. The Devils lost Zach Parise and we all know how that's turning out. The Islanders would have a much improved team this season if they had Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo in their lineup. What about the Kings' early struggles without Drew Doughty?

As I've said many, MANY times, the Hawks were so much deeper than anyone else last season, that losing that depth simply brings them back to the pack. That doesn't mean the team was gutted. I'll take a core of Toews, Kane, Hossa, Sharp, Keith & Seabrook to build around over any other core in the league.

And Campbell's contract isn't nearly as much of a crutch as Luongo's is.

"I'll take a core of Toews, Kane, Hossa, Sharp, Keith & Seabrook to build around over any other core in the league."


The problem is that the hawks are strapped to the cap so "building around" that core is difficult to impossible. Its like have Ilya in NJ - great to have a solid player but paying him $10 mil/yr means you only fill 19 of 23 roster spots and reside at the bottom of the NHL standings.


The Hawks only have the following signed through next season (2011-12):

Forwards:

Kane - $6,300,000
Toews - $6,300,000
Hossa - $5,275,000
Sharp - $3,900,000
Bolland - $3,375,000
Bickell - $541,666

2011-12 RFAs include Brouwer, Stalberg, Skille, Dowell
2011-12 UFAs include Kopecky, Pisani, Johnson

Defensemen:

Campbell - $7,142,875
Duncan - $5,538,462
Hjalmarrson - $3,500,000
Scott - $512,500

2011-12 RFAs include Seabrook
2011-12 UFAs include Hendry, Boynton, Cullimore

Goalies:

2011-12 RFAs include Crawford
2011-12 UFAs include Turco


That leaves about $17 million to re-sign Crawford, another Goalie (or utilize the last season of Huet's $5,625,000 contact), Seabrook, and 10 other players next season. I'm doubting they can "build around" that core even more now that I took a look at the #s.