That's right, kids. Corey Crawford has re-signed with the Blackhawks for a 3 year, $8 million deal ($2.67M cap hit) today.

 

This one doesn't pertain directly to hockey, but the offseason is boring so I don't care.  Allow me to set this scene for you:

I've had a tough week for a variety of personal reasons.  I won't bore you with the details, but I've been a bit testy lately.  I'm normally quite the happy person.  Like I said though, its been a tough week.

I get emails fairly often from different people who find this site somehow.  Most of them are people looking to advertise or people who send me story ideas they think are interesting.  I don't deal with the ads, but I do like chatting about the Hawks.  On Thursday I got an email from a guy who wanted me to put a link to his memorabilia dealer website on BHDL in exchange for a 10% discount from his store.  I'll post his email and my response for your viewing pleasure.

 

After the elimination of the Predators to the Canucks, and the push of the Sharks/Wings series to a seventh game tonight, Blackhawk fans have had a difficult decision to make: Who should I root for?

Yes, if you want to be a total stick in the mud and just enjoy the spectacle of it all, you don’t have to root for anyone, but then you wouldn’t get the thrill of telling everyone you were right or the pain of everyone yelling at you for being wrong.

So who should we root for tonight? The Sharks or the Wings?

It’s real easy kids. Detroit is who you should throw your support behind and here’s why.

no comments

 

Kaner's never gunna let you down.

Yes, it's been well over several weeks since the last "Patrick Kane is a drunk man whore" story was posted anywhere...that is...until Deadspin (WHO ELSE BUT DEADSPIN!?) released pictures of a sleeping Kane and his boarding pass taken by his late night acquaintance and creepo extraordinaire.

So, we here at Blackhawks Down Low, being the public educators that we are, decided we would skip ahead of the moral if’s and but’s surrounding this and just give you the straight 411 about Patrick Kane’s conquests.

With that, BHDL proudly presents: Patrick Kane’s Top 10 Late Night Club Conquests. (Thank you to @JustinDOY for the idea.)

And yes, this is written from Kaner’s perspective, narrating in the third-person.

 

Yes, once again, myself and @ChiBlackhawks were 'featured' on the @Hockeenight puckcast last night. Topics of discussion included:

 

• Uptown Hockey
• Trading Patrick Kane
• The Denis-Papin Express
• The Chicago Express
• ChiBlackhawks phone
• The Hockeenight Irish Wake
• ChiBlackhawks phone
• "Blackhawks Shit"
• And other stuff...

Please give us a listen by clicking the play button below, or you can download an MP3 of the podcast.

Thanks for listening!

 

We're still here.  Not in the crazy-ass Joaquin Phoenix way.  I don't think I have much of a career in hip-hop anyways.

But this is definitely the longest we've gone without a post since the blog started.  My bad.  With school and life and work and all that jazz, its been tough to find time for hockey.  But I do have a couple thoughts, none of which were long enough for their own post, that I'll share while I'm already typing.

• Everybody should laugh at Kelly.  He picked the Flyers to win the Cup.  I hope you'll join me in a big, hearty "L-O-L!"
• For the record, Tampa is my pick to win the Cup.  I fully expect Kelly to do one of these if they lose:

• I didn't think Nashville would put up this kind of fight against Vancouver.  Gotta hand it to those guys.  I don't remember the last time I saw a team play so well with so little talent.  Joel Ward is lighting it up lately.
• Watching the Bulls is such a poor substitute for the Hawks.
• The World Championships are such a joke.  They seriously need to overhaul how they do this tournament.  Honestly, how many of you even know about the WCs?  I watched about 5 minutes of the USA - France game just to see Huet play a little bit.
• Is it October yet?

I hope to get back into the writing groove this week now that I'll be done with finals.  We'll be keeping track of the conference finals and the cup finals.  And since this is my website, there will be absolutely no objectivity.  Go Preds, go Sharks.

I feel like its stupid for me to even have to write that headline.  But I've heard enough of the meatheads since the Hawks got bounced from the playoffs.

Let's not even talk about how he's a great player.  Let's not talk about how he had a down year by his standards.  Let's not talk about how that down year meant he only scored 73 points in 73 games.  Let's not talk about how only 12 players scored a point per game (min 60 games played) in the NHL this year.

No, before we even start talking about stuff like that, there's something else I'd like to address.  Money.  Well, in a roundabout way its about money.  In a more direct sense, I want to talk about Kane's contract.  Have you seen some of the numbers?  Need a refresher?



See that little line on the bottom?  Know what NMC means?  It means "No Movement Clause."

Now, I know a lot of readers here are generally pretty smart.  Mostly because I know all 8 of you.  But let's pretend like we have to explain it to Joey Meathead.  That little clause added in at the bottom means that for Kane to be traded, he would have to agree to the trade.  He gets the final say.  What, pray tell, would make Kane want to leave Chicago right now?  Nada.  What team would be better off than the Hawks after a trade that would essentially mean a team was sending over all of their talent and half of their farm team?  Nobody.

What hole would the Hawks be looking to fill by trading Kane?  A second line center?  Some depth on defense?  Do we also get 3 consecutive first round picks, access to the Playboy Mansion, and free Big Macs for life in those deals?  Even with those stipulations, I'd probably keep Kane.

He's not going anywhere.  He would have to want out; the Blackhawks would have to want him out.  In the words of President George H. W. Bush Dana Carvey, "Ain't gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent."  And that's great.  Me and Kaner have a plan to drink during every Royal Wedding that happens while we're still alive.

 

It was too little, too late.

That summed up many of our games this season. It nearly summed up our bid to make the playoffs. It is exactly what happened to the series, and poetically, it is what happened last night as well.

The Canucks dominated and dictated the play from the beginning, as they had four times out of six in the series thus far. They clogged passing lanes, took away time and space, blocked shots and tied up sticks, and played to protect the one-goal lead they'd managed within minutes of puck drop. The Blackhawks battled, but not nearly hard enough-- they were ultimately saved, time and time again, by the remarkable play of Corey Crawford.

The clock wound down to the final minutes and, it seemed, our season's end. As it is customary for the Blackhawks to do around situations like these, of course someone had to take a penalty.

And in a scene nearly perfectly reminiscent of a first round game this time last year, the Blackhawks came back to tie it up shorthanded to force overtime.

It was the Captain's first goal of the series, and it brought Rogers Arena to its knees.

At that point, with the game in overtime, the Canucks continuing to pepper Crawford with shots, and Crawford emerging as the winner of the "How the HELL did that not go in?" goaltending duel, it seemed nothing was impossible. But a failed clearing attempt by Campoli resulted in a turnover to Alexandre Burrows (whose performance last night could be the entire plot of a movie all its own), and he was not going to miss his third shot.

Turns out the Blackhawks had run out of their impossible-made-possible quota for the season.

When we properly close out this season (and I don't know how yet, but you've hardly heard the last from us here), we'll likely be torn between dissecting everything in the past-- obsessing over where the season was derailed, what we could have done, what we shouldn't have done-- and wondering about the future-- debating the merits of keeping one free agent over the other, trading away one player for a different one, extending one player's contract. We will probably be tempted to look back at the season and maybe view it a little more fondly or bitterly than we should.

But the Hawks didn't lose in the first round against all odds, nor were the the most undeserving playoff contenders in the league this year. The truth is somewhere in between. This team is flawed but not irreparable. In three years they've accomplished so much, but it did take them three years--the shortest in NHL standards--to do so.

This is going to continue to be one hell of a team, and I couldn't be prouder to be a Blackhawks fan. Thanks for the season, Chicago Blackhawks! We'll see you next year.

In the madness that was the end of that game, I started posting my thoughts all over the place.  I need somewhere to collect all the things bouncing around my brain.  Lucky for me, I have a blog.  ChiBlackhawks will have your game recap some time tomorrow.

• This was like dying in the middle of the best sex you've ever had. The best way I can possibly think to go.  We thought we were done after game 3.  At the end of the day, the Hawks should take pride in that comeback.
• Remember how we almost didn't make the playoffs and needed the Stars to lose just to grab the 8th seed?  Perspective is everything.  Every game of the playoffs was pure gravy for the Hawks.
• I have to change my twitter picture to a Canucks pic that Dani from BenchedWhale.com gets to pick.  Damnit.
• That was one of the best hockey games I've ever seen.  I know we lost, but it was intense for every second of play.
• The guys who did guest posts for us were absolutely incredible.  It was even better than I had hoped.  Thanks to @felixpotvin, @twolinepass, @thegoalieguild, @jtbourne, and @mlse.
• I get to shave this gross beard I've had going.
• I would be totally remiss if I didn't thank the other writers of this site for the great season that they both put in.  Kelly and ChiBlackhawks did an awesome job.  Without them, this place would be total crap.  They come up with great ideas, put in a lot of work, and do a damn great job.  They allow me to go on my drunken college escapades on weekends and don't say boo when I sleep through a post I was supposed to do.  This was our first full season on the blog, and it was incredible.
• For at least one season, we are all Sharks fans.
• I want to thank all the people who have read and commented and sent us photoshops and emailed us and shared the site with their friends.  You guys make this all worth doing.  We hope you stay with us through the dog days of summer as we have the occasional news and post ideas.
• Enjoy not stressing about every hockey game for a little while, folks.  Its been a blast of a season.

Game Time: 9 PM
TV/Radio: CSN, Versus / WIND 560 AM

"Bugs, we're from Chicago. We got this winning thing down."

Let me paint this picture nice and clear for you.  The Canucks were the Nerdlucks for the last few years.  Yeah they were full of spunk and such, but they didn't have what it took to beat the Hawks.

I have way too much time on my hands. 

But then they got sick of the Hawks picking on them, so they stole their talent from real hockey players.  They turned into the Monstars, running wild through the regular season and taking the President's Trophy.  Surely, the Hawks were doomed.  They beat up our captain and rendered him useless.