Game 74: BJ's 4, Hawks 2: Mel gets to play coach!

Ok this is really not funny. Stop it. I'm not laughing.

I suppose I should be happy the Hawks only let the last place team in our division score half the goals they did in their previous meeting. But let's be honest. These are not the Blackhawks you are looking for. True, the 4th Jackets goal was an empty netter, but on the flipside the Hawks first goal was scored by a BJ (Thanks for the LOLer coaster Vermette!) and the second was a shortie. The point's been made that perhaps the Hawks are only motivated when they play "good teams" (see recent wins against 'Yotes and Nucks). If that's the case - they really need to get out of that mindframe. Barring another Sharks collapse you can kiss the conference goodbye. Fine, I'm not going to freak out over that one anyway. But a mere couple of weeks ago we were enjoying a lead in the upper teens in the division. Do you know what that lead is now? A mere 7 points over the Preds (a team I will strongly dislike for the simple fact they have the worst goal song in all of hockey) and 8 over the Scum. Sure we have a game or two in hand, but what difference does that make as dreadful as we are playing? If winning the division and earning a 2 seed in the playoffs does not motivate this team to put forth a consistent effort, polish those golf clubs boys. The excuses don't cut it anymore at this point in the season: the Olympics, injuries, goalie troubles. Every team in the NHL has issues such as these, and the great teams rise above it. The Hawks simply look like they're arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic now.


To make this a little more fun, I'm putting my coach's hat on. Please note I have not coached anything in my life (except some sports games on the NES...Tecmo Bowl anyone?), so take this with a grain of salt. But honestly, could I do much worse than Q right now? His line-schizophrenia is driving me up the fucking wall. Gee, maybe the reason the passing has been dreadful and everything seems out of sync is because YOU CHANGE THE LINES AT LEAST THREE TIMES A GAME. It's like if a line doesn't score or is on the ice for a goal he instantly has to change things up. Eager with Toews? Kane on the third line? What were you smoking on the bench last night? And then, Q decides now would be a good time to split up Seabs and Dunc. Yes, I advocated this a few weeks ago: when we had a full compliment of D men playing. Right now we have a forward who was moved from defense because he sucked *back* on D and we alternate between a man who skates like he shat his pants and a journeyman AHL scrub. This is not the time to break up our top D pairing! Besides it looks like that concussion actually made Seabrook play better - who knew? In any case, here are *my* lines, because dammit, they're better than what I saw last night:

Kane-Toews-Brouwer (I always liked this line)
Hossa-Bolland-Sharp
Ladd-Madden-Versteeg
Buff-Fraser-Burish/Kopecky/Eager (in order of preference)

Keith-Seabrook
TOFTBO-Boyton (until Soupy is back)
Hendry-Sopel (until Johnnson is back - I think he must have gotten deported back to Sweden because no one's seen him in weeks. Can we get a refund? I kept my receipt for Barker.)

So there's that. I've heard reports today that a Versteeg (as a center-barf), Buff, Kane line was practicing. Excuse me, I have to get an advance on my anti-depressant refill.

On a comical note, playoff tickets for the first two rounds go on sale Wednesday. Oh, I'll buy them with the money from my tax refund I've been saving, but if they shit the bed against the Blues and Wild back-to-back, I'm going to start looking at the printer/scanners I've been coveting as of late.