Whats with all the Boston love on the national stage. So what the swept the pens a thrown together group of stars with most less then 40 games expirience playing with one another. This is the same bruins team who were an iinch from being out in the first round to the Maple Leafs. Dont get me worng they are a strong team and are going to be tough to beat but I've seen the national guys pretty much across the board picking the B's.

Hawks were unbeaten in 27 straight. They seem to be healthy. Hossa is a 2 way beast, Kane and Toews are starting to fire up, Sharp is sniping, Keith looks to be in norris form, Hjarlmarson is playing out of his mind in the defensive zone. Crawford is making the stops when he needs to. I just dont see a team beating them 4 out of 7.

Rask will have to be con smyth'ish, and put up an "all time" type performance for the B's to win.

Hawks in 6.

I think you forgot if Kane isn't put in jail for beating up another cab driver for .22 cents.
- waxieman

I know you are, but what am I? Nanananabooboo! Child...

Is that really the best you've got?

boston will destroy them. they'll continue to beat up the opposition as long as chicago can't score on the PP. toews is easily frustrated. kane is invisible when it gets rough. boston will smell blood and attack. if chicago's PP does click, boston's talent is better this playoffs.

chara >>> keith
seidenberg > seabrook

rask > crawford

krejci/bergeron/marchand all > toews (this playoffs)
horton = hossa (this playoffs)
lucic > kane (this playoffs)
jagr < sharp/bickell both better (this playoffs)

the rest of boston > the rest of chicago

chicago fans = boston fans

chicago goal song >>> boston goal song
- therealagent

You've got all of these individual match-ups charted: assume most are correct (although you have too many "this playoffs" comments - each series is different).

If these were one-on-one games, you may have determined the winner.

But it's a team game - put them all together and which group of 19 is the better team - this series - that's who will win.

So - unequivocally - Team Chicago > Team Boston. Without doubt.

Or - maybe - Team Boston > Team Chicago. Possible.

That's why they play the games.

No prediction from me on this one.

tredbrta: Your recommendations from the other thread read like they were written by a suburbanite. Como Inn has been closed for years and the rest of your recommendations look like you looked at a 1998 Fodor's Guide to Chicago.

UnnamedSource: I see I'm not the only one that thinks you're a self-important turd. Keep posting, pal. People like you. They really do. Just keep telling yourself that.

Glad to see certain people keep calling 88 a passenger who, parenthetically, "finally stepped up" because that fits their narrative better than recognizing Kane's immense talent, heart and unbelievably clutch play.

Glad Ogi finally realized some of his foolishness. Others here have recognized it for a while.

Fans don't have to be bad fans. But, I guess fans that spend countless hours on an Internet message board feel that's their right and many here, including the esteemed blogger, personify that notion. And if you offer a contrary opinion you're called a kook-aid drinker and branded a shill for the organization instead of a reasonable, level-headed poster that sees the vision of the organization and really appreciates what is happening. Maybe you had to have long-suffered as a Hawks fan to have that perspective.
- Baaaaaaannerman!

He was a passenger for the first 15 games of this run...true story.

Whats with all the Boston love on the national stage. So what the swept the pens a thrown together group of stars with most less then 40 games expirience playing with one another. This is the same bruins team who were an iinch from being out in the first round to the Maple Leafs. Dont get me worng they are a strong team and are going to be tough to beat but I've seen the national guys pretty much across the board picking the B's.

Hawks were unbeaten in 27 straight. They seem to be healthy. Hossa is a 2 way beast, Kane and Toews are starting to fire up, Sharp is sniping, Keith looks to be in norris form, Hjarlmarson is playing out of his mind in the defensive zone. Crawford is making the stops when he needs to. I just dont see a team beating them 4 out of 7.

Rask will have to be con smyth'ish, and put up an "all time" type performance for the B's to win.

Hawks in 6.
- mvp0207

Love the playoff beard avatar

I don't crunch cap numbers. It's not my job. But what I look at as a fan is: Who's stepping up to help win the Cup when it's time to step up and win a Cup? Those are the players you want to keep on your club and build around. One of the questions asked here about Bickell is whether he's "arriving", or whether instead he's "playing for a contract". I suspect there are elements of both, though I don't pretend to know him or what ultimately motivates him. But the fact remains he's elevated his game as the stage gets bigger, when it most counts. Stalls has not. It's pretty simple really.
- Tugboat

I agree...but when it comes time to give him the paper....has he done enough to warrant the jack pot someone will give him. Like I said....it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

He was a passenger for the first 15 games of this run...true story.
- philco28

You may have to yell a little louder.....he has his tongue so far up Kaner's behind he won't be able to hear you

Whats with all the Boston love on the national stage. So what the swept the pens a thrown together group of stars with most less then 40 games expirience playing with one another. This is the same bruins team who were an iinch from being out in the first round to the Maple Leafs. Dont get me worng they are a strong team and are going to be tough to beat but I've seen the national guys pretty much across the board picking the B's.

Hawks were unbeaten in 27 straight. They seem to be healthy. Hossa is a 2 way beast, Kane and Toews are starting to fire up, Sharp is sniping, Keith looks to be in norris form, Hjarlmarson is playing out of his mind in the defensive zone. Crawford is making the stops when he needs to. I just dont see a team beating them 4 out of 7.

Rask will have to be con smyth'ish, and put up an "all time" type performance for the B's to win.

Hawks in 6.
- mvp0207

And then when the Hawks win you'll hear about all the calls that favored the Hawks and how all the bounces favored them and how Boston missed Campbell more than anyone realized, etc., et al. Because "experts" are NEVER wrong; just ask them. This will be a tough series but a Hawks Cup will by no means be a shocker.

Love the playoff beard avatar

- philco28

Makes the chief look like B-52.

I think you forgot if Kane isn't put in jail for beating up another cab driver for .22 cents.
- waxieman

He'd join Chara, in jail for what he did (purposefully, IMO) to Pacioretty.

What's hard to understand for some people...


Yes Kane is very talented and is one of the most prolific players in the league....I don't think anyone disputes this. In fact, even the ones who write he is lazy, he floats, etc will even tell you that..........that is why his play is so frustrating.

So if you are going to jump on his nads for one great game last night and applaud him for lighting it up which he deserves.....don't forget the 16 games prior where he performed at a fraction of what he did during the regular season.....just have some perspective.

I hope he comes up huge in the finals because this team will need him....hopefully last nights game gets him going.

You may have to yell a little louder.....he has his tongue so far up Kaner's behind he won't be able to hear you
- UnnamedSource

Nice to see Kaner light'n it up in a clutch game...really nice, but even he knows he vanished off radar for much of the first 15 games

What's hard to understand for some people...


Yes Kane is very talented and is one of the most prolific players in the league....I don't think anyone disputes this. In fact, even the ones who write he is lazy, he floats, etc will even tell you that..........that is why his play is so frustrating.

So if you are going to jump on his nads for one great game last night and applaud him for lighting it up which he deserves.....don't forget the 16 games prior where he performed at a fraction of what he did during the regular season.....just have some perspective.

I hope he comes up huge in the finals because this team will need him....hopefully last nights game gets him going.
- UnnamedSource

That awkward moment when Kane is tied for the team lead in points this postseason........ That doesn't exactly happen overnight, does it?

Hope it continues.

He was a passenger for the first 15 games of this run...true story.
- philco28

You are entitled to your opinion. He struggled, no doubt. I simply disagree with the characterization of him being a passenger and feel it's unfair. He proves his worth time and time again and I'm really glad he's a Blackhawk.

Makes the chief look like B-52.
- Beaver-Warrior

Yup....nice correlation Beav

Yes. I'm deeply injured. I'm crying as I type this, in fact. You should feel terrible about yourself because you're a very mean person. Glad your, and JJ's, mischaracterization of prior posts of mine brings so much joy to your life. And, thank you for allowing me to keep posting. My life would not be complete without it. It would be like, well, like I lived in Schaumburg. But I'm sure your double-wide is palatial. Turd.
- Baaaaaaannerman!

Mischaracterizing it after you've been repeating it for the last few months?.......it's not up to me to allow you to post or not, I'm just encouraging you to keep posting because it simply brings joy and a smile to my face...the army of stupid needs you.

He was a passenger for the first 15 games of this run...true story.
- philco28

He set up Sharp with 3-4 goals against Minnesota...big goals! No one has been there for the whole playoff's except Bick's

Two huge problems with this rationale:

1) A team plays half its games in its own building, so the home scorekeeper has a huge effect on the final totals. A very biased scorekeeper, or one who is simply very generous or very stingy with awarding them, can have a massive effect.

For example, this season Chicago was credited with 312 takeaways and 207 giveaways at home, but only 155 takeaways and 138 giveaways on the road. Some small part of that discrepancy might be that Chicago played a more low-event game on average in other team's buildings, but I find it hard to believe that Chicago really has twice as many takeaways and 50 percent more turnovers per game when playing at home.

Just go back a few years and keep looking at the home/road splits for real time stats -- it's fascinating. Toronto's home scorer seems to give out giveaways like candy. San Jose is always near the top of the league in home turnovers/takeaway and always near the bottom in road turnovers/takeaways. The discrepancies are so prodigiously large that scorer bias is really the only explanation.

2) One way to attempt to get around this problem is to throw out the home information entirely and only use road data, the theory being that the biases will average out more if you eliminate the guy in your own building from the sample. If I MUST use real-time stats to make a judgment, this is what I typically do.

But, that's especially problematic this year because A) teams only played in their own conference, reducing the amount of buildings in the sample to 14 per team with no overlap between teams of different conferences, and B) teams only played 24 total road games, down from the usual sample of 41, providing less data and therefore less reliable information.

TL/DR

I think you're right in the general sense that Chicago is very good (among the best, perhaps THE best, though not necessarily) at taking the puck away. And I also think you're right that Boston is fairly turnover prone.

But trying to use the actual data for anything more than general guesses is foolish because there's just way too much funk in that table to put much faith in virtually any team's home scorer. Just because one team has a big lead in the credited takeaways doesn't mean that team really, actually took the puck away the most. There's just WAY too much noise and bias within the system to make that claim.

EDIT: And since this is a prediction blog, Hawks in 6.
- Sven22

Probably best to use a combination of Fenwick/Corsi and the stats but discount the home numbers.

Just like the officiating it may be time to start penalizing those outrageously misreporting these numbers.

He set up Sharp with 3-4 goals against Minnesota...big goals! No one has been there for the whole playoff's except Bick's
- moots

And Crawford.

That awkward moment when Kane is tied for the team lead in points this postseason........ That doesn't exactly happen overnight, does it?

Hope it continues.
- CBHawks88

No it doesn't but if you think he has had the same consistent effort during the post season as he had during the regular season one would be mistaken. I hope it does continue because now more than ever...the Hawks will need him against Boston.

He set up Sharp with 3-4 goals against Minnesota...big goals! No one has been there for the whole playoff's except Bick's
- moots

That seemed like eons ago...and he was virtually invisible against Detroit.
At $6.3 mil/year...that's not good enough, but again, nice to see him come through FINALLY. Great game last night and winner was CLASSIQUE

And Crawford.
- CBHawks88

Hammer's been OUTSTANDING as have Fro, Krugs and DUNCS.

Nice to see Kaner light'n it up in a clutch game...really nice, but even he knows he vanished off radar for much of the first 15 games
- philco28

Yep....I think putting him on the Toews line will be huge especially if Bickel continues with his effort...tough line to defend.

Hammer's been OUTSTANDING as have Fro, Krugs and DUNCS.
- philco28

If the Conn Smythe was given for heart and effort Hammer would be leading the field.

Hammer's been OUTSTANDING as have Fro, Krugs and DUNCS.
- philco28

Oh FOR SURE. Choosing a new jersey after we win the cup has suddenly become a much harder task