Don Cherry? Is that you?
- paulr

Don is busy right now looking at the list of gutless Euros on the Bruins that he can blame for losing last night.

Where does Kurashev slot in? What is his natural position, C or wing?
- z1990z

The Rock to start, He is a natural centerman

Where does Kurashev slot in? What is his natural position, C or wing?
- z1990z

He's a center by trade but shoots left and suspect he can play LW as well. Maybe he centers on a Saad/Caggiula Line?? (If he can impress in camp)

Assuming no new roster forwards, you give Perlini enough rope to play RW with 12/17 and see how that goes, and you only have the gaping hole at LW to fill with 19/88. Hopefully filled with a hard nosed power forward.

And then maybe you have enough balance and two way players up front to relieve pressure on the D by titling the ice more to the O zone.

Don Cherry? Is that you?
- paulr

I know I know .I do believe it a factor that should be consider

Kubalik/Kampf/Kahun IMO would be a stellar fourth line.
- Return of the Roar

So no checking line again?

So no checking line again?
- L_B_R

??

For example, since I know you appreciate stats, JC put Kampf against teams' best forechecking lines all season. 50.3 CF%_QoC.

Kampf had a knack for reducing high-danger chances for the opponents Colliton matched him up against. He had the second best high-danger shot share (HDCF%) out of the forwards group at 46.2-percent on a team where the vast majority of skaters had a HDCF% below 45-percent. Keep in mind that Chicago gave up the most scoring chances in the NHL, so it was nearly impossible for a Blackhawk to have a HDCF% at or above 50-percent.

and is another disgruntled OReillt type sitting there where his team will take a quantity of youth and vets for him?
- wiz1901

Taylor hall comes to mine.

??
- Return of the Roar

Who is your checking line center if not Kampf? Because right now in your setup, Kampf's between a guy who is offense first and another who is average defensively. Checking lines typically are 4th line today on successful teams.

Who is your checking line center if not Kampf? Because right now in your setup, Kampf's between a guy who is offense first and another who is average defensively. Checking lines typically are 4th line today on successful teams.
- L_B_R

Cody Eakin would do wonders for this team..

Can Stan have as good an off-season as Doug Armstrong had last summer?

ROR, Bozak, Perron, Maroon - add in bringing up Binnington and promoting Berube....
- StLBravesFan

Center Depth is a really good thing. I'd been hoping the Hawks would add Maroon for a couple of seasons. Never happened. Should be interesting to see what Stan does this summer. I would hope the pressure is on, esp. after not bothering to address the defense last offseason. Bowman has money to spend we'll see what happens. One of the 2 centers or the D kid should do at #3. Not the Ruskie.

Who is your checking line center if not Kampf? Because right now in your setup, Kampf's between a guy who is offense first and another who is average defensively. Checking lines typically are 4th line today on successful teams.
- L_B_R

I suppose my vision of things is one where they work with what they have and try to balance and distribute across the four lines. Bottom line is that they don't have enough horses today truly qualified to fill out a more traditional forward schema.

Maybe at least they find out if Perlini is for real or not, and if Kurashev and Kubalik have a place. Kubalik's prior history playing with Kampf....the chemistry thing seems to play a role in SB's thinking of late. Not to mention Kubalik is no smurf.

Kubalik/Kampf/Kahun IMO would be a stellar fourth line.
- Return of the Roar

I bet you'll see Kubalik and Kahun playing in the top 9. Not sure either really fit a 4th line role.

He's a center by trade but shoots left and suspect he can play LW as well. Maybe he centers on a Saad/Caggiula Line?? (If he can impress in camp)

Assuming no new roster forwards, you give Perlini enough rope to play RW with 12/17 and see how that goes, and you only have the gaping hole at LW to fill with 19/88. Hopefully filled with a hard nosed power forward.

And then maybe you have enough balance and two way players up front to relieve pressure on the D by titling the ice more to the O zone.
- Return of the Roar

Considering that we have a cap to deal with and power forwards normally don't come cheap, would it makes sense to just try Saad or Caggiula on the first line? I know it is not ideal, but Caggiula was effective on the first line.

I love the narrative that the Hawks are "so far off" and/or dont stand a chance.

Who thought Vegas would get to the cup final last year?
Who thought, at the start of 2019 when STL was in last, they'd be hoisting the cup? Or that CAR would beat/sweep TB? Compare those 2 rosters and the "talent" versus the results.

Each season is a new season. The Hawks are void of talent. They may not be favorites to win, but the certainly arent favorites to have the #1 pick next year

They'll be fine. They have talent. Things go well (the way they did for STL, BOS, Vegas, etc), they have just as good of a chance as anyone. Just have to find the right pieces to add/subtract while getting some breaks along the way (stay healthy, career/rebound years, etc)

Final standing for the Bracket Challenge League Amazing Run:

1 Ogi 173
2 AEL_Fox 146
- Darth Kane 146
3 Elbows 133
4 35Tony0 118
5 Stlbravesfan 108
6 Beav.1 101
7 True Grit 98
8 Drgonzo399 95
9 ty cam aka justin lowe 88
10 Rob.7 81
11 Wallace.2 61
12 waitforawhistle 55
13 Tugboat 48
- James.1 48
14 Robert.88 45
15 PRD797 33
- Blazin.1 33
16 Caufieldfan 23
- Ian o 23
17 blkhawk7 20
18 Lake Toews 13
19 Phil.1 10
- Red Jersey 10
- Bella s 10

Final standing for the Bracket Challenge League Amazing Run:

1 Ogi 173
2 AEL_Fox 146
- Darth Kane 146
3 Elbows 133
4 35Tony0 118
5 Stlbravesfan 108
6 Beav.1 101
7 True Grit 98
8 Drgonzo399 95
9 ty cam aka justin lowe 88
10 Rob.7 81
11 Wallace.2 61
12 waitforawhistle 55
13 Tugboat 48
- James.1 48
14 Robert.88 45
15 PRD797 33
- Blazin.1 33
16 Caufieldfan 23
- Ian o 23
17 blkhawk7 20
18 Lake Toews 13
19 Phil.1 10
- Red Jersey 10
- Bella s 10
- Beaver-Warrior

Kudos to you guys who did this and contrats Ogi!

Tanev accari paquette now thats good checking line kampf extra forward.
Toews kane saad
Dcat strome ?
Caggulia ? Perlini
Tanev paquette accari
Kampf

Keith joki
? Murphy
Gust Seabrook
Koko
Crawford
?
So bowman needs to have very good offseason or else. Need more speed physicality and hard forecheck and willingness to block shots and got the dirty areas type of players. Should be exciting starting today .

Considering that we have a cap to deal with and power forwards normally don't come cheap, would it makes sense to just try Saad or Caggiula on the first line? I know it is not ideal, but Caggiula was effective on the first line.
- Chunk

I think they did both last season. Saad's best offensive numbers were when he played with Drake.

Who knows - its a musical chairs game right now with more chairs than people looking to grab one. But under my scenario they only need to fill one forward slot. Last year it seemed no matter who was "the guy" to play on the first line no one really broke through as "he's the one".

Who is your checking line center if not Kampf? Because right now in your setup, Kampf's between a guy who is offense first and another who is average defensively. Checking lines typically are 4th line today on successful teams.
- L_B_R

What do you think Jacob Nilsson's chances are at 4C if for some reason Kampf was out of the picture? (Trade/injury or whatever)

Kudos to you guys who did this and contrats Ogi!
- breadbag

Be sure to join in next season!

I love the narrative that the Hawks are "so far off" and/or dont stand a chance.

Who thought Vegas would get to the cup final last year?
Who thought, at the start of 2019 when STL was in last, they'd be hoisting the cup? Or that CAR would beat/sweep TB? Compare those 2 rosters and the "talent" versus the results.

Each season is a new season. The Hawks are void of talent. They may not be favorites to win, but the certainly arent favorites to have the #1 pick next year

They'll be fine. They have talent. Things go well (the way they did for STL, BOS, Vegas, etc), they have just as good of a chance as anyone. Just have to find the right pieces to add/subtract while getting some breaks along the way (stay healthy, career/rebound years, etc)
- PatShart

Some truth to this in the sense that Berube was able to find a system that played to the strengths of most of the existing roster, and then the front office in STL made key acquisitions (having cap space to do so) to fill in the holes.

Vegas built incredible depth with A-/B level talent where their "checking line" actually scored a lot too, taking pressure off of not having A+ talent on their top line.

Similarities to both teams' success (and three of the four semi-finalists this year) can be found in their style of play too - hard nosed north/south dump and chase smashmouth hockey with guys who could execute it.

I refuse to congratulate the enemy. GO HAWKS

You're giving too much credit to those defense groups imo, especially Boston. They had decent but not exceptional top 3/4 players in which the over the hill guys isn't as good as the Hawks' older top pair player (Keith) and then had who cares bottom pair guys that rotated.

And for the Blues, that same d-group was crapping the bed for half a season but give them a good system to work in with the coaching change and it elevated them. Idk if JC's system can do the same for the Hawks, but it was working pretty well the last quarter of the system (though conveniently when the forwards started really clicking).

On top of that, look at what the Pens and Caps won with on the backend - bad defense groups win all the time.

The idea that the Hawks defense group are a ways off seems weird to me - like, it needs to be better but neither of those groups as a whole are all that impressive beyond they working well in their particular systems. The Hawks forward defensive capabilities / responsibleness are farther off than their defenders imo.
- L_B_R

Agree with this 100%, and it doesn’t have to mean bone crushing checks. I really liked the Blues forwards defensive play last night.

Bruins got very few free passes out of their end. They clogged the neutral zone and didn’t allow many easy entries into their zone.

What do you think Jacob Nilsson's chances are at 4C if for some reason Kampf was out of the picture? (Trade/injury or whatever)
- breadbag

Or Luke Johnson

Where does Kurashev slot in? What is his natural position, C or wing?
- z1990z

No rush necessary. Plays at least half season AHLl