There are more days than not when it really sucks to be me, but today was not one of them.  I was able to get a pass to the closed practice for Team USA's orientation camp.  After reading about the lines of people seeking autographs and cheering every time Kane touched the puck, I am EXTREMELY grateful I was able to watch the guys in relative peace and quiet.  A few notes on what I witnessed (including some stuff for the women who read this site).

1. I commented more than twice to my friend that I would love to see TJ Oshie on the Blackhawks.  The kid flat out flies. I really loved watching him skate today.  He's without a doubt going to be on the olympic team.  It really sucks how many good, young players St. Louis has on their team. We finally have a team good enough to beat the Red Wings and now we have St. Louis to deal with. Cock balls.

2. Speaking of St. Louis players - ladies, take a good, long look at David Backes.  Holy god is he hot.  At one point he skated right past me as I was walking back to my seat, and I almost ran into a trash can because I was completely staring at him.  I'm pretty sure I would have flashed him if it wasn't 15 degrees in that building.

3. I don't see how Buff makes this team. His skill level was really lacking compared to most of the guys on the ice.  I realize he wasn't in his element participating in a bunch of shooting/passing drills, but I can't see Wilson wanting to take up a roster spot with one guy who sometimes remembers to screen the goalie.

4.  Funny moment during the practice - Tortorella had all of the players line up on the goal line like they were about to skate line sprints (ala Herb Brooks in the movie "Miracle").  When he was about to blow the whistle to have the guys start, he yells out something along the lines of "just kidding!" and all the guys started laughing and tapping their sticks on the ice.  I got a kick out of it.

5. It was really great getting to see the guys goofing around at the end of practice.  Oshie, Backes, Malone, Statsny and Kesler all made a circle and played a hockey version of hackey sack with the puck and their sticks.  All of the forwards participated in different shooting drills (one-timers from the blue line, one-on-one with the goalie, etc) and would give each other cheers whenever a fancy move was made or Thomas or Miller made a good stop.  Some of the defensemen even got involved.  I overheard a bet of some kind being made with Komisarek. He made three shots in a row on Miller and after he missed his fourth, he threw his stick against the boards and said "I'm not buying you guys ANYTHING!" I would love to know where they're eating tonight.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day.  I was hoping for some scrimmage time, but I wasn't really expecting it after the NHL said the players wouldn't be paid if they were injured during olympic practice.  I can't wait for the season to start and get back to spending a few nights a week at the United Center!

After watching the Stan Bowman introductory press conference this afternoon, I became increasingly worried about the state of the Blackhawks.  Most of this worry is the result of the answers McDonough gave to two very important questions:

1. McDonough said Tallon most likely would not have been let go had the RFA debacle not happend.  Keep in mind he said this while sitting next to a guy he just promoted whose sole job was to handle all CBA-related issues.  Obviously there's something else that happened between Tallon and McD, but blaming it on the qualifying offer mistake was the easy way out.  That much was evident when McD later in the conference McD said he was ultimately responsible for what happened.

2. McDonough admitted he doesn't know hockey all that well and gets most of his advice from Scotty Bowman.  This is a MAJOR issue, folks. I realize there are worse people out there to get advice from (*cough PierreMcGuire *cough) than Scotty Bowman, but Scotty has a huge conflict of interest in the GM position since his son is, sorry was, the assistant GM. McDonough said at no point did he and Scotty talk about hiring Stan to replace Tallon, but that doesn't mean Scotty never said, "You should get rid of Tallon." I would rather McDonough take advice from someone that has experience in the front office.  Scotty has only held coaching and scouting jobs. Firing a GM isn't something you do after a quick chat with your personal hockey consultant.  .

I realize McDonough has done a great deal to better the organization in a short time.  He has made it a point to make the team accessible to the fans and has treated season ticket holders like gold.  I'm very pleased with the way he's handled the Blackhawks from a marketing perspective.  But I'm extremely leary of having someone as inexperienced with hockey and salary caps as McDonough as the Blackhawks president.  If you're committed to winning a Stanley Cup, you have to keep the turmoil to a minimum and learn how to manage salaries within a budget.

Before I get started, let me clarify a few things about myself:

1.  I realize I can be a raging bitch.

2.  I despise women that make the rest of the female population look like a bunch of ditzy morons.

That being said, check out this piece of sh*t advice column written by a woman.  A female blogger posted her own rebuttal to this god awful column, but I don't think it's mean enough so I had to write my own.  Now, I completely understand most women are not super fans like me.  They don't know the specifics of hockey, and they may not even know the basic rules of the game, but that doesn't mean they're not smart enough to pick it up.  Men certainly don't need to shove food and beer down their throats every two seconds to make them have a good time at a hockey game.  She makes women sound like small children who need constant distractions to keep them sitting still for 90 minutes.  "Give her a camera and tell her to take lots of pictures of your time together!"  "Send her off to get you food and beers!"  "Tell her she should go to the bathroom at halftime (yes, this bitch said HALFTIME) so you can check out the ice skanks!"  I mean, WTF is wrong with this woman?  If there is a single man out there who reads this idiot's advice and takes it, he should be castrated and forced to eat his own balls.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?post=4245783&name=cimaglia

Al Cimigla is claiming Matt Walker is as good a defenseman as Cam Barker.  Did he watch the same team as I did?  How could he even claim Walker is just as good on the power play as Barker?  I'm so irritated by this article, I can't even come up with rebuttal.  God help us all if Tallon is actually thinking about getting rid of Barker and keeping Walker.

On the night of May 27th, I watched what ended up being the final game of the season for the Chicago Blackhawks.  I was unhappy with the performance of the team in the over time period and upset the Blackhawks' poor play knocked them out of the playoffs.  I decided to go to my favorite Blackhawks hockey blog to wallow in the disappointment of the loss with fellow fans and express my anger over the effort in over time.  Instead, I was subjected to hundreds of "Good try!  Better luck next time!" comments like I had stumbled into a soccer mom blog with a bunch of parents celebrating their kids last place trophies.  The team we've all followed passionately for an entire season just choked in over time, but hey, let's hand them an award for not winning a winnable game! 

I realize the majority of the hockey world had only one expectation for this team - make the playoffs.  They not only met this expectation, but they exceeded it by playing solid, physical hockey and limiting their mistakes.  In the second round of the playoffs, I saw a team with the potential and talent to win the Stanley Cup.  All they had to do was get past a great, BUT BEATABLE, Detroit Red Wings team.  Then the series started, and it all fell apart... the Blackhawks ended up imploding on themselves in all but one game.  They squandered highlight reel performances by their goaltenders, and gave up too many odd man rushes to count.  This really pissed me off.  How could anyone not be upset about giving up two game winners on horrible mistakes?  Yet somehow I became the villain because I wasn't going to play the "aw shucks, better luck next time" game with everyone else.  I might be in the minority, but I'm a person that doesn't think we should immediately congratulate adults for failing to play/coach to their potential.  It's very possible I'm angrier than most in this situation because the money I have contributed to the Blackhawks organization is about enough to pay for Quenneville's game 4 fine (a fact that is especially depressing considering I'm in my forth month of unemployment), but that doesn't mean my anger isn't warranted.

Am I proud of the Chicago Blackhawks?  Of course I am.  It was a great, even magical, season.  I was lucky enough to sit by an awesome group of passionate hockey fans in section 118 of the United Center.  I had the opportunity to shake Rocky Wirtz's hand and thank him for all he did for this organization.  And I guarantee I wouldn't hesitate to thank the players and buy them a round (even though I'm broke) if I happened to see them out in the city. But less than 24 hours after this loss, I still have feelings of disappointment and anger.  All I wanted them to do was put forth a good over time effort and send this series back to Chicago so the fans could give them the proper thank you they (and we) deserved.  Hell, it was the least they could do after Game 4.  Well, it's a day later and I'm not ready to hand out awards for being the third best team in the league.  I'm going to sit and stew for a few days until the finals start.  Then I'm going to hopefully watch the Red Wings beat the crap out of the biggest whiners in the league and get their 12th Stanley Cup championship.  Because if you're going to be one of those people who plays the "better team won, but congrats on the great season" card, at least be proud your team lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions.