It's finally fun to watch this team again

[zac]

For a long time I watch most every Hawk game, even before they were Cup worthy. As time went on and Bowman (somehow) made the team unnecessarily worse as well as slower at a time the league was getting faster and I became disillusioned. I didn't give a shit if they were perennial Cup contenders or not but they were not fun to watch. No speed, little in the way of skill, and constant reminders of terrible signings and ridiculous trades. Three kids in the fold also meant I had better and more important things to do with my time.

For the first time in a long time I can finally say this team is worth my time again. They aren't perfect, they likely won't even make the playoffs (trade every valuable asset for younger/future assets), but at least they are fun again. There is speed, there is talent (even outside Bedard), and there is something to look forward to again. I will never be able to watch as many Hawk games as I used (kids...other commitments) but at least I can now justify using some spare time to catch some games and invest my time.

I'm sure nobody gives a shit but it's good to be "back". I greatly missed seeing (watchable) Blackhawk hockey.

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[BobbyJet]

In other words. The country club has finally been disbanded!

 

[nmgrbhfn]

You forgot the “Q-type player” that Q liked to foist on the team.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

Feel the same way. I hardly watched the team last year, it was awful the few times I did. The Bedard factor roped me in for game 1 this year, after seeing the skating and effort throughout the team I have watched every game so far. I hope it continues and its not just a temporary thing, its been entertainin!

 

[SimpleJack]

Feel the same way. I hardly watched the team last year, it was awful the few times I did. The Bedard factor roped me in for game 1 this year, after seeing the skating and effort throughout the team I have watched every game so far. I hope it continues and its not just a temporary thing, its been entertainin!

Not only is it going to continue…it’s going to get even better.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

I can take bad as long as it's fun, and it's been fun so far.

 

[Jimmy2Times]

You forgot the “Q-type player” that Q liked to foist on the team.

You leave my boy stone hands stalberg outta this!

 

[SimpleJack]

It’s early but TB looks noticeably worse than they have in years past. Especially defensively, and now there’s no Vasi for a large chunk of the season to cover up their mistakes. If they suffer another injury to any of their remaining top players they’re in BIG trouble. As is they don’t look like a playoff team. That other 1st round pick we have in next year’s draft becomes even more interesting by the day. Imagine if TB just has one of those injury plagued transition years(kinda like they did in 2016) and we wind up drafting twice in the top 10-15 or so.

 

[ndgt10]

Looks like a fringe playoff team

 

[BobbyJet]

You leave my boy stone hands stalberg outta this!

You mean the guy who scored 22 goals and 43 pts without a sniff of PP time? I'll take just one Blackhawk player who can duplicate that, thankyou.

 

[MarotteMarauder]

The team is fast, they play much more physically than recent past. Not big hitters but most guys take a piece of the body and rub guys out over the entire ice surface.
Effort is there and that can go a LONG way
Need Reichel to figure things out a bit more IMO

 

[Kaners PPGs]

Watching an entire game? Live? Nope. Too many good teams around the league to watch. The Hawks are becoming worth spending 8-9 minutes on their extended highlight package on Youtube that I'll catch in the morning. The last couple years I haven't even been watching those unless I liked their opponent.

 

[Jimmy2Times]

Watching an entire game? Live? Nope. Too many good teams around the league to watch. The Hawks are becoming worth spending 8-9 minutes on their extended highlight package on Youtube that I'll catch in the morning. The last couple years I haven't even been watching those unless I liked their opponent.

I was the same for the last few years... this team is fun to watch.

 

[Blackhawks]

Meh without Bedard and and to a smaller extent 27&55, they wouldn’t be fun to watch, I am only excited when they have the puck

 

[hawksfan50]

I do not think there is that much fun ....YET...

1.$9.5 and Barfy are not that much fun...

2.Bedard is fun but would be even more if his abysmal shooting% was reverted to normal for expected goals given alk his scoring chances.

3. Relative to last season's tank group,this version is more fun..but this is relative to a low bar for improvement.

4.Lukas Reichel has so far produced no fun...only invisibility.

5.When you define fun...you havecto compare to this year's top fun teM...the Ottawa Senators...Now that is tge classic definition of fun...Josh Norris cones back in his first game and scores 2 goals..Tgeir D led by perhaps Already the best Dman I the league(Sanderson) and so deep on D with their top 3 =Sanderson,Chabot,Chychrun and the imorovenent of Branstrrom then Zib and Hamknic and a top 9 that even without Pinto is very very stacked then ardent 4th line and you have a very very very fun team to watch.


Conclusionver lsdt season's group Harare more fun to watch..but a long long way to go before Hawks get to the depth of tLent and degree of fun Ottawa ia now.

They are scarey goid now and they have reached the point of knowing g they are goid and have a real chance to co tend for the Cup this seadon..They define the level of fun Haws only aspire to get to..

Maybe by 25/26 or 26/27 the Hawks will get to that level ...but we still do not have a 1D as good as Sanderson is ..a dman who can co trol the ice and dictate the play....he was already good last season but now he has hit the stratosphere..Hevis fun to watch..I'd not think any of our dnen have yet to be considered funto watch..But I can accept Compentebce in doing the job ...Vlasic has shown Comoetence...KK has shown Comoetence some games and still a work inprogress on other games.. $9.5 seems to have cut down his mistakes (so far)but has not dictated play offensivelyas a 1D should and has not been a successful PP1 qb...the hyped Kaiser looks lost out there ...but he is saddled with Tinordi and Zaitsev as 3rd pair partners. So right there this is not goibgvto be fun.

So in comparing relative fun to watch teams,Hawks havexa long long way to go compared to what Ottawa is showing off this season.

All we can ask if that the team competes hard the majority of games and periods...last season was no fun.. this yeR we see glimmers of some fun
. But until we reach the kugelblitz of so much talent and depth and tge majority of pkayers in their 22-28 year old peaking or peak productive years,we are not that much fun...yet!


So it depends howcyudefine fun...At the pint a team does not need to trade for anything (if it even had thevcao room..which Ottawa does not) ...but knows it already is very goid and pkays with that confidence and gets resukts proving it..THEN that defines the fun level such that you cN say: THIS is fun.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

I have enjoyed watching the effort of the team through 4 games, the vets, the youngsters, the goaltending. I guess it’s how hard it is for someone to say something positive, especially those who never admit anything but negativity. I don’t understand the standards of some to enjoy watching the team when we see what we have seen so far. We were rock bottom last year, that was awful. This for me has been enjoyable, I don’t know why some even watch if they are not enjoying it. Thing is some people don’t enjoy anything or will never admit to it.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

We have played 4 road games, 3 of them home openers, against potentially very good teams. Is there a team in the NHL that if they had those 4 games to start the season they would be pissed off with going 2-2? There is no team or fan base upset with 2-2 after these 4 games, and with our young roster still void of depth and talent its way more than I expected.

 

[coolhand]

I actually enjoyed watching this team at the end of last year. I liked their energy and their effort even though they didn't have the talent. I think Kyle has made some good moves and the kids coming up are fun to watch, Bedard not withstanding. I like their effort and their style of play is fun to watch and actually has some structure to it, especially in the d zone.

 

[Dead Meat]

It's been really fun - last time I can remember like this was eliminating the Oilers in the shortened playoffs - Crow with an EPIC performance to close it out (Crawford's Last Stand)...

Unfortunately it's harder than ever to watch every game - tnt, epsn, espn+, nhl network, hulu...too many options that all require a subscription.

 

[hawksfan50]

You cannot call last night inColorado any sort of fun watching the Hawks..

 

[Kevin Musto]

You cannot call last night inColorado any sort of fun watching the Hawks..

I don't know, I did laugh a lot

 

[belfour30]

We have played 4 road games, 3 of them home openers, against potentially very good teams. Is there a team in the NHL that if they had those 4 games to start the season they would be pissed off with going 2-2? There is no team or fan base upset with 2-2 after these 4 games, and with our young roster still void of depth and talent its way more than I expected.

I'm still pissed about the showing in MTL, the Habs are not that good.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

I'm still pissed about the showing in MTL, the Habs are not that good.

Neither are we, you seem to be forgetting this

 

[belfour30]

Neither are we, you seem to be forgetting this

No I'm well aware. I did not think the Habs are that much better than the Hawks.

I expected Bedard alone to get the Hawks into the back end of the top 10 but I underestimated how terrible the remainder of the roster is.

I wouldn't have cared if they were competitive in that game but lost, but they weren't competitive.

 

[Crow]

No I'm well aware. I did not think the Habs are that much better than the Hawks.

I expected Bedard alone to get the Hawks into the back end of the top 10 but I underestimated how terrible the remainder of the roster is.

I wouldn't have cared if they were competitive in that game but lost, but they weren't competitive.

Do you mean top ten pick? I hope so. Still kind of unreasonable to expect bedard alone to do that.

You’re looking at a home opener on the road and projecting too much of the season from it. Plus the start of the season is a real crapshoot. I take a lot of underdogs and generally do pretty well because of it.