Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Ben Johnson

After the 2nd period Friday night in game 2 against the Vancouver Canucks, lady Fro said the series was over for the Chicago Blackhawks. I told her let’s see how the 3rd period goes before I make my decision. This is why is I should listen to her more. The Blackhawks ended up losing. Even though I declared the series over after game 2, a little part of me said there still could be a chance. Oops.

The Canucks are a better team. I am aware of that. In the NHL however, the best team doesn’t always win. That’s why I thought the Blackhawks had a chance. I guess not. By the way, Rafi Torres is a piece of shit. He is just as much of a douche as Todd Bertuzzi. I thought back in 2004 when Bertuzzi decided to smash another player’s head into the ice, that he should have been banned from the NHL forever. Rafi Torres should be suspended for a very long time for his elbow on Brent Seabrook Sunday night.

I am pissed about this but not as much as I would be had the Blackhawks not won the Cup last year. I still thank God for that awesome two months that we had as fans. Every logical fan should have seen this coming though for this season. Dealing with massive salary-cap issues, they had to have an average team just to get under the limit. This team, as bad as it is, is still loaded with talent. The supporting cast however is what’s awful. Players like Viktor Stalberg and Fernando Pisani aren’t as good as Kris Versteeg and John Madden. In fact, Stalberg and Pisani suck really bad and John Scott has no business seeing a hockey rink. Next season, Stan Bowman will have more options to field a better team with certain contracts ending and the salary-cap possibly being higher.

All of the luck and breaks that were going the Blackhawks’ way last year obviously aren’t happening this year. They have dealt with major injuries all throughout the year. When it came to the start of the playoffs, they lost Kopecky and Bickell to injuries and Dave Bolland still hasn’t played since his concussion last month. Kopecky isn’t my favorite but he’s better than Scott. They were lucky in the playoffs last year to have their whole team play healthy and well. For that, I am thankful.

For this season, there is one game remaining. If the Blackhawks have any balls whatsoever, they will attempt to do what only two NHL teams have done in history: Win a series after being down 3-0. If the Blackhawks want to be in another one of those “History Will Be Made” commercials, they will have to make history.

What was one of the few bright spots going into the season was their starting rotation. But the loss of Wells and Cashner for a significant amount of time will prove costly. Casey Coleman did alright for five innings on Sunday to keep his team in the game, but the bullpen gave up the go ahead runs in a tough loss. Tuesday’s pitcher by committie was a joke. Russell and Samardjiza should never see a ML pitchers mound ever again. I’ll swear, on one of Samardjiza’s pitches, he was trying to hit former president George Bush in the face.

In another of Hendry’s great off-season moves, Carlos Pena is showing us all how he hit .196 last year. And Matt Garza was pissed after his last start because Soto was calling too many curveballs. He said curves are not part of his game. Excuse the fuck out of me, but Garza fastballs usually wind up over the wall for home runs.

It’s gonna be a long year!!!

Call it luck if you want but the Chicago Blackhawks are in the playoffs. They will take on the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday night. We all know this isn’t the same Blackhawks team that took on the Canucks last year but as we have seen in the last few years, all an NHL team has to do is get into the playoffs and anything can happen.

From Yahoo! Sports site Puck Daddy.

Here are the Blackhawks hanging on for life in the playoffs and shitty goalie/wagerer Marty Turco is betting with a Habs fan that his team is going to win. Nice going turd. The Blackhawks have a two point lead over the Stars and Flames with just three games to go against the Blues and Red Wings (twice). They must get at least three points in these next two games to clinch a playoff spot. Hang on.

I’ve been waiting until the conclusion of spring training to post anything on the upcoming season for the Cubs. There were a few positives that came out of training camp. Castro had a great spring  offensively, but needs to play better on defense. We cannot forget that he just turned 21 last Thursday, so I think the defense will turn itself around with experience. I project him to be a Hanley Ramirez type player or better.

Byrd had a good spring both on the field, and in the clubhouse. He mentored some of the younger guys like Brett Jackson on what to expect at the big league level.  Darwin Barney also had a great spring, and should be starting at 2b.  Baker should be used as a starter against LHP and backup at 1st and 3rd. DeWitt sucks.

One move that blows my shit away is why Wellington Castillo bats nearly .700 in the spring, but the .043 hitting Koyie Hill wins the backup catching job. He’s not that good of a defensive catcher to warrant a roster spot. He’s never impressed me with his ability to throw out a runner trying to steal. Hill is just a wasted roster space from someone else that can do a better job.

The one person to blame for all this is Jim Hendry. This is his fucking mess.  It’s  sad to see a team with a 140 mil payroll year after year fail when you see teams with half that budget go all the way.  Hendry has been a players GM.  Sure he is. The players he signs are richer than their wildest dreams, but after the ink has dried, they don’t have to play to their expectations.

The Cubs will never get better until Ricketts realizes that Hendry  is a piss poor evaluator of talent.  Stop worrying about fucking bison burgers and bathrooms. Let’s get a winning team on the field!!

All I have to say is that this was the biggest Monday Night Raw in at least five years. The crowd was loud all night and it was amazing. The roof came off the Allstate Arena when The Rock’s music hit. Unbelievable. My signs made the camera many times on RAW and will do so on Smackdown! for this Friday. I met up with our friend from Falls Count Anywhere and on that site, there will be a more detailed recap in the next few days. Until then, here are a couple of snapshots from my DVR:

Yours truly will be there in the third row near the center of the ring on the TV side. Lady Fro is unfortunately under the weather and not going to be able to make it so I ended up giving my other ticket to a long time friend of mine. Two sections over from us will be our good guys from Falls Count Anywhere. For you wrestling fans, check out that site. Good stuff. We will both have recaps and possibly some pictures to put up in the next few days. Until then, here are the two signs that we will try to get on TV tonight:

We must a make statement.

At Chucky's request...