Friday, August 1, 2008

Some very rare praise for Detroit...

Well.. rare praise from this (or any other) Chicago blog or fans.. 

I, like any other good Hawks fan, can't stand the Red Wings.  I hate the team more than any other.  I love when the Hawks beat them, so last year was especially nice.  Their fans annoy me more than any other teams (except maybe the Flyers for some reason).  But I've also got to say, I hate how fucking good they are.  They make the right trades, get the big free agents and always seem to pick some guy in the late rounds of the draft that ends up being one of their best players.  I can't even remember the last time they didn't win the division - though it didn't hurt that the rest of the teams have been pretty weak.  ESPN and other sources may have a big hard-on for the Braves of the 90's.. but the Red Wings actually win championships.  Man, I hate them...

But hate them as I do, I have to really give them credit for the way they've acted in letting Bowman come join the Hawks.  While I doubt they would have been quite as understanding if his son wasn't working here, they've shown they are a class act organization.  Still, I hope we beat them 8 times this year...

The thing I'm most excited about having Bowman here for is the guidance he'll have on Savard.  Some seem to think that Bowman will be a threat to Savard and could become the next coach, but I think it's pretty safe to say Bowman doesn't want that role again.  He's an amazing hockey mind, but he's also in his mid-70's... I don't think he'd want to go back to the high pressure situation.  I might be in the minority, but I actually think Savvy has been a good coach.  He's not great.. He makes mistakes.. He still needs to learn.. but who better to learn from than Bowman?

Tallon, however, I'm not quite so fond of... he needs a lot of work and this article from Scott Burnside over at ESPN really seems to sum up what I think we're all hoping to see:
Bowman, as far as we can tell, has never said anything just to make someone feel good.  Few men have ever seen the game as well as Bowman, and when he tells Tallon et al what he thinks of a player or a situation, he won't be worrying that it's going to hurt someone's feelings.
We also shouldn't forget, Bowman is the one who helped turn Yzerman, one of our boy Toews' hockey heros, into one of the greatest two-way forwards ever.  If you're sick of the comparisons between Toews and Yzerman now, you might want to not read anything about Toews for the next 15 years... 

So enough of the praise for Detroit... that's probably the last time you'll see it here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to seeing what Scotty does with the team. This won't be the Hawks of, well, my entire adult life.