Patrick Sharp's contract extended 5 years

Today Patrick Sharp received a contract extension. He will be with the Blackhawks for 5 more years now. During the press conference after the signing he said, "I don't want to ever leave"

This is all good news for the Blackhawks. The offseason moves this summer will make a huge difference on the team during the season. Sharp wasn't a free agent, but he would be next summer and this gets rid of the distraction during the season.

Last year Sharp had probably his best season ever, but he says that he wants to continue to get better and he thinks that he can do that. When Toews, Kane, and Hossa had injury issues last year he was the guy that carried the team and continued to score goals. Hopefully this year the Blackhawks don't have to deal with as many injuries, but I also hope that the Sharp continues to be a goal scorer.

Offseason Moves

The Blackhawks made a lot of moves this offseason and I decided to talk about them all at once. The July 1st signings were all good in my opinion. Stan Bowman added some maturity to the locker room and added some toughness and grit to the team by adding Dan Carcillo. Granted, he also added penalty minutes to the team by adding Dan Carillo, but if Dave Bolland is healthy all year his badass penalty killing should make that a non-issue. There were other moves besides the initial unrestricted free agent signings that impacted the team.

The first is that Viktor Stalberg was re-signed. I'm not sure how I feel about this. He is a fast and smooth skater, but he doesn't have a great shot and seems to just skate around. I absolutely hated when he was on the top line with Kane and Toews during the playoffs. If he has a good season, I'll be happy about this signing. If he does what I expect him to do, I won't be very happy about this.

The second move is the Hawks re-signing Michael Frolik. Frolik came to the Blackhawks right before the trade deadline when Jack Skille was sent to Florida and the Hawks got Frolik and Alexander Salak who will probably be the backup goalie this year. Frolik started slow with the Blackhawks, but he seemed have the same problems as Skille. He couldn't finish at the net. He had chance after chance and couldn't score. Eventually, he got his first Blackhawks goal and after that he was a pretty good addition to the team. He scored a crucial goal in Game 6 of the playoffs this year and I think he has a lot of potential. I can't wait to see what he does this season.

The third move is the Hawks signing Sami Lepisto. He played for the Coyotes and Blue Jackets last season and was signed to a one year deal by the Blackhawks. From looking at his stats he seems like a good addition to the team. The Hawks have eight good defensemen that will be fighting to fit into the 6 defense positions. Yes, one of those guys is John Scott who probably won't see a lot of ice time this year, but he is still on the roster as a defensemen.

The signing of Lepisto lead to the finally move of the offseason to this point. That move was the decision to not re-sign Chris Campoli. He was acquired from Ottawa for some draft picks before the trade deadline last season. While he was with the Hawks he was a good addition to our defense, but he was going to be asking for too much in Stan Bowman's opinion. Stan decided to let him go and not re-sign him. I don't think this is in any way related to his turnover that lost Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs this year. He was asking for a raise and Bowman didn't want to give it to him.

Overall, I like what Bowman has done this offseason and this team looks very good going into the season. I like that he left cap space in case the Blackhawks needed to sign a center sometime during the season if Kruger or Sharp couldn't do the job. It is always good to have a little cap room and Bowman managed to have that and have a pretty good roster going into the season. Great job by Bowman this offseason.

Carbomb

 

Remember that idiot that we all laughed at in the Stanley Cup Finals last year? Yeah, now he's on our team.  At first I was very upset about this trade, and then I tried to look at the positives of signing him. 

Stan Bowman did say before the start of free agency that he would be trying to make the 4th line grittier and more aggressive. Maybe he had his eye on Carcillo the whole time and nobody else knew about it. Carcillo is a gritty and aggressive 4th liner, but he is basically the same thing that Ben Eager was for the Hawks. He will do some good things and will be a reason for teams to be a little scared of the Blackhawks, but will do stupid things and commit stupid penalties. 

I have a feeling that the Blackhawks PIM will sky-rocket this year thanks to a lot of dumb penalties from Carcillo. The Blackhawks already have a shaky penalty kill and that penalty kill shouldn't be out on the ice more than it already is. 

I don't think Carcillo is all bad, but the bad certainly outweighs the good. He might score a few goals and add some toughness to our 4th line. That's what we wanted, but the penalty minutes and just flat out stupid play overshadows whatever good he may do in Chicago this year. 

Draft Picks and Trades

Two more Stanley Cup Champions were traded last week during the draft. Troy Brouwer left for Washington and Brian Campbell left for Florida. Both trades were sad for the fans, but good for the Blackhawks.

Brian Campbell's contract was way too high for the Blackhawks to keep paying. He is very important to the team, but the Blackhawks couldn't keep dragging his salary along. Troy Brouwer was probably going to be leaving Chicago sometime this summer anyway because he would be asking too much for his new contract. The Hawks were smart to get something out of losing him, instead of nothing. Both players will be missed in Chicago, but having them gone will help the Blackhawks fill out a gritty fourth line and maybe grab a second line center.

The Blackhawks ended up drafting 11 players this year. Three guys stood out. Mark McNeill, Phillip Denault, and Andrew Shaw were among the top picks for the Hawks. McNeill is a center that plays well on both ends of the ice. Denault is a passionate winger, and Shaw is a forceful and aggressive center. All three of these picks will someday become great Blackhawks players or be used in a trade at some point. They all have great talent. McNeill is already praised for playing a pro-style which will be helpful as he transitions to the professional level.

Overall, the Blackhawks had a good couple draft days. They made room for free agent signings with the trades and they drafted a few good players that will help the Blackhawks be good in the future.

A Blackhawks Fan Prospective

It feels like the expectation for every Blackhawks fan is to hate the Canucks and automatically jump on the Bruins bandwagon to win the Stanley Cup. I feel bad for Blackhawks fans that might actually like the Canucks. I am not one of those fans, but I do know a few and they are harassed by Blackhawks fans that hate the Canucks. I don't think Blackhawks fans should ever be mad at each other for cheering on certain other teams. I don't like the Canucks at all. They play dirty and they dive all over the place. No team is perfect, but I feel like the Canucks are experts at doing the things that I don't like. I am cheering for the Bruins, but not only because they are playing the Canucks.

All through the playoffs I watched the Bruins play. I watched them battle back during the series against Montreal. I watched the double overtime game and saw Horton score that goal and decided to like him from that point on. I saw Tim Thomas dominate in the series against the Lightning. I saw Tyler Seguin emerge as a great young star. The more I watched the Bruins play, the more I liked them as a team. I decided to make them my number two team.

Now they are playing one of the teams that I don't like at all. I am obviously cheering for the Bruins, but not only because they are playing the Canucks. I like this team. They have a lot of potential and they can beat this Canucks team. They have a reason to fight now that Horton got knocked out for the rest of the series. This is their time to win the cup. They haven't won in 39 years. That's too long. The Bruins need to win game 5, go back to Boston and win the cup in front of their home crowd. They can do it.

One Year Ago...

 

One year ago was a day that I loved and a day that I hated. The reason I hated that day was because I didn't get to see Patrick Kane score the overtime goal that won the Stanley Cup for the Blackhawks. 

I missed this all because of a basketball game. My mom forced me to go because I'm the best player on my team and it was an important game. She didn't think that it was an important night, I begged her to let me stay but in the end she forced me to go. I got to see the first two periods of the game. I had to leave for the third period and missed a lot. I did win the basketball game, but in the back of my mind I was wondering if the Blackhawks had won yet. As soon as the game was over I ran to my car and turned on ESPN Radio. They were playing the call and I still don't know if it was live or if they were playing it after the Hawks had already received the cup. The call confused me and I actually didn't think Kane scored. I thought that Leighton gave up the rebound and another Hawks player shot it in. I got home thinking that the Hawks had won, but a little confused. My dad, my brother, and I all cheered for awhile and I was home just in time to watch Jonathan Toews receive the cup. I saw Hossa lift the cup and I felt happy for him because I knew it probably hurt him to lose twice in a row. I watched the celebration in awe and was so happy. 

I didn't get to see the Blackhawks actually win the cup, but I still felt the joy that other Blackhawks fans around the world felt. I will never forget that day. I will regret not seeing that goal live for the rest of my life, but hopefully I get to see a few more cup wins before I die. Those wins in the future will never be the same and I'll never have the same experience that other Blackhawks fans have had, but I am still a die-hard fan who will be cheering for the Blackhawks the rest of my life and I still get chills when I watch Kane score that goal. I can't imagine what I would've done if I was actually watching the game.

Next Year

The way the Blackhawks went out this year was a little unsettling. The first half of the series against Vancouver was terrible. They didn't play with any heart in the first three games and therefore had a tough task ahead of themselves. They needed to win four games in a row. That is a lot when the pressure of winning is on you each time. They were able to dominate in game 4 and game 5. Game 6 was a tough battle, but they came out on top in overtime. Game 7 was just too much for them to handle. They were behind from the very beginning and it took them almost the whole game to come back. Thankfully, Jonathan Toews somehow managed to get a shorthanded goal while laying on the ice. The game was taken to overtime and the Blackhawks put good pressure on, but one mistake led to Alex Burrows open in front of Corey Crawford and he netted the game-winner. 

I am a firm believer in the fact that if the Blackhawks had won that game they would be playing in the Stanley Cup Finals right now. They are the only team that put up any fight against the Canucks. The Blackhawks would have beat the Predators and then the Sharks and would be playing the Bruins right now. They could do what no team since 1998 has done and repeat. They didn't win that game, though. They lost and they are sitting at home right now. That might sound like a bad thing, but in reality it is a great thing. 

The Blackhawks did lose a lot of talent and great players in the offseason last year, but they still had a very talented team coming into this year. Injuries and heartless play at the beginning of the year is what hurt the Blackhawks. Fans should not be saying "What if" and "We could've" the fact is, the Blackhawks lost in the playoffs and they are out. All of this happened for a reason. The Blackhawks didn't get as much rest as they should and as much as they need last year because they went all the way and won the cup. They are getting much needed rest this year and will come back stronger next year. Losing in the first round is incredibly helpful to the Blackhawks. They are getting rest physically and mentally now. They will come back stronger next year and contend for the cup. 

The talent that the Hawks have coming back this season is very impressive. Corey Crawford is coming back and I personally believe that he will keep getting better and have games like he did in the playoffs. Duncan Keith had an off year, but with the help of being able to rest and with the pressure of being the Norris winner off his back he will have a better year. Jonathan Toews keeps getting better and will likely have a great year and still be a great leader for the team. Patrick Kane has disappointed a few fans, but I think he will get better in the offseason and have a great season. Patrick Sharp was the big story at the beginning of the year last year with his crazy goal scoring. I think he will score a lot, but not as much. Marian Hossa had a good season, but had a few injuries. Hopefully, he stays injury free and has another good year. Ben Smith showed a lot of promise in the playoffs this year and will likely start to play with the Blackhawks at the beginning of the season. He is a hard-worker and very hockey smart, so I think he will be a great player in the future. 

There are so many other players that will get better this offseason. It is easy to see that the Blackhawks will be one of the top contenders for the cup this coming season. They have everything it takes to win it all. This might be their year to get it done again.