Maniwaki Canuck

That's the trick: our understanding of his "share in it" includes all kinds of things he's denied up until now and still hasn't owned up to publicly.

He owned his "share in it" without admitting what that was. Still lawyer-speak.

Better late than never: still waiting for it to be official.

Multiple firsts: it has to hurt to be a deterrent. They wanted to win at all costs, now they can lose.

Lost picks are crucial. The sh!thawks swept this under the rug to "win now". Well as a corrective, it's time to "lose now" without a lottery pick as compensation. Same logic as the cap recapture clause. But this is the NHL, a complete stranger to basic justice.

A couple of random corrective actions that should be taken, not an exhaustive list: 1. The Blackhawks absolutely need to lose multiple first round draft picks. Their misdemeanors were all about winning in the now and sweeping a crime under the rug. Okay, that has to cost them in the currency of winning in the future. Other teams need to know this is coming if they do something similar. It's all about defeating the "win at any cost" mentality. 2. There needs to be an entirely independent agency that handles these kinds of complaints. One that doesn't have a stake in the business and therefore is not in a conflict of interest. Clearly clubs, the league office and the player's association are not up to the job. So let them contract someone who is, like Chicago just did for this report. It may not be a perfect solution, but it would be a huge improvement.

In addition to being the PR disaster you focus on, Toew's statements reveal his true character and more importantly, the culture that allowed these abuses to happen in the first place. Personally, I'm glad they didn't get their PR people out in front of this and that it's all being revealed in its full ugliness. No tears over Chicago's self-inflicted wounds from me, but all the compassion in the world for Beach and everyone else, male and mostly female, who have gone through this.

We already knew the 2010 $&!#hawks were low-lifes but this puts it on a whole other level. Keith's rambling, meandering denial was totally unconvincing. Toews is going to have to talk some day and I don't expect it will be any better.

Wow, this is tough to listen to. No wonder this guy's career didn't work out. The taunting by his $&!#hawk team mates is particularly despicable.

That ship sailed with the Juolevi trade. Unless we're good with Hunt as 3LD.

Bailey in and when Dowling's back, Chiasson down. Hoglander can and should take his place on the PP.

Inadequate response from the league, one that just makes the whole sport look like some kind of pedophile ring. Terrible look. My thoughts are with John Doe, Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy at the moment. Punishing the perpetrators and cover-ups is important, but until the sport addresses how this kind of abuse can happen and foregrounds the needs of those on the receiving end of it, we aren't dealing with what's been happening.

I call fraud!!! Where is Ann Wilson???

Reinhardt was a C/D combo, like Sergei Fedorov. Rathbone has a bit of that forward mentality in him too. Gonna be a great player for us.

Agreed: none of them are particularly consistent in how they're tallied, but some are worse than others. The best of a bad bargain is to take them all into consideration with the eye test. With that said, it's hard to make a case that Rathbone is hurting the team defensively except through pure assertion.

Hey, they recorded in a studio in Little Mountain so that settles it: they're ours!

Yeah, that's the narrative but I'm not so sure how true it is. He's only got 1 giveaway this year in 5 games: that's pretty good for a young d-man getting used to the league, especially given the heavy forecheck we've faced at times in the last 3 games. Even +/- for what it's worth, but heavy o-zone starts, which means that he is being sheltered defensively. His possession numbers are a hair under team average when you might expect them to be above given that deployment. But this is what you expect from a guy on the bottom pairing. He's not hurting the team and learning on the job. His ice time increased from 12 min in the first few games to 14+ in the last two, so the coaching staff must be okay with his game. The guy's a quick study and I think we'll be seeing a lot of improvement over this year that can only come from playing against NHL competition.

I wouldn't be worried if it came to a brawl with the krackheads, not that I expect it will. Gourde, McCann, Eberle, Donskoi: not exactly the Broad Street Bullies.

Pretty solid start to the season for Rathbone. That third pairing with him and Burroughs has been pretty reliable defensively and definitely shows ability in the o-zone. Rathbone throws a couple of good hits per game and is generally more physical than the stereotypical offensive defenceman. OEL will be a good role model for him in that regard. But what I really notice are some of his drives to the net where he uses skating, deception, body position and strength almost like he was a power forward. And in the 3rd period of the game against Chicago, he was out for a shift with Hughes, who was playing the right side. They exited the defensive zone with ease, as you might expect. That pairing wouldn't be happening at a shut-down moment in the game if these two were as bad defensively as some people claim, and it looks like a way to get Rathbone more minutes. The guy's a special player and hopefully we're going to see more of this as he transitions into a top 4 role.

Glad that they won and put in a solid effort, but when Green and some of the players oversell this victory in interviews after the game, I get a bit worried. This was not a statement game. They still got hemmed in their zone for long stretches in the first, coughed up the puck way too often and struggled to break down a pretty fragile defense. It's absolutely fair to say that this team is going to need some time to gell, and that some players like Petterson need some time to get back in top form. But let's be real about where we're at in the process. It's a good thing we're not going up against any top teams in the league at the moment.

Yes, we should have won that one and yes, the refereeing blew. But I love the feisty play the Arizona boys are bringing. OEL is the anti-Sedin: a bit of agitating and definitely no turning the other cheek. We needed this. Greiss had a great game but we could have made it harder on him. We had traffic in front but shots weren't getting through. Our attack didn't break down their defensive coverage very often. Passes out in front from behind their goal line might do that but we don't seem to emphasize that much. We also don't seem to open space for many cross-ice passes through seams below the hashmarks. Another good game for Rathbone and Burroughs: give them more minutes!

Even if we lose, it's great to see OEL and Garland playing with snarl out there. We've been missing that for too long.

Not a penalty at all on Garland.

Not even worried.

Not a huge drop-off from the top 2 pairings and some flashes of offense as well. A bit more ice time coming.