buddha

the bears were never going to do what it took to hire jim harbaugh. they would have had to fire the gm too - jim harbaugh is not working with ryan poles - and the mccaskeys would never have done that. also, harbaugh is a big personality and the bears 1) dont traditionally like that (mccaskey ownership had issues with ditka a lot and ditka was hired by halas, virginia prefers nice young men she can have over for dinner); and 2) they already have one massive ego in the room. there wasnt a lot of room for kevin warren and jim hatbaugh to exist. there are all sorts of rumors here about harbaugh. the media still talks about him every week as the one who got away. storylines of "he always wanted to coach here" to "kevin warren nixed any possible deal because he hates harbaugh" are floated around regularly. its been so fun to watch the chicago press go from "we have a real shot to win the division and get 11 wins because were the new lions" to "were doomed by our managements utter incompetence and we really are the old lions." the lions get talked about A TON in this town now. its fun.

the bears were 4-2 and had just blown out jacksonville before the bye, albeit with the easiest schedule in the league. they were about to be 5-2 with games against arizona and then new england at home when the hail mary happened. that one play changed the entire trajectory of their season. following that game the whole narrative changed. i would argue that their schedule would have eventually caught up with them, but not in a way to see them as a 4 win team. theyre probably a 7 or 8 win team. but this really is one of the worst run organizations in the nfl; continually hiring overmatched GMs and head coaches. theyve been even worse after they fired eberfuls because the team just doesnt have a lot of talent, especially in the trenches. lets see what kevin warren will do. i think he's an empty suit. he's done nothing but talk loud since he got here. the stadium deal is no closer to being done and the team is a disaster. he should fire the gm and start over. we shall see if he does or if the mccaskeys still run the show.

the theme of this season in chicago media post fail mary against washington is that the bears are the now the (old) lions.

the bulls sat half their roster, still built a 20 point 4th quarter lead over hapless atlanta, and then proceeded to blow it and lose by almost 10. gave up 50 points in the 4th quarter. the east is god awful bad.

how much do we need to pay for Fox?

and the foul!

erik karlsson, is that you?

had to be done. they quit playing in their last couple games. lifeless.

you're old.

true. i dont know, he's been talked up very recently by some non-red wings as a great head coach prospect currently coaching in russia.

we are where we are because of ken holland in 2015-2019 and the wings' pro scouting department in 2022-2024. a deadly combination. seems obvious that hiring the old red wings' boys club has not added much to the team. lidstrom, draper, cleary, fischer (especially draper since he's in charge of amateur scouting and they havent had a pick outside of round one hit in 5 years), all their pro scouts. i'm not sure how anyone in charge of signing tarasenko, gustafson, chairot, motte, etc still jave jobs. holl? rasmussen extension? i dont want to see them fire lalonde in season because the best thing for this team will be a total tank followed by a top 5-ish pick. but he's a dead man walking. no way he survives this season. bring on a top 5 pick and larianov as coach.

5th worst record in the league. good thing they didnt play wallinder tonight, you wouldnt want him to make a mistake that might cost them the game...

booed off the ice. 4-0. horrible game.

outshot 18-9. down 3-0. booed off the ice after 2. the only reason its only 18-9 is because the blues cant shoot straight.

this is getting embarassing. i'm not sure how lalonde can survive this.

tarasenko is so worthless. he has an easy clear and instead of half asses it and the blues keep it in, pass it around, and then score. abaolutely worthless.

they called up wallinder to sit in the press box. nice. who wouldnt rather watch gustafson play?

wallinder called up for tonight.

meh.

i still remember falling asleep at night listening to bruce martyn on the radio. lots of randy ladoceour, reed larson, and john ogrodnick. early 80s. pre-yzerman days.

it will be an interesting thought experiment to look back in 10 years on this team and wonder whether they should have traded larkin in his prime. we'll never know what the offers would have been, but the market for a captain who could step in as a 2C on a stanley cup contender would probably be really high. since that time he has had a couple almost ppg seasons all while playing special teams, good defense, and being a good locker room guy. however, he may have peaked already and he has had a couple injuries that were pretty serious. the wear and tear may finally be getting to him because he has not been as good this year as in the past. at least not to my eye test.

those improvements were not because those teams were on an upswing. the 86/87 improvement was simply the wings getting yzerman back for a full season. the 77/78 improvement was a complete fluke as the team totally tanked for the next 5 years until they drafted yzerman. what all of those seasons may have in common is that you're not really going to compete without at least one superstar forward in his prime and the red wings right now dont have one and arent in a place to get one without losing out this year and/or spending big this summer.

klingborg ready to come back from injury....would you sign him? why not? they cant get any worse on defense.

what would you trade for chet?

i'm not saying i would do that for markannen, just that someone else will.