The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup just two weeks ago, and the city is still feeling the excitement of its rekindled romance with hockey. Many new fans just learned how to properly pronounce Byfuglein, and now the Blackhawks have gone and traded Big Buff away. With salary cap constraints preventing the Hawks from keeping this year's winning team intact, they made their first moves of the off-season by sending Dustin Byfuglein, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and prospect Akim Aliu to the Atlanta Thrashers in return for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, prospect Jeremy Morin and veteran forward Marty Reasoner. The move clears about $5 million in cap room for the Hawks, who can use the money to re-sign those who remain. How might the team's finances be different had former GM Dale Tallon not fucked up the restricted free agent tenders last summer, which cost the team big bucks to re-sign some of their own players? Still, it's good to know that regardless of the trade, Sopel will still be at Sunday's Pride Parade, Stanley Cup in tow (on board the float sponsored by the bar Crew). more ›

No harm, no foul... right? Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon took some heat recently for not sending the team's restricted free agents their offer sheets by the league-designated deadline. The team eventually signed all eight players to contracts anyway and the players' union withdrew its complaint. But the issues isn't over, as reports suggest that the team is expected to announce that Tallon has been fired on Tuesday. He will be replaced by Stan Bowman, who had been assistant general manager under Tallon. more ›

The Blackhawks proved this past year that they're a team on the rise, and certain moves this off-season suggest the team is intent on building upon their success. But did another, inadvertent action, put their future in jeopardy? The 'Hawks may have bungled the tendering of qualifying offers to their restricted free agents -- clerical work that's typically a formality -- and the result might have serious ramifications for the team. more ›

ESPN's website recently featured an app that compares your annual income to that of your favorite ball player. Let's see... assuming we're in the uppermost tax bracket (humor us, dividing by zero isn't an option) C.C. Sabathia would out-earn us in approximately 4.1 innings of “work.” Sigh. These tough economic times only exacerbate the disparity between the layman and the star athlete, which makes it that much harder to stomach their oh-so-classy antics. Thankfully, though, we've got the Chicago Blackhawks around to restore the faith. more ›

We're just one week into the NHL's regular season, and already the Blackhawks have made a change at the top. Following a sluggish 1-2-1 start to the season, Denis Savard was fired as head coach on Thursday. Savard's axing comes a day after the team won their first game of the young season, but it was too little, too late for GM Dale Tallon apparently. While many have high hopes for the team and they've been slow out of the gate, this change seems very premature. more ›