I am writing this in response to the Rant on Tuesday the 28^th. Although the writer invites new fans to write in, I have been playing hockey for close to 10 years and have been a Blackhawks fan the entire time. While reading the article there were a few issues that bothered me.

                The first issue being the salary cap that was supposedly disregarded. I can guarantee the Hawks front office did not over look the salary cap, they knew they were going to have to trade and get rid of a bunch of players after last season. The reason they kept these guys around for the playoffs was because they knew they had a team that could compete for the Stanley Cup. The Hawks could have traded these guys away before playoffs started but instead decided that this was the team that could bring the cup back to Chicago.

                As for the departure of their blue-line enforcer Dustin Byfuglien, first off he played wing most of the season only playing defense when Brian Campbell was injured. During that time he was rarely paired with Duncan Keith who I will comment on later. Second even though Buff is a big boy I don’t think many people would consider him an enforcer. Yes he can throw that big 280lb body around when he wants to but an enforcer is someone that goes out to defend your star players. Buff may have had 4 fights last year, none of which are even memorable or worth talking about, this is far short of what a real enforcer like George Parros does. I would consider Ben Eager more of an enforcer than Dustin Byfuglien at least he went out and beat some people up. Also to top it off he was a minus in both regular season and in the playoffs meaning his defense was lacking at best. I have to give him credit where it is deserved he stepped up and had some big games at some very important times. It seems though that every year there is a no name player who steps up big in the playoffs and makes a name for himself this year it was Buff. The fact is that he is a replaceable player there are other big guys with rocket shots that don’t mind throwing their gloves down and mixing it up.

                As for Marty Turco, he may be getting up there in age for a goaltender but the Hawks got a great deal on a goalie that put up better statistics than either of the Hawks goalies and he was on one of the worst teams in the league. Turco is an all-star goalie who has proven he can carry teams to the playoffs. With one of the better defensive cores in the league with Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Cullimore, Hjalmarsson, Hendry, Boynton, and John Scott our new enforcer, Turco could have an even better season than he did last year with a terrible team.

                “Duncan Keith can score, be he can’t defend without an experienced blue-liner opposite him.” I’m curious if you’re talking about Brent Seabrook the defenseman who has been paired with Keith since they both came into the NHL in 2002. If he isn’t experienced enough to play with Keith than I very highly doubt that Buff was the answer seeing as how he has only been in the league a few years. Also I’m not sure if you know about the awards that are given out at the end of the year, but you might be surprised by who won the Norris Trophy for best defenseman in the league. It was Duncan Keith, he also boasted a +21 during the season while also averaging 26 minutes of ice time a night. For people who don’t know what plus/minus means, when both teams are even strength if the opposing team scores you get a minus if your team scores you get a plus it’s pretty simple.  For Keith to play that much and still be plus at the end of the season is a very good argument why he is one of the best in the league.

                My last comment has to do with the “new fans”.  I really don’t understand why anyone cares who has been a fan longer, people used to argue about what team was better now they argue about who liked them first. People are starting to get interested in the Blackhawks only recently because they are finally on TV. I admit before they started televising the games it was hard to really be interested in them because I never got to see them play. This is a good thing for Chicago as well as hockey in general and I would rather see people cheering for the Hawks then the Redwings. So who cares who has been a fan longer or even if you know anything about hockey it doesn’t matter as long as the Hawks are doing well.

                And the Hawks have two very solid scoring lines with guys that have proven they can play both ways, along with third and fourth lines guys who are hungry to get this team back to the cup. Couple that with the great defense and solid goaltending of Turco I look forward to watching the Hawks get to the playoffs again.