Tomorrow is the day.  The Chicago Blackhawks will take on the Atlanta Flames Thrashers in Atlanta tomorrow, essentially reunited a most of last year's Stanley Cup champions.  Former Hawks Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Ben Eager and Brent Sopel (assuming he's not an injury scratch) will take to the ice against their old mates.  And yeah, that kind of sucks.

But, as we've said many times in the last 4 months, this is the reality of the salary cap.  The Hawks took a short position on the cap, loading up for one big run at the Cup and the bet paid off.  Unfortunately, that meant a lot of guys were going to be gone this year.  The results have been what you would expect, a team with a lot of unproven players is scuffling along at .500, while the coaches and front office try to sort the whole damn thing out.  Yes, it has looked shitty at time.  No, I'm not happy with all the moves that have been made.  But it's also November.

The Hawks are currently the sixth seed in the West.  Attention to detail (late penalties, last minute goals and blown defensive coverage) has cost them several points, and right now it's the difference between being 6th and being 1st.  So its fairly simple, if the  Hawks can clean that shit up, there's no reason they can't grab a high playoff seed.  And if they don't...

Well, let's hope they do.

And let's all enjoy Thrasher's forward (and James Bond villain) Evander Kane murdering Pittsburgh dickbag Matt Cooke.