Is Seattle The Next City In Line For An NHL Team?

By Steve Silverman

Bumbling Habs have no chance of regaining stride in second half

This season has been an abject disaster for the Montreal Canadiens.

Barring a miracle run in the second half of the season, the Habs will miss the playoffs this year and it won’t even be close. They started the second half of the season with a mind-numbing 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, and that game is typical of the way the team played in the first half of the season.

The Canadiens have plenty of faults, but the biggest is that they just can’t put the puck in the net. Their only goal against the Blues came with just over a minute remaining in the game, and legitimate scoring chances were at a premium for 60 minutes. Once the Blues took a two-goal lead, the Canadiens had as much chance of winning the game as a visitor has of climbing a rope to get out of the Grand Canyon.

General manager Marc Bergevin is likely several weeks away from getting thrown out of the Molson Center. Bergevin is charged with putting a representative team on the ice, and he has done a fairly brutal and somewhat indefensible job since taking on the role of building the Montreal roster following the 2011-12 season.

No matter how long he has left on the job, you can be sure that Bergevin knows that the current makeup of the team is not acceptable, and there’s a good chance he will move some of the team’s best assets in an attempt to build the team up for the 2018-19 or 2019-20 season.

That means that Max Pacioretty, Alex Galchenyuk and Shea Weber could be on the move. While it’s unlikely that all three will take off the bleu, blanc y rouge, it would be a shock if one or two of them are not traded.

Pacioretty could bring a combination of a legitimate NHL player along with a prospect or two and a draft pick, and that’s more than anyone else on the roster could bring.

Head coach Claude Julien jumped on the Canadiens’ offer to coach the team a year ago after he was fired by the Boston Bruins. While it was a feather in his cap that he was on the unemployment line for just a few days, he may be regretting that he took the job so quickly.

The pressure in Montreal is unlike any other city in the league, and nearly all of it is on Bergevin since the Canadiens are 20-24-6 and 10 points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Once the team decides to get rid of Bergevin, that pressure will shift to Julien, and the former Stanley Cup-winning coach knows it.

Bettman points video review in right direction

Commissioner Gary Bettman is known for handing out the Stanley Cup every year and getting booed vociferously for being … well … Gary Bettman.

He is an easy and deserving (for the most part) target, and most hockey fans have little use for him. However, Bettman is on the right track when it comes to video review.

At the recent All-Star festivities, Bettman advised referees not to “overthink” when it comes to making rulings on coaching challenges for goalie interference.

The last thing the sport needs is for goals to get wiped out because of officials’ rulings. It’s hard to score goals, and taking goals off the scoreboard is depressing for all concerned – except the goaltender that allowed the puck to enter the net.

If there’s obvious interference, the goal should not count. But incidental contact that does not prevent the goalie from making a legitimate attempt to stop the puck should not be overturned.

That’s a common-sense opinion by Bettman. He will still get booed when he hands out the Cup in June, but he has at least taken a positive stance on a key issue.

Count on it: Seattle will get NHL’s 32^nd franchise

The Vegas Golden Knights continue to do amazing things as an expansion team and they are within one point of being the No. 1 team in the NHL with two-plus months to go in the regular season.

Their 4-2 win at Calgary Tuesday night was shocking, as the Knights scored three goals in the final 1:46 to steal the victory from the crestfallen Flames.

Vegas is likely to have company on the expansion front from Seattle. Billionaire David Bonderman is going to submit a formal application, along with a $10 million fee for consideration.

Eventually, expect the Bonderman group to pay $650 million or more for the right to bring a franchise to the Pacific Northwest.

How fast can it happen? If everything moves quickly, the Seattle team could begin playing by the 2019-20 season. That may be a bit fast, and Seattle will almost certainly have its franchise on the ice by 2020-21 at the latest.

Big deadline prize: John Tavares

John Tavares is clearly one of the top 10 players in the NHL, and perhaps in the top five.

His contract with the New York Islander is up at the end of the season, and if he is not signed to a new contract by June 30, he will become a free agent July 1.

The Islanders are on the outside of the playoffs looking in, and it seems almost certain that Tavares will take advantage of his status and opt to become a highly pursued free agent. If he hasn’t signed to this point, what can the Islanders do to get him to put his name on new paper?

What will the Islanders do? If they do nothing, they can try to turn things around and make a run at a playoff spot. Or, should they trade him and try to get a solid return from a team that is willing to rent his services as they pursue a Stanley Cup?

There’s no easy answer, because the Islanders would need to create a multi-team bidding situation to get a boxcar return for Tavares.

But even if they do that, what will the fan base think of a team that trades its best player?

Either way, general manager Garth Snow has a crucial decision to make, and then he must sell it to the fan base.

It won’t be easy.

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Aspiring Rapper Pleads Guilty To Illegally Possessing Gun While Filming Video

CHICAGO (CBS) — An aspiring rapper has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for illegally possessing a gun while filming a music video last year in Deerfield.

Ricardo Burgos, 31, performs under the name “Nation” and possessed a handgun while filming a music video in January 2016 inside a hotel room in north suburban Deerfield, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Burgos had previously been convicted of multiple felonies and was not legally allowed to possess a gun.

Burgos could be seen in the video “holding two firearms while rapping about selling drugs, committing acts of violence, and disrespecting law enforcement,” prosecutors said. He brought a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol to the West Side Austin neighborhood a short time later, where he was arrested by Chicago Police.

Investigators later learned that the gun had been reported stolen from a store in Indiana and was used in a shooting in Chicago two days before the music video was filmed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Burgos pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon and one count of distribution of a controlled substance, prosecutors said. The drug charge stemmed from Burgos selling 4 grams of crack cocaine and 1.4 grams of heroin to undercover police officers in 2015.

U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman sentenced Burgos to 188 months in prison.

He is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, according to Federal Bureau of Prison records.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)

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Emanuel Critical Of Trump’s Immigration Plan

CHICAGO (CBS/WBBM) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel is critical of the immigration reforms President Donald Trump outlined in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Emanuel said it’s wrong for anyone to demonize any part of society, which he said he feels Trump did when talking about undocumented immigrants during his speech.

My message before President Trump’s #SOTU: pic.twitter.com/ngERa0GODp

— Mayor Rahm Emanuel (@ChicagosMayor) January 31, 2018

“I want everybody — regardless of what your original language, your original culture — be proud of it, as I am of my own,” the mayor said. “But we have one city, one future, and everybody has the chance to participate in that.”

When Trump outlined his Administration’s immigration plan Tuesday, he said officials have met “extensively” with both parties.

“Over the next few weeks, the House and Senate will be voting on an immigration reform package. In recent months, my Administration has met extensively with both Democrats and Republicans to craft a bipartisan approach to immigration reform. Based on these discussions, we presented the Congress with a detailed proposal that should be supported by both parties as a fair compromise — one where nobody gets everything they want, but where our country gets the critical reforms it needs.”

Pres. Trump outlines administration's immigration plan: "The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age." https://t.co/q18EZzVe9p #SOTU pic.twitter.com/xCeOa0lFAj

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 31, 2018

The four pillars of the plan:

• Offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents illegally as children
• Calls for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border
• Ends the visa lottery — “a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of our people,” Trump said. “It is time to begin moving towards a merit-based immigration system — one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society, and who will love and respect our country.”
• The last pillar, Trump said, “protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration…Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children.”

The White House has called Trump’s immigration plan a compromise both sides can support.

A CBS News poll conducted in the immediate aftermath of the speech indicated that it was a hit with viewers. Three in four Americans who watched the speech said they approved of it, with just a quarter saying they did not.

8 in 10 Americans who watched Pres. Trump's #SOTU address felt he was trying to unite the country, rather than divide it. Two-thirds said the speech made them feel proud, though just a third said it made them feel safer, CBS News poll finds https://t.co/SRoN9NzmKE pic.twitter.com/bvyG3myhgt

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 31, 2018

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Say Hello: Killer Whale Learns To Mimic Human Speech

CBS Local — Many people go to an aquarium to look at the whales but researchers say one killer whale in France would be happy to have a conversation with you too. A 14-year-old orca name Wikie has learned to imitate human speech through the use of her blowhole.

The orca, living at the Marineland aquarium in Antibes, France, has copied several phrases like “hello,” “bye-bye,” “one, two, three,” and even people’s names. “We wanted to see how flexible a killer whale can be in copying sounds,” the University of St. Andrews’ Josep Call said, via The Guardian.

According to the tests Wikie took, the amazing mammal successfully copied all of the sounds researchers asked her to mimic within the first 10 tries. Wikie reportedly mastered saying hello on the first attempt.

“The results reported here show that killer whales have evolved the ability to control sound  production and qualify as open-ended vocal learners,” the scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The talkative Wikie is reportedly the first orca to be trained to repeat human sounds. The captive whale is still working her pronunciation however, as the study reports she accurately said “hello” about half of the time and “bye-bye” once every five tries.

Biologists are now working to see if Wikie and other mammals who have learned to mimic human speech actually understand the meaning of the words they’re “saying.” Another study, examining an elephant that learned to speak, concluded that animals use their new-found skill more as a way of bonding with humans rather than actually talking to humans.

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Field Museum Scientists Studying Meteorite Found After January Fireball

CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio/CBS) — Scientists at the Field Museum have begun studying one of the meteorites that recently showered a 2-mile swath of Michigan outside Detroit, and already know where in the Solar System it came from.

The golf ball-sized meteorite was recovered on a frozen pond in Michigan after a fireball lit up the sky on Jan. 16, when a meteor fell to Earth.

Philip Heck, the Field Museum’s Pritzker Associate Curator for Meteorites and Polar studies, has determined where the meteor came from, based on its composition.

“It’s a rocky type of asteroid. Most of them, they orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter,” he said.

Heck said the meteorite is a chondrite, which come from primitive asteroids formed from various types of dust and grains present in the early Solar System.

“I often get the question ‘Why do you study this? Why are you interested in the early Solar System?’ but the early Solar System is particularly important, because the conditions there defined how the Solar System looks like today,” he said.

Field Museum resident and University of Chicago PhD student Jennika Greer at the optical microscope imaging the Michigan meteorite after it arrived at the Field Museum’s Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies. (Credit: Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies.)

While scientists have not yet dated the meteorite, it’s likely 4.6 billion years old.

Heck sliced off a section of the shiny black rock, revealing a much different interior made up of minerals now being studied.

Weather radar information helped meteor hunters find the rock and several others in Michigan.

Captions for initial photos regarding Michigan meteorite Provided by Philipp R. Heck, Robert A. Pritzker Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, The Field Museum of Natural History Professional meteorite hunter Robert Ward posing with the first meteorite that was found from the January 16, 2018 meteorite fall. The meteorite was found two days after the fall on the snow-covered surface of a frozen lake near Hamburg, Michigan. (Credit: Robert Ward)

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Emma: With Tone Set, Rick Hahn Ready To Watch White Sox Grow

By Chris Emma–

(670 The Score) The spotlight awaited and the runway beckoned as the White Sox of the future emerged one by one. There was a palpable buzz at SoxFest last Friday as fans reached their hands out toward their potential stars of tomorrow passing by.

As promising youngsters like Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Michael Kopech and Eloy Jimenez stepped up to the elevated platform, general manager Rick Hahn couldn’t hold back his smile.

Hahn certainly drew a rousing ovation as he, too, walked down the aisle. This SoxFest was different than any in recent years, as the excitement was placed in a clear vision with the goal of sustained championship contention. Unlike last year’s SoxFest when the rebuild was in its infancy, Hahn could yield the spotlight to these players on the rise.

The first year of the dramatic White Sox overhaul featured Hahn explaining his vision time and again while working the phone to strengthen the foundation. This season, the focus is on the prospects and their development after flashes of their potential.

They’re all invested in this together.

“The young guys have taken a great deal of pride in this,” Hahn said. “You hear them talk about themselves as a group. They say things like, ‘We’re building something special’ or ‘We’re going to be really good’ or ‘We want to win multiple championships.’ It’s not necessarily about their individual performance. It’s about how, together, we’re going to grow and win together in Chicago.”

This 2018 season will be crucial in evaluating which prospects fit where in the White Sox’s future, according to Hahn, who reminds often that many prospects don’t pan out. The White Sox will get a better feel for the development track of players like Jimenez, Luis Robert and Blake Rutherford and see whether Jake Burger is best suited at third base or first base. They’ll assess whether Gavin Sheets can be a lineup threat and watch as Kopech, Alec Hansen and Dane Dunning try to establish themselves as starters.

How Moncada, Giolito, Lopez and Carson Fulmer develop during their first full seasons in the big leagues will be critical as well. Hahn has taken the horse to the water. Now they must drink.

Of course, this season is also beneficial because a class of coveted free agents will be available next offseason, and Hahn expects to have the money to make a splash if needed. Could Manny Machado join that White Sox core?

Hahn was having no part in answering questions about Machado or other high-profile players set to become available after this season.

“You got to wait for there to be a need,” Hahn said of free-agent spending. “Look, it would be marvelous if every need was answered internally. That would be great. That would be a wonderful development and also probably an unprecedented one.

“You can look around the field and see incredible options at every position. A year from now, as these guys advance, we’re going to know a lot more — from a performance standpoint, from a health standpoint, from a makeup standpoint — which one of these guys is really going to be counted upon to potentially fill that void and where potentially in the organization do we have some holes that need to be addressed either through free agency or by trading something from a prospect-depth standpoint for an area of need. So, we’ll know a lot more in a year.”

Part of what makes Hahn so beloved by White Sox fans is he’s relatable as they come. He’s the smartest guy in most rooms but doesn’t make sure you know it. Hahn has also brought a refreshing transparency to the organization amid a major undertaking in progress. In turn, he has earned the trust of the White Sox fan base, one that has embraced him every move along the way.

Hahn still draws a crowd as he walks through the Hilton Chicago hallways during a SoxFest or as he moves through the concourse of Guaranteed Rate Field on a game day. There are plenty of T-shirts with his likeness owned by White Sox fans giving him a hero’s welcome. What Hahn wants is to see jerseys with Moncada, Kopech, Giolito and Robert on the back. Those could come soon enough.

Hahn has accomplished the first and most important goal of the rebuild, swapping off veteran assets for talented prospects to bring the White Sox one of baseball’s best farm systems. They’re now a healthy organization seemingly ready for something special ahead thanks to Hahn.

The spotlight is set for the White Sox of the future.

Chris Emma covers the Bears, Chicago’s sports scene and more for 670 The Score 670TheScore.com. Follow him on Twitter @CEmma670 and like his Facebook page.

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Cook County Jail Prepares For Blitz Of ‘Sick Calls’ During Super Bowl

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Many businesses that will be open Sunday face a seasonal staffing problem known as “Super Bowl Fever,” including the Cook County Jail.

Super Bowl Sunday is one of those days when huge numbers of Cook County Jail correctional officers historically have called in sick, leaving the Sheriff’s Office to force other officers to stick around for overtime.

“Last year, we had approximately 350 staff that called in sick,” Cook County Sheriff’s Chief Policy Officer Cara Smith said.

Smith says the Sheriff’s Office knows who may have abused those privileges in the past on Super Bowl Sunday, and that they’re going to be warned ahead of time this year.

She also says some correctional officers call in sick in fear of being kept for overtime when other officers don’t show up.

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