Hawks Hockey Hoiden

No sooner had the NHL settled the head hits issue, and now they’re looking at visors, all because one of the gooniest guys in hockey, Chris Pronger, took a shot to the eye.  I like that Pronger’s replacement, former Blackhawk defenseman Matt Walker, has come out staunchly against wearing a visor saying “It’s a personal thing.”  Walker further argued that,

“The stick can get underneath your visor…It’s coming straight up, it’s not coming up horizontally. It’s not hard to come up under the visor and get stuck and hit you two or three times coming out instead of just once.”

Not only is it still possible to high-stick someone wearing a visor, but visors make play unbearable for some players.  As the player gets hot and sweaty, the visor fogs up and causes decreased visibility.  So until they make Rain-X or visor wipers, it should be a player’s choice whether to wear a visor or not since it’s his career on the line. (more…)

OK, surely Blackhawks fans can’t be the only ones who see that referee Dan O’Halloran has it in for the Hawks.  In tonight’s Blackhawks win over the Dallas Stars, 5-2, dreaded anti-Hawks referee Dan O’Halloran made two abominable calls on two of the Hawks’ most revered and even-tempered players: Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp.  About midway through the 2nd period, Jonathan Toews was called for slashing on Steve Ott.  As any ref should know, slashing involves a swinging or hacking motion of the stick on either the opponent’s stick or his body.  Toews did neither of these; he simply had an active stick in trying to harass the puck away from Ott.  Commentator Eddie Olczyk also indicated he too did not see slashing.  Nevertheless, the slashing penalty stuck.  Still, Tazer would have his revenge when, seconds after shooting out of the penalty box, he rocketed down the ice, paused, and hammered off a snapshot for a goal.  That’s what fans love about Jonathan Toews.  He doesn’t get mad; he gets even.  (more…)

Wow, what happened last night in the Blackhawks’ season opener against the Dallas Stars?  It would’ve been a shutout had Nick Leddy not crashed the net with sheer determination in the last few seconds of the game to score the Hawks’ lone goal.  The final score was 2-1 Dallas, but it could’ve been so much worse given how the Hawks played.  They did not appear to be well-conditioned at all.  They could not match the Stars on their stamina, and even Jonathan Toews was left far behind on one of Patrick Sharp’s mad dashes to the net.  And while Sharpy had a high-throttle game coming strong off of his emergency appendectomy, the rest of the team appeared tired and sluggish as early as the 2nd period.  (more…)

To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to this year’s crop of Blackhawks new-comers.  Nobody likes change, at least not as much as there has been, and so it’s been hard these past two seasons to watch some stellar veterans go (although when I heard lackluster under-performer Brian Campbell had finally got the boot I almost threw a party).

However, in pre-season play it has been delightful to watch Brandon Pirri’s rising star.  This kid is amazing!  He almost had a hat trick in last night’s loss to the Penguins.  And while the guy in the Hawaiian shirt at the bar where I was watching the game disagreed with me, the call on Pirri for “interference” in the last minute or so of the game was in error.  Unless I missed something, it looked like Pirri was just following through with a check on the boards, though it was difficult, judging from the camera angle, to see where the puck had gone.  What wasn’t hard to miss was Pirri on the ground, on his back, getting his ears boxed by, it looked like Pens’ Zybnek Michalek.  Still, it looks like Pirri will go far.  Apparently opponents think so too or Pirri wouldn’t have become an early target.   So bang on Pirri.  You’ll get that hat trick yet!  (more…)

After reading all of the undeserved criticism of Matt Walker on the net, particularly from Flyers fans, it’s time to set the record straight on defenseman Matt Walker.  It was bad enough having to watch Chicago discard Matt Walker without realizing what they had in him before the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup winning season in 09-10, but then I had to hear that the Philadelphia Flyers got Matt Walker on a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning before the 2010-2011 season had started, only to put him on waivers in January.  Unfortunately, “fans” in Philly didn’t seem to understand Walker’s role, just like “fans” in Tampa Bay and even Chicago didn’t.  (more…)

I’m back to address the awful decision handed down by the NHL to suspend Niklas Hjalmarsson two games for what was clearly NOT a dirty hit on Sabres’ Jason Pominville.  (In this case, kudos should also go to Jonathan Toews, who, as ever, was first to rush in and defend his boys.  Clearly he too did not think the ensuing mêlée was merited by Jelly’s hit.)

So, as they say, let’s go to the film.

Despite the commentators in the above YouTube video obviously stumping for a suspension and purposely not seeing what was right in front of them in a slow-mo, slow-frame replay, this was NOT a dirty hit from behind.  It was a side hit, and probably a hard one, but Hjalmarsson didn’t even throw an elbow, again, despite what commentators were saying (and the commentators are suspect in this case because they knew that, upon review, the NHL would hear their comments and be swayed by them).  (more…)

The only thing comparable to the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup is the Bears winning the Super Bowl in ‘86…no wait, THIS is BETTER!!!

Congratulations to the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks! (who beat the Philadelphia Flyers in game 6 in overtime, 4-3.)  And just as sweet, congratulations to Jonathan Toews for winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoffs MVP!!!

Thank you to whoever posted this on YouTube.  You are my new best friend.  This is the incident I was talking about in a prior post where in the June 6, 2010 game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Blackhawks’ Dustin Byfuglien takes out Flyers’ d-man Kimmo Timonen and dreaded anti-Hawks referee Dan O’Halloran.  Couldn’t happen to two nicer guys…not!

As Chicagoans have been saying for days, referee Dan O’Halloran killed the Hawks in games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  He called so many penalties on the Hawks while ignoring so many others from the Flyers that it would be safe to argue that O’Halloran alone cost the Hawks games 3 and 4.

In tonight’s game 5, it looked like Dustin Byfuglien agreed when during a check of Flyers’ d-man Kimmo Timonen at about the 10 or 11 minute mark of the 3rd period, he took out Dan O’Halloran as well.  Two goons with one hit.  It was a thing of beauty!  O’Halloran seemed to know that hit was meant for him too by the look on his face.  Karma can be tricky Danny boy.  The hockey gods don’t seem to like your intentional missed calls on the Flyers.

Finally, just to add insult to injury, Hawks’ Dustin Byfuglien scored the last goal of the 7-4 victory over the Flyers with an empty-netter in the last minute-and-a-half of the game with Dan O’Halloran having to rule it a good goal.  So sweet.  Go Hawks!  Get that cup!

P.S. Hats off to Q for taking Big Buff and Kaner off the first line and moving Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky up with Toews.  It totally threw off the Flyers.  They couldn’t put the bullseye on any one player and with Buff checking up and down like a mad man, it was discombobulating to the Flyers.  Hopefully Niklas Hjalmarsson can figure his game out by game 6 though, because we need him blocking shots.  Don’t know what’s up with him, but he has that deer-in-headlights look about him.

The Hawks have swept the San Jose Sharks and are headed to the Stanley Cup Finals!  Woohoo!  Someone please get Duncan Keith some teeth. (He lost seven in this game.)