Hawks Hockey Hoiden

So I’m watching game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday, and Eddie Olczyk and Mike “Doc” Emrick keep talking about Flyers’ players having to go to the dressing room because they keep getting “bad wheels.” Bad wheels, as I learned, happen when the blades on a player’s skates get dulled for whatever reason. Well, the reason so many of the Flyers’ skates were being dulled apparently was because there was sand or gravel outside the Flyers’ dressing room.  At one point, the Flyers trainers had to put towels down so the players could get from the dressing room to the ice.  Since the Flyers were the visiting team, undoubtedly viewers like myself, and I guess Eddie and Doc too, were wondering if it was sabotage.

Hmm…will the NHL investigate?  Well, I for one would like to believe it was a mistake.  I mean, if you have to cheat, you’re not really winning anyway.  Don’t players and the organization know this?  And it’s not like they’re not going to be found out.  Duh.  And even if the Habs were trying to cheat this way, it didn’t much seem to matter since the Habs were totally shut out (again!), 3-0, by the Flyers regardless.  With these shut-outs, it does make you wonder though if we aren’t seeing a bit of goon karma.

No offense to all you young hockey players out there (as Eddie Olczyk would say) but the PR machine that constantly dictates to Hawks fans and lies to them about Patrick Kane has just gotten so old.  We get it.  Patrick Kane gets little kids, and their unwitting parents, to fill seats in the United Center.  That’s because little kids can relate to Patrick Kane.  After all, he’s about their size, and of course, little kids can see that Patrick Kane plays about as well as they do.  (more…)

Just had to say, like Pat Foley did, what a wonderful job Eddie Olczyk did at the Olympics.  He was the perfect choice for commentating the Olympic games.  In fact, the only combo better than Eddie-O and Doc is Eddie-O and Pat Foley.  And you know it’s really saying something that Eddie can make even Mike Milbury palatable!

Oh, and since I’m in the middle of watching tonight’s Blackhawks game against the Oilers, I just have to ask, because I’m thinking of it, did Dustin Byfuglien get a nose job?  I swear his nose is smaller and even shorter!  Anybody else notice that?  Also, I think the fact that Jonathan Toews must be exhausted is throwing off the equilibrium of the team.  Give this kid a break and let him sit out a few games before he collapses would ya?!

Along those lines, do you think when Niklas Hjalmarsson goes to take a shower in the morning he sees a whole bunch of purple circles on his chest?  Brings new meaning to “taking one for the team”!  And do you think when Marian Hossa looks in the mirror he thinks he looks like Ziggy too?

Coming into tonight’s Hawks/Sabres game there was a lot of talk about the Hawks going up against their old goal-tender Patrick Lalime, which was weird because Lalime has been out of Chicago and in Buffalo for two seasons now. On the flip-side, Brian Campbell has been out of Buffalo and in Chicago for three seasons.  You’d think that would be long enough for the Buffalo crowd to forget about him and not boo him, but apparently not. (Chuckle) (more…)

It was good to see former Blackhawk James “The Wiz” Wisniewski, even if he was playing for the bad guys (the Ducks), though he was more of a blur.  The Ducks were really amped up and played a very fast game; so fast the Hawks were having trouble keeping up on the way back to their defensive zone! (more…)

How is it that the goal that Oilers’ Ethan Moreau scored at the beginning of the 2nd period in tonight’s Hawks/Oilers game was able to stand?  All that Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk seemed concerned with was whether it was a good goal or not.  The bigger issue was that the “goal” was as a direct result of goaltender interference by Dustin Penner on Nikolai Khabibulin in the crease.  I even looked it up in the NHL rulebook which states that a goal is disallowed, “When an attacking player has interfered with a goalkeeper in his goal crease.”  So what did I miss?  Better yet, how did the War Room in Toronto miss that?

Congrats to Matt Walker on his first goal of the season scored during the second period of today’s match-up against the Dallas Stars.  Matty has been on fire lately.  According to his stats he:

- Recorded a career-high three game point streak (5A) from (Feb. 3 – Feb. 7).

- Established a career-high three points (3A) against Calgary on Feb. 5.

- Logged a season-high 22:26 time on ice against Colorado on Dec. 12.  (more…)

What was with that interference call on Cam Barker after he checked David Backes on the boards in the first period of the Hawks/Blues game tonight?  Barker got a five-minute major penalty for that interference call. The hockey pundits said that interference is usually a minor penalty, meaning only two minutes, but has anyone ever seen interference called as a major penalty, meaning five minutes?  Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk were even baffled at the interference being a major penalty, though Olczyk acknowledged later that per the rule book a major penalty can be called for interference; that it’s at the discretion of the official.  Still, what about that hit merited a major penalty?  (Oddly enough, history repeated itself in the 3rd period when Dustin Byfuglien got called for interference for the same exact kind of hit.  Yet Byfuglien’s interference call was only a minor penalty.)  (more…)

When I started getting into Chicago Blackhawks hockey in 2003, it was not only a man’s world, it was a largely off-the-beaten path world. Games weren’t available widely without paying out the nose for specific cable or satellite channels, and I didn’t even have basic cable then. The world of hockey just wasn’t open to me…and even if it had been, that world still wouldn’t have been totally open to me as a woman. (more…)