Indeed, look how conspicuous some of these underperformers are when Jonathan Toews is off the ice.  For instance, Brian Campbell has always been a bumbler (at least with the Hawks), but how much more so now that Tazer isn’t there to pick up  the slack of his teammates’ bad passes, turnovers, and other bumblings?  How much more apparent is Dustin Byfuglien’s bad skating when on an opponent’s breakaway, big, bumbling Buff is left in the dust, which, in last night’s loss to the Avalanche at least, resulted in an avoidable goal.

And Ben Eager.  Well, clearly we haven’t been giving this boy his due.  In Eager’s absence is Colin Fraser seriously expected to act as enforcer???  I give Fraser snaps for trying, but please Ben Eager, eat your spinach, take your vitamins, and get back soon! (Or better yet, let’s travel back in time and re-sign Matt Walker who was an excellent, if uncredited, enforcer.)

Additionally, and as Sassone alluded to — Jordan Hendry, John Madden, Andrew Ebbett, Tomas Kopecky, and Jake Dowell — ain’t cuttin’ it.  The only newbie I see hustling out there is Niklas Hjalmarsson.  He’s so busy, he’s running circles, literally, around other defensemen like Brian Campbell and Cam Barker.  The Hammer is going to hammer himself out if he doesn’t get some help out there, and soon!

And the power-play unit.  Just the mere mention of it makes my stomach turn.  While the Hawks scored once on the power play last night, I think it is obvious even to the most casual hockey fan that there needs to be some vast improvement there.

The Hawks have had a fairly light schedule so far.  So does anyone really see them staying atop the division if they continue on like this?  Everyone knows the boys from Rockford are hungrier because they don’t have cushy multi-million dollar contracts to fall back on.  It’s play well or get out.  So, bringing up some eager beavers from Rockford might wake some of these Hawks up and make them realize their jobs aren’t guaranteed.

Yep, and just continue to ignore the huge, 800-pound gorilla in net.

In addition to all the great things on ‘D’, how about newbies Jack Skille and Niklas Hjalmarsson?  Despite an accidental screen and a goal off his skate, Hjalmarsson has otherwise been indispensable in front of the net. (And did you see that wicked awesome goal off Hjalmy’s slapshot in the 3rd period of tonight’s Hawks/Stars game?)  Skille too scored his first goal the other night and how sweet it was.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy and so I’m ecstatic to see Skille keep being called up.  Hopefully next season he won’t have to pack his suitcase twice as much as everybody else.

Also, congrats to Jonathan Toews on his first goal of the season scored in tonight’s 4-3 loss to the Stars.  Much like last year, Tazer would have scored sooner but he was too busy taking care of everybody else.

And, last and certainly least, I can’t believe I have to spend blog space yet again this season talking about the goaltender situation.  They talk about Baby Huey missing “soft goals” but it’s more like he misses pee-wee hockey goals (and do I have to even mention that “bad bounce” he missed off the boards tonight in the 3rd that went in for a goal?).  Of late, he’s either on the other side of the net when the puck comes, he doesn’t see the puck coming at all, or he’s completely out of the net and late getting back.  They say he’s not good on glove-side.  Well he’s also not good on his stick side or up high (and sometimes not on 5-hole either).  So, if you were the opposing team, where would you shoot on Huet? Your options would be numerous.

I think most fans were surprised that Huet remained after last season since Huet was repeatedly outshined by Khabibulin, the distant runner-up to the netminder job.  That alone should have been a wake-up call to the Hawks’ management.  Huet’s goaltending with the Hawks has always been hit-or-miss, but this season he’s just missing easy pucks left and right.  It’s also a cautionary tale about signing guys for contracts that extend way too long. (Ahem, Hossa.)  As so many of my fellow puckheads in the hockyverse have been saying of late, the Hawks can get to the playoffs and they can win the cup, just not with Huet in net.  And no, Antti Niemi probably won’t get the Hawks there either, so right about now somebody should be shopping for a new goalie.

Antti Niemi too made some spectacular saves.  He can only get better.

Overall, great game, with the Hawks beating the Oil 4-3.  It was, however, a little bittersweet to see Nikolai Khabibulin in the opposing net.  Patrick Sharp summed up the Hawks’ feelings on Khabi when he said that he wished him luck, but not too much luck.  Maybe that was what Sharpie was trying to communicate to Khabi when Sharpie missed that penalty shot in the 2nd period.  Khabi was bound and determined not to let Sharpie score on him, and probably knew just where Sharpie was headed with that shot.  I guess that’s why Sharpie looked back and flashed Khabi that big ol’ grin.

Hjalmarsson has helped to ease the loss of one of my favorite d-men from last season.  It was hard to see Walker leave, and in his absence Cam Barker just seems naked out there.  But Hjalmarsson has helped to fill the void.  And apparently Hjalmy picked up a trick or two from Walker: like how to defend the net.  When Huet was inexplicably absent from the crease, Hjalmy was there, risking a major penalty and defending the net with a swing of the stick on the encroaching Tucker that was more reminiscent of the MLB than the NHL.  Seriously, this season, for my money, Hjalmarsson is the kid to watch.  (I’m also curious to see how Jack Skille will do.  I think he will come along nicely given the chance.)

Beyond Huet’s gaffes (You know the word gaffe dontcha Huet?  It’s French for faux pas.), the lousy puck handling and bad passes last night, which led to all those turnovers, were cringe-worthy.  But the officiating, if you could call it that, didn’t help matters either.  Even Pat Foley had to comment on the lousy job the refs were doing.  Still, what was with the circus out there?  Was the ice not right?  Were their skates too sharp?  Was there a new puck provisioner?  Or were the Hawks just rusty?  Their ‘D’ is amped up compared to last season, which is such a wonderful thing to see, so hopefully they’ll work on puck possession and passing and reduce the amount of those turnovers.

Yes, and let’s talk about Huet.  When Baby Huey stinks up the crease, he makes me miss Patrick Lalime.  Yes, really, Patrick Lalime.  And unlike last season, I hope the powers-that-be don’t wait until well into the season to admit that Huet is hit-or-miss. (Another word for that is ‘unreliable.’)  Time to start talking about Antti Niemi, because if the Hawks stick with Huet, I just don’t see them making it past the regular season.  No way.  Riddle me this: had Niemi been in the net, would we have gone into overtime?  Well, okay, maybe the Hawks still would’ve ended up in OT, but would it have taken NINE shoot-out attempts to win the game? After the game was over, I kept hearing “nine times” in my head over and over like Principal Rooney says in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  (And yes that was my way of working in an homage to our dearly-departed John Hughes, a Chicago institution who is sorely missed.  I’m convinced Mr. Hughes is in heaven trying to explain misunderstood teens and tweeners to God.)  Still, I was ecstatic to see Andrew Ladd get the glory for the final shoot-out goal and the win.  Laddy often flies under everyone’s radar, but he is consistent and reliable and therefore deserves a little recognition.

Colin Fraser is often overlooked as well, which is why it was so gut-wrenching to see his goal get overturned.  Head up buddy.  Everyone took notice of that valiant effort to get that goal.  You’ll get ‘em next time.

Likewise, Kris Versteeg too, while certainly not overlooked, is finally getting his due this season.  No longer is he “the rookie,” nor are they even talking about the dreaded sophomore year (which just guarantees a jinx if  Patrick Kane is any indication).  With Steegy, they’re finally just talking about how good he is, that he’s maximizing his full potential, and that he’s found his stride.  Every team needs a Scrappy Doo, and even though Steegy took some serious hits last night, he got right back up and was like “Let me at ‘em”!  Bang on Verbeauty.

There’s so much to talk about strategically too.  They must have read my letter to Santa, because last season how often did I complain about the need for a center, a defenseman, or anyone, to stand in front of the opposing team’s net and screen shots?  Nice to see Dustin Byfuglien has found his purpose in life. (Oh but please for the love of God Buff, don’t pick out your own clothes anymore!  For the sake of all that is good and holy, let a woman pick out your red carpet threads from now on since the only thing that red suit was missing was a pair of devil horns!)

And while I’m doling out the shame-on-yous, if the PR people for the Hawks are reading this, stop introducing the Hawks as “Patrick Kane and the Hawks.”  Nobody buys that and it’s embarrassing…for you.  Try “Jonathan Toews and the Hawks” or “Dave Bolland and the Hawks.”  Anything but “Kane and the Hawks.”  We know.  He needs some good PR after his recent arrest but Chicagoans aren’t that stupid.  So why don’t you just  push Kaner to do more charity work.  Although I will give a nod to Kaner’s handlers.  Seems someone sat him down and had a little chat with Mr. Rock-You-Like-a-Hurri-Kane.  Admittedly his play is much improved.  He’s taking more shots because he’s actually able to take it to the net.  Now if he could just land a few more, folks could believe again that he’s the hockey player his people keep propagandizing that he is.  I do feel sorry for Kane, because last season he was more of a PR/media creation rather than an actual hockey player.  But now, he seems to be hunkering down and finding his own way.  For his sake, let’s hope he can keep it up.  What a difference 10 pounds of meat and an attitude adjustment can make huh?

And I saved the best for last.  How awesome was it to see ‘Tony O’ Esposito, Stan Mikita (Oh how I wish Stan Mikita’s Munchables really existed), and the Golden Jet himself, Bobby Hull, back on the ice again!?  Won’t be seeing that again til heaven.  And it was a little bit of heaven just to see that last night.  Hopefully they can bring some good karma back to the Blackhawks organization.  Here’s hoping for a good season everyone!

P.S.  Missing Ben Eager and Adam Burish.  Get well soon boys!

The fans at the UC were livid, chanting “BULLSHIT,” many of them as upset about throwing their free Blackhawks hardhats onto the ice lauding what they thought was a hat trick, as they were about the overturning of the goal.  Those of us at home threw things too, but it didn’t quite have the same meaning.

Things fell apart after that with ridiculous penalties being called on James Wisniewski and Cam Barker for “roughing,” and a goal being scored for the Penguins off of Barker’s skate in the closing seconds of the 2nd.

BUT the 3rd period was decidedly better when Tazer went on to score the hat trick anyway (his first of his NHL career no less).  Take that Toronto!  Still, the Hawks fell to the Penguins 5-4 in overtime.

As an aside though, Jack Skille played well and Antti Niemi denied the Penguins in the 3rd period when he took over for Cristobal Huet.