Hawks Hockey Hoiden

Line changing seems to be the name of the game of late for the Hawks. On the Jonathan Toews line now is Patrick Kane again and Troy Brouwer.  Hmm, not bad in terms of forechecking and all out aggressiveness.  And how about that Madden line with Kris Versteeg and Dustin Byfuglien on wing; Madden who has steadily increased his face-off wins and overall performance?  And Jordan Hendry replaced Tomas Kopecky (Bout time somebody did!) on the Colin Fraser line.  Has Coach Q finally solidified the offensive lines?  Well, let’s hope so.  Let’s hope Q has finally found a winning combination. (more…)

Ok kids, I’m back.  Sorry to leave my little hockeylings hanging yesterday, but as much as hockey is life, sometimes real life interferes.  Luckily, I taped the game and was able to go radio silent until this morning so as not to hear the score.  So here, belatedly, is your run down of last night’s loss to the Kings if it’s not still too painful. (more…)

Tensions ran high tonight in the Hawks’ 7-2 win over the Sharks.  Coach Quenneville was barking early at a missed boarding call wherein Tomas Kopecky was hit from behind and his helmet went flying; Brian Campbell got booed as he always does at the HP Pavillion (and I always try so hard not to laugh at that and am never successful); the penalty-kill unit had an awesome night, even for them; and of course Marian Hossa made his debut with the Blackhawks.  Boy did he ever.  (more…)

The most consistent thing about last night’s 5-2 win over the Oilers was the inconsistency of the officiating.  Beyond all the missed hooking calls that were so numerous I lost count, there were a couple of missed boarding calls (i.e. dirty hits from behind).  The weird thing is the refs didn’t allow any fights.  So, in theory, the refs would allow dirty hits which had the potential to do damage, but they wouldn’t allow fighting ostensibly because fighting leads to injuries?  Yeah, that makes sense.  (more…)

Playing teams in the Pacific Division is always seemingly tricky for the Hawks.  Playing teams as good as the Sharks, you can’t be undisciplined and commit stupid penalties like John Madden’s holding call in the opening minute of the game. (Madden would make up for it in the dwindling minutes of the 2nd though with a goal on a nearly wide-open net.)  The Hawks committed almost twice as many penalties as the Sharks.  Still, the Hawks squeaked out another win, 4-3, seconds into the overtime period on a brilliant goal by Brent Seabrook who was set up but proper by Jonathan Toews.  (more…)

Tim Sassone, my favorite writer over there at The Hockey News was spot on in his blog yesterday when he mentioned the ‘R’ word — Rockford.  But why bring up just one forward? (And if it has to be just one, it should be Jack Skille, no question.  Looking at Andrew Ebbett, you have to ask why Jack Skille was ever sent back down.)  I believe it was a commenter on Sassone’s blog that said that bringing up some boys (that’s plural) from Rockford might shake some of these guys just collecting paychecks from their collective reveries.  (more…)

Karma (or whatever you want to call it) can be a tricky thing.  Look at the Curse of the Bambino.  It would be 86 years (1918-2004) until the Red Sox won another World Series, supposedly thanks to the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.  Similarly, look at the Curse of the Billygoat.  The Cubs haven’t been to the World Series since 1945 allegedly thanks to Billy Sianis’ smelly goat (and it ain’t lookin’ like they’ll be returning any time soon).  Could it be that the misfortune-plagued Blackhawks have also cursed themselves for the goings on in the off season?  (more…)