Hawks Hockey Hoiden

Congrats to the Hawks for hammering the final nail into the Vancouver Canucks. The boys are looking a little tired out there, and understandably so. As I noted in a prior post about Matt Walker, seems the Hawks are missing some of the grit from last season most notably seen in players like Matt Walker. But when push came to shove with the Canucks, some of the bigger, burlier players like Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Eager pushed back. And that made all the difference, as did outstanding goal tending on Antti Niemi’s part.

On to San Jose! Good luck boys!

This is the kind of grit we’re missing this season.

If you’re a reader of this blog with any regularity you know that I have had a lot to say about how much of a mistake it was that the Blackhawks lost defenseman Matt Walker at the end of last season. So I was surprised that there wasn’t even a mention of Walker and his move to the Lightning before the start of the game tonight. (more…)

There have been a lot of rumors floating around about which players the Blackhawks’ front office is looking to unload.  Possible names floated about have been Cam Barker, Brian Campbell, Dustin Byfuglien, and even Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg.  It’s hard to know if these are players the Hawks are considering trading, it these are players other teams want, or if these are players that sports writers and fans are lobbying to get rid of (or all three). (more…)

Ho-hum, nothing to do over the two days til the Circus Trip starts.  Maybe that’s why the puck hos are doing so many searches for Niklas Hjalmarsson.  “Niklas Hjalmarsson girlfriend” (which I believe is a site for hockey groupies to talk about how to hook up with Hjalmy) is the #2 search on this site as of this writing. (Niklas Hjalmarsson’s name is the #1 search on this site.)  How sad is that?  Maybe the Blackhawks’ Marketing Department could do a beefcake promo on Niklas “The Hammer” Hjalmarsson with that Metric “Help I’m Alive” song (You know the one where the refrain is “Help I’m alive my heart keeps beating like a hammer”?) running in the background.  That way they could ruin my favorite hockey player and a really cool song all at once. (Just kidding!)

I guess I shouldn’t have complained so bitterly about my favorite hockey player, Matt Walker, from last season not getting proper accolades.  Had he been given his propers the puck hos would’ve just ruined him as my favorite hockey player too…sigh…

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…)

If you’re squeamish, do not watch this video!

I was reminiscing about Matt Walker to a follower on Twitter and he reminded me about Walker breaking his finger in the playoffs last year.  So I thought I would post this video and spread the joy.  The reaction on the faces of those women is priceless. (Yup, and that’s why high-maintenance women should not get seats behind the bench.) The really astonishing thing is that Walker played the rest of the game! (that is, after his finger was put back in.)

Walker is still having trouble with his finger this season with the Tampa Bay Lightning and I guess now we know why!  Walker was an awesome d-man for the Hawks.  Why was he let go again???

I had hoped that Niklas Hjalmarsson would get his due for being such an awesome d-man this season, but I thought it would take longer.  (Seems Hjalmy is getting the recognition Matt Walker, for some reason, never got.)  Hjalmy has already gotten his nickname — “The Hammer” — and everything. What I didn’t expect was for hockey groupies to so soon be doing searches to see if Hjalmy had a girlfriend or not. (Unfortunately my stats page does not lie.)  Usually it takes the puck hos about half a season to figure out who’s who (meaning, who they want to hunt down and…you know).  Wait until the first time someone compares Hjalmarsson to Twilight’s Robert Pattinson.  Then “The Hammer” will need a hammer to beat off all those tweener groupies!

Last night’s fight reminded me of one of the more memorable hockey fights from last season. Remember this one between Matt Walker and the Flames’ Brandon Prust? I loved it so much I hung an autographed still of this one on my hockey wall.

What a home-opener last night at the UC between the Hawks and the Colorado Avalanche!  Almost makes you wish you were there. (Almost.)  But if I hadn’t been at home I wouldn’t have gotten to see the replay (about 6 times) of Niklas Hjalmarsson’s swing-batta-batta swing into the face of the Avs Darcy Tucker.  In a word: awesome.  And Hjalmy didn’t even get called for high-sticking! (more…)