Hawks Hockey Hoiden

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?

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

In the last couple of games, we’ve heard the worst sound in the world: the “clink, clink, clink” off the iron as the Hawks have made some bad shots.  It’s to be expected because the Flames are just that good on ‘D,’ harassing the puck away or harassing the Hawks while taking shots.   But you know, that’s what you do in the playoffs.  You up the ante.  Unfortunately, the Hawks didn’t answer tonight in their 2-4 loss to the Flames. (more…)

Nikolai Khabibulin almost had a shut-out in last night’s Blues/Hawks game. With the Hawks up 3-0 and three seconds left in the game, Pat Foley wondered if Khabby might just have a shut-out on his hands. Then, the unthinkable; the Blues scored at the last second. So, was it Pat Foley who jinxed Khabby right out of his shut-out? (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…)