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…)

Jonathan Toews proved early on in the first period of tonight’s Hawks/Preds match-up that he’s worth every red cent of his new 5-year deal when he pulled off what we in my household call a “Superman” goal.  You know, the goals scored out of nowhere, faster than a speeding bullet, and in this instance, in midair? (And yes, Tazer’s goal may remind old guard hockey fans of that famous Bobby-Orr-in-midair photo, and rightly so.)  (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…)

Last night’s 7-1 win over the Flames was breathtaking.  For the first time this season, it felt like the magic of last season had returned.  I can’t decide if that was because the Hawks have finally gelled with each other, or if the Flames just fell down, psyched out by the remembrance of the playoffs last season.  I want to believe it is the former, not the latter.  (more…)

You had to be at the Hawks/Wild game tonight to truly appreciate how lousy and yet bizarre the officiating was.  On some of those calls I was left wondering what in the world the refs were thinking.  Perhaps I shouldn’t complain though because it was the only real spark in a game where both teams were bumbling about.  (more…)

Once again hockeyfights.com comes through.  Here’s last night’s fight between Troy Brouwer and Jarome Iginla during the Hawks/Flames game.

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…)

Woohoo, the War Room in Toronto made another good call in the first 42 seconds of the Hawks/Flames game allowing Dave Bolland’s goal to stand.  The issue was did Bolland “punch” or “bat” the puck into the goal off his hand.  Toronto said no, and the goal stood. (more…)

I’d heard that there was footage out there of Kris Versteeg (a.k.a. “Verbeauty”) singing Fergie’s “Glamorous,” but now I’ve found it! Priceless! Adam Burish and Troy Brouwer seemed to get a kick out of it too…Tee hee…