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Boiled Peanuts and Frogmore Stew: Blackhawks Head South
Oct 28th
Photo: Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
With the Blackhawks’ poor luck with shootouts of late (or at least, until the victory over Anaheim on Tuesday), one would think it hard to find a team doing worse than Chicago in that category. Fortunately for us, the ‘Hawks visit that team tonight. Carolina, despite having only 9 games under their belt, has 3 games in the ‘OTL’ column.
The bad stats don’t end there, with 5 of their top 6 scorers sitting south of zero in the plus-minus category, and their backup goaltender boasting a 4.46 GAA.
Let’s leave it as, things could be better in the land of NASCAR.
STATS Game: Blackhawks at Hurricanes
Oct 28th
I did this a few times last season when I could, so I thought I’d share some facts heading into tonight’s contest at the RBC Center versus the Carolina Hurricanes.
While the Blackhawks are getting solid contributions from all four lines, the Hurricanes are scrambling after three straight losses. Here are their likely forward lines for the tilt:
Chad LaRose – NAME THAT STAAL … Eric Staal – Jiri Tlusty
SKINNERRRRR! – Jussi Jokinen – Tuomo Ruutu
Alexei Ponikarovsky – Brandon Sutter – Patrick Dwyer
Brett Sutter – Tim Brent (yes, that Tim Brent) / Derek Joslin - Zach Boychuk
Here are some stats/facts …
Wild, Wild West Side: Victorious Shootout Boxing with Blackhawks and Ducks
Oct 26th
(Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune)
As a season-ticket holder, I thank the Blackhawks for the extra hockey the past three home games. As a fan, I’m wondering what the hell is wrong with earning the two points without having to deal with the frustration of the goddamn shootout.
I don’t think I’m alone in thinking the ‘Hawks were lucky to come away with two points after a 3-2 shootout win at the UC on Tuesday night. Patrick Kane saved the night with two gorgeous assists and the shootout winner, though he didn’t make things easy with a bad giveaway which led to Teemu Selanne’s goal.
Dave Bolland took a bad penalty at the end of the first period, then Sean O’Donnell mixed in a delay-of-game before Marian Hossa was given an iffy penalty with 2:10 left in regulation. Fortunately, the Ducks converted on only one of these power plays, leaving the door open for the Blackhawks to earn the pair.
And before Jonathan Toews and Kaner netter goals in the shootout, Hossa ripped one off the post as the horn sounded off a great faceoff win by Toews. How he was able to win it perfectly while putting just the right touch on it so the 2.4 seconds didn’t run off, allowing Hossa to get a missile off is truly amazing to me.
Let’s talk about the rest in Boxing…
Tuesday Dinner: Blackhawks Hope To Serve Roast Duck
Oct 25th
Photo: Getty Images
One of the curiosities of last season was the holy-crap performance of aging veteran Teemu Selanne. Despite having four decades in his rear view mirror, he notched 31 goals and a whopping 80 points in 73 regular-season games, adding a goal-per-game performance in the playoffs. Selanne and 4 other Ducks players were all north of 65 points on the 2010-11 season, and Selanne plus the other 4 will all be in the lineup tonight at the United Center: forwards Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, and Bobby Ryan, and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky.
But I’m sure Anaheim Head Coach Randy Carlyle is hoping his offensive stars will start to shine soon, as the Ducks are near the bottom of the barrel in scoring, just barely nudging past 2 goals per game on average. Those five players account for fully two-thirds of the Ducks total offense to date. Pay close attention to those players, you shut down the Ducks offense — almost.
Boxing Returns Tuesday: Bad Bounces Beat Blackhawks
Oct 23rd
Photo: AP
On Saturday evening, Jeff was having his weekly psychotic episode. These almost always include (but are not limited to) alcohol, friends, and the Michigan State Spartans football game. This one was particularly bad, as the Spartans went down 14 – 0 in the first 7 minutes of the game, rallied to a 31 – 14 lead — which they then blew in the fourth quarter, only to win against #6 Wisconsin on the already-legendary Hail Mary pass with no time left on the clock.
I’ve spoken to the doctors, and Jeff may be well enough to take visitors as early as tomorrow afternoon. But in the mean time, your fix of “Boxing” will be delayed until after the Ducks game on Tuesday.
I know, you’re disappointed, for the second time. As the Blackhawks were not able to pull together the same fate as MSU: they also came from behind, they also blew a late-game lead, but lost 5 – 4 in a shootout to Colorado. This defeat was much the same as Thursday’s victory, but the bounces went against the Blackhawks this time.
Potential: Blackhawks Finish Home-And-Home With Avalanche
Oct 22nd
Photo: Randy Guttierrez/AP
The Blackhawks’ season looked, at the outset, to be fraught with peril: shaky backup goaltending, injuries to key forwards, defensive pairing mix-and-match, questions about conditioning, and the ever-present ticking time bomb that exists in the form of newly-acquired winger Daniel Carcillo. The first six games of the season find the Blackhawks with a 4-1-1 record, and showing the potential for another Stanley Cup run. Thursday’s game was a good example of that potential.
Watching the Blackhawks take on the Avalanche it was apparent that these were two closely-matched teams: young and fast, with quick and dangerous snipers up front and scary-good goaltending on the back end. Thursday’s game saw lots of end-to-end action, goaltenders peppered with shots — and standing on their heads to keep their teams in it, and a lot of quick transitions at the blue line.
Tonight, we are going to see that same Avalanche team again; and again, the Blackhawks are going to have to play the same fast, disciplined game to get past them.
Calmer Than You Are, Dude: Boxing with Blackhawks and Avalanche
Oct 21st
(Ron Chenoy/US PRESSWIRE)
Whew, now that was fast-paced hockey.
The Blackhawks were able to calm themselves after the Avs’ initial first-period rush, get into the flow of the game and come away with a 3-1 victory in Colorado, going 2 for 2 on the brief road trip.
I’m tired, so just a few quick observations before Boxing …
♦ With the entire game going pretty much back and forth at warp speed, both Corey Crawford and Semyon Varlamov saw nearly everything thrown at them, neither giving up a bad goal on the night. The Blackhawks put two difficult shots past Varlamov, while Crawford wasn’t able to get in front of an unfortunate bounce. Varlamov should be spending the night in jail after his ridiculous save on Marcus Kruger.
♦ “Bick-Bo-Fro … douchebag”: A bit of a left turn from the “quid pro quo” comment from The Hangover, but this line has been something special thus far. Poor, poor Michael Frolik. Varlamov robbed him of his first goal on a beautiful chance right in front. Bickell has played his ass off and Bolland, well, …. please for the love of holy Christ stay healthy.
♦ Dan Carcillo’s fantastic pass set up Jonathan Toews’ goal, marking yet another solid feed from Carcillo. He got rewarded with his 2nd point as a ‘Hawk, though it’s not for the shortage of some great opportunities he’s set up which simply haven’t gone in the net.
♦ Duncan Keith disrupted a play in the neutral zone, which ended up leading to Patrick Sharp’s handsome goal. After Keith forced the turnover, the ‘Hawks were able to get into transition, pepper Varlamov with a couple of in-tight chances before Sharp sniped the short side to beat him. It was the second straight solid game for Keith, who has been taking plenty of heat lately.
OK, time for Boxing. Two images, click to enlarge …
Dogs In The Desert… For Now: Blackhawks Visit Coyotes
Oct 18th
Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
As the Winnipeg Jets celebrate their reincarnation north of the border, the team that represents the ashes of the old incarnation of that squad still sits, parched, in the dusty climes of Phoenix, awaiting whatever fate Fuhrer Bettman decides they should have. Stuck in the mobius loop of lousy-team-low-revenue-no-buyers-can’t-attract-good-players-so-lousy-team, Bettman faces mountains of humiliation should the team be forced to move from a location he personally hand-picked for NHL expansion. So, he isn’t approving any deals that involve moving the team to places where snowmobiles are used as transportation for part of the year.
The proud, arrogant little bastard should be beaten to death at center ice before puck drop at the All-Star Game. Fans of hockey all over the world would pay $5000 a ticket to watch that.
But I digress…
Cruising While Not in Control: Boxing with Blackhawks and Bruins
Oct 16th
(Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune )
“It’s tough to give up a goal, especially when you’re up 2-1. It seemed like we were playing back a bit and not really pushing the pace. When you get that one-goal lead you don’t want to cheat and push too much but at the same time it would have been nice to make it 3-1.” — Patrick Kane
My best friend flies airplanes for a living. We don’t need to trade jobs for me to know you don’t turn the autopilot on until you’re completely in control.
The Blackhawks did just that in Saturday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Boston, burning a point and crashing before being stonewalled by Tim Thomas in the pissing contest.
The up-and-down effort let Boston tie it on a Nathan Horton goal in the third period while Chicago went the final 17-plus minutes without a goal which could have sealed a nice win over the defending Stanley Cup champs.
Marian Hossa missed the game with an upper-body injury, and I’m becoming increasingly pissed by the fact it never seems certain he will ever play.
Anyway, I’m not in the mood to go over this play by play, so let’s just get to Boxing. Click the two images to enlarge…
Emery in Net, Ladd and Byfuglien Return as Blackhawks host Jets
Oct 13th
Photo: The Canadian Press/John Woods
When the backup goaltender debate was raging, the issue I raised (that everyone, and I mean *everyone* called me nuts for raising) was the prospect of injuries. What do you do if one of our top-two goaltenders gets hurt?
While it’s not looking like Corey Crawford isn’t healthy enough to go and more simply getting a night off, Ray Emery will start in net for the Blackhawks after battling the flu much of this week.
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