Blackhawks Quick Hits 10/14/2009

On Monday, Hawks came back from being down 5-0 to winning 6-5 in overtime. And I missed it. I was/am in Indianapolis, IN and the only sport these folks watch is the movie Hoosiers. So needless to say I was not a witness.

That being said in about a 2 minute time span Huet allowed for 3 goals. Not good. He's not getting the start tonight even though its against Edmonton, whose currently goalie is Nikolai Khabibulan. That hurts. Although Q insists it's not all a performance based decision.

"It gives (Niemi) a home start," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He hasn't played here at home to start a game. We have back-to-back back games and when we looked at the planning of who was going to play we'd say we'd evaulate after the last game who would get today's game."

That's all I got for now.

A Loss, IR, and Jim and Pam get hitched

Hawks lose to Detroit 3-2 last night. Q says don't fret.

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville, meanwhile, doesn’t want his club to get down about its 1-1-1 start.

“If we keep playing like that, we’ll find a way to win,” Quenneville said. “We had puck-possession time, we had chances, we had zone time.”

Ben Eager placed on IR. NHL teams is notoriously vague on injuries. No word on how long he'll be out and why, but Bleacher Report is speculating Eager's history with concussions has something to do with it.


Former Blackhawk and Southsider will practice with the Chicago Wolves and possibly be a player/coach/grandpa.

Chris Chelios will practice with the Chicago Wolves on Monday, when the team returns from Canada, ESPNChicago.com has confirmed.

ESPN 1000 was the first to report that Chelios had talked to the Wolves about being a player/coach. The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday that Chelios would skate with the Wolves, the Atlanta Thrashers' AHL affiliate.

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And finally Pam and Jim from the Office got married last night. I'm only mentioning it because 2J over at BullBearSock has been on his high horse claiming that the Office is no longer funny. I disagree and the episode yesterday is proof positive that the show is still quite hilarious.

My favorite line from yesterday:

Looks like you're going to a fish fry, Dwight.

Blackhawks Trade, Power Rankings and The Great One

Hawks trade D Aaron Johnson LW Kyle Greentree.

Greentree, 25, appeared in two games with the Flames last season, spending the majority of the campaign with the AHL’s Quad City Flames where he led the club with career highs in goals (39) and points (76) while appearing in 79 of 80 regular-season contests. Greentree, who was on the roster of Calgary’s AHL affiliate in Abbotsford, British Columbia at the time of the trade, has been held scoreless in four career National Hockey League matchups, which includes two with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2007-08.

CBS Sports has 6 in the power rankings. Mentions our weakness at goalie a major concern.

Sure, Chicago looked as dangerous as advertised in its season-opening set in Finland, but the Blackhawks can't help but be concerned about having Cristobal Huet as their No. 1 goalie.

I power rank Harry Potter movies. Right now Goblet of Fire is holding strong at number 1 but could see a significant dip as Harry's emo haircut in the movie is not aging well. Biting at its heals in the #2 slot-- it's the Half Blooded Prince if only for Emma Watson being 18 in the movie. Whaaaa.

And lastly watched the 30 for 30 ESPN documentary by Peter Berg--King's Ransom. I must say it proves a few things. 1.) How crazy Canada is for hockey and 2.) How significant Gretzky was to the game he played. Until Jordan became a dominant force I don't think there was one athlete that represented a sport so universally than Gretzky. I really don't have much more analysis to give you. It is what it is. Good stuff. I'd recommend it for any sports fans.

Blackhawks: Quick hits

Not much going on at the moment. Just getting ready for the Detroit Red Wings.

A few Blackhawks spotted at the Chicago Premiere of Couples Retreat. Chicago sport's enthusiast Vince Vaughn was on hand--I wonder if co-star Kristen Bell was there in Chicago too. If she was that means it was the closest I'll ever be to Ms. Bell. *sigh* A love unrealized...

Chicago Blackhawks Brian Campbell, Brent Seabrook, Adam Burish and Cam Barker walked the red carpet.

Technically didn't have to quote that but with the article being mostly about Cutler-- I did my best to give the Hawks the face time. Take that, establishment!

About a week ago, I posted how the Blackhawks were in a show-down with the University of North Dakota for best North American hockey jersey. Well folks we have a winner.

UND’s jersey was voted better than the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks in the semifinals and finals, winning both by considerable margins.

Technically, anything with a classy looking Native American on it was going to win. You have to give the folks at UND credit for beating Chicago in any sort of voting process. Granted they probably had all of campus stuff the ballot. Congrats, North Dakota--you out Chicago'd Chicago.

Also from the article, little tidbit on a Blackhawks former goalie.

Former UND goalie Ed Belfour went into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

Belfour, the third winningest goalie in NHL history, led UND to the 1987 national championship. He then signed with the Chicago Blackhawks and posted nine 30-win seasons.

Too funny NOT to post

I know we aren't a baseball blog (or a blog-blog) by any means. But I found this just too hilarious to pass up.

Now the word on the street is that Cabrera made fun of some overweight 15-year-old kid back in August at the same hotel that he was drinking at on Friday, according to the Detroit Free Press. The 240-pound Cabrera apparently had to be escorted out of the hotel and a witness reportedly said that he "acted as if he was on some drug."

Before the millionaire got chucked from the hotel, he reportedly asked the kid's whole table if they wanted to go outside and fight. And he supposedly gave them the sense that he had a gun with him.

Classic. It's not secret Cabrera has gained significant weight while in the majors. Self hating? A bit. Projecting? Definitely. It's like when I make fun of people that don't have a successful, well-written and funny blog.

Hawks: Weekend Round-up, some Fire

Busy weekend for both the Blackhawks and myself. The Hawks received 3 out of a possible 4 points this weekend while I received a hang-over that lasted from Saturday till about 10 minutes ago.

Offensive onslaught.

Still, the Hawks scored seven goals in their first two games and put 88 shots on goal.

The play of rookie goaltender Antti Niemi(notes) in the second game of the season was encouraging. Thanks in part to great offensive and defense support, he earned his first NHL shutout and could emerge a worthy backup when starter Cristobal Huet(notes) needs a break.

And given Niemi's good play this weekend, there is still concerns around the blog-o-sphere concerning Huet.

If Huet's poor performance gave analysts and fans something to ask about, back-up Antti Niemi's performance on Saturday opened the conversation.

Niemi stopped all 23 shots he faced from Florida as the Hawks defeated the Panthers 4-0 in their second game of the season.

Beginner's luck? Time will tell. But I'm fine with Huet and it's good to know Niemi can hang.


Something that is more surprising is that Dustin Byfuglien has two goals already. I predict a great year for the big man.

Not a good start for former Hawks Netminder, Nikolai Khabibulin.

Calgary's Rene Bourque cleared the puck off the boards in his own end and down the ice, where Khabibulin came out to play it to his defence. Unfortunately for the Edmonton netminder, he mishit the puck, allowing Moss to intercept and knock it into an empty net.

Lastly, my favorite Hawks related tweet from this weekend.

After watching the way Kane has played these first 2 games, there's only 1 thing to say ... That cab driver had it coming.

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I believe something was going on with the Fire this weekend. I'll let Duckfart field this one when he gets a minute.

Blackhawks: Predictions, roster and twitter

Hockey Pundits pick division and conference champs. Blackhawks are selected to win the Conference by only two pundits, with the rest going to the Wings. As for the conference goes, predicted to finish fourth by nearly all--which I think is reasonable.

It came down to the Canucks and the Blackhawks for me, and Vancouver's the pick for two reasons: Goaltending and good karma. As in what the Canucks possess that the Blackhawks do not.

Guy brings up a good point (aside from Vancouver winning conference).


Final roster has been set.

Forwards: Troy Brouwer, Dustin Byfuglien, Dave Bolland, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Patrick Kane, Tomas Kopecky, Andrew Ladd, John Madden, Patrick Sharp, Radek Smolenak, Jonathan Toews, Kris Versteeg

Defensemen: Cam Barker, Brian Campbell, Jordan Hendry, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Aaron Johnson, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brent Sopel

Goalies: Corey Crawford, Cristobal Huet, Antti Niemi

Forward lines look solid. Defensive line is questionable. Barker had a break out year last year as did Hjalmarsson. Keith and Seabrook should be fine as for the other its a coin toss.


And finally during a Q&A tweet-session, good ole Marty had this to say:

Looking forward to any game in particular? Every game is important, going to be different playing against Chicago for sure.

Dude's going to come out with a major chip on his shoulder, rightly so.

October test for Hawks, a loss, and NHL 07 Stanley Cup Champ switches teams

Great read on concerning the upcoming season for the Hawks. Specifically October, which as the article points out, will be tough with every game having its own storyline.

October is, in many ways, an acid test for the Hawks.

Three games are against divisional rival Nashville, a problem team for Chicago; witness three losses last season. They meet 2009 playoff foes Flames and Canucks, both bent on revenge. A grudge match with Martin Havlat and the Wild, and meetings with Colorado, Edmonton and Montreal, all who defeated Chicago during the previous campaign, complete a month which has no ‘gimmes’.

Should the Hawks stutter, the doom and gloom from fans and hockey pundits will multiply. As good as Cristobal Huet can be, the boo-birds will jump on his every miscue. Havlat Nostalgia may resound if the Hawk attack comes up short.

Blackhawks lose their last exhibition game 2-1 and I wouldn't care if it weren't for this little sidenote:

Chicago hadn’t lost to a European club since 1991.

What's that say about this team? Probably nothing, but with all that's gone down this off-season to foreshadow a tumultuous year...

Former Blackhawk and all around old dude signed by Coyotes. An aging star signed by failing franchise--no idea why this is meaningful at all. Except that any player from my XBox 360 NHL 07 Stanley Cup championship team will always have a place in my heart. This one goes out to you Langer.

The Phoenix Coyotes signed veteran center Robert Lang to a one-year contract Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Coyotes general manager Don Maloney said the 38-year-old Lang "provides another veteran presence for our team and is a proven scorer in the National Hockey League."

Chicago('s) Fire News

This is what happens when you set your Google Alerts to "Chicago Fire"

High winds last night fanned an extra-alarm fire in a vacant home and spread the blaze to an adjacent building, displacing 14 people, officials said. There had been fears the fire would spread to a third building but those never materialized. The fire occurred in a frame structure (right) at 2334 W. 21st St. and was struck out at 10:23 p.m., about an hour and a half after it began, Chicago Fire Department officials said. The cause is being investigated.

Hawks Predictions, foreign affairs and Indians on Jersey FTW

My two favorite NHL season predictions. [Note: it's the only two I bothered to read]

10. Patrick Kane(notes) will beat up an airline pilot, a train conductor and ship captain and help the Blackhawks win the division. Meanwhile Jonathan Toews(notes) will make a series of hilarious faces.
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20. The Central will be the best division in hockey.

Hawks beat up on a foreign country. Go America. Whose idea was it for the Hawks to open up the regular season against the Florida Panthers? I didn't even know the Panthers still existed. They are the Golden State Warriors of the NHL.

And finally, Hawks are in the finals for the best jersey's in hockey. From what I gather its all of hockey not just the NHL, but last time I tried to "gather" something it turned out she said "Get away" instead of "Yes, please and don't delay". Hey, it's hard to hear someone when they are running in a direction that is not towards you.

It comes down to this. Hundreds began and now there are two. The final matchup in our summer jersey showdown pits the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux of the WCHA against the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL.

So yeah, there’s a bit of a theme.

The Fighting Sioux knocked off the venerable Boston Bruins in the semifinals after beating the London Knights and Rimouski Oceanic before that. Chicago continued its domination by taking apart the equally legendary Montreal Canadiens (who were last year's logo champion), while the Florida Everblades and Ottawa 67’s were earlier victims (view the tournament schedule on The Hockey News Jersey Rankings and Tournament Central page).

Hawks: ESPN the Mag and the Cap, Sky: eh

Four Hawks made the cover of ESPN the magazine (Toews will eat your babies), and as Yahoo points out, that's not a good thing.

ESPN The Magazine has featured hockey on its cover 12 times since 1998
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If you're one of those folks that believes an image on the cover of a magazine (or video game) can inflict some sort of voodoo curse on an athlete or team, you might be interested to know that only one of the 12 cover subjects went on to win the Stanley Cup

Yahoo also calls out the rag for making the statement that even signing two of their three best players (Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane) "nearly impossible".

It's going to take some mountain-moving salary-wise, but negotiations will be ongoing with the trio and there's a chance two of them could be signed before Summer 2010 even hits.

Keeping three of them? Really, really tough. Keeping two of them? We'd file that under "likely," wouldn't you?

So which two do you bring back? Obviously all three would be lovely but that just ain't going to happen. My vote goes with Toews and Keith--but by Merlin's Beard do I love Kane and his ability to handle the puck. Makes my peepee tingle.


The Sky extend their GM and head coaches contract by two years. In other news, I just learned that the Sky have a GM and head coach.

Key managed improvements in the Sky’s overall record in each of his first two seasons as head coach. In his first year, the Sky went 12-22. In his second season, he improved team depth by bringing in several new athletes to complement the all star line up of Candice Dupree, Jia Perkins and Sylvia Fowles. Despite Fowles missing 10 games in 2009 due to injury, the Sky under Coach Key’s leadership finished 16-18, establishing a new franchise record for wins in a season and nearly making the franchise’s first playoff berth.

McBride's late header rescues Fire

The Fire (currently in 2nd) are in a heated race for first place in the East, and currently have the 4th seed in the playoffs. With just three games left of the season, the city of Chicago seems to be embracing the team (even more), as Fire fever has spread...like a wildfire, throughout the Chicago media. Examples of this include: my seeing a man wearing a Fire jersey on the train (and he was not Mexican), numerous Chicago Fire Google Alerts on my email, and an article in the Tribune that included a picture. Unfortunately, the team itself has not been performing to the level of play they are accustomed to, with their last three matches ending in a draw.

Here are the links:

Poor Fire defense equaled plenty of chances for the visitors in the first 13 minutes of play. And then Chicago got lucky. McBride sent the ball into the box for Patrick Nyarko. Toronto defender Nick Garcia turned to clear the ball out of danger, but instead knocked into the back of the net, tying the match at 1-1.

Chicago took five shots in the first half, but none of them were on goal. Justin Mapp had a near miss for Chicago in the 19th minute, sending the ball inches wide of the left post. In the 32nd minute, Attakora took down Nyarko. Mike Banner sailed the free kick over the crossbar and out.

Fast forward to :35 to see C-Dup graze some iron

Fire and Hawks Links

Troubled draft pick, Peter Lowry's offense no surprise to coach/team.

When Peter Lowry scored twice in the Fire's 2-2 draw Sunday with Columbus, you couldn't blame the midfielder for wanting to soak it all in. It's not too often the 24-year-old gets a start, let alone scores two goals.

"I was pretty excited," the Santa Clara University product said. "It's pretty rare that something like that happens."

No matter how much Lowry's performance may have surprised, his coaches and teammates are adamant that it was only a matter of time for the 2008 second-round pick.

Also this may be a joke but according to his Wiki entry he had gills as a child.

When Peter was born doctors were amazed to discover he was born with gills. Until the age of 7 Peter was able to breath under water for short periods of time. His gills have since stopped function and have been surgically removed.

On to the Hawks. Injuries causing major pains for young team.

Kris Versteeg went down in the first game with what the club calls an upper-body injury. He hasn't practiced with his teammates since. Adam Burish suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament while crashing into the boards in the second game. He needs surgery and won't play again until March.

On Wednesday, Jack Skille suffered a lower-body injury after playing barely three minutes.

''It's not serious,'' said coach Joel Quenneville, who added that the full medical report wasn't in yet. Skille is the next in line for Burish's spot on the Hawks' fourth line.

''He was having another good game,'' Quenneville said. ''He was one of the top guys in the first period.''

With Marian Hossa out until November after shoulder surgery and Dustin Byfuglien recovering from a groin injury, the Hawks are trying all sorts of forward combinations. They recalled Bryan Bickell and Rob Klinkhammer from Rockford for practice Thursday and put forward Danny Bois and defenseman Richard Petiot on waivers. Petiot, though, participated in the workout Thursday at the United Center.

Candice Dupree: A Leader Beyond the Numbers

C-Dup is the best Forward in the WNBA, finally she is getting the credit she deserves

On the surface, it’s no wonder why Chicago Sky forward Candice Dupree is one of the Sky’s leaders. Look at her numbers. She’s currently leading the team scoring 15.4 points per game up from 14.3 a month ago and she grabs 7.9 rebounds up from 6.7 at the beginning of August. But her leadership is much deeper than the stat sheet.

“From the outside looking in, Candice seems really quiet and soft spoken, but she’s actually a fireball,” said four-year WNBA veteran and first-year Sky player Shyra Ely. “She’s pretty much been our cornerstone all year. She’s done a great job stepping up and being our go-to player. She’s been vocal too. It’s not something that’s all the time, but when something needs to be said Candice will say it.”