Let’s take a departure from the normal wrap here. Because you know what all the bullets would be. We could point out who was a killer in Corsi, but that wouldn’t really matter. There are nights when that doesn’t tell the story, and this is one of them. We could reduce it to Fenwick, but that would still be along the same line. We know the drill here.
It seems like a recurring dream, where the Hawks fling rubber like monkey feces at an opposing goalie for 60 straight minutes, and yet can’t seem to make any twine ripple. Yet this one feels like the first time a goalie really had to channel Houdini to get out of some of the jams the Hawks put him in, as John Gibson was excellent. Throw in a couple posts rang as well, and you get yet another frustrating night. Still, there’s hardly much to complain about, as the Hawks were just a shade better than the Ducks everywhere but in goal (and they weren’t much worse there either).
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Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Fowl Beasts: Anaheim Calling, Battle of California
Tonight will mark the only time during the regular season that the Anaheim Ducks will visit West Madison, and thank the hockey gods for that, because their new road white uniforms are sinfully ugly. It’s fitting that they’re in town so close to Halloween wearing such terrifying costumes, and in the traditional colors of the holiday no less.
The Rockford IceHogs skated to a 2-1 record this past week, winning back-to-back home tilts this weekend over Midwest Division rivals Chicago and Lake Erie. As Rockford prepares to hit the road again, they now sit behind the red-hot Milwaukee Admirals in the division standings.
With a 4-2-0-1 mark and nine points on the 2014-15 campaign, the IceHogs occupy the fourth spot in the AHL’s Western Conference. Here’s how the past week unfolded for Rockford.
At the end of the season, no one will remember these 2 points and maybe they won’t mean anything but these are the types of games the Hawks have made a habit of capturing through the years without having to take it out of third gear- second game of a back-to-back at home against an inferior opponent.
So let’s not waste any more time.
Stop me if you heard this one before. The Blackhawks go in to St. Louis for an early season matchup against the Blues, lose a frustrating game, walk out with 0 points, it gets projected for how things will shape out in the playoffs and then no one remembers what happened a week later.
Oh that’s right. This has been an ongoing tradition since Barrett Jackman slowly slid out of a goat’s birth canal.
Whatever. On to the rest.
This is kind of an extension of Wednesday’s Angry At Numbers, but looking more specifically at Patrick Kane. We’ve spent a lot of time on this blog analyzing Kane’s linemates and production, which seems weird. It seems weird because no one would argue that Kane isn’t one of the top 10 players in the league, so why should it matter so much who he is playing with? In one sense, you feel like it shouldn’t. But in another, it does. Kane’s such a unique talent with such a unique style, he’s not as user friendly as say Toews or Hossa is (and there’s been plenty of talk about who Hossa should play with too).
So I thought I’d go back through and look at Kane’s most productive seasons and see who they were spent with, and maybe we’ll have a better idea of what should be happening now.
For the second straight year, the Philadelphia Flyers rolled into the United Center, laid down on their back for a belly rub, urinated a little on the floor, and quickly beat it back to the bus. This was a slight improvement, they didn’t give up seven this time.
It was no surprise that the Hawks, wanting to avoid the prolonged whiskey dick (redundant?) that the previous two games turned into, came out flying even faster and more frantically in this one hoping to put it away early. That’s exactly what they did. All it took was a brilliant rush from the third line, a power play, and then another rush from the third line, and this one was half in the bag. In a good way, not in the way we usually use that phrase. Or like Killion is now.
vs
Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: NBCSN, CSN, WGN-AM 720
Kings Of Prussia: Broad St. Hockey
Pennsylvania is a an underratedly terrible place, in the team photo with the worst that the contiguous 48 has to offer. The roads are stupid, the accents are all nauseating, its institutional support of a Child Abuse Colony in State College reaches all the way to the highest offices in the state, the food is terrible, and the crown jewel of the state, Philadelphia, boasts some of the most intentionally asinine people on the sporting fandom spectrum, as would any place where college football, province of losers and toothless townies, is king. These are people who proudly throw batteries at athletes, boo Santa, beat up opposing fans after a Winter Classic, and need their T&A fix so badly at a hockey game that they boo a male ice crew. Or if you’re Travis Hughes, SB Nation’s hockey editor and one-time chief of Broad Street hockey, go four and a half years without making good on a bet, even if cheesesteaks are far inferior to italian beefs. Seriously, fucking cheese whiz?
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Game Time: 7:00 PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, SportsNet, WGN-AM 720
Burkie’s Fightin’ Barn: Flames Nation
For the first time in like 58 meetings or some unholy number, the Flames actually marched into the United Center last November and emerged with two points thanks to Kris Russel’s seeing-eye overtime point shot that eluded Corey Crawford, one too many points left on the table by last year’s Hawks team. Both teams are in similar positions nearly a year later, with the Hawks maintaining championship aspirations, and the Flames still figuring out how to be competitive in the post Iginla era.
