Everything Else

I Want His Face… Off… To Stop Being Talked About

By 1507

The past couple weeks, I’ve seen more noise about the Hawks “faceoff struggles” than I have in a long while. It’s almost like people seem to feel that the Hawks were a dominant faceoff team for the entire Quenneville Era, which they most certainly have not been. And it’s almost like we didn’t figure out that faceoffs don’t really correlate to wins and losses and good and bad team, which we kind of have. Let’s delve deeper, hmmm?

Here are your top five best faceoff teams: Arizona, Carolina, Minnesota, Anaheim, and St. Louis. That’s two surefire playoff teams, two teams completely out of it, and one on the very borderline. Yes, you’ll find only non-playoff teams in the bottom five, but you’ll also find Nashville and Chicago in the bottom 10. That hasn’t stopped the Predators from being one of the best even-strength teams in the league.

Everything Else

High On The Hog: Crowded House

By 1842

The Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, have a crowd on the blue line these days.

With David Rundblad finishing his season in Europe and being assigned to Rockford on Friday, the Hogs had eight healthy bodies to patrol the back end. Coach Ted Dent will certainly have numerous options for the final dozen games on his team’s schedule.

Everything Else

4th Time’s the Charm: Wild at Hawks Preview/Sunday Dinner

By 1437

Zakk-Wylde-by-Ivan-Chopik vs. Hawk Wrestler

PUCK DROP: 7:30 Central

TV/RADIO: NBCSN, WGN Radio

GOIN’ CRAZY OUT BY DA LAKE DERE: Hockey Wilderness

Wild Stats

Wild War On Ice

The Hawks get to round out their tour of Central Division jobbers tonight with a home date against the Green and Red from the Twin Cities. Even though the Wild are going to have scrape and claw to just get the last playoff spot over the Avalanche, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been a total headache for the Hawks this season. It’s something you’d think the Hawks want to set straight, but at this time of year we’re never certain where the Hawks focus is.

Everything Else

What’s the Point of Even Sleeping: Blackhawks 4, Jets 0

By 1504

Box Score

War on Ice

Natural Stat Trick

The one nice thing about this recent funk from the Hawks is that games like this come up on the schedule and are not overlooked. Facing a team like the Winnipeg Jets normally would have the Hawks set the “Give-o-Fuck” meter to slightly above 0. Last night, the Hawks could afford to do no such thing.

Paced by all three scoring lines and a rare, solid road effort from LOCAL GUY Scott Darling, the Hawks wrapped this one up at the 37 minute mark when Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa scored within 30 seconds of each other. That was all the Jets needed to fold up the tents for the night.

Two more goals in the third and that was that.

Everything Else

Eh, No Peg: Hawks at Jets Preview/Turnabout Dance

By 1482

Hawk Wrestler vs. Kenny Smith

PUCK DROP: 7pm Central

TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio

JET CITY WOMAN: Arctic Ice Hockey

Jets Stats

Jets War On Ice

Well, there can’t be a  better way to get healthy after losing four in a row than spending the weekend taking on the Central Division jobbers known as the Jets and Wild (and then a Stars team that will be without Klingberg and Seguin, or the Western Canada swing after that… say, the schedule gets pretty light here, huh?) Considering the Stars’ injuries and the Blues’ sudden case of suck-itis (13 goals to the Flames and Oilers, huh?), if the Hawks have any desire to win the division or put one last regular season surge on film then you’d have to think it starts now.

Everything Else

As Of Now I Beg You’ve Got It Wrong: Flyers 3 – Hawks 2

By 1290

Box Score

Event Summary

War On Ice

It’s clear that Joel Quenneville recognizes what his team’s problems are. Defensive depth, trouble scoring at even-strength, some mismatched lines. He attempted to address them tonight, rightly or wrongly. It didn’t quite work and the Hawks dropped their 4th straight game. If it wasn’t for Panarin’s buzzer-beater in St. Louis, they wouldn’t even have a point in that stretch.

This one started a lot like the Kings’ game, but for a longer stretch where the Hawks had the upper hand. They actually took the lead this time when Ghost Bear broke his stick and fell over, giving Hossa a runway that he didn’t turn down. Once again, they hit a post or two or Neuvirth made a couple big saves that kept them from extending the lead. The bugaboo of a PK reared it’s ugly head again at the end of the 1st.

Everything Else

Time For Cold Ones – Flyera vs Hawks Preview, Can Check

By 1265

philadelphia flyers spectrum vs evil empire

Game Time: 7:00PM
TV/Radio: NBCSN, TVA-S, SportsNet 1, WGN-AM 720
Stare Into The Lion’s Eyes: Broad St. Hockey

As the above headline will indicate, Flyers Twitter is a weird and amusing place to dwell in for even a short amount of time. Perhaps it’s their championship drought despite having numerous good to great teams over the last 40 years that’s driven them batty, or their often times confounding management. Or maybe it’s the fact that by and large those fans live in a dyspeptic cracker hellscape of a state with two of the most abhorrent accents in any English dialect; a place that until recently had a legitimate thoroughfare officially labeled on maps as “The Road To Nowhere”. And of course, Travis fucking Hughes still hasn’t paid us our cheesesteaks going on six years later.

And those denizens have had plenty to be excited about lately as the Flyers have unexpectedly surged into the playoff conversation in the Eastern Conference.