Bababooey.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7pm
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN
EVANDER KANE FAN CLUB: Arctic Ice Hockey
The Hawks will take their Keithers-less act on the road for the first time tonight, and they’ll face a Jets team that was a major headache for them last year (though not at MTS Centre). Winnipeg won all three games at the United Center last year, and a couple of them pretty handily. This will be a major test for the Hawks’ reshaped blue line, and they very well could need Corey Crawford to bail them out again as he did Monday.
Welcome to another edition.
I always try and imagine what that creep Lovitz is saying in this picture. It’s different every time I look at it. Anyways, I wanted to touch on something that’s been sort of bandied about since Marko Dano’s demotion and how he didn’t understand the Hawks “system.” Let me put this out there as a misnomer right away.
Hockey is not football.
As much as Pierre MacGuire wants to slowly tickle himself over Dan Byslma’s forechecking strategy, there isn’t a 500 page playbook that guys are expected to memorize at the onset of training camp and are guarded as though they contain a nuclear launch code. Hockey is more like basketball in the sense that everyone knows what their opponent is going to do. There are no secret forecheck or neutral zone traps that teams are stunned to see at the outset of a game.
Divisional play finally: Blackhawks
Rockford rotation: Trib
Just a game after all: CST
I mean obviously: Deadspin
Torts is the guy: PD
You’re going to have to get used to the upped quota of wrestling references, given my recent return to fandom.
I was inspired to write this after reading Mark Lazerus’s story on Michal Rozsival yesterday. It’s a pretty good read, and getting the perspective of what it’s like to break your ankle that gruesomely certainly makes it more vivid, at least to someone like me who hasn’t broken a bone (DATS CUZ YER NOT CHICAGO TOUGH, FELS-STINE!). And it got me to think about the arc of Rozsival’s stay here in Chicago, and how much of that should really play in to whether he should still be on this team or not.
Just sharing our past couple Page 8s from the gameday program. For those who don’t know, Page 8 is where we kind of let loose and do anything we think is funny.
The Lottery by Joel Quenneville
The Anaheim Inquisition
The Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, have struggled on the defensive end to start the 2015-16 season. Coach Ted Dent must have pushed the right buttons at practice prior to this past week’s action. The Hogs were stingier and have won three straight games because of it.
Rockford bested Centrals Division foes Iowa, Chicago and Milwaukee in Week 3 of the AHL schedule. The IceHogs are 4-3, good enough for fourth place in the eight-team division standings.
It was a big week for Rockford. As well as getting back above .500, the IceHogs made a move that should provide the veteran leadership a young team will need this season. It was also a big week for rookie center Tanner Kero.
I’m actually tempted to apply our normal title policy to these silly overtimes, where we list the score as tied. But more on that later.
Once again, the Hawks couldn’t find a goal during normal time, though unlike Saturday they were outplayed for most of the game instead of surviving an opening barrage and slowly turning the game their way. But they have a second straight shutout, and they can think Corey Crawford for it. By the way, Crow’s now gleaming .943 SV% is good for 4th in the league, as would his 1.57 GAA. Hopefully this time he can avoid any arguments with the H.O.B steps.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You could say a second straight shutout without Keith is highly encouraging (though this is the 5th time the Ducks have been shutout this season, so that accomplishment doesn’t get a bunch of gold stars). Or you could look at the Hawks only having put up one even-strength goal without Keith as something to worry. The answer is probably both.
Let’s do the thing.
