I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love,
will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by failing in love:
and such a man is Claudio.
vs. 
FACEOFF: 7:30 Central
TV/RADIO: CSN, 560 WIND-AM
HONKY TONK BLUES: On The Forecheck
Since the Jackets handed the Hawks the Western Conference’s top seed with their win in Disneyland, the rest of this season has been pretty much rendered a playoff tech-week. That is unless you care about The Presidents’ Trophy, and I think there’s a pretty even split among Hawks fans whether you do or not. I see both sides of it, but whatever. No one’s going to shed a tear if it doesn’t end up residing here. But we’ll think it’s kind of cool if it does.
To start the end of this schedule, the complete mess and completely finished Nashville Predators show up at the UC for the 27th time this month. Or so it seems.
With the West now officially all sewn up — the Hawks will start at least the first three series on West Madison — let’s take a look at who is going to show up here for Game 1 on April 30 or May 1 (or later maybe, these schedules can get silly).
There are up to six teams that could land in the 8th seed, and they break evenly into two groups of three. One group being the longshots to end up in 8th, either being unlikely to fall there or unlikely to climb there. And the other are the three who are likely to be there. The first group contains St. Louis, Minnesota, and Phoenix. The second group is Detroit, Columbus, and Dallas.
Let’s look at each, and see what would be the best matchup (as if I’m going to pretend it’s not Dallas).
In last night’s Indian, we had the honor of having Daryl Reaugh as our guest in the Q&A section. Although Daryl seemed more excited to do it than we were to have him. Either way, here it is in all its glory.
The Stars jettisoned Derek Roy, Brendan Morrow and Jaromir Jagr and yet got themselves into the playoff race after doing so. How, exactly?
Ya, whiskey tango effin foxtrot?! Three really good players get purged – including the captain and the leading scorer, and the team’s able to win 5 in a row to jump back into 8th in the West? How paradoxical. They’ve morphed into a good ‘team’. Everyone plays the same way, they haven’t been beating themselves (not a metaphor) with penalties and turnovers like they were, the youth has been splendid (Chiasson thinks he’s Selanne circa 92’), there is no diva component, the coach seems both vindictive and more comfortable with this attentive, blue-collar lineup, and they play much, much faster.
This probably won’t be as detailed of a wrap as it should be, because I spent most of my time at the game trying to convince my father to not yell “Twat!” too loud at the Ice Crew or trying to learn all the various Yiddish phrases he’s somehow applied to hockey. Speaking of which, in case you were curious….
-“Scheiss” (pronounced “Sheeeez) is shoot. Not to be confused with “Scheise”, which means “shit.” That’s what my father taught both me and my brother to yell while getting shots at the doctor’s office to ignore the pain. When we were both 4. Any questions on how I got this way? Good, didn’t think so.
-“Gornisht” means “nothing”, but is apparently applicable when the opponent’s net is empty.
So there you go. That’s pretty much how interesting I found this game where the Hawks didn’t ever have to think about hitting the clutch and even with being tied up in the 3rd just kind of futzed their way to an easy victory.
It’s all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out the world’s behind you
There’s always someone around you who will call
It’s nothing at all
There’s always someone around you who will call
It’s nothing at all
Sunday morning
praise the dawning
It’s just a restless feeling by my side
v. 
FACEOFF: 11-Goddamn-30 in the AM
TV/RADIO: NBC, And The Loop 97.9FM (What?)
GOOD GOD DON’T GO THERE: St. Louis Gametime
Thanks to NBC and their desire to not have to go against the Masters, both teams get to play a game that starts in the AM that of course in no way effects the play or entertainment value of the product because of course these players are so accustomed to being ready to go full bore when they’d usually either be just finishing or just starting a morning fucking skate. What a pleasure.
Just a quick note here on Drew LeBlanc, the Hobey Baker winner whom the Hawks signed last night to a one year deal, or essentially for the rest of this season.
When you first hear that the player who won the award for best college player this season is coming to your team, it might sound like a big deal. It’s not, or tends not to be. Much like college basketball, if you stick around the college ranks in hockey to compete for the Hobey Baker award, either you’re a phenom who lorded over the competition or stuck around long enough for your senior year because you weren’t good enough to go pro.
Looking at the list of past Hobey Baker Award winners, you won’t get out of your seat. There was a lot of hubbub over Matt Gilroy, and he’s pretty much been a poor man’s…..poor man. Blake Geoffrion may have become something one day, but now we’ll never know thanks to his horrific injury. Kevin Porter? Matt Carle? You really have to go all the way back to 2002 and Ryan Miller to find an impact NHL-er who also won hockey’s top prize.
