@ 
Game Time: Way too fucking early
TV/Radio: NBC/WGN720
Too Many Goddamn Bridges: PensBlog
Well Toews and Crosby have already faced each other… so who the hell cares about this game anymore? The Hawks dismantled the Pens last year in very similar weather conditions in yet another outdoor game and then won in a shootout earlier this season. Therefore, Toews is clearly the better hockey player and nothing else matters, right? Right.
Ok, so maybe not. It’s still going to be a treat to watch two of the best centers in the league face each other. No doubt the broadcast crew is going to push some sort of rivalry between the two but when they only get to play each other two times a year at best, there’s really not that much there.
Box Score
Event Summary
War On Ice
Natural Stat Trick
If this had been a different part of the year, we may have written this game up as “The Hawks goofed around for a while and seemed disinterested with the Devils before turning things on in the last 20 and putting them away”. With the seesaw that has been the Hawks recent adventures, we could write that the Hawks were being smothered in the first two periods but were able to just barely shake free in the third thanks to Marian Hossa who seems pretty damn content to just do it all his own damn self these past few games. The truth is likely somewhere in between those two narratives. The first two periods were dull dusty hockey. The third was a welcome sight.
vs. 
FACEOFF: 7:30pm Central
TV/RADIO: CSN, WGN Radio 720
MR. MEPHISTOPHELES, PLEASE: In Lou We Trust
Once again, the Hawks try and get on track on this homestand, although considering their coach conceded the division yesterday in the press and their six points behind St. Louis, one wonders if this is no longer a final stab at making a chase of it and merely a time where you don’t have to pack anything. Gee, no wondered the Hawks have kind of mailed in most of the past two games. They’ve basically concluded they’re not playing for much, other than home ice against St. Louis which is hardly something you’d want a medal for. Either way, tonight is yet another banker, or at least it should be against the faded and broken couch New Jersey Devils.
Engine Engine Number 9, On The New York Transit Line…
Sorry, the point here isn’t to quote Black Sheep, as much fun as that would be. All season, we’ve documented the problems with the Hawks’ defense. Myself, McClure, Jen have come here and trotted out various numbers to demonstrate Oduya’s decline, Rozsival’s inability to move, and the various problems with Rundblad.
Essentially, the Hawks have three top pairing d-men, which is good. All of Keith, Hjalmarsson, and Seabrook would comfortably be on the top pairing of most if not all NHL teams. They also have three bottom pairing d-men in Oduya, Rozsival, and Rundblad, and that’s probably being kind to Rozsival and Rundblad who almost certainly should be rotating in as #6 or #7 d-men. Tim Erixon is now the new Kim Johnsson, and is dead.
4-5: Blackhawks
Rough night for 5 & 32: ESPN Chicago
He should always have a real C: Trib
Good thing Carcillo got his 5:43: 670
Hope it doesn’t end like this: CSN
It seems no one likes them: PD
A Kane to Buffalo trade finally happened: TSN
And they weren’t done: PHT
I thought it was pretty cute when the Hawks pulled off two of their better wins this season last weekend against division opponents. I thought it was encouraging that they did it by stripping things down to basically their most elemental level, i.e. being defensively secure and concentrating on their breakouts and taking the chances when they showed themselves.
Little did I know the Hawks would go total fucking prog rock for the first two games of a homestand that could have spun the meaning of this season. It went from three chords and three minutes songs to everyone getting a fucking solo, which is why the Hawks have basically coughed up a hairball for at least 4.5 periods of the six on this homestand already.
