Scum: Blackhawks
Starting slow: ESPN Chicago
Ok so far : CSN
Rumors: TSN
At what point did it stop being fun: PD
Ya don’t say: PHT

Scum: Blackhawks
Starting slow: ESPN Chicago
Ok so far : CSN
Rumors: TSN
At what point did it stop being fun: PD
Ya don’t say: PHT

I always try and keep in mind how it might sound to fans of other teams when you start complaining about the Hawks’ problems. Like, for instance, this current mini-drama where the Hawks have a four-time 30-goal scorer currently on their third line and what it might mean. Most teams would probably love to have that problem.
But the Hawks’ expectations and their goals, (or their, y’know, ONE GOAL that they keep waving in my face like a frat boy’s wang) are higher than most, so these kinds of things bother us.
Patrick Sharp moved to accommodate the return of Kris Versteeg. What was odd about it was just how quickly that came about. It was about the 2nd period of Versteeg’s first game back against Vancouver. This after missing a month and clearly rusty. But Q was in such a hurry to reunited The Conjuring (Versteeg-Richards-Kane) that he barely waited 20 minutes. And it’s not like Sharp was pulling that line down.

As to be expected:CT
Way to go morons: Chicagoist
So lets keep talking:CBS
A smaller lot: LGH
That’s one way to get out of media engagements:TSN

Godspeed: Trib
2-1: Blackhawks
As the Crow flies: ESPN Chicago
Knowing how to win: CSN
This just looks bad: CBC
Preds going for it: PHT

Halfway through the longest homestand of the season, the Hawks are currently 2-0-2 and have collected 6 of the possible 8 points. Not bad, I suppose and it all might mean end up being kind of meaningless anyways if St. Louis and Nashville keep winning at the same clip.
The Penguins jumped out to a nice start in the 1st period. The Hawks seemed to be a step slow through the majority of the opening stanza.
As the game wore on, the Hawks matched the Penguins and began to return the favor. A Niklas Hjalmarsson point shot. A Nick Spaling rebound goal. A lot of saves by Fleury and Crawford in between.
Let’s move along here.
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.