It has been over 10 years since Patrick Sharp played his first game at the United Center as a Blackhawk, and it has been over 7 years since this column first ran in the print edition on Sunday, January 4th, 2009.
Tonight will be Patrick Sharp’s first regular season game in the United Center as a visitor in a decade.
Yep, that’s right bitches. We got Razor! Enjoy.
Let’s start with what everyone wants to know: How have Sharp and Oduya fit in down there?
– They’ve been exactly what they were imported to be. Patrick has been almost exclusively a right winger (till the last few games) so he’s been forced to adjust from his most comfy side and has bounced around from line mate to line mate, but through it all his 2-way game and championship calm has helped immensely. In addition, he’s been a smart, accommodating voice from inside the room for our media and a real asset on an improved PP. Oduya has brought that same champion pedigree to the team. Watching him go about his business I find it hard to believe your ‘Captain Serious’ is a more focused dude than this guy. Wow! 100% bidnass! As you might imagine he’s been a good penalty killer/shot blocker (but he’s only one guy…Stars PK is 21st) and he has formed a nice stable 2nd pair on D with Demers. Both have made the Stars internal community more professional.
Perhaps it took the home schedule in this month to kick in the winter doldrums we’ve come accustomed to. One game of course does not signal anything. The Sharks, as cloudy and weird as their identity might be in a lot of places, were suffocating in their own zone. While the Hawks mustered up an acceptable number of shots, San Jose cordoned off any prime scoring areas for all 60 minutes. Their backchecking was ferocious. The Hawks love to beat a man to the outside and then hit the late man, but couldn’t do it at all tonight with the retreating Sharks’ forwards blanketing that option. Anything from the outside the pretty sizable Martin Jones is going to stop. Tonight’s shot chart tells something of a story. Hawks didn’t get much below the circles.
vs 
Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Optimal Tip-To-Tip Efficiency: Fear The Fin
Due to a fortunate bit of scheduling, the Capades’ stand at the United Center coincided with the NHL All Star game, and as a result the Hawks’ only played four games away from the West Side in their 16 days since last being at home. And they’ll do so tonight against the Sharks, a team no one can figure out what exactly it is they’re doing.
Depends on the price:NBC
But it would be awesome:CBS
So is this..Enjoy It:FS
Flair for the dramatic: Blackhawk Up
Exactly why you don’t get comfortable:DMN
As everyone else in the world falls all over themselves to tell you how awesome Jaromir “I Wear These Pants To Accentuate My Bulge” Jagr is, or the remnants of the eight-year long Teemu Selanne goodbye party are still to be cleared, ask yourself why people don’t feel the same about Joe Thornton? We mean other than when he’s talking about pulling out his cock and stroking it after scoring four goals in a game.
Thornton is about to have his 16th season of 60+ points in the last 17, and the only reason it isn’t 17 straight is he only played 23 games in ‘03-’04 after busting his shoulder. Even Jagr can’t boast that, though he’s seven years older. He is in the top 30 in all-time scoring, could crack the top 20 or even 15 next year and certainly will if he plays another two or three years. Considering he’s still producing, there’s no reason he shouldn’t.
The Rockford IceHogs were atop the AHL’s Central Division going into this weekend’s home and home with the Grand Rapids Griffins. They were coming off an 8-2-1-1 January record and were facing a Griffins team that had dropped five straight. Rockford was recharged following the All-Star break and had the hottest goalie in the league manning the pipes in font of a big home crowd at the BMO Harris Bank Center.
How, then, did that all add up to one of the worst losses in the history of the franchise? Submitted for your approval is a blow-by-blow account of a historic defeat.
(Trust me, readers…you’ll dig this…I think)
