Ready for more:NHL
How we got here:Blackhawk Up
More time in RockVegas:ESPN
Potentially longer:Chicago Now
NHL drops the ball again because of tradition:SI
Recent Posts
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High On The Hog: In The Pink
The Rockford IceHogs donned pink sweaters for breast cancer awareness Saturday night. The Blackhawks AHL affiliate also continued to be in the pink in terms of their position in the Western Conference standings.
With two wins in three home games this week, the Hogs regained the top spot in the Central Division as well as the conference. Those wins came courtesy of goalie Michael Leighton, who is also approaching a long-standing AHL record.
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But These Go To 11: Canadiens 2 – Hawks 5
I was thinking tonight right before the 3rd period that at this point, the lack of drama Hawks games have when they lead going into the 3rd have. They haven’t lost one in a the past season and a half, and when they’re taking a two-goal lead into a 3rd, you basically know it’s over. This would be the very definition of hockey 1st world problems, because this is what every fandom wants. The Hawks weren’t particularly spectacular tonight, but they didn’t have to be. But at this point, no team is better at knowing exactly what it takes to get two points out of a game, and once they bunched two goals at the end of the 2nd, it was basically over.
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Keep The Car Running – Canadiens vs Hawks Preview, Ski Binding Tune Up
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Game Time: 6:00PM Central
TV/Radio: WGN Ch. 9, SportsNet, WGN-AM 720
I Get It, French Class: Habs Eyes On The PrizeOnce again in the NHL’s infinite brilliance, with the unbalanced divisional schedule in place, they are wiping out an interconference rivalry within the span of 72 hours. And even this time, two teams with ACTUAL history in the Hawks and Habs (apologies to any of the olds now having ’65, ’71, or ’73 flashbacks) as well as some of the most telegenic threads in the sport not getting a national American audience. Better to keep everyone talking about this John Scott waste-of-breath-from-every-conceivable-angle than to actually promote the product using two heritage franchises with history who both have Championship aspirations. (more…)
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Habs Q&A With Andrew Berkshire And Laura The Active Stick
Andrew Berkshire is on Twitter @AndrewBerkshire. Laura is @TheActiveStick.
So the Habs, at the time of writing, have won 5 of 20. People are panicking. Has fans think the team is falling apart. We can’t help but see the best goalie in the world hurt, a terrible shooting percentage and other bad luck. Which is true or is it a blending of the two?
Berkshire: What’s going on right now with the Habs is very weird. Montreal has been one of the best possession teams in the NHL this year, the whole season. The shooting percentage is obviously not reflective of their play, and eventually they will bust out of this slump, but the longer it goes the harder it is to believe it’s just luck.
There are little things about the Canadiens’ system that you can identify fairly easily as problem areas that hurt them. Their breakout is terrible, the worst in the league in terms of keeping possession while exiting their own zone. Their tendency to dump the puck off the wall to clear the zone leads to a ton of turnovers and scoring chances against. Combine that with very little east-west movement in the offensive zone and you have a team that plays well in terms of shots for and against, but give up more goals and score less than league average.
Laura: From my perspective, it’s a blending of the two. Initially, the team was playing well and was getting burned by the goaltending. The Habs didn’t abandon the process at that point, but were hit by some really bad luck, so it turned into what I call “not winning” as opposed to losing (sometimes badly). Then they started playing badly. In the last two games (vs Chicago and St.Louis) they seem to have been playing well and running into bad luck again, but the coach is unfortunately showing signs of his patented inexplicable line-blending. We shall see.
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Everything Tastes Right: Blackhawks 4, Maple Leafs 1
Apologies for the delayed wrap but this isn’t called the most functioning alcoholic website on the internet for nothing, folks.
Anyways, this was a vintage Blackhawks starting in second gear and staying there as long as they could hold on for a win. In this case, all it toook was three power play goals. Yes, Kane’s first goal wasn’t statistically a power play goal but for all intents and purposes, it was.
Meanwhile, Toronto doesn’t have the skill level to make opponents pay when they make mistakes.
Make it an even 10.
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Dark Center Of The Universe – Hawks at Leafs Preview, Birthright Claiming
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Game Time: 6:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, NHLN-US, WGN-AM 720
Self-Appointed Experts: Leafs Nation, Pension Plan PuppetsThe Hawks mini-Canadian swing makes its second and final and most important stop tonight, and that’s at the Air Canada Center in Toronto. And those who do not believe any of the above statements need to only spend about thirty seconds scanning the internet to understand just how important the Leafs and their fans consider themselves to be despite nearly a decade and a half of laughable ineptitude.
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Friday Foofaraw – Bowie Edition
It’s a weird thing when a celebrity dies. Unless you’re five years old and reading this (always possible around here), we’ve all been around long enough to actually experience what real loss is. When I see the reaction of some on social media when a famous person dies, I feel like I’m watching a real-life version of Jerry’s girlfriend in “The Understudy.”
She cries over dropping her hot dog. She cries over her heel breaking. Her grandmother dies, meh, whateves. NBD.
This is just a long way of saying when news broke of David Bowie passing on to the next world, things felt a little different.
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Crawford Doesn’t Speak French: Hawks 2 – Habs 1
Sometime last week I tweeted out that if Corey Crawford kept all the points he’d stolen for the Hawks this season for himself he alone would still be ahead of the Jets and Avs and Preds in the standings. You can throw one and possibly both tonight on that stack, at least for the 2nd period and parts of the 3rd.
