at 
Game Time: 6:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Mike Krzyzewski Is A Charlatan: Canes Country
A late season road trip playing out the interconference schedule now has the Hawks taking their only swing through NASCAR country this season. And really nothing has changed since these teams saw one another three weeks ago other than the fact that the Canes are actually eliminated.
Just a quick note today. For those who don’t know I do a Cubs version of The Indian, it’s a digital weekly that comes out every Monday during the baseball season (sometimes Tuesday, depending on days off and/or hangover) via email. It’s just $35 for the whole season right now until Opening Night. You can sign up right here. Certainly will be an interesting Cubs season to write and read about, that’s for sure. And sorry Sox fans, but you wouldn’t want a non-fan writing about your lot. Ask Fifth Feather real nicely, maybe you can convince him.
We don’t need to wait around to analyze this one. In a way, this was a good thing. I, and possibly others, possibly the Hawks themselves, had let Wednesday’s win fill our head with dreams and we had to have them all. As my compatriot McClure quickly pointed out, there is no such thing as an important win before April. The Hawks found that out with authority tonight in Texas. Everything that was good in New York was bad tonight.
While the record without Patrick Kane could still be considered gaudy, you’re still talking about a team that’s managed 22 goals in those 10 games. That’s simply not good enough. It’s been shutout three times. It seems when the top line doesn’t binge, they’re not going to score more than two (Sharks meltdowns not withstanding). And each line has its issues, and we’ll get to that in a moment.
at 
Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Dale Hansen Rules: Defending Big D
A scatterbrained, slapped-together late season road trip has the Hawks now turning south from Manhattan to Texas tonight before turning back east for games against Carolina and Philly. And the Hawks find themselves thrust back into the conversation for the Central while the Stars are all but eliminated.
It’s Friday, it’s nice out, you don’t particularly want to read another breakdown of the third line or whatever, and I don’t particularly want to write one. So I thought I’d just share some of the stuff I’ve done on The Indian’s Page 8 lately, because they’re funny. So have a laugh, leave work early, and grab a golden ale of some kind. And leave that IPA shit to the hipsters.
There’s still a bit of a glow about last night’s win, though around these parts we know there’s really no such thing as a signature win in the regular season. But still, holding the Rangers to 25 shots when they average 31, and to shut them out when they’re the 4th highest scoring team in the league when they’d had three days off and the Hawks were on the second in two nights and now this has become quite the run-on sentence but hey that’s how things go, there’s a half bounce in the step. So let’s check out some trends, shall we?
58.3%
That’s Brad Richards’s Corsi-percentage the past six games. As we’ve said all year, we’ve had a real fear that Richards would fade as the season went along as he did last year with the Rangers, which got him the buyout that landed him in Chicago in the first place. So this is pretty encouraging. It hasn’t resulted in an avalanche of points or anything, just a goal and an assist in those six. But if you keep pushing play this much, the points will follow (Bickell and Desjardins won’t biff every chance they’re presented you hope, and a motivated Versteeg would really help).
1-0: Blackhawks
91 back at MSG: CSN Chicago
He’s still a bum: ESPN Chicago
Versteeg sits: PHT
Keep clean kid: ST
