MY BAD..I HAD OFF AND OVERSLEPT!!!
HUGE WEEKEND!!!!!! Suntimes
Ducks confident: LA Times
NHL preview: Blackhawks.com
Raanta Ready: NHL (AP)
Stamkos getting close: Sportsnet (autoplay)
While everyone else makes futile attempts to figure out why the Hawks suck when the games go over 60 minutes (um, luck?), let’s pass over that debate and check in on how the kids outside the organization at the moment are doing.
Unlike last year, where McNeill and Danault were some of the Hawks most exciting prospects plying their trade in the Canadian hinterlands, this year sees the more intriguing ones roaming the the quads and woods of American college campuses (in one’s case, sometimes in a garbage bag).
We’ll start out east in Chestnut Hill, MA, where Kevin Hayes has put up 35 points in just 22 games with Boston College. This past weekend, Hayes went a little bonkers with two goals and three assists in two games versus Providence and Brown. Hayes does have the sweetheart spot in the BC lineup, as he has been playing with one of the most dynamic players in the NCAA in Johnny Gudreau. But hey, you gotta make something of it when it’s given to you and Hayes has done that. While I only got brief glimpses of Hayes last year, I’ve always thought he was the better pro prospect than his brother Jimmy, as he’s a slightly smoother skater and has better hands. Hayes the Younger won’t be a Hawk next year or anything but should get a good look in Rockford.
His teammate Chris Calnan also scored this weekend, and has seven points on the year playing in the BC bottom six.
Week 15 of the AHL schedule may not have started the best way for the IceHogs, but it finished extremely well as they picked up 2 consecutive victories over the weekend against Lake Erie.
Last night: Blackhawks
Raanta growing comfortable: Trib
Becoming the model franchise: The Bright One
Old timer’s game: ESPN CHI
Show notes, including Buff to forward: TSN
Hockey is just weird sometimes. You can’t really ask the Hawks to do much more than they did tonight. From the opening bell, the Avs were pretty much rolled up in a rug and dumped in the snowy woods. But like the occasional Russian gangster who claims to wash his balls in ice water, even though he’s been shot in the head he escapes the mobsters (layered reference!). The Hawks don’t even have packs of mustard to keep them sane.
Sure, they could have cashed in on a power play. But it’s not as if the PP was totally helpless. It created enough chances, it just didn’t cash in. Sure, they’ll tell you they could have gotten more traffic in front of Semyon Varlamov, but that would just be covering up. The Hawks were there plenty of times, it just felt like the rebounds kept bouncing away from Hawks’ sticks aside from Shaw’s goal. Yeah, the penalty kill could have come up better than leaving Ryan O’Reilly enough space in front he would have died of exposure. But in OT, Hjalmarsson’s rushed clear could have taken any bounce off the glass. It just went to Matt Duchene.
The Hawks did everything but win tonight, and that happens from time to time during the season. Hockey is a cruel enough mistress to torture you by having luck play a role, and a big one. It just didn’t go the Hawks way tonight. Move on, and know that more efforts like that will result in pairs of points far more often than they’ll result in a solitary, lonely one.
Russian spies, they don’t scare me anymore.
War-games in the Third World on the street outside of your house. What are you willing to pay for security and privilege? There’s no shelter for stray dogs; we used to be pets now we’re just beggars.
Nine years and fifty days held hostage by pirates. Sold down the coast, don’t try to fight the currents. For those who can afford it, there’ll always be white sand on private beaches.
vs 
Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
The Stickiest of the Icky: Mile High Hockey
As difficult as it may be to compute, the Hawks tonight will play game 49 tonight of the 2013-2014 season, now surpassing last year’s abbreviated campaign, still four days shy of a year from when that season started . They’re currently only 7 points off their record pace of last year (though Friday’s guests the Ducks are only 2 back), though it feels like it’s been a a bit bumpier ride so far. But with a full 82 on the docket on this go-around, longevity will once again be rewarded, which is something the visiting and upstart Avalanche are beginning to deal with themselves.
