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High On The Hog: First Round Fortunes

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The goal of the Rockford IceHogs as the Blackhawks AHL affiliate is pretty clear cut. Winning is secondary to pushing talent through the I-90 pipeline. Success means that Stan Bowman can stock his roster with quality players (or offer that talent around the league for annual cup runs, take your pick).

Obviously, Chicago’s run at the top of the NHL has prevented Bowman from selecting an franchise-type skater in the first-round the last several seasons. There are plenty of difference-makers on the current Hawks roster that honed their games in the Forest City. Corey Crawford. Niklas Hjalmarsson. Andrew Shaw. Bryan Bickell (oops).

By the way, Rockford apparently beat Milwaukee 5-2 Tuesday and then dropped a pair in Charlotte over the weekend. Didn’t catch a second of one game; I was behind a sound board making sure an audience could hear a tale as old as time this week.

I promise that you’ll get the usual breakdowns starting with next week’s post. Until then, I thought I’d shine a beam of light on some of the fortunes of Chicago’s recent picks toiling in Rockford and…well…other places.

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Pigs in Zen: Hogs Weekend Sweep

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The IceHogs had 2 more games in week 4 of the AHL schedule and they both came on home ice as they welcomed the Charlotte Checkers and Texas Stars into town. These games came after a successful road trip to Ontario, Canada earlier in the week where they took 3 of 4 points from Hamilton and Toronto.

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Pigs In Zen: Hogs Shine in 4 Games in 6 Days

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The end of week 3 and the beginning of week 4 featured a total of 4 games for the IceHogs with 3 of them coming on the road. For a young team like the IceHogs, it was crucial to sustain momentum throughout the 6 days that the games were spread out over.  They did just that as they took 7 out of the possible 8 points that were up for grabs.

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Pigs In Zen: Hogs Take 2 Points Out of Cleveland

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The IceHogs’ road swing continued in week 2 of the AHL schedule with back-to-back games in Lake Erie against the Monsters this past weekend. After splitting their opening weekend set in the Lone Star State, the Hogs were looking to add to their win total for this season and to continue their streak of sweeping the Monsters; they went 4-0 against them in 2012-13.

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Pigs in Zen: Hogs Split Preseason Contests

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The IceHogs’ 2013 preseason schedule only featured two contests. Both games were on the road as the BMO Harris Bank Center is undergoing seat renovations.  First up for the Hogs was a trip to West Meadows Ice Arena in Rolling Meadows for a tilt against the Wolves, and then it was up to the Kern Center in Milwaukee to take on the Admirals.

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Pigs in Zen: IceHogs Season Preview

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It’s been a long summer for the IceHogs and their fans after the team missed the playoffs by a mere 2 points to the Milwaukee Admirals in 2012-13. The Hogs finished 9th in the Western Conference with a record of 42-31-2-1 (87 points). The roster turnover will be noticeable this year for Rockford, which is different from last season where the majority of the team was the same from the year before.