With the weekend-long bacchanalia of sponsors and meaningless events now upon the NHL season and no actual Hawks game until late Wednesday night at Staples, now is as good a time as any to take a look at where things stand.
vs. 
FACEOFF: 7pm Central
TV/RADIO: NBCSN, WGN Radio 720
IRON CITY BEER SUCKS: The Pensblog, Pensburgh
After getting to recalibrate the sights against the Coyotes, the Hawks will descend on Pittsburgh, PA to wrap up the pre-break schedule. Normally, this would feel like a pretty big game with about as much star power as any one NHL game can manufacture. But given that it’s on the second of a back-to-back, and the game before a break that everyone seems desperate to get to, this feels more like something to just get out of the way.
vs 
Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN+ (Ch. 285), WGN-AM 720
Duck And Cover With My Yuletide Lover: Arctic Ice Hockey
In what has to be some kind of record, the Hawks will now face their fourth Canadian opponent in their last five home games, and the lone outlier in that set is Minnesota which is basically Canada anyway. Perhaps the schedule makers felt generous in giving United Center crowds bonus anthems in the Spirit of Christmas, with tonight’s game bringing the Winnipeg Jets into town.
