SB Nation - Ben Eager

This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic - Hawks 5, Bruins 4 (SO - Hawks win shirtless slap fight)

McClure — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:09:48 -0000

More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

Hey! Is that a ninja up there?

The biggest United Center crowd of the year got to see the Hawks' most entertaining game of the year, outside of the obvious asterisk that the Calgary comeback ever shall be.

The Hawks' lineup looked quite a bit different on Friday, with Antti Niemi starting in net, Niklas Hjalmarsson sitting out because of feeling under the weather (rumor has it he hurt his knee in the Peterborough game), and Ben Eager sitting out presumably because he's a steakhead. Personally, I would have sat Tomas Kopecky again in favor of Eager, but I'm not the guy with the mustache...YET. Both teams traded chances in the opening minutes of the first, with the Hawks once again moving the puck very well, but only seemed to be able to manufacture shots from the perimeter against Tim Thomas, who appeared to be on in the early going with his Hasek-esque style. In their own zone, however, the Hawks were an adventure. Joel Quenneville very quickly into the game rearranged his defensemen, pairing Jordan Hendry with Brian Campbell in order to keep two pairs consistent in Hammer's absence- a result which paid dividends. It did not prevent David Krejci from opening the scoring, however, as Niemi failed to smother a dump in with his catch glove (which was suspect all evening), and the puck came to Krejci out front to poke home.

Early in the second, Kris Versteeg potted the Hawks' equalizer off of a careless pass from Andrew Ference which VERSTEEG! alertly snapped past Thomas. The ice then began to tilt in the Hawks favor, as Patrick Sharp gave the Hawks the lead banging home a rebound crashing the left post. After having some issues with the referee in the corner at the other end of the ice Brent Sopel (at his Sopel-est tonight), coughed up a turnover that led to Daniel Paille tying the game at two. However, in the waning moments of the second, Troy Brouwer threw a goal line pass from the corner to Jonathan Toews, who harpooned the puck between Thomas' legs to give the Hawks the lead after 40. All three Hawks' goal scorers in the period potted their tenth goals of the year.

The Hawks' assault on Thomas continued into the third, but Boston once again drew even, as Johnny Boychuk slapped a cross ice feed undereath Niemi's right arm. Less than two minutes later, Andrew Ladd received credit for redirecting a Brian Campbell point blast into the net after some fine perimeter puck movement by Campbell, Hendry, and Sharp. It would not be a lead the Hawks would hold onto. With less than three minutes remaining, the Bruins found themselves on a 3-on-2, with both Sharp and Marian Hossa late to return on their backchecks, which let Krejci pot his second of the night to tie the game up. After relatively uneventful OT, the contest needed to be decided with a couple rounds of rochambeau, with Q deciding to let the B's shoot first. Patrice Bergeron ran out of room on Niemi, and Toews made him pay with the now trademark snapper at the other end. Blake Wheeler got Niemi down and out but drew iron, which made Patrick Kane's backhader at the other end hold up as the winner. Hawks win.

Observations

Outside of Sharp and Hossa's lackadaisical backcheck, Niemi's glove, and Sopel being Sopel, I found very little to complain about from anyone else. No passengers for this game whatsoever. Even Tomas Kopecky's general invisibility was not for lack of effort.
I was very impressed with Jordan Hendry's ability to step in and play with Brian Campbell, one of the more difficult defenseman in the league to partner with, arguably the most. Credit to Quenneville as well for realizing very quickly that Cam Barker simply does not have the foot speed to recover in time to be paired with Soup at even strength, and making the change. As Sam said, why screw up two pairs with Hammer out?
The Hawks dominated in shots in the second and third, and give credit to the Bruins for capitalizing on the opportunities they got. This game could have been a case of water finding its own level with Antti Niemi, who did make some very good saves when they counted, but a couple of the B's goals - Krejci's first and Boychuck's - could and should have been stopped.
Apologies for the obtuse headline. I know it's a reach, but please bear with me. See what I did there?
I know the Hawks have two games in hand, but how the fuck are they only two points ahead of goddamn Nashville? That Barry Trotz really is something.
Credit the Hawks for not shying away from the monster that is Zdeno Chara. I witnessed Kane, Toews and VERSTEEG! initiate contact with that pituitary case, with Toews retaliating a bit on Versteeg's behalf at one point near the benches, and at one point Troy Brouwer and Chara came to within a hair on my sack from scrapping. It would have been a fight that Our Boy Troy would have been destroyed in, but the courage is admirable.
All eight goals came at even strength. For the top two PK units in the league, I know that's a shock.
Thanks to you, the reader, who now seems to understand that if there's a game on a weekend evening, it's pretty well implied that the wrap isn't coming until the following morning due to this blog's propensity for getting itself banged up before, during, and after games. The fact that the weekday games are now a coin-flip as well could be cause for concern, however. Knowing us, though, we'd make the inevitable intervention an open invite event at the Whirlaway.

Player of the Game

While this award could have gone a number of ways, I'll give it to everyone's, including seemingly Q's, favorite $7 million dollar whipping boy. Even with his Swedish security blanket out of the lineup, Brian Campbell managed to be a +1 with an assist during nearly 28:00 minutes of ice time in a back and forth game. Campbell created opportunities in the offensive zone, had an assist on a redirected slap shot, and was solid in his own end.

Ring Them Bells: Blackhawks 4 - Lightning 0

Matthew Dirt — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:47:54 -0000

Lets get this out of the way early - there are two big complaints about this game. The first is the general douchebaggery of the Tampa Bay Lightning, notably Todd Fedoruk and Matt Smaby. Fedoruk had a late hit on Niemi with under 2 minutes left in the game - it's a damn shame that Niittymaki had a killer save to keep the Hawks from putting up a nickle for the night. Smaby was guilty of a trip on Kane that caused him to bang his head off the ice when he couldn't get his arms down to support himself - not too terrible as those things happen. Later in the game though Smaby delivered a late and high hit on Toews that could have taken the captain out again if he wasn't able to brace himself. This also caused Toews to get up and take his wrath out on Matias Ohlund... lucky for him though Toews' wrath consisted mostly of some pushing and probably a few more weird faces..

Don't confuse this with a general complaint of another team targetting our stars - that's to be expected. Smaby just played like a punk with a -17 career rating and a desperate need for his face to be rearranged.

The second major complaint is the fact that for some reason Jim Belushi was allowed anywhere near the Blackhawks. Does anyone in the world like this guy? We all know John Belushi was the shit but he's dead and the last thing we need is some no talent schmuck doing a second rate impersonation of the guy... Jim Belushi is quickly becoming Second City Hockey's public enemy #1. Please never allow him in the building again. Seriously, fuck that guy.

Ok.. now that that's out of the way, lets focus on the good for tonight - and there's plenty of it.

I don't think this was exactly what Sam had in mind when he begged the team to just score in the preview but it was pretty close. Kane's goal almost 8 minutes in was something we've been dying to see for a while. Kane grabbed a pass from Keith and brought it towards the faceoff circles. I saw all lightning players being drawn toward the puck (a common occurrence as we'll see) and screamed for him to hit Keith with the puck as the flash was drifting towards the center of the zone. Instead Kaner ripped a quick as... well.. lightning wrist shot that beat Niittymaki clean. I'll take that too..

The Hawks continued the theme of dominating a game with little to show for it until about halfway through the second when Hossa chased a puck into the corner behind the Bolts net. Our dear old friend Big Country Matt Walker and another defenseman were again both confused as where to go and both weakly chased Panda, leaving Ben Eager streaking towards the net without a defender in the same time zone... Hossa grabbed the puck and wasted no time hitting Eager clean on his tape to take a 2-0 lead.

Not to limit himself to simply pretty passing - Hossa decided to show off hands a bit later, scoring one of those goals where you have to turn to the guy next to you and ask if what you saw just actually happened. In this case, yes, Hossa did actually grab a puck out of mid-air and smack it into the net before it actually hit the ice. He's good.

The third period was again all Hawks as Toews finished off the scoring with another goal that resulted from skating hard towards the net and being ready for a rebound. It was also nice to see Toews lay a big hit on Smaby followed up by drawing a hooking penalty. Toews finished the night with 4 recorded hits..

Random Thoughts:

Just about every Hawk had a great game. I wrote notes mentioning seeing both Brian Campbell and Brent Sopel winning battles along the boards.
If you can, re-watch the game and notice the great stick-play of the defenders, especially Seabrook. The Hawks' d-men are just playing textbook defense, taking away any passing or shooting lanes from the other teams.
Eager had a good showing with a nice physical game when he was needed. Zenon Konopka leads the league in fighting majors but if a player like Eager can drop him that easily he might want to re-think his career plans. Hockey Fights voters only have Konopka winning 3 of his 13 fights this year... soon to be 3 out of 14.
It's obviously poor form to throw punches at a player while he's on the ice - but what is the ruling for a player throwing punches while he's the one on his back? Eager seemed to get a shot or two in after he lost his balance and fell on his back. From the comments section, it seemed like the Bolts announcers had a few problems with that move..
Antti Niemi has played in 8 games this year and has a SV% of 100% in three of them - with another one that was close. I don't really have much to add - that's just pretty damn impressive

Player of the Game:

Another game where it's hard to choose - Niemi got the shutout, Hossa had two beautiful plays and was a force all over the ice, Eager was an assist away from the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, Toews solid all over the ice..

I think I'm going to go with the Happy Panda though - feel free to disagree and tell us who you think is worthy of the prestigious title in the comments..

1 Goal, 1 Assist, +2, 3 SOG, 20:27 TOI - and check out those shoes..

To The Five Boroughs - Hawks 2, Rangers 1 (OT)

McClure — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:33:32 -0000

More photos » by Paul Beaty - AP

Dustin Ovechkin? Where the balls did THAT come from?

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If you can find anything to complain about from the Hawks from this game...you're wrong. The fact of the matter is, for nearly 64 minutes, the Hawks dominated this game, and the only thing that kept the Rangers in it was Henrik Lundqvist. The one sequence that the Hawks gave Marian Gaborik any room to work with in the first he found an open Chris Higgins who beat Cristobal Huet from the left circle with a perfect water bottle wrister. Other than that, however, the Rangers didn't get a sniff, as evidenced by the 3 shots COMBINED in the third and OT, and totaled 18 for the evening.

In the offensive zone, the Hawks mauled the rangers for a total of 41 shots for the night, and the game would have been out of hand early if not for Lundqvist's heroics. Every line for the Hawks produced offense, and it finally took four Hawks jamming away at King Henrik with 6 minutes left, and on a power play, to finally prod one past him to equal the score, and consequently force the overtime.

Once in OT, the Hawks kept the pressure on, and then came one of the most ridiculous things I've seen at the UC in a long time. Dustin Byfuglien picked up a loose puck at the top of his own rings and led a one-man rush down the ice and slid the puck past Lundqvist for the game winner. Buff has regularly been a whipping boy of this blog, and this play is part of the reason why. Seeing this, we all know he has it in him, and yet he is still quite often a passenger on whatever line he happens to be playing with. It's confounding, but even still, it resulted in my maniacal victorious laughter at the end of the night, so all's well that ends well. Hawks win 2-1.

Observations

The second line of Sharp, Kane, and Brouwer looks quite promising, as Sharp was everywhere tonight, despite not making it onto the score sheet
I TELL YA, DAT HORSA GUY CAN BACKCHECK
Nice to see Troy Brouwer throwing his weight around again
It seemed like the book on Lundqvist was to go high, which the Hawks adhered to, but it led to many, MANY shots over the net and rung off the end board glass. Had they not gotten too cute, the shot total would have dwarfed the 41 that was put up.
The Hawks have only scored 4 even strength goals since the San Jose game.
I cannot believe a game that involved Donald Brashear, Sean Avery, and Ben Eager did not contain a single moment of unbridled numbskullery.

Player of the Game

In spite of Buff's goal, and even though it ended up being a losing effort, there is no denying that King Henrik had the best game of anyone on the ice tonight.

Game 27 Preview: Jackets head to the Windy City to face the Hawks

Mike MacLean — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:03:19 -0000

by Jay LaPrete - AP

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After snapping a five game losing streak, the Jackets are in Chicago to take on the 'Hawks. On paper, this doesn't look good for the Jackets. It's the second game of a back-to-back, Rusty is out of the lineup with a groin tear (Mathieu Roy will play tonight, he's up from Syracuse on emergency recall), and tonight is the home debut of Hossa.

That said, the boys should still have some momentum from last night. It was a gutsy performance, and maybe the victory against the Blues was the tonic needed to get the Jackets back on track. Chicago is a great team from top to bottom. Their one question mark heading into the season-goaltending-seems to no longer be an issue with the strong play of Huet.

In my opinion, and likely many other share this opinion, the Hawks have the best defense in the NHL. It will be tough to score tonight, but the Jackets do have the weapons needed. Umby is playing his best hockey of the season, and Brass is looking better and better each game. If Voracek can build off of the strong game he had last night, look for that line to produce tonight. That would allow Nash and Juice to do their thing offensively-Huselius has been putting up serious points lately as well.

This is an imprtant game for the checking unit. I haven't seen much from Chimmer all season, and he needs to bring a physical element tonight. Mike Blunden hits everything that moves, and he'll need to continue doing that tonight against the 'Hawks potent forwards. Sammy was a Blackhawk for a brief period last season, and I look for him to have a strong game matching up against either Toews or Versteeg.

Fearless Prediction: Goal from a CBJ defenseman.

Game Time: 8:00pm ET

Opponent's Blog: Second City Hockey

Game Page: Blue Jackets vs Blackhawks Coverage

TSN Preview: Blue Jackets vs Blackhawks Preview

TV: FSN Ohio

Radio: WBNS-AM (1460); WWCD-FM (101.1)

More after the jump...

From the Columbus Dispatch:

The Blue Jackets snapped a five-game losing streak last night with a 5-2 win over the Blues. It should be a loud crowd tonight in United Center. The Blackhawks are back off a six-game trip, Marian Hossa makes his Chicago debut and coach Joel Quenneville goes for his 500th victory.

Jackets Links:

Columbus Blue Jackets / Columbus Blue Jackets Schedule

Columbus Blue Jackets Roster / Columbus Blue Jackets Stats

Here are the lineups for tonight's tilt:

Columbus Blue Jackets

Kristian Huselius	Antoine Vermette	Rick Nash
R.J. Umberger	Derick Brassard	Jakub Voracek
Jason Chimera	Samuel Pahlsson	Michael Blunden
Raffi Torres	Derek MacKenzie	Jared Boll

Fedor Tyutin	Anton Stralman
Mike Commodore	Jan Hejda
Kris Russell	Mathieu Roy

Steve Mason

Mathieu Garon

EXTRA: Alexandre Picard

INJURED: Fredrik Modin, Andrew Murray, Derek Dorsett, Rostislav Klesla, Marc Methot

Chicago Blackhawks

Patrik Sharp	Jonathan Toews	Marian Hossa
Dustin Byfuglien	Kris Versteeg	Patrick Kane
Andrew Ladd	John Madden	Troy Brouwer
Ben Eager	Colin Fraser	Tomas Kopecky

Duncan Keith	Brent Seabrook
Brian Campbell	Cam Barker
Niklas Hjalmarsson	Brent Sopel

Cristobal Huet

Antti Niemi

Shark Sandwich - Hawks 4, Sharks 3 (OT)

McClure — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:40:34 -0000

Eight of eight points against 3 top conference foes and one truculent opponent? Yeah, we'll take it. Tonight's win wasn't pretty, but an ugly win is still a win.

Things started off well enough with Brent Sopel (yes, BRENT SOPEL) notching his first of the year on a one time feed from Jordan Hendry who won the puck down low skating at forward tonight. Fresh call-up Bryan Bickell provided a nice screen on a shot that Evgeni Nabokov never saw. The Sharks answered later on in the period when dickweed Dany Heatley took a feed from Joe Thornton on a play that the Hawks should have cleared the zone on, but Jason Demers made a nice play to cut off Troy Brouwer receiving the exit pass.

Early in the second, we got to see the numbskullery we had been missing from Ben Eager, where he somehow managed to earn an extra two minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from his scrap with cro-magnon Douglas Murray. On the ensuing power play, the Sharks broke the Hawks streak of 18 straight penalties killed when Demers picked up a loose puck in the left circle on a broken play. It was a shot Huet did not get over to his post in time to cover. Forty-five seconds later, Patrick Marleau got a pass from Joe Pavelski in the slot, where he was left alone in a defensive breakdown, and was allowed to get two cracks at the net, the second of which he punched through. For the rest of the period, the ice was tilted in the Hawks favor. Patrick Kane picked a corner over Nabokov's glove to cut the deficit in half. With about a minute and a half to go, John Madden tied things up after skating through four Sharks to bury a rebound of a shot that was generated between he, Andrew Ladd, and Troy Brouwer. There was a scare in the middle of the frame when the puck squirted behind Huet and the Sharks had thought they had scored, but there was no indication on the ice, and the war room in Toronto determined no goal.

The third period was a rather tenative affair, with neither team generating much offensively, almost playing as if they were resigned to the fate of overtime as teams once did in the pre-lockout era. The Hawks ended things quickly with a great shift from Troy Brouwer and Jonathan Toews, who won the puck after hard work in behind the Shark net, with Toews finally able to slip it to a pinching Brent Seabrook who shot the puck through Nabokov for his second of the year, and second OT winner. Ballgame.

The Hawks were without the services of Kris Versteeg tonight, who was likely banged up after getting demolished by Jeff Finger on Friday night. Bryan "Don't Call me Travis" Bickell filled in admirably, and proving to be basically the left handed version of Troy Brouwer, which isn't a bad thing to be at this point.
Glad to see the Hawks hang tough and win over the top team in the league with basically half of their top 6 out for tonight's game (Bolland, Versteeg, Hossa).
Niklas Hjalmarsson continues to impress with his patience and smarts in his own end. As we've mentioned before here, and in the Indian, pay attention and marvel at his knack for absorbing a hit to make the correct pass. Additionally, he had a nice break up of a rush by dropping to a knee and taking away a passing lane.
Coach Q broke form and got way less matchup happy in the second period when the Hawks were down two goals, in an effort to generate some offense. Of course, with the score knotted in the third, John Madden once again resumed shadow detail on Thornton.
It wasn't Huet's best night, but he made a gigantic save on Scott Nichol in the waning seconds of regulation, so credit has to be given. All we as fans have asked from him is to just make the key save, and there was none bigger in the contest than that one.
The Hawks again limited one of the top offensive teams in the league to just 23 shots.
EDIT: John Madden was 9-0 on draws. The man love grows ever stronger.

Player of the Game

Though realistically, the honor should have gone to Patrick Marleau, who was everywhere tonight, you don't really think we'd pick someone from the other team, do you? So in that case, I'm going to go ahead and hand this out to Hammer, who was again rock solid tonight, in spite of being -1. Stats be damned, I know what I saw.

Game 19: Avalanche at Blackhawks

David Driscoll-Carignan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:11:47 -0000


Colorado Avalanche	6:30 MT / 8:30 ET / 1:30 GMT	Chicago Blackhawks
12-4-2	November 11th, 2009	9-5-2
26 pts	United Center	20 pts
2nd in West	Chicago, IL	3rd in West

It's a light week for the Avalanche, with tonight's game being the weekday tilt. Hopefully, they can make it count. The Avs are coming off a sputtering loss to the Oilers on Sunday, a game in which they took roughly 270 penalties and gave up 67 power play goals. Those numbers may not be accurate, but it sure felt like a lot on this end. Maybe I should start keeping better notes...

I suppose you all read Craig Stancher's updates over at Ye Olde Official Website, but that won't stop me from cribbing them for my own personal use. Darcy Tucker is expected to return tonight and will likely skate on a line with (wait for it) Matt Duchene and Marek Svatos! Woohoo. Happy to have Tucker back, could have done without seeing this line reuinited though. If there's anyone who needs to be paired up right now with some skilled players, it's Matt Duchene. Heck, I wouldn't mind seeing him thrown on the left wing with Paul Stastny for a few games, just to give his game a boost. Milan Hejduk, who missed Sunday's game with a sore back, will probably play. If not, TJ Hensick skated in his place on the top line in practice Tuesday. [UPDATE: Not. Hejduk is out.]

Tom Preissing is back with the club after a two-game visit to Lake Erie. Joe Sacco has said he hasn't made up his mind yet as to whether it will be Preissing or Ryan Wilson. Personally, I think he has, but is trying to build suspense. Or something. Either way, Johnny Hot Pocket (aka Liles) did not make the trip to Chicago (if he's injured, who will model the new jerseys tomorrow?). Ruslan Salei practiced a bit, but he's still out.

The Blackhawks have some players returning from injury as well. Jonathon Toews has returned recently and Ben Eager was activated from IR on Monday. Here's their recent lines, courtesy of hockey centric. Get a good look at the Hawks tonight, as it's the last time we face them until the next-to-last game of the season.

It will be Craig Anderson for the Avalanche again. Cristobal Huet got the win on Monday, so figure him to get another shot under the Quenneville Goalie Rotation Carousel System (TM). Check Left Wing Lock during the day for updates. [Update: Huet is confirmed].

From the Good Thought But Kind Of Tacky Department, the Blackhawks will wear "historic" camoflauged jerseys during warmups. I will not be wearing anything similar in honor of Veterans Day (aka Armistace Day aka Rememberance Day), but do wish to express my most sincere gratitude to all of you who have served. As John Kelly would say, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Finally, Happy 37th Birthday to Steve Konowalchuk.

By the way, as I was typing this, Alan Parsons Project's "Sirius" came up randomly on my PC. Twice. Not really sure what my PC was trying to tell me. Despite being an absolute kick ass song, it's also curiously appropriate, as it's the song the Chicago Bulls used to play before games. I say "used to", but it's possible they still do; I haven't watched a basketball game in 36 years. Or so. Maybe it's less than that. Maybe I should start keeping better notes...

Avalanche vs Blackhawks coverage

Second City Hockey

Game Notes (Now with Tom Preissing goodness!)

Colorado			Chicago
2nd	26	Points	3rd	20
10th	3.00	GF/G	15th	2.88
3rd	2.28	GA/G	5th	2.31
16th	19.4	PP%	17th	18.8
9th	82.3	PK%	2nd	86.2
28th	25.5	S/G	4th	32.9
25th	32.8	SA/G	1st	22.4
30th	45	FO%	2nd	53.4
12th	12.9	PIM/G	8th	11.2
Stastny	18 pts	Top Scorer	Kane	16 pts

Today in Colorado History: November 11th, 2007. Paul Stastny records his 100th NHL point in his 99th NHL game.

Coyotes vs. Blackhawks - Game #16 Preview

OdinMercer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:28:04 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

about 1 month ago: Colorado Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj (31), of Slovakia, deflects a shot redirected by Phoenix Coyotes center Matthew Lombardi (15) in the second period of an NHL hockey game in Denver on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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The Phoenix Coyotes look to get off a 2 game skid tonight at Jobbing.com Arena against the Central Division leading Chicago Blackhawks. The road to this point hasn't been very easy as the Coyotes have played a lot of very talanted teams to get to 9-6. It doesn't get a whole lot easier tonight though as the Blackhawks have managed to get 17 points in only 13 game, giving them a 8-4-1 record. On the plus side they are only 2-2 away this year and other than traveling overseas to start the season, they really haven't had any extended roadtrips. Hopefully it's just a case of a hot home team, but we shall see tonight.

Five for Winning:

Come out to Play: Over the last few games, including a couple of the wins, the Coyotes simply haven't gotten off to good starts in the game. They had to come back against the Ducks on Halloween, Took a lead against Los Angeles on some flukey goals in a game that was flat for both sides, and then goes down a goal against Colorado just a minute in. THis hasn't been the intense team it was to start the season. Looks like maybe just some growing pains, but it had better be temporary.

Slog through the injuries: Zbynek Michalek and Scottie Upshall are both out with injuries as well and Kurt Sauer who has been out since the first game with some neck and head issues. David Schlemko and Mikkel Boedker will take their places in the lineup and need to play at a top level to make things work. On the plus side Jonathan Towes and Ben Eager are out for the hawks, so that'll help our side.

End the streak here: Lost two in a row, we haven't lost 3 in a row this season and it damn well better not start tonight. Having our winning streaks longer than our losing ones is what will carry this team to the playoffs in the end. We can't win everynight, but we better keep our heads well above water.

Be adaptable: Teams have started to figure us out, so change it up when necessary. We can't keep going back to the same things that didn't work 3 minutes ago and try it again and again. Change up your passing and entrances to minimize turnovers.

Be hungry: You guys just gave up at the end last night. UNACCEPTABLE. This team can't quit. Fight the battles everywhere and don't let one loss get you down.

GO YOTES!

More From Last Night....

McClure — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:03:42 -0000

More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

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Since Sam already provided a nicely succinct recap of last night's game, I'll just move right along to some observations of my own that I took away from it.

Most, if not everyone I spoke to was completely stupefied as to why Dustin Byfuglien received the lone minor during the session of slap-dick in front of the Vancouver net towards the end of the first period. Liberties were being taken on Kane, and Buff sprung forth like the burly protector he's supposed to be to his linemate's defense. Once the scrum ensued, everything was pretty equal, with shots headed both ways. This is not the first time something like this has happened in the NHL, and it had all the markings of the refs letting both sides walk away with a stern talking-to, or take someone from each team with matching minors. Vancouver scored on the resultant power play less than a minute into the second, tying the game at 1, and started to tilt the ice in their favor. Now, I'm in no way blaming this call for a Hawks loss. The way they played, they deserved the outcome they received. But the Hawks caught the business end of a bad call in this scenario.
The Hawks powerplay is in complete disarray right now. Last season they found success in using a hybrid overload-into-an-umbrella-and-back style, which siphoned everything through the playmaker at the half-wall, allowing either Patrick Kane or Martin Havlat to dictate whether the puck was moving high to the blue line for a point shot, low for a stuff attempt, or back-door cross-ice. The latter is where Patrick Sharp found a lot of success, and eventually teams cheated toward this play.

This year, Quenneville seems intent on just working the puck high, blasting slapshots from the point, and creating traffic in front. There's nothing inherently wrong with this style, but the Hawks d-men have exhibited a very poor shooting bias to this point, which completely screws the pooch if you're going to run it that way. This has resulted in a lot of blocked shots by opposing forwards. Five-on-three, the Hawks change little, content to keep the puck on one side of the ice, and trying to get a shot from the middle of the ice at the blue line. This is flawed thinking. On a 5-on-4, a team wants to work a puck vertically- high to low, and low to high- to widen the gap between penalty killing forwards and defensemen, creating seams between them to be able to move the puck toward the middle of the ice for a shot with no shin pads in front of it. During a two man advantage, it's lateral movement, to get the goalie to have to come across his crease to make a save, because the seams will already be there due to a lack of bodies on the ice.

I'm not sure if the loss of JHC prompted this change in philosophy, or if Marian Hossa's presence will signal a return to it, but it's certainly worth trying now, because what they're doing simply is not working.
As Killion noted in the preview, I was excited to see Jordan Hendry skate last evening. I liked what he showed two seasons ago, and think he's ideally suited for the third pairing (and is certainly a more reasonably priced option to do so). Part of me also wanted to see how Cam Barker would fare with a partner who could actually move his feet as well; someone who doesn't have the skating stride of a person who desperately needs to take a massive shit. Having a more mobile, heady partner worked for Brian Campbell, why not for Barker? Hendry acquitted himself fine; if not for his newfound presence in the lineup, he would not have been noticeable on the ice, either positively or negatively- which is all you can ask of a #6 defenseman. However, as Sam noted already, it didn't have a positive effect on Cam Barker, which is not good. Cam Barker is turning into a giant, left-handed Andy Delmore- someone who is useful on a powerplay, but is a complete liability at even strength. Something needs to be done on his part, and fast.
This dovetails into my final point, and that is a matter the matter of depth. With both Toews and Seabrook in the locker room during the waning minutes of the game, Quenneville shortened his bench considerably. Not just due to the injuries, but due to substandard play, particularly from the third defensive pairing, and the fourth line. As was just noted, Cam Barker simply cannot be out there with a game on the line, unless it's absolutely necessary. Additionally, as many of you have noted in the comments, this year's 4th line is a far cry from what was arguably the best 4th line in the league last year. Injuries are the culprit in that case, pressing skaters off the waiver wire (Radek Smolenenenananenak, Andrew Ebbett) into duty who frankly have not delivered the nastiness, speed, and relentlessness that Ben Eager and Adam Burish did, which allowed Q to roll all four lines, keeping his top players fresh, as well as creating offense from the 4th line. Tomas Kopecky has yet to provide anything of substance outside of his lone goal in Nashville, and if he ends up taking a trip on the Jack Skille Trail of Tears, that'd be just fine by me, perhaps in favor of Jake Dowell. We keep saying its early, but the Hawks' trumpeted depth is getting pushed right now, and if Toews and Seabrook miss time, and Bolland continues to fight back woes, its going to result in far more dire circumstances than the 11 out of 18 points we're seeing right now.

Gameday Preview: Dallas Stars @ Chicago Blackhawks (7:30p CDT)

Brandon Worley — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:09:44 -0000

Next Game

Dallas Stars (2-1-3)
@ Chicago Blackhawks (5-1-1)

Saturday, Oct 17, 2009, 7:30 PM CDT
United Center

Local TV: FSSW+
Radio: KTCK The Ticket

Opponent's Blog: Second City Hockey

Complete Coverage >

What's the perfect test for a Dallas Stars team that played flat and uninspired at home against the Bruins last night? How about having to fly to Chicago to face the team that beat them worse than any other opponent last year. After last night's debacle at American Airlines Center, the Stars must take on the Chicago Blackhawks less than 24 hours later on the road.

To say this will be a tough test is an understatement. Everything that Boston did well last night, Chicago has does better. They're fast, disciplined and don't allow a ton of shots. Their goaltending has been a bit suspect but lately it's started to come together.

So if there is one team for the Stars to come out and dominate, it's the Blackhawks right?

The Dallas Stars:

Not much else to say a day after last night, other than there's no where else to go but up.

The Stars have a tough, tough test tonight and all I'm looking for is effort. If the Stars lose after playing their asses off, then I can forgive a close loss. But any more low energy, 'let's just let them skate over us' games and things will start to get ugly.

The lauded Marc Crawford offense sputtered against the Bruins and failed to get any pressure up the middle or near the net. The Stars were never able to get any good chances near the net, instead settling for easy perimeter shots that were easily turned aside by Tim Thomas. With the Blackhawks allowing just 20 shots per game (best in the NHL), the Stars will need to make the most of any opportunity.

Alex Auld will be in net tonight for the Stars, and it will be interesting to see how the Stars respond to having a different goaltender behind them. Turco was far from bad last night, but he did not have his greatest games last season against Chicago. If Auld can keep the game close, I like the Stars to at least have a chance at the upset.

Projected lines:

Who knows how different the lines will be tonight, but this is what I would go for.

The Chicago Blackhawks:

From McClure at Second City Hockey:

The Hawks come into tonight's game in the midst of quite literally their best start of my lifetime, off to a 5-1-1 record for the first time since the 82-83 season. There are very few qualms with the way the skaters are playing at this point, though Cam Barker does need to shore up his defense quite a bit. Not only has he been careless with the puck, but he looks quite lead footed. Maybe the theory we had about him going through a pack of cowboy killers (Marlboro Reds to the uninformed) a day to give him his gravelly voice wasn't that far off base. Aside from that, as long as everyone else keeps up their game the way they have been outside of the first 10 minutes against Calgary, the Hawks should be able to dictate the pace to the Stars tonight.

The Stars come in tonight after a piss-poor effort against Boston in their own building last night. The 3-0 result in favor of the Bruins is not indicative of the play I observed, the Stars were lucky to have only given up three, and they barely got a sniff around Tim Thomas, even with Dennis Wideman sitting for the B's. One player who stood out for Dallas was rookie Jamie Benn. The youngster has gotten off to a good start with a goal and 4 helpers, playing at a +2 rate. He's got a lot of 2-way ability, displaying a willingness to back check consistently, and a quick release on his shot. Keep an eye out for him when watching tonight's tilt.

This is another eminently winnable game for the Hawks, who need to be taking advantage of the home-heavy schedule early on. If Dallas skates the way they did last night in their first loss tonight, the Hawks will skate them out of the building. But any team with Brenden Morrow and even an aging Mike Modano on it is fully capable of turning it around the next night.

Projected Lines:

Key Injuries:

Dallas: RW Jere Lehtinen (intercostal muscle) is doubtful. C Steve Ott (oblique muscle) and C Mike Modano (ribs) are out.

Chicago: RW Marian Hossa (shoulder), LW Ben Eager (concussion), RW Adam Burish (knee) are out.

Meet the Enemy: 5 Questions with the Blackhawks

MrNorrisTrophy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:00:56 -0000

Heading into tomorrow's contest, I wanted to do a feature that I had meant to do with the St. Louis Blue but just flat out forgot to get it out in time. I had wanted to do a five question survey for each of the teams in the Central Division to give some of us Wings fans a little more insight into the other squads. I think it's a pretty good way to learn more about a team and what to watch for when the teams square off.

Anyway, this first segment is with Matthew Dirt, the "Head of Cyber Division" over at the SBNation Blackhawks' site Second City Hockey. Matt was kind enough to take time out of his schedule for us so hopefully you'll do the same and read what he has to say. Also, keep comments respectful.

1. Nikolai Khabibulin was a strong point for the Blackhawks last year. Will Cristobal Huet be able to fill that void or is the gameplan similar to the Red Wings last year of trying to just outmuscle a team offensively?

SCH: That's without a doubt the biggest question many Hawk fans are asking. As we've been trying to hammer home though, Huet's numbers (2.53, .909) weren't terribly far off from Khabby's (2.33, .919). Khabby had the better year but was far from phenomenal. Very similar, Huet had stretches where he was brilliant, but he can also be maddening. In the long run though, I think Huet should be able fill-in just fine. The Hawks have improved defensively with the addition of John Madden and players like Dave Bolland and Andrew Ladd improving their defensive games. Of course, the true strength of this team are the forwards - so we'll try to just outscore you most nights too. Hopefully they can do a better job of that than they did last spring.

2. Everyone in Detroit knows about Marian Hossa leaving for Chicago but Tomas Kopecky's departure was substantially less "loud". How well has Kopecky fit in the offensive plans so far and what type of expectations do people have for him?

SCH: Kopecky hasn't really done much so far to make an overall impression with the Blackhawks other than being "that other Detroit guy". The biggest thing he add is the ability to fit in at center if needed since the Hawks are fairly thin in that spot. Right now Kopecky is skating on the 4th line, which along with Ben Eager, makes for a pretty damn good 4th line. So far with the Blackhawks though, Coach Q has changed up the lines about as often people make a Patrick Kane/Cabbie joke.. so we'll see how long he stays in that spot and what his overall role will be.

3. Who is the most underrated player on the Blackhawks? In the same thought process, who is the most overrated player?

SCH: There's a few players who might be a bit underrated but we'll see how long that lasts. I mentioned Ladd and Bolland earlier, partly because I think they're two huge pieces to this team. They both played on the same line last year with Havlat on the wing. Bolland had a great year, signed a big contract and now has to go about proving that he's a #2 Center behind Toews. So far he's a great shutdown player who can come up with a big goal when needed. Ladd is the same way on the left wing. This year I expect him to focus much more on his defensive role and really frustrate other teams' stars. With all the talk about the offensive firepower - these two don't get much credit but for the Hawks to win, these two really have to live up to our expectations.

As for the most overrated - I think that might be Kris Versteeg. He was certainly an amazing surprise last year but faded out once other teams started really paying attention to him. His performance in Game 4 of the Hawks/Wings series was just shameful and I'm not sold on him the way I was in the first half of last year. A lot is being made of Dustin Byfuglien too but ask any Hawk fan and they're probably still skeptical of him. He was crucial late last season and of course in the Playoffs (Luongo still isn't the same...) but all of us are keeping an eye out for him to revert to the lazy, sloppy and disinteresed player we saw for most of last year. If he's turned a corner and is actually going to play hard all year (and so far he has 3 points in 2 games)... you'll quickly learn to hate him.

4. Which player is under the most pressure to perform well this season? A lot of people from the outside would suggest Brian Campbell but insiders might see someone else.

SCH: Campbell certainly has a lot to prove to many Hawk fans who were unhappy with his play last year but plenty of others realize he filled his role pretty well (leading the defensemen in points, helping to greatly improve the power play and filling in the spin-o-rama we've all missed since Savvy left). As I said above, Buff certainly has to prove a lot but he's so oblivious I'm not sure he really feels any "pressure". Although Havlat didn't do much in his three years here, he became absolutely adored by many in his final year - so Hossa will have some pretty big skates to fill in a few fans' eyes. And of course you may have heard of all the fun Patrick Kane got into during his summer vacation.

5. How is the front office situation following the fiasco of the summer?

SCH: All quiet on the Western Madison Ave Front. With the fiasco with the RFA contracts, the sudden and poorly timed firing of GM Dale Tallon and the PR nightmare of one of their brightest young stars beating an older working man... there isn't much room for things to get worse. So far though, Tallon's replacement, Stan Bowman, has been pretty quiet since there hasn't been much to do for him yet. Of course there's plenty of fans already reading dreading the doomsday that will be the expiring entry contracts of Kane, Toews and Duncan Keith - so I'm sure we'll hear plenty from these clowns soon. Winning forgives just about anything in professional sports though, so hopefully they'll just focus on that.

BONUS! Do people in Chicago still hate Niklas Kronwall for the hit on Martin Havlat, even following Havlat's disgruntled departure?

SCH: Yup - Still hope that someone knocks him into next week. It was technically a clean hit, I know, but I still hate him.

Once again, thanks to Matt for taking part in this and hopefully it gave you some insight to the 'Hawks.

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More From Last Night....

Gameday Preview: Dallas Stars @ Chicago Blackhawks (7:30p CDT)

Next Game

The Dallas Stars:

Dallas Stars Current Lines

The Chicago Blackhawks:

Current Hawk Lines

Meet the Enemy: 5 Questions with the Blackhawks