the Blackhawks Blues

Well then...

I'm not really sure what to say about this one. I got to watch the beginning of the first period, then listened to the second period on the radio in the car (I was at the UC watching Amare Stodumire make his Bulls audition?) and got home just in time to see the Blues score in the third. So I really am not sure what happened here. I don't have the grounds to blame Niemi for this one, but then again I don't really think there is one specific thing to blame. Captain had 2 assists, which I admit is more than he's done lately, but I see that as the beginning of his rebirth, if you will. I realize that even though I praise him as the Captain of this team and love the way he plays and carries himself in general, there has been something not quite right since his gold medal best forward performance in the Olympics. Tazer is not the kind of guy that is just going to be happy with his gold medal, so I know that's not it. He knows he's in charge of this team and whatever is wrong with these boys he's going to do his damndest to fix it.

It was good to see Sharpie and Hossa score our goals. I saw Sharpie's when it happened but saw Hossa's later on the replay. Swabs and I talked after the game and he brought up a good point that Sharpie always scores when he's out of position somehow. I was pretty surprised at coach Q's decision to shuffle the lines up a bit and put Kaner on the Bolland line and have Tazer Sharpie and Hossa on the first line, which in turn ended up being the most successful one. I think that a line with Kaner and Bolland has alot of potential, it just didn't end up clicking tonight. Maybe coach Q will shuffle the lines even more after the loss, all I know is, something needs to change. And i'm not sure what...

I did catch something interesting on VS. before the game. They showed the projected goalies that will start for the Western Conference teams in the playoffs, and most of them had no playoff experience at all. So the issue of Niemi not having playoff experience is kind of irrelevant if you think about how the other teams are going through the same thing. However, let's say, even though Jimmy Howard has no playoff experience that doesn't make the Wings less scary (as much as I really hate to say that...) because of their obvious offensive power. And the way the Hawks have been playing, it makes me weary to think that the Western Conference portion of this year's playoffs will have little to do with goaltending experience. I know we have a good offense, and I know we can play good defensively, it's just that something is not clicking right at the moment. If I only knew what that was, I could go in the locker room on Sunday and smack some sense into these boys. But instead I will just hope that they figure it out before playoff time...

I am a Stanley Cup Fan, but also a hockey fan

Greg Wyshynski made a great point in one of his post on Yahoo Sports. After Greg talked about the history ads that were made by the NHL, (see video below) he started talking about the changeover from Olympic hockey to the NHL. Many people thought that the high exposure and great publicity that hockey received in the USA from the amazing games that were played throughout the Olympics would translate into more viewers for the NHL. Now there might have been a few more people watching their hockey teams from their home cities, there was not a huge rush of people to the rink to see people play hockey. The teams that were popular remained popular, and the teams that sucked and had low attendance, continued to have low attendance.


Greg brings up a crucial point about the casual fan. Now I've been an avid fan of the Blackhawks and have been watching almost every single game. The same thing goes for the Chicago Bears. But for the other Chicago sports teams, such as the Bulls and the Cubs, I will classify myself as a casual fan, meaning that I will almost never catch a game, unless it's that time of the day where the only other thing that I could watch on TV is Maury, and most likely I've already seen that episode of Maury so I know that this guy is NOT the father of her kid(s). (She's tested 23 guys so far) But when it comes to the playoffs, every couple of years the Bulls or the Cubs will make the post season. Although I know that they will choke and lose very early on, I will watch those games because it is the playoffs, and for whatever reason, the post season is more exciting and will always draw more viewers. I mean come on, the Superbowl is pretty much a national holiday. Which is why the NFL draws in so many people to watch their game. If not for the playing time between two of the best teams in the league, then at least for the commercials and the party-like atmosphere of the event.

Nobody does postseason like the NFL. There are commercials and previews leading up to the Superbowl for the game, the halftime show, and even the commercials. Does the league suffer at all during the regular season becuase the Superbowl is the only game that matters throughout the entire year? No, in fact, I would say drawing people into the biggest game of the year would expose more people to the sport and would entice some to watch more games throughout the year. The other professional leagues could learn from the NFL and hype up their post-season more so that there are more viewers to watch the games. Lets be honest here, if you don't normally watch a sport, which one would convince you to watch more of the regular season. A normal regular season game, or a championship game. Of course the latter, so with the NHL trying to draw in a larger crowd, it would benefit them to hype up the Stanley Cup and the road leading up to it, which would bring back a majority of the Olympic Hockey fans to tune in and watch. Then once the masses are watching the games, it is now time to convince them that the rest of the season matters as well.

NHL 2010 Playoff Ad: Mark Messier @ Yahoo! Video

My straight jacket is blue

It's been a busy weekend for me so I haven't had much time to talk about this little home and home we had here. Thursday night was absolutely awful. I'm not the kind of person to turn off a game ever (I even stayed at US Cellular field the entire game last year when the Sox lost 20-1 to the Twins...I definitely don't miss Betemit or Colon, but that's a baseball blog for next time...) but we had to turn it off when we saw Huet coming back in for the third period. We even resorted to turning on the Bulls game. THE BULLS GAME, PEOPLE!! and that was the night they got owned by the Heat, too. So all in all it was a very bad day.
Sunday I expected this Hawks team to get even and then some. Letting up 8 goals like that the Thursday before should have filled up their limit break bars to the max, and between that and the always-energetic crowd at the UC, this was set to be a victory. The crowd did indeed stay into it the entire game, and i did too. But something is just not right with these boys, and I want to find out what it is...
I've pretty much been driving myself insane about these two games, hence the title of this blog. I know it's just 2 games, and I know we don't have to see Columbus again this year, and i'm sure even Blue Jackets fans don't even really care that much because they just want college football to start (O-H!). Now i'm just glad that the crazy weekend is over, and I can look foreward to tomorrow's game against the Blues, which i'm sure if nothing else will at least be played more physically. The only fight i've seen the Captain get into was against them, and it was awesome. Maybe he just needs to beat up some Blues players to get the team going again. If it works, why not? ^_^

...and what's the deal with Duke being the only Final 4 team I picked that made it. ugh...

Return Of the Blackhawks

Well in the second game against the Coyotes, the Blackhawks have finally started to show why they were picked at the beginning of the season to win it all. They played great defense, passed the puck around, made some stupendous shots, and with a small bit of Niemi playing some solid goaltending, the Blackhawks pulled of a 2-0 win over the Coyotes to remain above the rest in the West.

With the return of Seabrook tonight, the defense let up 28 shots and provided Niemi with some great support that was needed to grab this shutout. The saves that Niemi had tonight were some of the best that I've seen from him so far this season. You can watch the highlights from the game here. The glove save that he made while flat on his stomach was just unbelievable. He is showing us why he is the goalie that we are to rely on for the rest of the season and through the post season. Niemi has had some rocky points through the middle of the season, but has finally gotten past those points. I am actually glad he had those terrible games in the middle of the season and has emptied them from his system, rather than save the shitty games for now at the end right before the playoffs. A few goalies who are in the middle of their terrible runs are Nabokov and Miller who have let up an unbelievable amount of goals in the games since the Olympic break. Niemi is playing very solid and can be relied upon for the playoffs.

For those of us who have been anxiously awaiting Seabs return, we no longer have to worry. He has come back to a great defense, took up his spot besides Keith, and added some of the depth back to the defense that has had to rely on more people than they have been used to. He contributed to the great play that provided Niemi with his 6th shutout for the season. He made some great checks on the Coyotes and even defended his team and threw down a 'Yote when he poke-checked Niemi a few times too many. The defense is still missing a few players, but is managing very well without them.

Patrick Kane showed his amazing ability once again with a snapshot goal. He has always made us aware of his vision on the ice and his accurate passing, but what we all have wanted from him was more goals. Yes he has the most goals on the team, but Kane has the ability to be one of the league leaders in goals scored. Marian Hossa followed up with a very sweet wrist shot after gaining control of the bouncing puck. He quickly settled the puck and slid it between Bryzgalov's pads. For the rest of the game, the Blackhawks handled the puck and kept it for the majority of the game. The Hawks also held the Coyotes to no goals despite being shorthanded 4 times.

The next game for the Hawks come against the Bluejackets who are almost 29 points lower than the Blackhawks. I wish Joel will continue starting Niemi and maybe Niemi can make a run at being the league leader in shutouts, despite playing 24 games less than Bryzgalov, the current leader with 8 shutouts. With the way that the Hawks have just played against the Coyotes, and how they have been playing more consitenly opver the past few games, I see the Hawks remaining on top of the list, and even forcing the Capitals to win most of their games so that they can be on top with the most points at the end of the season.

Weekend of Craziness

Well I already knew I was just picking teams at random for my NCAA March Madness bracket, but it pretty much blew. Somehow, I had Villinova, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Syracuse. I'm just hoping that Ohio State goes all the way, because that would just be awesome. Next year I'm just gonna pick my teams by their season bracket.

With my non-existent knowledge of college basketball out of the way, time to turn back to hockey. With the SJ Sharks on a huge skid, the Blackhawks awarded just 3 points out of the past 3 games I believe that they both know something that the Coyotes obviously don't know since they decided to go on a playoff run like no other, winning their past 9 games. So what the Sharks and the Hawks have not told the Coyotes is that the Red Wings are in 8th place, and they are healthy! It is true that to be the best, you have to beat the best, but I'd rather play against any other playoff team that beat the Red Wings instead of the only team that makes Detroit noticeable on the sports map.

I see that the Hawks, Coyotes, and Canucks easily win the first round, with the exception of the team that faces the Red Wings. Whoever faces them will have a much more difficult first round that will probably go to the 6th or 7th game of the series. After that, the series are up for grabs with me hoping and drinking so the Blackhawks go all the way.

With all joking aside, the Sharks have really just missed something. Probably their skates and sticks by the look of it, especially with their loss yesterday against the Oilers. In case you didn't catch it or the score afterward, they were destroyed 5 to 1. The game wasn't even close, and this was not the beginning or the end of this terrible streak for them.

Even though the Blackhawks have gotten only half the possible points out of the past 4 games, there were 2 overtime losses to the Capitals and the Coyotes. With both games, we were missing some key defense men and both of the teams are in 1st or 2nd in their conference. We lost one game to the Ducks, which I believe should have gone the other way and would have gone the other way if there was not some poorly made calls by the refs. And then there was the 3 to 0 win we had against the LA Kings, who are a good team, good enough to be currently 5th seed in the West. Overall, I think that the Hawks are still on a very good track, need some improvement and tweaking, but otherwise just fine for the playoffs. That is, besides finding a goalie.