The Wild West

The Wild West

Here come the 'Hawks! The Blackhawks are dominating in the West to become the best team in the NHL for the second time in a row. They have definitely earned it in the 7 game road trip they just returned from. They came back with faces full of pride and success, as they won 6 out of the 7 games. After opening the annual "Circus Trip" with a 5-1 loss in Colorado, it seemed as though the trip was at a loss. They got their head in the game for the second game and stormed back to take six in a row. Finishing off the road trip in Phoenix with a 5-2 win, in front of an audience encumbered in Indian head sweaters, increased their NHL-leading point total to 44.

​With Nikolai Khabibulin injured, Antti Raanta is the back-up goaltender. Coach Quinneville figured he should give Crawford a break, because he started for 14 consecutive games. The first game of the road trip, Raanta made his NHL debut in relief of starter Corey Crawford, who gave up 3 goals before being pulled.  Raanta gave up 2 goals in the same game, not an ideal way to start off your NHL season. Towards the end of the road trip, he gave Raanta another chance… this was a risky move. You have a great record so far on the road and you put in your back-up goaltender? I figure you must have a lot of trust in him to do such a thing. Raanta only gave up 2 goals in this game against the Calgary Flames. Patrick Kane, the star player in the NHL, for the month of November had a few things to say about Raanta's game. "I thought he played really good," Kane said of Raanta. "Both goals he didn't really have a chance on and made numerous saves that he's not really expected to make, but at the same time, he made them. They were big for us. He was our best player tonight for sure, 100 percent and nice to see a start like that out of him. I know he was excited and it seems like he has a bright future, for sure.” He has been playing very well so far with his record being 2-0-1. The loss that he acquired was in a shootout versus the Anaheim Ducks on Dec 6.

​The 'Hawks have not won a game since they returned from their road trip. They are still seeking a win for the month of December, as of December 7th. Injuries that have happened in previous games are starting to heal and players are slowly coming back on the ice. Michal Handzus, a veteran center, returned on Monday night against Edmonton, after suffering from an upper body injury. Andrew Shaw, a center-man, returned to play on Friday, against the Ducks, after suffering a foot injury. Bryan Bickell, a left winger, left the game early against Colorado, after crashing his leg into the goalpost. He is expected to miss 'several weeks', according to 'Hawks GM Stan Bowman. Hopefully he gets better soon! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Go 'Hawks!

Guess who's back!

The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and they sure do show it. Whether it's the line changes, different players, or if they decide to really bring their game face, you never know what's going to happen. The Hawks' stars, such as Toews, Kane, and Seabrook have been taking a back seat and letting the rookies shine throughout the past couple games. Head coach, Joel Quinneville, began to bring up players from our farm team, the Rockford Icehogs. Brad Mills, Jeremy Morin, Brandon Pirri, and Joakim Nordstrom are the rookies who are beginning to become known around the Chicagoland area. With a combined plus/minus rating of +11, as of November 15th, the rookies are starting to command their presence. The veterans have been helping the young ones through, teaching them tips and tricks. Brandon Saad, for example, was a rookie last year. It's starting to be more evident that he's beginning to emulate Jonathan Toews' style of play. He still has many years to come but if he keeps this up, they could have a real star on their hands. The Hawks record so far through the 2013-2014 season is 13-4-2. Although they did not start the season undefeated like last year, this doesn't mean that they're not capable of reaching new heights. The heads of the organization are putting together their ideas and wishes for the team, making anything seem possible…like acquiring old teammates. Goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin is one example. Many fans were questioning whether this was a good move. The heads of the organization were optimistic and believed the move was good for the team. An experienced veteran, 40 years old to be exact, who has had plenty of opportunities to play, was assumed to be a valuable element for the team . He's  only started in two games throughout the season so far, and has been replaced both times. Coach Q claims that he "will not start Khabibulin on home ice until he boosts his confidence".  Quinneville's reasoning is, when he starts Khabi at home and he lets up goals, Khabi will get booed, which will snuff his self esteem. It's a very good coaching decision.  According to 13-time Stanley Cup Winner, Scotty Bowman, a high confidence level is the ultimate key factor in separating average goaltenders from the elite in the NHL. One very recent, exciting trade that the Blackhawks agreed to on Thursday, November 14th was, acquiring  two players from the Florida Panthers for two players from the Hawks. The Hawks traded right winger Jimmy Hayes and D-man Dylan Olsen to the Panthers, while acquiring left winger Phillipe Lefebvre and right winger Kris Versteeg. For those of you who jumped on the band wagon in 2010, after their first cup win, you should be thinking, I've heard of that name before. For those of us who have been watching the Hawks from since we could open our eyes, you should be jumping for joy right now. Kris Versteeg was a solid player who played for the Hawks from 2007-2010, gave his memorable speech/rap at the Hawks rally, then was traded within a few weeks, due to the salary cap. Versteeg is ecstatic that he has returned to Chicago. "It's where my heart is," Versteeg explained, "there were a lot of emotions when I was told by Dale (Tallon) that I have been traded back to Chicago." Well, we are excited to have you back, Steeger, and wish you well in your days as a Hawk. Go Blackhawks!

Welcome back to Hawkey!!

Hawkey is back ladies and gentleman! The defending champion Chicago Blackhawks commenced their season at home versus the Washington Capitals. With upbeat music blaring through the speakers, the traditional banner-raising ceremony was thrilling to all hawks fans watching in the stadium, and at home. Reminiscing through the electrifying season made the fans even more excited for hockey to start again. From rookies and first goals, to record setting games, the season was exhilarating to say the least. But the Blackhawks don't want to focus on what happened last year. "I don't care anymore about what happened last year," Defenseman Duncan Keith told NHL.com. "We've moved on. We're happy to get rings and banners, that's the goal and we want to do it more. We haven't done anything this year. It starts Tuesday." And it sure did start Tuesday. Every player on the team was giving 110% during the game, even though the NHL made a few changes to the way the game is played. The nets were made shallower by four  inches to give the players more room to create plays behind the net. The goalie pads' size was reduced in order to create more scoring chances and opportunities. The last major change that affect all the players is, hybrid icing. In the past, whenever a puck was sent down the ice from behind the center ice red line, a referee would blow the whistle for icing once the retrieving team touched up the puck. If the shooting team touched up first, icing was waived off, and the game continued normally. Under hybrid icing, a referee will use their judgment to see how fast each skater is skating and willdetermine, "If both players were at the same place, and had a race on who will touch the puck first, (this player) would get there first". They will automatically blow the whistle if it is a clear situation in which the defending team will touch up. Thisrule change will is an attempt to decrease the amount of severe hits to the boards. Despite the rule changes, the players gave the fans everything they paid for. Racking up a total of 6 goals, the game showed just a silver lining of the Hawks' capability for this year. They also welcomed 5 new players to the roster. One of the players being Nikolai Khabibulin, or also known as "Khabi".Khabi used to play on the Blackhawks, but was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in the season of 2008-09, the season before the first cup was won. Another one of the players, Ben Smith, played as a stand-in last year. His name was not officially on the active roster, but was in the system. He played in one of the crucial games in the playoffs last year and got his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup because of it. The other players added to the roster are, Michael Kostka, 27, Jimmy Hayes, 23, and Joakim Nordstrom at 21. These players are not quite yet a Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane, but with practice in the NHL, they could be. The players were chosen for both finesse and a higher caliber of play than most of the minor league players. This year the Blackhawks roster is filled to the brim with veterans, and only a few rookies. With this mixture of players, the Blackhawks have the odds in their favor. Literally. They are favored by many to win the cup for a second year in a row. To help prove the odds, the Blackhawks have already broken a few records. The opening ceremony broke TV cable records across the US.  An average number of 935,000 viewers watched the game, peaking at 1.045 million viewers throughout the night. The rating across the Chicagoland area was at a 7.5, breaking another TV cable record for Chicago. It was truly the most fantastic commencement ceremony to begin the NHL season. Let's hope for the best of what this season brings. Go Hawks!

Playoffs round 1

How about those Hawks?! They have officially advanced to the second round of the playoffs. In the first round, they played the Minnesota Wild and beat them in five games. The Wild’s number one goalie, Niklas Backstrom was injured during warm-ups before game 1 started. This means the back up goaltender, Josh Harding, who hadn’t played a game since late January, received the okay from the coach to start in the playoff game.  The Blackhawks won the first and second games of the series at home, but lost the third game in Minnesota. At the end of game four, the series was 3-1 hawks. Game five was back in Chicago and the positive attitude of the home atmosphere boosted their confidence. The Minnesota Wild dominated the first period up until the Hawks scored the first goal of the game. This seemed to deflate the Wild’s drive to make a comeback in the series.  The Hawks ended up winning the game 5-1. They now wait for their opponent to be official for round two. If the Detroit Red wings comeback against the Anaheim Ducks in their series, we will be facing them. I am currently watching the Detroit-Anaheim game and I caught myself cheering for the Red Wings, due to the hope for battling our biggest rival for the last time prior to next years’ NHL realignment. Detroit- Chicago? What an awesome series! These two teams have gone back to the early years of the NHL in 1926. Otherwise, we will play the San Jose Sharks due to their 4-0 sweep over the Vancouver Canucks. (UHMM HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!) The Wild put in over 10 million dollars in precious salary cap money to the two “stars” of the team, Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.  Looks like those stars weren’t so bright this time around. The Hawks have won the Presidents’ Trophy, which goes to the best team in the NHL and by fans are expected to win the Stanley Cup. One of the rookies on our team, Brandon Saad has been nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy, which is the Rookie of the Year award. There are such high expectations for the Hawks this year, due to the NHL record setting streak in the beginning of the year. The last three times an NHL team had such a streak, they have been Stanley Cup Champions. We should all hope for the Stanley Cup to return to Chicago within 49 years. Stay positive and let’s go Hawks!!

Good run while it lasted..

Well ladies and gentlemen...although the historic streak is over, the Hawks are still on top of things... their most recent game, against the Dallas Stars, was predicted, by me :), to be a rough game.  The stars are in 16th place for their powerplay and we are in 15th place. Their penalty kill is pretty good too.  We are in 8th place and they are in 9th.  Seeing these numbers i thought that we were actually going to have a tough time winning this one. I know, doubting my boys, how dare I. But then while eating dinner and watching the game, I noticed they automatically begann to outplay, outskate, and even jam in a few on the Stars goalie.  By the end of the first period it was 4-0 Hawks.  By the end of the second period it was 7-0 hawks...i know obsurd right? NO. The Hawks have this thing, a chemistry that no other team has. They sure proved my prediction wrong that night, by time the stars scored, it was late in the third period, and surprinsingly, there were still a lot of people there cheering their team on, like there was still hope left for them to score and win this thing.. i mean  seriously...even i got depressed watching the fans sit there waiting for their teams to score, because ive been through that before. A couple years ago, I went with my dad to go see a vancouver *nails on chalkboard sound* game and they lost 8-2...and the same year i went to see vancouver play them again and they lost 6-2...i have never heard the UC that quiet with 21,000 people in attendance... So im going to wrap this thing up by saying that even thought the hawks have lost two games in regulation time, they are still the team to beat... lets just hope the Avs dont win again tonight! GO HAWKS!!! :)

Congratulations!

Emery! First back up goaltender in history to be 10-0!! Congrats!  Go hawks!

Hawks vs. Wild 3/5/13

So the hawks played yesterday and boy did they come through or what?! 4 goals in one period? well, i mean they have done it before but seriously! How awesome is that? Im so happy they won!! the streak is livin on!

Hawks vs Detroit 3-3-13

The chicago blackhawks are on a roll!! twenty two games without a loss? thats just absolutely absurd! the blakchawks most recently played rival, Detroit Red-Wings...(mmhmm...Detroit-SUX) and defeated them in a shootout.  The only one racking up goals for that game was Patrick Kane. He scored both the shootout goal and the only goal in regulation time.  With approximately three minutes left, a genius from the other team, name not to be said, decided "hmmm i might as well throw this puck into the penalty box so i can get it later." Yeah, more like 10 seconds later. Thank god for that foolish mistake by the Wings. With about a minute and a half left on the powerplay Viktor Stalberg made a B-E-A-utiful pass to Kaner and boom! goes the dynamite! our hawks are back! There's only thirty seconds left with one a piece and another genius throws the puck out of play to get a second Delay of Game penalty! It was crazy. After a vigorous and intense game of OT, the hawks bring it into a shootout. Crawford makes 3 gorgeous stops in the last shots of the game and Kaner, oh Kaner, with his dancing abilities he should join the Rockettes or a Disney-on-Ice show er something! He danced around the goalie and made an exquisite shot into the back of the net... Ladies and Gentleman, OUR BOYS ARE BACK!!  GO HAWKS!