Early Battles With the Civil War Soldier-Hornets...or...Something

The 'Hawks split a home and home in the first two games of the preseason, winning in Columbus 4-3, and in regular season fashion, losing at home 4-3. Some thoughts from these two close games:

-Hey, Jonathon Toews can score on the Power Play! Maybe he can actually turn a unit that has been close to dead last in the league on the Power Play around a little bit.

-Wait, did I say *close* to dead last? Well, last year it actually was dead last. Hurry up and get good, Jonathan.

-And then of course, Toews has to go away for three weeks because of an injury. Someone tell Kenny Hitchcock that it's the fucking preseason.

-Who the hell is Manny Malhotra? And how did he score two goals on Khabibulin?

-Speaking of, which Khabibulin will show up this year? Last year's, or the one from the year before that was a $7.25 million headache? Early returns are not promising.

-Yanic Perreault, where were your three-point games last year?

-Robert Lang...decent. Needs to prove: a) that he's not Adrian Aucoin, and b) that he's not a Red Wings "system" player. Lapointe, I'm looking in your direction.

-Tuomo Ruutu and Jason Williams are coming up big on the assists. Both need to step it up this year to justify their staying with the team...Ruutu more than anyone.

-No scoring from Martin Havlat yet...maybe because he's not playing...because if he gets injured WE ARE SO SCREWED. Savard may not be a good coach, but he's not a complete idiot either...I think.

-Did anyone see the schedule? 4 preseason games in a row? Damn, why?

Anyway, home games tomorrow and Sunday. Players will be greeting the fans before the game. Great opportunity to tell them that they better do well this year or your bookie will kill you. Take advantage.

He plays hockey, so that means he can sneak you some beer

So apparently James Wisniewski is going to be greeting DePaul students as they come back to classes on Friday.

DePaul students will likely respond by saying, "Who the hell is James Wisniewski."

I guess this is what qualifies as "publicity" for the 'Hawks. See, what would have been better would have been to send Jeff Hamilton. Students could also win a date with him. See, that would be kind of funny, because it's just like the movie! And...what?...why did they send him to Carolina? Didn't he have a hat trick last year?

Well, that just sucks. Way to lose again, Chicago.

A Plea in earnest to the one they call "JR"

Jeremy, buddy...

Please, come home. Haven't you traveled long enough?

I mean, first, for whatever godforsaken reason, you spent some time in Phoenix. You should have known that hockey doesn't belong in Phoenix. How many Stanley Cups did you win there? Yeah, that's what I thought. Please, they don't even know what it looks like. I think they were even worse in attendance than we were last year.

You went to Philadelphia too. Wow. I bet that was rewarding. We can't all work for the always-understanding Bobby "We didn't tell Roger Nielsen to go get cancer" Clarke, but you were lucky enough. So was Amonte. So was Zhamnov. You were all on a playoff line called "Blackhawk Down." Did that humiliation win you any Stanley Cups?

Of course not. So you went to LA. You were the big man in LA. Only problem is that Anaheim is the big team in LA, and they haven't even been there as long. You watched as they won the Cup last year, but not your Kings. Was it worth it?

And now you're going to San Jose? Come on! Haven't you had enough of this? Come home, already. Oh sure, Chicago's not going to win the Stanley Cup this year or any time soon...unless Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Martin Havlat become Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Joe Thornton, respectively, overnight...oh, and Khabibulin would have to stop every shot he saw.

Okay, I know. We're not the best team in the League right now. But we all had fun when you were around, didn't we? Remember how you made fun of Patrick Roy in the 1996 Playoffs? Remember when you scored that goal on him and did that "ear ringing" thing? See, that was fun! Wasn't it?

You ran your mouth a lot back then. You still like doing that. The Blackhawks sorely need a guy that does that. Please, hockey hasn't been interesting in this town since...well, since you were around, really. We need that again. 'Hawks hockey doesn't even rank above soccer in this town anymore. You may not win a Stanley Cup, JR, but you sure as hell could make things fun again. Isn't that more worth it: to make Chicago a hockey town again?!

Dude, seriously, come home. Don't worry: Dale Tallon would sign you. He has no trouble signing washed up, useless veterans anyway (See: Bondra, Peter)... Uh, I mean, you've even said once that you'd "Always be a Blackhawk." I can't find when or where you said that, but you did! Don't deny it! And anyway, you wouldn't be ostracized for leaving. You'd be hailed as a hero again! "The Wayward Son Returns Home." It would be awesome. Fans would come to say goodbye. 35-year-old divorced soccer moms would sleep with you because they "thought you were cute" when they were teenagers. Wouldn't that be cool?!

And even if the Stanley Cup thing is so important to you, remember this: your ONLY Stanley Cup Finals appearance came with the 'Hawks.

I'm just saying.

They Aren't in Last Place Yet Because "Ch" comes before "Co"

(thanks http://teamtirecover.com/)

So things are going to change a bit around here...

I've been talking about it for a long time, and I guess I'm finally going to convert this blog into a Chicago Blackhawks fan blog.

I never had a huge amount of readers to begin with, so I have been writing this blog with mostly selfish motivations. That said, I found out that my best and most passionate posts were about the Blackhawks. This, coupled with the fact that there is only the venerable Kill Bill Wirtz that talks solely about the 'Hawks (see link on the left) as far as I can see, led me to this decision.

As an extremely busy law student, I probably won't update as much as I'd like. As this will now be a Blackhawks blog, I can probably count on few people really caring that much about that. So that's good.

I will still comment on other blogs that are either sports or non-sports related. I just thought it was time to steer my blogging into a different direction, especially considering that the majority of the blogs I read are sports-related.

So here it is, the second (?) official blog that deals solely with the goings on of the Chicago Blackhawks. Some preliminary thoughts before the preseason even begins:
-I hate Bill Wirtz
-I know that there are at least a lot of "closet" 'Hawks fans out there ("Is it safe to admit that I'm a Blackhawks fan?"- come on, you know who you are)
-I think Dale Tallon is neither a genius nor trying very hard

-I know that this team is probably not going to the playoffs

-I have never been a fan of Denis Savard as a coach
-My wife would probably leave me for Tuomo Ruutu

So here we go. I'll come out with a season preview a little later in the preseason. Remember, I'm hopelessly optimistic, so I'd like to see them play a few games first.