What Bowman is...

Essentially, that's what he's going to be, the consultant to tell the owners who to keep and who to chuck. No one stirs up opinions of Hawks' fans, other than raised beer prices, like Dale Tallon. However, it was unclear who would know it was time to pull the trigger on Tallon, or keep him around. McDonough? Not a hockey guy. Rocky? He had the foresight to put Pulford out to pasture, but then again, the 4 year old who always has to wear a helmet living next door could have figured that one out. Bowman will give the Hawks a solid, very solid, hockey guy to look this organization up and down, with the reputation that anyone would have to respect his opinion. Now hopefully he'll inform us that there was a glitch that will relieve us of paying Khabibulin.

If we carry this Office Space metaphor out, clearly Toews is Peter, and I would guess Havlat and Lang to be Michael Bolton and Samir, with Wiz clearly as the redneck neighbor. Some would argue that Havlat is Jennifer Aniston's character, but from what I can tell she's much more physical.

Suck it Detroit

Scotty Bowman has committed to the indian... Watch the press conference live at 2:00 right.... here

Looking at draft picks... while drunk

So it's an odd coincidence that Sam mentioned the baseball games that are going on tonight in an earlier post - because after a 12 hour day at work I decided to not go home right away, but to go to the Billy Goat and watch the end of the games.  I got there around the 6th inning, celebrated the Cubs victory then hopped the El home.  Once I got there - I drank more beer and saw this picture on Yahoo Sports:

OK - Great... Stamkos signed with the lightning.. why does that matter?  We all knew it was coming... I'm sure he'll be able to beat at least one of the ex-penguins out of a roster spot... 

Then I remembered seeing this picture on the Hawks site...

So that got me thinking... Are there more pictures of draft picks with this stupid pose... Turns out there are fucking tons of them... Very quickly I was able to find:

Pat White from the Canucks....

Taylor Ellington also from the Canucks...

And Brendan Smith from the Red Wings... what a dick

Then I saw this picture of Eric Johnson of the Blues...

 and I nearly choked on the last of my beer... was this the best of the pictures they took of this guy that day?  They had to take more than one right?  And this is the best they got... 

So by now I've run out of beer... and while the rest of my roommate's beer looked tempting I decided to switch to Dewar's because I'm classy like that... 

While searching for the pointing the stick at the camera I also found a few of these types of poses...

Is this really the best that the NHL can do for their future superstars?  Why does every draft pick have to have the same few poses like they're the gayest senior portraits the world has ever seen...  

But it turns out it's even worse when a few teams/players end up choosing a different style...

Any picture has gotta be better than posing with a guy who ends up looking like a creepy uncle who wants to watch you in the shower because he's your "owner"

Now here's a fucking good picture for a future perennial All-Star... 

Who wouldn't want this guy as their captain?  I've never caught a fish that fucking big before...

By the way.. the entire time I've been writing this I've been watching Generation Kill on HBO (yeah.. i'm so fancy I drink scotch and pay for HBO)... but the show rules... If you never watched The Wire.. you blew it.. If you have access to HBO and you don't watch this.. you might as well be a Red Wings fan...

I also apologize for my first drunk post.. but I can promise it won't be the last one...

Watching the baseball this week...

It is rare, if that even comes close to describing it, that both baseball teams in this town play important games at the same time, if at all. But watching these games last night, and looking forward to the rest of the cubs' fans annoying Wisconsin residents and the White Sox stay in a Minneapolis garage I can't help but look forward to this winter when the Hawks will once again be playing important, big games.

Not since the Men of Four Feathers were skating on the 185-foot surface across the street have they consistently had big games. Games where you spend the whole day with a strange energy, there's a real buzz in the air, where work is an impossibility, where you try and think of new and creative ways to call the Blues or Red Wings 3rd line center a faggot all day long. Sure, there were a couple last season, but deep down we knew we weren't going to make the post season. Barring some real goofiness from Savard, always a possibility, or a litany of injuries, and knowing the Hawks training staff, maybe that's more than a possibility, the Hawks will be a playoff team, if not a conference contender. And we will have those days again, which we more than deserve, quite frankly.

More video games...

Ahhh fuck - Now I want to buy this video game even more. Puck Daddy has a really cool interview with the creators of NHL '09. It's too much to explain here but basically you create your own player, join a team and play in an online hockey universe where you'll compete with players all over the world. At least I think that's what they're saying...

There's still not much else to say - other than the fact that the Hawks are selling a shit-ton of season tickets, from 3,400 last year to over 10,000 now... I think as a new partial plan STH I'm included in this number. All I know is that I'll be going to more hockey games this year than I have in any other year.

Do we really have to wait over 2 months til the season starts?

Oh, and Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself

By the by, Matt has been gracious enough to let me help out here occasionally, and I hope I can bring some attitude and humor to this that my roadie-for-Tool good looks would indicate I can. (Yep, a mention of Tool after a Stones reference in the title. I got range, bitches!)

Little about myself, been a Hawk fan since I could stand, and stand I did in the old Stadium from the age of 8, which led me to nearly being thrown on the ice around 7 times. I'm a local comedian around town, hopefully I'll catch you at a show, God knows I could use the audience. Oh, and I will be reviving The Blue Line this season, The Fans' Program, and we hope to put some of our best stuff on this site too. So anyway, cheers, and Let's Go Hawks! (What a dorky fucking ending. So much for that attitude I was talking about....)

Cold Water on Winter Classic, and I Don't Mean Bud Light

Not that it becomes me to be the wet blanket when most are excited about something, (I’m far too skinny to be a blanket.) but there are aspects to the upcoming Winter Classic at Wrigley that make me a little urpy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s exhilarating to see that the Hawks have come so far in such a short time that the NHL would want to grant us its showcase event to highlight that. There is no doubt it will be an occasion most will talk about for years. And the opportunity for the Hawks to announce their return to prominence on the ice on national TV against our biggest rivals who just happen to be holding the world’s most prized beer mug is obviously a prospect that is drool-worthy. But not everything syncs up for me.

Firstly, it would seem our most dedicated fans are going to be the ones screwed most by the location. Sure, everyone’s going to want to be at this. But they’ll all be fighting for the right to freeze their ass off in order to not see much. The sightlines are going to be downright awful. There isn’t one layout I can think of that will provide even most of the 40,000 with a view of anything happening on the ice, except if they move one end as close to home plate as they can and even then those toward the outfield won’t get much of a look in. This is a plus as it’ll be harder for the mouth breathers from the Motor City to toss any mollusks on the ice, and they’ll land mostly in left field. Anyone who’s seen Soriano play defense would be used to the sight of something clumsily flapping around out there.

Secondly, the ticket situation. Does anyone in their right mind trust Bettman to get anything right? Don’t be shocked if not every season ticket holder gets in, and partial season ticket holders are 50-50 at best. And why do Red Wing season ticket holders get a shot at all? I understand Penguin fans got one last year, but Ralph Wilson Stadium holds 80,000 people. If I don’t miss my calculations, that’s twice as much as Wrigley. What can Red Wing fans add, other than a curious odor? Expect more fights than usual on New Year’s Eve with these fuckers crawling around.

Lastly, this is a great event that draws attention to the NHL, which is so badly needed even teenage girls would blush. But after last year’s the powers that be made all the right noises about not wanting to overdo it. Well, that went out the window, didn’t it? You can be sure there will be another one the following season in the New Yankee Stadium, and then Toronto or Montreal or the Bruins will be clamoring for their own. This will be yet another idea Bettman drives into the ground for the NHL. It seems to be what he does best.\

All that being said, I’ll still find my way into Wrigley on Jan. 1, and love every minute of it. If I remember any of them.

Another introduction

So I'm happy to say that I'm not going at this site all on my own anymore... For anyone who is super observant, you might have noticed that the last post had a credit on the end that said "Posted by Matthew K."... that's me.  I've posted everything on this site so far - but not anymore.  There will be a new writer joining me and posting hopefully pretty often.  I'm sure this will really help during the season since I'm probably not going to be able to watch every single game or hear every rumor about the team.  

We've also had some brief conversations about other things we could be doing both on this site and in other areas.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Lets see how long it takes for him to get quoted on the New York Times...

Expect his first post sometime soon.. until then.. there is absolutely nothing new going on with the Hawks.. except the occasional "classic" game on the NHL Network.. but.. I am about to take the Hawks to the finals in NHL '94.. there's something for you

Ain't no cure for the summertime blues...

So the Hawks finally did it - they pulled off the trade we've all been waiting for. Pascal Pelletier will finally be putting on a Blackhawk sweater....

Well - maybe not.. Summer is boring for hockey news - The Pelletier for St. Pierre trade is really the only thing that has happened since the press conference.

Mike Haviland became an assistant coach, I guess that's kind of exciting too...

Oh, and the Winter Classic logo was released - I dig it..



The Cubs minor league team in Peoria, named the Chiefs, acted like they're from Charlestown and had a massive brawl yesterday.. Some schmuck tried to throw a ball into the other team's dugout.. missed and hit a fan who had to be taken to the hospital... nice

Sadly Ryno didn't get to play Reggie Dunlop since he wasn't at the game..


And I feel like this blog is official now, as Forklift pointed out in the comments for a previous post, I got a link from Stu Hackel over at a little paper called the New York Times - Thanks Stu!

More importantly though in terms of blogging - I also got my first negative comment in the same post from a Detroit fan - Adam (if that is his real name) proclaims that "everyone knows that people love cockmeat" - very profound. I won't be responding to douchebag comments like that always but thought it was nice to point out my first one.. kinda like how store owners frame the first dollar they make when they open.

So Adam - thank you for welcoming me.. and eat a bowl of dicks

Here's hoping something exciting happens soon..

A conversation with Mike Quigley's Office

After reading all the negative comments on the articles posted today - I felt it was my job to send Mike Quigley some love.. Here is an email I sent and a response from his office:

From: HereComeTheHawks to commquigley Dear Commissioner,

Here Come The Hawks is proud to call you our County Commissioner - even if I'm not totally sure what it is that you do and actually I don't think I live in your district either.. but that's besides the point.

I'd like to say we all appreciate your support of the Hawks, even if others don't really get that it's all in good fun. Detroit does indeed suck, only partly because they just can't seem to take a joke. Have you had much of a response to the resolution yet? Either pro or con? What exactly did the resoultion say? Is there a place to read it online?

Also, I have to try and since you're in politics - can you get me tickets to the outdoor game?

Hope to see you at a game - Go Hawks

-Matthew

From: commquigley@aol.com to me

Hi Matthew-

Thanks for your email. People from Detroit are not reacting well to our resolution. It was all in good fun to get people excited about the game.

Unfortunately the Commissioner does not have any access to additional tickets. I think they are giving priority to season ticket holders at Wrigley and the Blackhawks if you know any season ticket holders.

Kimberly
Office of Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley


Kimberly was also kind enough to copy the resolution in with the email too - The letters in the final line were all normal - so I just took a stab at seeing what they'd actually be..

RESOLUTION COMMEMORATING THE NHL’S

SECOND WINTER CLASSIC AT WRIGLEY FIELD

SPONSORED BY MIKE QUIGLEY, COOK COUNTY COMMISSIONER

WHEREAS, the Chicago Blackhawks have been a Chicago sports tradition since 1926; and

WHEREAS, the Chicago Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup three times, in 1961, 1938, and 1934; and

WHEREAS, the Chicago Blackhawks played at the Coliseum from 1926-1929, the Chicago Stadium from 1929-1994 and currently plays at the United Center; and

WHEREAS, the National Hockey League has announced that New Year’s day 2009 will feature yet another installment of the epic and long time rivalry between two of the original six franchises of the National Hockey League – the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings; and

WHEREAS, this game will be the NHL’s second Winter Classic and will take place at Wrigley Field; and

WHEREAS Wrigley Field, which opened in 1914, is the second-oldest major league baseball park; and

WHEREAS, the Friendly Confines is going to be covered in ice for this historical hockey game; and

WHEREAS, the game will be the third regular-season outdoor game in NHL history and harkens back to games of youth playing on frozen lakes and brings an excitement to the sport like none other; and

WHEREAS, the match up will be the 701^st meeting between the Red Wings and the Blackhawks; and

WHEREAS, no NHL opponents have played more regular-season games against one another than the Red Wings and the Blackhawks; and

WHEREAS, the Blackhawks through a mixture of young talent and veteran savvy are bringing the roar back; and

WHEREAS, Chicago’s selection for this auspicious occasion further illustrates our city and county’s Olympic spirit.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Cook County Board of Commissioners, gathered here this 22nd day of July 2008, wishes the Chicago Blackhawks much success in this historic game; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that January 1 , 2009 shall be known as “Chicago Blackhawks Day” in Cook County; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Cook County Board of Commissioners have declared Wrigley Field and the surrounding neighborhoods to be an Octopus Free Zone; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of the rEsoluTion be pResented tO the DetroIT red WingS, the Detroit City CoUncil, and the Chicago BlaCkhawKS.

Wrigley is soon to be an Octopi-Free Zone

Sounds like we have a pretty damn good County Commissioner here in Cook County. Mike Quigley has written a resolution to make Jan. 1st "Chicago Blackhawks Day" and make the area surrounding Wrigley an "Octopus Free Zone".

As an added bonus - he included a secret message in the last line "DETROIT SUCKS".

If you check out the comments section of that article, you'll get to read the thoughts of a bunch of people with no sense of humor, also known as people from Detroit. What a bunch of tools..

It seems like the picture from yesterday isn't official yet - The NHL still hasn't decided where the rink will be on Wrigley. Seems like it'd make more sense to have one goal near home plate with the other in center. Hopefully they'll have plenty of time to figure it out since baseball will be long over by then.



Bobby Hull continues to show how much he loves booze (and one of the reasons why we all love him). During an interview at the press conference yesterday he talked about how cold it was in Wrigley when he used to watch Bears games there - and made the reporter nervous when he started talking about bringing his flask into the game and taking sips throughout the game. Something I do all the time at the United Center...

There's also this YouTube video - around 30 seconds in you can hear Bobby say he knows a good bar nearby. It was probably 1:00 in the afternoon..



These cocktease rumors about Kopitar just won't go away..

Finally, PuckDaddy, Greg Wyshynski, asks a question we all fear. Can we trust the NHL with ticket distribution?

Really? The SuperBowl? We're so fucked...

A press conference with no news

Want to know when tickets go on sale? Want to know if you'll have to sell a kidney (or your kid) to afford them?

Yeah.. me too.

The press conference, or at least what I saw and read of it, didn't really announce much at all. They did give us this though.


Beautiful...

Over at Icethetics they've got the design that the Hawks might be wearing on the ice. The idea for throwbacks for this game doesn't really make too much sense to me since both teams have mostly had the same sweater for their entire existence (and they're two of the greatest uniforms in all of sports). It's not like the Indian head was wearing a scarf at one point like the penguin. Anyway... here it is


I don't know of every sweater the hawks have worn.. but from what I've seen this looks like the only one where it's immediately noticeably different than the one they wear now.

Crawford signed an extension for another year.. When is something going to be done about the goalie situation? Trade someone (Khabby) to the someone (Kings) already..

Some company got hired to head the Hawks ad campaign too. Whatever they come up with has to be better than those "Martin Havlat is a Blackhawk... and very fast" ads that they had two years ago.. christ were those terrible..

O Captain! My Captain!

It finally is official... Toews will be wearing the "C" on his sweater for hopefully the rest of his career. We all knew this was going to happen and I don't think I've heard anyone anywhere say this is a bad idea. EDIT: Just after writing that, I read this written by Greg Wyshynski (aka PuckDaddy). Although he agrees it's the right decision - he gives different views. I'm still not sweating it.

Bring on any comparison to Yzerman or Crosby.. Actually - I don't think Toews will ever cry as much as Crosby.

At the convention Toews was probably the most sought after autograph. He evidently got into a shouting match with someone from the Front Office who said he had to stop after his allotted time. I'm not sure how much longer he ended up staying but he definitely stood up for the fans.. what a fucking guy..

The opening ceremony was amazing. Toews gets the C, #3 gets retired. Classy move from the Hawks to retire it for both Magnuson and Pilote. Pilote deserves it for how good he was and what he did for the team. But also honoring Magnuson who was always a fan favorite is a great move. This front office really seems to get it..

Aside from buying a partial season ticket plan (because, why the fuck not?) and failing to get Bobby Hull's autograph.. the only other thing I did was attend some of the seminars. My favorite was easily the "Voices of the Blackhawks" with Foley, Olczyk, Murray and Wiederman. Foley, as usual, was fucking hilarious. The best question asked was about his famous rant about Karpovtsev.

Welcome Back, Pat.

All in all - I have to say the Rocky Wirtz was probably one of the most popular men at the conference. Every time I saw him he was surrounded by fans asking for pictures or autographs. Fans would have probably lined up to punch his old man in the face - now they're lining up just to say "thanks".

My camera basically decided to suck balls - but here are a few pictures I took.

Fans watching the opening ceremony in the lobby since the ballroom was full

The only poorly planned part of the convention - lines for autographs.. This one is for Bobby Hull

After failing to get Hull's autograph I ran into Rocky with the fans.. the line to meet him was long too so I just took pictures

What a creepy fucking smile...

Huge numbers of people listening to Wirtz, McDonough, Blunk and Tallon.. also some new ticket guy they hired.. I don't remember his name though.. chris something..

Other random thoughts I have will be uploaded later. Did anyone else attend... see anything cool? Run into Hull or others at the bar? Let me know in the comments

Weekend plans

So with the schedule out I'm sure everyone has been looking it over.. figuring out which games you MUST go see live.. which games you'll have to come up with an excuse to get out of hanging out with your girlfriend so you can watch on TV and which games will be the hardest... whatever

Instead - what you should be doing is going over to On The Forecheck and checking out the NHL Super Schedules they have. Holy shit - this is a numbers geek wet dream. I've already copied out the Hawks schedule and saved it for future reference.

Interesting fact - EDIT: OK - I lied - The Hawks are actually travelling 38,557 miles... Calgary travels the second most.. The Hawks are 19th.. so i guess they're not that badass

The Islanders travel the least with only 28,126 - pussies.

So there's that.. there's the hawks convention.. there's the Dark Knight.. and there's the fact that I just bought a replacement sega so I can play NHL '94 again. It'll be a fucking miracle if I get laid this weekend..

In other stories..

There's a great article about Rocky over on the Sun Times... I can't believe that I'm looking forward to getting a chance to shake the hand of the owner of the Blackhawks...

It's odd to see really good writing about hockey in the Chicago paper.. they had this headline- Blues sign Wozniewski, and for a split second I thought they had just fucked up the spelling and somehow the Blues had signed Wisniewski. I wouldn't have put it past any mainstream coverage of hockey.. especially the hawks.

Mirtle wrote about this article too on his site.. and linked to this site.. fuckin a!

I'm a total fucking nerd for being excited about this... expect photos sometime this weekend... probably mostly of me just standing in line.

Schedule out

As I'm writing this, SportsCenter is doing that retarded "Title Town" segment and they're focusing on Detroit. Fuck that and Al Kaline. ESPN continues to have a hard-on for Three Doors Down...

MrMiller over at BHZ has put together a good looking schedule.. which is good since I have no idea how to do that

The Hawks don't get to take on the Wings til Oct. 25th so that means no great late game comebacks on opening night against the biggest rivals. We all should have known that after that game we were in for a big fucking year.

Hopefully seeing all three Calder candidates play in the same game will start us off with a big jump. Especially if the hawks shit all over them like they did on Tony O. night last year.

Campbell and Ovie are already well aquainted with each other


Hawks home opener is against the Preds.. I hear they have good portability value but other than that there isn't much to write about them

The season actually opens in NYC against the Rangers.. but since I don't get to make jokes about Avery and Jagr anymore I really couldn't give a shit about that team. The Rangers are opening the season with two games against Tampa Bay in Prague...

Home and Home series with the wings leading up to the big outdoor game then Nashville on the 10th and 11th of Jan.

Hockey Jesus brings the Pens in on Feb. 27th... if the Hawks can contine improving this could be huge for the NHL..

16 of the 26 games in Jan and Feb are on the road.. huge

15 of the last 21 games are at home.. 9 of those against the central... even bigger

The wait is over

So the schedule still hasn't come out yet - I guess it's harder to make all these changes than they thought. I heard a rumor that there were some teams (the devils?) that were holding things up and they're going to be fined, but that's probably bullshit.

The NHL did finally announce at least one game, the biggest regular season game of the year. Wrigley field is now officially the site of this year's outdoor Winter Classic. Last year's game was, in short, tits.

What will 40,000 people chanting "Detroit Sucks" sound like?

This game will be epic.

No word on how to get tickets yet besides buying full season ticket plans - which I don't have and can't afford.

The hawks pretty much owned Detroit last year - I hope they can do it again.

Blog Wars

Since this is a new blog, I'm stuck writing for a what's probably a very very small audience. Probably just a couple people from over at BHZ... if any. So what's a good way to get noticed? How about calling out a bigger (read:better) blog? Lets see how it works...

I am appalled that Barry Melrose Rocks has done absolutely NOTHING to wish our favorite former ESPN announcer a happy birthday. Maybe now that he's off coaching whoever Pittsburgh failed to re-sign they don't care about him as much, but don't get down Barry, some of us still love you. BMR - the real Barry Melrose is awaiting your apology.

Happy Birthday Barry


In slightly related news - there seems to be rumors that Barry might be coaching our own Brent Seabrook this season. Or that Seabrook might end up in Ottawa. I hope he goes no where and instead maybe give up Barker - which also seems like a big possibility.

Also - the Convention Schedule has been released - I'll be doing my best to not miss any parts of the convention but the highlights for me will definitely be the mini-1961 team reunion (Hull, Mikita, McDonald and Pilote), the Q&A with Hockey Operations and the panel of Hull, Mikita, Kane and Toews.

Ticketmaster jumping the gun?

I can't find anything about this on NHL.com or the Blackhawks site.. but it looks like they're at least announcing Pre-Season pretty soon. I just got an email asking me to buy tickets to these games..

Click picture for larger image

It seems tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10:00..

Williams is gone - The schedule is delayed

Williams signed a one-year deal with the Thrashers over the weekend for $2.2 Million. Not bad since he missed so much time last year. He'll get a longer deal after this season if he stays healthy.

Williams evidently wasn't too happy though and tried to kill some guy named Scott Stevens with an 8-inch butcher knife. I, for one, am glad to not have someone like that on this team - that kind of shit can really bring down team morale. Thanks to The Pensblog for the link.

Havlat to Toronto? It'd be hard to miss a guy who never plays..

I thought the schedule was coming out today - evidently it's coming out on Wednesday now. So with that and Comcast replaying a game from 94 against the leafs to give us a reminder of Foley there'll actually be some things going on...

oh yeah.. there's some sort of convention too this weekend.. and a movie about batman or something..

Quick Update for the Weekend

A few quick notes before I go listen to Rich Harden's debut for the cubs...

Joe Palmer (yet again no bio page - but he's likely to go back to Ohio State for his junior year anyway) and Antti Niemi had another great game in prospects camp, both shutting out the other team during their ice time. Red went on to win 4-2 though off goals by Radja (who had two), Sweatt, and Reddick (Empty Net). Pleckaitis and Leblanc scored for the white team.

Akim Aliu found two different dance partners this time in Tyler McNeely and Dan Bertram.

Don't wear baggy clothes if you're going to try out of the Ice Crew... that's just poor form

James Mirtle ranks Jason Williams as one of the best depth forwards still available. With the signing of Campbell and no movement yet - I'd say his days as a Hawk are done but he'd be great for another team still looking for someone to lead a PP.

Captains, Beatings and Hunchbacks..

Will Toews being wearing the C on his sweater next year? Probably.

"It's a natural fit," Savard said at rookie camp at the Edge in Bensenville. "Personally, when I sit down with the staff and my coaches, I know that I've got my mind made up. I don't care how young you are. He's that type of person that is going to be a great captain for us. But we'll see before I make a final decision."

I'd expect an announcement about that at the convention next weekend... At least the days of this jagoff are behind us.

For the record, Kyle Beach seems to deny beating a garbage collector with a baseball bat and he doesn't do drugs.. good to know. He is guilty of what the Sun-Times is calling "hunchback imitation" though, but honestly, aren't we all a little guilty of that on occasion?

Finally, it seems I'm not the only genius starting a hockey blog in the middle of July. Happy anniversary to Melt Your Face Off

Scrimmage Recap

Listen to yesterday's scrimmage here - I only half listened to it because it's just not that exciting to listen to Troy Murray and John Wiedeman call play by play with a bunch of names I don't recognize for the most part but here are some highlights:

• Evidently there were close 1,000 people watching the scrimmage. Last year when I went (on a holiday) there were probably only 50-75 people and that's when Kane and Toews were actually playing.
  
• HawksQuarters (the only place you need to go for cheap plastic crap with an indian head on it!) is evidently open 365 days a year - who knew? Someone should at least give those poor bastards a day off on Thanksgiving or something
• Smith scores again - that brings his total to four. He also gets an assist yet I don't read or hear much about him and his chances to make the team.
• Mike Radja has 7 points (2 G, 5 A) and is looking for a contract
  
• Aliu lost his cool and was looking for a fight but didn't get one but also got another point on the game winning goal
  
• White finally wins a game coming back from being down 4-0 to win 5-4.
  

We also got our first two fights of the scrimmage. Brennan Turner vs. Richard Greenop and Dan Bertram vs. Joe Pleckaitis (who doesn't even get a bio page - good luck making the team kid). Bertram and Pleckaitis' fight wiped out a game tying goal by Igor Makarov - sucks to be him

Greenop (who was wearing Al Secord's number 20) scored twice and sent Turner to the locker room with a cut over his eye. Greenop will fight anyone - even if they're wearing a visor.

I don't really get why they decided to pick this game to do play by play. I would rather hear today's scrimmage since it'll be the last chance for the kids to make an impression and they'll play balls out. Although two fights and 9 goals with a big come from behind win is pretty exciting too.

Video games, scrimmages, and a scary injury

IGN has a preview of NHL '09 - I don't play many video games and the last NHL game I seriously played was the classic NHL '94 but this game looks pretty sick. If only I had a PS3...

Seabrook lays a hit in the preview

Decent article on Beach over at the Trib - I don't expect this guy to make the team this year but IceHogs Coach Haviland said not to count him out after seeing him in prospect camp.

Red beat White again - This time 5-4. Beach got his first assist, Aliu got his first goal and Smith lit the lamp again... if they even have a lamp there that is. The game was stopped early due to a neck injury to Simon Danis-Pepin. Danis-Pepin (who badly needs a nickname if he makes the NHL) is the tallest player in camp, and probably the entire hawks organization, at 6'7" hit the ice face first after a collision - sounds scary but it isn't expected to be serious.

Here's a quote from the team doc:

“Simon was involved in an inadvertent, high-energy collision yesterday and as a normal precautionary measure we brought him in to further examine the severity of his injury. All tests performed were negative and confirmed he suffered a strain and contusion to his neck. He was released from the hospital and will miss the remainder of the prospect camp but we expect him to be fully recovered soon.”

Welcome to the hawks soupy

As a fellow red-head I was sad to see Matt Murton leave the cubs. It's rare that you get to cheer for another ginger as a professional athlete - but who cares about that now? The hawks formally introduced Campbell at a press conference yesterday.

distant relative? perhaps

If you didn't get a chance to see the press conference live - it's up on the hawks site, here

Besides the follicle similarities, I am excited to see Campbell play for the hawks this year. Many bitch about him now being overpaid - but all professional sports teams have players being paid way beyond what they're worth - some on this very team. He may end up being a bust - he may end up being a driving force for the hawks deep into the playoffs... we'll see. For now I'm hoping to see him lay out some Wings this winter. At least some people over at BHZ agree

For those of you who follow the propect camp, 6th round pick Ben Smith scored twice in the first scrimmage leading the red team to a 5-0 victory. One of Smith's goals came against Niemi...

Not a lot has been said about the Walker signing - but over at St. Louis Game Time it seems at least some Blues fan (but hardly all of them) are sad to see him go and it's always good to get a guy that can be a fan favorite... even if he is just a cheap replacement til Wiz is healthy

Mostly a test... partly an introduction

Expect this to be deleted..

Since this team has jumped into the 21st Century over the last season, it's only fitting that they get a blog dedicated to them... hopefully this can be one of many.

Last year was probably the most fun I've had following a hockey team and after making a big splash in the free agent market and having two players equally deserving of the Calder Trophy returning it should be a very exciting year again.

I'll be doing everything we can to present the fans view of this team. As the baby hawks become the Mighty Blackhawks again - we'll all be along for the ride... hope you enjoy.

Expect more updates soon