Jinx Jinx

Poor Captain...


I drive by this on the way to work almost every day. Obviously the Captain is much more attractive than this ^_~ Besides the fact that it doesn't do him justice in that department, fans are going crazy because of the Stanley Cup in the background. I hope this isn't a jinx, but if my dearest Chris Rongey has taught me anything, it's not to believe in jinxes.
*Joe Mauer gets double off of Gavin Floyd in the 8th inning ruining Floyd's no hitter*
I admittedly am pretty superstitious, like I have weird rituals I do before games like the players would, but i'm not sure I believe that whoever decided to make this mural (and no, it was not me even though those of you who know me wouldn't put it past me...) can be to blame for the hawks skid lately. Tazer was even asked about this thing on Sportsnite the other night and he pretty much said that to him, it doesn't even exist. The only Jinx I believe in is this one.
Anyway, I had to at least have a little blurb about this one on our home page here. And I finally hinted that i'm a girl. I was gonna try as long as I could to not, but when it has to do with the Captain, well, I have to put my 20 cents in...especially before Kaner beats me up for it. I imagine when more people read this blog and find out that i'm a girl it will be like at the end of the very first Metroid when you find out Samus is a girl. Classic.
This was one of my more silly posts, I apologize. But it's been a rough sports life right now and I had to be a little silly. ^_^

on the Linebrink of being a good bullpen

I watched the spring training game against the Angels the other night and I haven't had much of a chance to talk about what I saw. Danks threw the ball well, as all of our starters have done throughout the spring, aside from one shaky Floyd start and one shaky Peavy start. Our offense was awesome too, scoring 7 runs very early in the game.
And then...the scenario that seems all too familiar to Sox fans since 2006. The bullpen came in and blew it. I know the game doesn't count since it's still spring, but spring is almost over, so I feel like what we are seeing should be how the team is going to be, generally. Obviously, being at a major league park rather than some touristy little ballpark in Glendale is going to make a difference too, but still. The starters are all playing, the pitchers are getting more innings of work, and the bullpen is being tested in intense situations.
Linebrink is like that thing no one likes to talk about, but can't deny its existence. This White Sox team has every reason to be favored in this division (although more people are favoring the Twins...), but still when Sox fans see him running out of that bullpen, or even when they see that he's warming up at all, you will feel the collective "aw, crap..." throughout the ballpark. I really feel like if he didn't have the contract we gave him, he could be in the minor leagues, or even maybe traded to some other team, perhaps in the National league. He'll have to step it up for sure, because these starters are way too good to have their wins erased by a bad bullpen.

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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...

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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.

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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...

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Huey Needs to go Back to France

I'm sorry, but the reason why I havent posted anything in a while was because of Christobal Huet's preformance the other night against the Blue Jackets. He let in 7 goals. To be more accurate, he let in 5 goals during the first and most of the second periods. He was pulled with about 5 minutes to go and Niemi was put in. Niemi let in one goal to close out the second period. Then, to open up the third, Huet was put back in. I was very confused, because usually after you pull a goalie, you keep them out because you have established that they SUCK!!! And that is exactly what Huet did that night. Suck. I hope to God that Joel just leaves in Niemi for the remainder of the season.

Shocking Upsets

The Sweet 16 round begins today, and there are two 6's, a 9, 10, 11, and 12 seeds remaining. A 1 seed and a 2 seed have already been eliminated, with the obvious notable being Northern Iowa upsetting Kansas. After that game ended, sports analysts were debating if that was the most shocking upset ever. I've decided to look at previous upsets in recent March Madness history to the best of my recollection to see if UNI/Kansas was indeed the biggest shocker ever.

2008 - In a year where all 1 seeds made the Final Four for the first time ever, the first round in particular was highly entertaining, with two 12 vs. 13 seeds being set up for the second round. 12 seed Villanova and 13 seed Siena took down Clemson and Vanderbilt to set up one match, and Western Kentucky over Drake and San Diego over UConn setting up another. As great as these upsets were, Clemson and Vanderbilt have a history of choking in the tournament, and Drake was overseeded, or perhaps purposely placed in the 5 spot to keep the 5/12 curse alive. The only true shocker here was UConn. Even with these upsets, the big story of this year was 10 seed Davidson making the Elite Eight and coming so close to upsetting (you guessed it) Kansas, losing by a mere two points. Everybody knows about the rise of Stephen Curry, so let's move on.

2005 - Also known as the year Illinois failed us all, this year was full of upsets. (12) Milwaukee over (5) Alabama and (4) Boston College, (11) UAB over (6) LSU, (7) West Virginia over (2) Wake Forest, (10) NC State over (2) UConn, (13) Vermont over (4) Syracuse, and (14) Bucknell over (3) Kansas. This also had a 6 and 7 seed in the Elite 8, which is always nice to see. Out of those NC State was the biggest shocker of all, having the most regular season losses entering the tournament at 13 and yet making the Sweet 16.

2004 - This year has in my opinion the 2nd biggest upset of the decade, with a particularly weak (9) UAB team defeating overall 1 seed Kentucky in the second round by one point, busting millions of brackets including mine. UAB is in a weaker conference and had more losses than UNI did this year, and there was much discussion about whether this year's Kansas team really had the chemistry needed to win a championship. Case in point, UNI/Kansas, as shocking as it was, is only the 3rd most shocking upset. So what is #1?

2006 - I still remember the commentary just after the final Elite Eight game ended, it was short and sweet, "Show me the bracket that has this Final Four." In 2006, the last four teams remaining were (2) UCLA, (3) Florida, (4) LSU, and the ultimate cinderella team, (11) George Mason. GM over UConn in the Elite Eight is one of the greatest upsets I've ever seen, as UConn was by far the heavy favorite to win the championship this year. Also, George Mason had to go through Michigan State and UNC to get here (they lucked out of facing Tennessee due to Wichita State defeating them). It's only fitting that the best tournament ever (arguably) had the best upset as well.

"How did he make that save?!?!"

That call from Pat Foley is an instant classic, as it should be. That save last night was absolutely incredible, and the crowd erupted all with the same thought: Niemi can be the man. After some doubt between him and Huet, Niemi getting two shutouts in a week all but seals the deal for him to be the playoff goalie for coach Q.

Last night at the UC was amazing. Everyone knew coming in that this was the biggest game of the season, and obviously so did I. I wanted to do my part and have just as much energy as I wanted the Blackhawks to have, and alot of the fans were with me on that. Even though the second period was the only one in which we scored, the energy level stayed constant throughout the game because the defense and Niemi were stellar as well. It was really good to see Seabs back and owning people. Overall, it was just really good for the team and the fans to see that when it counts the most, the Blackhawks can come through. I believe this will be the start of a nice stretch to end the season.

The two games against the Jackets coming up should be interesting. Last time the Hawks went in to Columbus, the crowd started chanting "over-rated!" and then Troy Brower got a game winning goal in the shootout and the crowd shut up. They scuffled with them physically a bit too, which should also make for an interesting game if that keeps up. All I know is, i'm looking forward to a couple nice games to end the moth of March and start a nice stretch to get hot going into the playoffs.

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.

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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.

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A Coyote ugly shootout

Very rarely do we lose after having a lead going into the third period, but last night was one of those rarities. There really wasn't any specific thing to blame this one on. Niemi did a god job early on, the defense did a good job early on, and so did the offense (I especially liked Kaner and Ladd's goals). We still ended up outshooting them (except in the first period and OT). So I suppose the only thing that made a big difference here was the shootout.

If you were the best shootout leadoff man last year, your coach is going to have you shoot first. That's just how it is. The Captain is that guy, but for some reason he did not come through last night. However, neither did Kaner or Sharpie. Niemi made a good effort as always in the shootout but the winning shot was a pretty one by Radim Vrbata. I think Tazer has earned the right to be the first person in the shootout because of his sucess last year, and this year although he hasn't been as solid, he still is around 50%, the highest on the team. Something just hasn't been on with the Hawks lately, and I understand that as Captain it is his responsibility when the team struggles. But if you see the way he carries himself, his body language, you can tell how bad he wants this. There's really no way to tell if he yells at his teammates, because of all the sports, Hockey seems to be the mst inaccessible when it comes to locker room interviews. He just tells us what he's thinking, without being pissed off about it, because that's not going to help the situation now is it? He's not going to make excuses, in fact he always says so. He accepts the responsibility and just because it isn't automatically fixed doesn't make him any less a Captain.

This relates to me on a personal level too, which is why i guess i get so intense about it. Things take time to get fixed, that's just how it is. If people aren't patient then the process just takes longer. I know how this feels at the moment and it shouldn't make me any less respected amoung my peers. I promised myself i wouldn't get my personal life involved in this blog so that's all i'm going to say about that, and probably all i'll say about myself ever again if I can help it. It's just crazy sometimes how sports directly relate to me at times.

The Hawks are still consistant, it's just different. i'm not sure what is going on, really. All I know is, hat Phoenix team is tough, and Tuesday will be a challenge like last night was. I hope the home crowd (myself included ^_^) will help them out.

spring training notes

I just caught a bit of the Sox spring training game against the Padres, a game that started at 3:05 and ended about 15 minutes ago. I think we all know why that is, even if he was only pitching for 4 innings or so.

I love the way Buehrle pitches. He gets it, throws it, gets it back, and throws it again. It's almost like just doing something before you have time to overthink it, and although some mistakes can result, Buehrle has been around long enough to fix those mistakes quickly. I also love his pick off move. Today he picked off 3 runners alone. Basically, if I were someone like, oh I dunno, Denard Span or Grady Sizemore, I would run wth caution when Buehrle is on the mound (Ok, Ok, Brian Anderson too...he hit for the cycle in yesterday's Royal crushing of the D-Backs).

Someone who has impressed me throughout spring training has been Andruw Jones. When I first hear that we signed him I was a little skeptical, as most Sox fas were. But instead of impressing me with power (today was only his second home run), he's been a bit of a speedster on the bases, stealing and hitting triples and such. I've also been plesently surprised with Rios so far, as I have been keeping a close eye on him after a very anticlimactic stint last year after we aquired him at the waver deadline.

basically, there are 5 things that need to happen during the season to secure a division title and maybe more:

1) Rios has to hit
2) good defense
3) Rios has to hit
4) Rios has to hit
5) good bullpen

I think these things are very plausable. Our division is by far the weakest, and i think we'll have to worry about the Tigers and Twins for the first half, and then the Tigers will kind of fall off and then, as usual, we will just have to worry about the Twins. I think between the two, itwill all come down to the pitching, and that happens to be a category we kind of pwn them in at the moment (especially with Nathan possibly missing the whole season...thank you, AL Central gods!).

I'm loking foreward to a good season all around and I will continue to scout spring training to get a better idea of how things are going to play out for my southsiders this year. ^_^

we're safe...for now...

It was very very nice to see Niemi get the shutout against the Kings the other night. I didn't really know what to expect going into that game, seeing as how everyone was still livid about the Wisneiwski hit on Seabs the night before. But I could tell that there's pretty much no way this Hawks team could lose 4 games in a row, defenseman or no defenseman. I was glad we played hard and came out with the win. And like I said, it was good to see Niemi impress like that. i'm not gonna say everything is all good now because he got one shutout, but it's good to see that he's capable of having a great performance. And i gotta give the defense some credit for only allowing 17 total shots on goal as well. And in the spirit of random people having multi-goal games, gg to Kopecky.

Crawford has gone back to Rockford, which means Huet has overcome his flu. I haven't heard yet if he's going to start or if Niemi is again, but either way, this Coyotes team is tough. They're actually alot like us if you think about it, which is why they only have 3 less points than us. This will be a fun one to watch and i hope we can come out with another win before coming back to the UC to play them again on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Wisniewski has his 8 game suspension for the hit on Seabs. With only 13 games left for the Ducks, i was gonna say just to suspend him for the rest of the season. Seabs practiced today, so at least there's hope he'll be back in the next few games, but whether he comes back soon or not, it was still the most vicious hit i've ever seen (besides the hit on Mark Savard, which i was extremely surprised to find out did not result in a suspension...). The replay is stll being shown everywhere, and it still freaks me out. But i'm just glad he's practicing again.

Well, time to get back to the tourney. MAC day starts in 5 minutes after all...(that will have to be a blog for another time...but let it be known I picked Ohio over Georgetown ^_^) All the basketball will make the time before the hawks game go much faster.

frustrations of last night's game

Part of me just doesn't want to talk about this one. I don't really even know what to say. It makes me sick to even think about. I am still pretty much fuming about it. So many bad calls, an absolutely terrible hit on Seabrook, and so many more bad calls.

Now, I don't want to sound like Hawk and blame the refs for everything, but that last goal (before the empty net I mean) was EXTREMELY obvious that Sopel got knocked down from behind and a penalty should have been called. I still can't believe they got away with that one so easily. The bench was "absolutely irate" as our dearest Pat Foley said, and I don't blame them one bit. Although that was the most obvious example of horrendous officiating, there were more that i'm just too angry to try and remember right now. One of them was an offside call on the Hawks that was completely wrong, i remember that much.

The big thing that has made me angry/depressed was the hit on Seabrook from our former teammate James Wisneiwski. Although Seabs hit Cory Perry first, his shot wasn't NEARLY as awful as the one Wisneiwski took on him. He basically slammed his head into the boards, knocking him unconcious. And you can tell he was unconcious for at least a second or two by the way he toppled over. I for one was freaked out, and am still freaked out as I watch the replay (which obviously has been shown over and over on CSN/NHL network/the internets). The replay I just watched online has commentary from the Ducks annnouncer and he said something like "do you think he's selling that? or do you think he's really hurt?" Of course he's hurt!!! HIS HEAD SLAMMED INNTO THE BOARDS!!!! that also made me very angry.

So all in all, a very very VERY dissapointing night last night. Now we gotta redeem ourselves against the Kopitar Kings. I said yesterday that I had a good feeling about the game, so i won't say that now because obviously that didn't work out too well. Instead i'll just say that i hope we win so we can all just continue to breathe a little bit as this defenseman-less push to the playoffs continues...

...

...and what's the deal with the first rounnd of the tourney? As i was writing this, murray state just beat Vandy. That's fun ^_^

Capital Punishment?

I'm not going to be the first or last to say that I think Ovechkin should be suspended for more than 2 games. Kaner even said it himself when he was on Espn. But how do you decide how long to suspend a player like him? He's obviously a superstar, and the reason most casual hockey fans would watch the game beyond their hometown team. He said he didn't mean it, but whether he meant it or not, the Blackhawks have to push to the playoffs without one of their key defenseman.

So my solution was simple. for every week Soupie is injured, Ovechkin should be suspended 1 game. So right now if I were the commissioner, he would be looking at a 7 to 8 game suspension. I think that's fair, because although it wasn't a dirty hit per se, it definitely wasn't necessary. That is another thing that Kaner mentioned on SC when he and the Captain were on.

Tazer also brought up the point that the hit sent a message (or should send a message) to the rest of the league about being a little smarter when you decide to hit someone like that. I agree with this too, but i also think that the message would be alot clearer if the suspension were longer. I'm not sure how much a star like Ovechkin cares about his suspension, or how anyone else in the league would react.

All I know is, with Soupie being out, people like Hjallmerson and Sopel and the other "2nd tier" defenseman will have an opportunity to step up and prove themselves. I've been a Hjallmerson fan all year, he's had some very nice games. I think this is the perfect opportunity for him to get into the radar a bit.

Last night, you can imagine my surprise when I saw that we called up Corey Crawford. I thought it was a desperation move and I panicked, but really it's because poor Huet has the flu. He better be getting plenty of rest...maybe he should ask Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng how to make a speedy flu recovery?

So i'll continue counting down to 9:00 and hope we can get a win out of this one. I have a good feeling about it. ^_^

The Caps Without Ovechkin are Still a Threat

At first when Ovechkin was tossed from the game against the Blackhawks I thought the Capitals were done for. But then when they rallied from a 3 goal deficit I was surprised. I really haven't been paying attention to the monster of the East so I thought that my Blackhawks were just once again, losing to a team that was pretty much nothing without their star. I was curious though, and realized that the Capitals have much more than just Ovechkin. Their roster, without the young star, still has many weapons like Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, and Alexander Semin, all of which are in the top 18 in the league for points. The also have Mike Knuble who has 25 goals so far this season and Brooks Laich with 22. So, when you think about it, the Capitals are a very strong team that was just able to squeak by with a win against the Blackhawks, instead of what I originally thought, that the Blackhawks just failed to secure a win.

For the complete list of league leaders click here.

Jockeying for Playoff Spots in the West

Well, the middle of March is upon us and it is time to start taking a glance ahead to see which teams skate by into the playoffs and which teams sit atop of the rest closest to the Cup. With the Capitals already securing their spot in the playoffs in the East with an amazing 14 point lead over last year's Stanley cup winner, the Penguins, and a 30 point lead over the 9th place Rangers, we turn to look in the West to see a much closer race. The San Jose Sharks are barely holding the 1st place spot with a meager 3 points over the team that confuses most, the Blackhawks. Both teams lost 2 games this weekend, with one being in overtime. Vancouver is coming up strong in this past week with 4 wins and an overtime loss to pull them within 5 points of the Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks and their fans can thank the Hockey gods that Vancouver and San Jose have 3 games against each other left. So either way the games go, it helps the Hawks. If Vancouver wins, hopefully, the Blackhawks should be able to rally a few games with 4 gimmies, and the rest decent competition. If the Sharks win more points, the Canucks fall further behind leaving us in 2nd place. I'm hoping that Vancouver wins all three for a very good reason. The Redwings. Currently they are in 8th place, 1 point behind the Predators. They both have 13 games left with 2 against each other. I'm thinking that the finally getting healthy Redwings will end up in 7th place. I would much rather face the Predators or the Avalanche in the 1st round than the Redwings. So I'm going to root for Vancouver to win to place us either in 1st or 3rd.

Calgary is sitting in 9th pace right now and with only two easy games left, I don't see them passing up Detroit to gain a berth. Their only chance is for Nashville, Colorado, or LA to pretty much go on a terrible losing streak and just crash and burn right before the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Flames, I don't see that happening so they won't get a chance to redeem themselves this year.

An interesting team to be on the lookout this last stretch is the Phoenix Coyotes. They are tied with Vancouver for 3rd place right now. The Coyotes have a few easy games against the bottom of the league teams, but more importantly, they have two games against the Hawks and another 6 playoff teams. They are defiantly the team to shift the standings around a bit, especially with Ilya Bryzgalov between the posts and a league high 8 shutouts.

My predictions, with Campbell out for the Blackhawks, they slide a few more games down to 3rd place, with Vancouver overcoming them as well as the Sharks for 1st. The Sharks move to 2nd, and the Coyotes hold strong at 4th. LA and Colorado swap spots so that LA is bumped down to 5th. The Redwings show why they are not to be taken lightly and jump up to 7th and the Predators hold of the Flames for the last spot in the playoffs.

I think that even though the Blackhawks will have lost a few games and have moved down a spot, but that will mean that we will be facing the LA Kings or the Avalanche, which is much more preferable over the Redwings. With a little luck and the Hawks making a push through the playoffs with some goal scoring from the young stars, they will be able to redeem themselves against the best in the East, the Capitals.

The view from the ledge

Ah, the ledge. I remember being up here in September of 2005. It still looks the same. Freaked out during the last month of a regular season that I was so confident about from the beginning. With the White Sox, the Indians were creeping up on us ever so slowly, and got as close to 1.5 GB us. Then i came up here. "I knew this was too good to be true!!! I was so sure we'd go all the way this year and now we won't!!!" and then I got the temptation to jump.

Then, Joe Crede hit a walk off home run against the Indians. You know, the famous Hawk exclamation, "Joe! Crede!"And i decided to climb back down instead of jump. I needed a hero to spark the hope of a world sereis back up again, and he delivered. This is why I used to love him so very much. In case you don't know how this story ends, we won the world series.

Now, The Blackhawks are in the last month of their season. And let me just say that it's been a rough past couple of days. The Flyers broke my heart Saturday afternoon with 2 seconds left on the clock. And as far as Ovechkin goes, well he can screw himself after what he did to Brian Campbell. But the games made me wonder: Is this the Stanley Cup team I think it is? Are we just having a rough stretch right now, or will the playoffs be rough? So I climbed back up to the ledge. I really don't think that losing 2 games in a row to decent eastern conference teams (well, the Caps are a little more than decent, but if we lost when Ovechkin was out, imagine what might have happened had he been in...) is reason to jump. The Blackhawks I beleive are the only team that has not lost 3 games in a row yet (knock on wood). I will have to check on that stat to make sure. If that's the case then we shouldn't nbe freaking out, right?

from up here on the ledge, I see a goalie getting hot. If we have a hot goalie now, that means nothing. if we have a hot goalie in April and May, that's what counts. One of those bastards is gonna have to get hot, I don't care who (and I say bastard in the most loving way possible). I also see the Captain (yes, here we go, i'm gonna rant about the Captain for a moment...). He is the leader on this team, and from what I see from him every day he wants this more than the normal human mind can comprehend wanting something. If Crede was the spark to get me to come down from the ledge in 2005, Then Tazer is the one to do it now. It was really nice to see him score 2 goals yesterday, especially because I said in my previous post that he would score more goals than Ovechkin, and he did. ^_^

So i'll probably be coming down and going back up tothe ledge frequently these next few weeks. But will the story end the way it did before, with a championship? I truly believe so, but i'll probably stick around up here because there are alot of other Blackhawks fans up here to talk to. After all, the fact that sports are such an emotional rollercoaster at times is what makes them so great.

Ozzie's twitter is the best thing ever and the Bulls are sad.

Now, for some White Sox...

Kenny Williams has expressed his discontent about the rotating DH situation the White Sox have put themselves in. Spring training has only proven that it could work, but who knows how it will be during the regular season. Andruw Jones has caught my eye the most during spring training thus far, not because of his power, but because of his speed. In the games I actually got to follow so far, he has had 2 stolen bases and an RBI triple. That seems very weird to me. Could one of our DH's in the rotation have some speed? Obviously that will not be Paulie's department. I believe that the DH role will be split between Jones, Paulie and Quentin, perhaps with Kostay in the mix.

Last year, we struggled soooo much defensively, so i've been trying to keep an eye on the defense during spring training as well. Mark Teahen has some big defensive shoes to fill at third base (moment of silence for Joe Crede...) but seems like he can do the job. It is his offense that could probably use some work. I also think Visquel is a nice improvement defensively, even if he is a bit on the older side. I'll be able to follow spring training a little more in depth over the next week or so, so if there is anything anyone wants me to write about please let me know!!!

Ozzie wanted his own website, but the front office said no deal. I have been reading Ozzie's tweets and I can honestly say I haven't laughed that hard in a looong time. He's probably the only person that watches MLB network more than I do. My personal favorite tweet: "Why Dye no have a job?"

Opening day is coming soon...I can't wait to be at the ballpark again!!! I can just hear Nancy playing that organ now...

side note: since I don't want to waste a whole blog about the Bulls, i'm just going to express my frustration on how they have become like the Mets, and have everyone injured at all times. Poor Joakim Noah was like the energy source for the team and without him they seem very lost. Even Derrick tries his best to provide that energy but to no avail. Maybe Kirk will save them...maybe.

Anxious for Sunday: a goaltending rant

It is currently Friday morning. Early Friday morning at that. And I am very antsy about this Sunday's Blackhawks game. The Powerhouse offense that is the Washington Capitals are going to come to my beloved madhouse on Madison, and I really can't help but think that this will be a preview of the Stanley cup finals. Anyone else agree with this statement?

Now, The one thing that concerns me is of course the one thing that concerns every Blackhawks fan. And that is of course, the goaltending situation. Huet? Niemi? maybe it will be "fun bad" and have Cory Crawford involved? For the first half of the season I praised Niemi as the one to be the goalie as we make our way to the playoffs, and although there have been a few shaky starts (namely that horrific game against those bastard Redwings...) I still consider him the man.

Admittedly, Ovechkin scares me against our goaltenders. I actually consider him a very good player unlike the overrated Sidney Crosby (that is a rant for another day...) and he is capable of scoring lots and lots of goals against whoever is in the net. Coach Q already said that this weekend's back to back games will have both goalies minding the net, and I can only imagine (and hope) that it will be Huet against the Flyers on Saturday and Niemi against the Caps on Sunday morning on national TV. It's really hard for me to complain about anything as far as the Blackhawks go, since they have given me so much joy throughout the season. But as Chicago sports fans, we always have to have something to complain about don't we?

All I know is, being at Sunday's game will put me in my happy place. From a hockey fan's standpoint, I can someday tell my kids that I saw Ovechkin play live...and saw Jonathan Toews score more goals than he did ^_~

Blackhawks, Blackhawks, Blackhawks

Anyone remember the comeback that the Hawks pulled off against the Flames on Oct 12th? The Hawks let up 5 goals in the 1st, only to comeback and scored 6 unanswered goals to win the game in overtime. Or how about the dominating performance that was shown at Calgary with a 7 to 1 win and then not even a full week later while still on the road to beat the San Jose Sharks 7 to 2. But then in the month of February the Hawks minds were someplace else, probably thinking about the Olympics, seeing as 6 of them were to play for three different countries. Yes, going into the Olympic games they had a 4 game winning streak but they also lost the 3 games before that. And those wins that they were riding on, 3 of the games were decided by a shootout.

Now after the Olympic break we have started off with a 3-2 record. One of the wins I don't even want to count because it came from the Oilers, dead last in both conferences, so that win doesn't weigh too heavily in my book. But one of the loses came to the Islanders who are 4th from the bottom which kinda concerns me a bit. It concerns me because the Hawks were beat by a terrible team. But when you take into account that 4 of the Blackhawks better players were playing their hearts out just 2 days ago, I can cut those players a little slack, even though Patrick Kane had a goal. So I'm not as concerned that the team lost, more so that the other players on the team didn't step up and take that leading role to win a game.

So besides that one game against the Islanders, the Hawks really have only played one terrible period out of four games. Unfortunately that one period cost us the game against the Red Wings. Now once it comes to the playoffs, I'll give the other team one game if it means that we get the other three, it's just too bad that we can't come to an actually agreement like that. We will actually have to play and earn those wins. Which is very possible if, and I repeat, if Nemi or Huet get their act together and stop some goals. And all this talk about how the goal tending is just fine and it's just the defense needs to step up their game and block more of the shots and not let so many get to the goalie needs to stop. Since January, (I didn't feel like doing the math from the beginning of the season) there have been just over 25 shots per game when the Hawks won. When they lost the defense only let up 19 shots per game. From those statistics, I'd rather the defense let more shots on goal, maybe we would've won those games.

Overall I'm still happy with the way the Blackhawks have been playing because their offense is so dominant that no matter how many pucks slide through Huets legs, we can still pull off a win. It just makes me think of how would teams still have the energy and willpower to show up to a game against the Hawks and actually play if we were able to trade for Vokoun and have him sit between our posts.

Strength of NFL Teams for Next Year

With so few players eligible for the free agency this year, there is not that much talent shifting around. So far there hasn't been too many trades either. So with that being said, most teams should repeat their performance from last year. Yes, there will be differences from last year's teams, mostly the teams that have had the biggest changes from last year, namely the Bears with their free agent signings, the Vikings, depending on Farve and which way he is going to sway this year, the Cardinals, losing Warner, Boldin, and Rolle but picking up Rhodes. The Bears will improve this year to a second spot in their devision behind the Packers, The Vikings will drop to third in the NFC North with or without Farve, and the Cardinals will not fare so well this year. The only thing that they are thankful for is their division. But they better watch out for the 49ers.

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NFL Free Agency

The biggest news about the Free agency in the NFL has been the Bears picking up Julius Peppers, as well as Chester Taylor and Brandon Manumaleuna. Now granted, these pickups have drastically improved the team and not to many people will argue that point, but lets look at the players that the Bears picked up last year. We have Jay Cutler, Orlando Pace, Frank Omiyale, Josh Bullocks, and Kevin Shaffer. Obviously the pickup of Cutler and Pace were the biggest news for the Chicago Bears and pretty much all around the league with the Bears finally snagging a great quarterback. Supposedly those two, in addition of the other singings made the Bears a much better team, and granted we do not know how the season would have gone with Orton as our quarterback, but I do not think it would have been all that much better.

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