The Hawks executed their game plan to perfection. That plan was to disrupt Vancouver’s cycling in order to make the Sedins a non-factor, play physical, and drive to the net. Every Blackhawk adhered to those three mantras and the end result was a 4-1 win on home ice in front of a near sell-out crowd.

You can’t even really pick apart anything the Hawks did to find a mistake to point at either.  If not for that lone Ryan Kesler goal towards the end of the second which was a gift from the hockey gods via a lucky bounce, I’d call it a flawless game for the Blackhawks.

The power play which the Hawks scored on was worked magnificently. Their movement away from the puck created opportunities for whoever had the puck and vice versa and the blueliners (I avoid the term “defensemen” because Williams played at the point) kept the puck in the offensive zone without fail.  This wasn’t just on the power play either.

On the defensive side of things, the fact that Chicago was only credited with three blocked shots only tells half the story. The first half of the story is that you could assume that the guys weren’t getting in harm’s way. However, if you look at the shot total, the correct conclusion would be is that the Hawks held the Canucks to only 13 shots attempted. This says incredible things about the boys’ body positioning tonight. The defense was just unspeakable. Even on the penalty kill, they made it look effortless.

I guess if you must nit-pick, Dowell looked pretty bad after being recalled. He took a couple penalties and was invisible on the ice outside of that. Bryan Bickell was also recalled and served his purpose by adding size to the lineup. He’s still very young but was also invisible and needs to find his way back to Rockford for awhile. Kontiola and Versteeg have already been recalled and reassigned while all of these injuries are being evaluated.

As for the highlights, Patrick Kane had a fantastic game as he netted two goals and an assist. Andrew Ladd scored his second goal as a Blackhawk too. Ben Eager even found the scoresheet after assisting on Kane’s goal midway through the third. This was Eager’s first game back on the ice after missing another month with post-concussion syndrome. He logged just under nine minutes of ice time but he was a force to be reckoned with when he was out there.

I can’t help but compare Ladd and Eager to Ruutu and Koci. The upgrade is really becoming apparent. Koci was good for uniting fists and faces while Ruutu was good for getting under the other team’s skin but wasn’t big enough to finish what he started. Burish really had the market cornered on that if you stop to think about it. Neither of them had other elements to complement their game. Ladd and Eager bring relatively well-rounded games and lots of upside and especially Andrew Ladd. This seems like the type of guy who just never had the chance he needed to reach his potential and it’s coming out when he actually sees the ice.

The good news is that Patrick Lalime stood on his head on Wednesday to notch his first shutout of the season. Newcomer Andrew Ladd led the team in shots with five and Jason Williams tallied the eventual game-winner in the first period. I suppose the most important news coming from this game was that Martin Havlat is again injured. And again, it’s his shoulder. He left the ice early in the second in the same manner he did in Minnesota during the first game of the season. It really shouldn’t affect the team much since they’ve played nearly half of the season without him in the lineup anyway. If the choice were up to me, I’d definitely shut him down for the rest of the year and cross my fingers that he can start next season healthy. Hopefully management isn’t counting on him to be a top six forward from here on out.

Let’s not the injury to Havlat rain on the parade though. The Hawks played fantastic defensively and their puck control was pretty decent up until the third period when they allowed the Coyotes to sprinkle Patrick Lalime with 16 shots. They stayed out of the box for the most part too. All in all, it was a very solid effort.

Immediately after the game, they beat feet to the airport and left for Dallas for a game against the second-best team in the NHL. Following the hard-fought win versus the Coyotes and on short rest, the Hawks weren’t ready at all for this game.

The Stars’ new acquisition Brad Richards lit up the Hawks with five assists and was a big factor in chasing Patrick Lalime in the second period. Lalime allowed five goals on only 13 shots. Corey Crawford relieved him and gave up two of his own. At least he slowed the bleeding. I don’t know why Savvy didn’t just give Crawford the start in this one since he’s a fan of switching goalies for back-to-back games. It would’ve given the organization a good on idea how close Crawford really is to being NHL ready. Also, it’s not like the Stars are one of the teams we’re battling for that last playoff spot anyway so if Crawford got blown out, it wouldn’t have been a huge loss for the team.

Regardless, things actually looked good early in the game when Dustin Byfuglien put the Hawks ahead 1-0 on the power play. It was one of those gritty goals down in the paint and it was nice to see his hard work beginning to pay off for him. From there though, the Dallas onslaught began and the Stars scored the next five goals with Richards assisting on three of them.

The Blackhawks woke up a little bit in the third and scored three goals of their own but even those would not have been enough if Dallas had been done at that point. Rene Bourque scored two goals and one was while Chicago was shorthanded. Him and Patrick Sharp really have something going with those. Andrew Ladd scored the other goal and it was his first as a Blackhawk. He’s already scored more goals than Tuomo Ruutu did in his last two and a half months in Chicago.

Dallas popped in two goals in the final period and the game would end with a final score of 7-4 in favor of the Stars.

Sadly, this game against the Stars was Niklas Hjalmarsson’s first NHL game. He wound up with no points, a -2 rating, two penalty minutes, and one shot. He replaced Andrei Zyuzin who sat out with a groin injury.

By the way, is Adam Burish going for some kind of record for penalty minutes? This appears to be his personal mission this year. I hope Ben Eager comes along soon and can add some offense to that role. I like Burish and all but I could go out there and get my face pounded every night too. Just have that paycheck ready when the game is over. Burish really is just a tiny version of David Koci with a smile.

The Hawks choked away a 5-1 lead on Saturday in Los Angeles but end up getting two points in overtime. The important thing here is the win since it really doesn’t matter if the Kings close in on us. Heck, they still have to get past Edmonton. What’s most important is forcing those teams above us to get their two points as well to keep us out of the race.

On Sunday, the Anaheim Ducks strangled the Blackhawks. This wasn’t entirely unexpected since Teemu is back and the Ducks really look like they’re all twice the size of our players. Even their forwards make some of our defensemen look small. After Lalime’s collapse in the third period on Saturday, he started off poorly in this one and Crawford was quickly put in since Khabibulin was back in Chicago getting an MRI on, well, his back. Results were negative (in the good way) so he’s now day-to-day.

Brent Sopel, on the other hand, missed both weekend games and will miss some time with a broken bone in his wrist. Sadly, this means that Zyuzin will be stalking the blue line in his absence. This will definitely expose the lack of depth we have at that position. The Vandermeer for Eager trade looks worse and worse with every game Eager misses due to post-concussion syndrome.

And now it’s time to discuss the moves Dale Tallon made at the trade deadline today. There were two of them and neither one was of the blockbuster variety that would take attention away from the trading of Brad Richards, Brian Campbell, Marian Hossa, and Cristobal Huet.

Some interesting rumors that surfaced but never came to fruition was Khabibulin to Ottawa, Havlat to Boston, and Williams to Nashville. The Williams trade never got momentum as I never did find out who would have been coming to Chicago. The Khabibulin to Ottawa trade was just some wishful thinking since every goaltender on the block was supposedly headed to the Senators at some point on Tuesday. The most interesting trade (and by interesting I mean, most lopsided for the Blackhawks) was Havlat going to the Bruins for Phil Kessel. Kessel is basically the Jonathan Toews of their organization and a trade like that would’ve been outright larceny on Tallon’s part. I doubt this deal ever saw the light of day but it sure did bring a smile to my face when I first read it.

Moving on to reality, Tallon did make two minor moves today. Having the most impact will be the trading of Tuomo Ruutu to the Carolina Hurricanes for youngster Andrew Ladd. I’ll admit that I do not know much about Ladd but reading what others have stated, he’s another guy of Ruutu’s ilk being that he was drafted high but never panned out when it comes to down to scoring ability. On the surface it reeks of one of those “change of scenery” swaps as both players are restricted free agents at the end of the year.

Anytime Ruutu was on the ice, you could see him jumping into a flattening body check. Though entertaining, Savard harps on his physical guys being in front of the net to pick up garbage and Ruutu never really liked to stay in one place long enough to accomplish that. Ladd sounds to be a more stay-at-home forward and may fit better into the master plan. The next month or so will be a nice trial run. Also, Ladd makes less money and is not arbitration-eligible while Ruutu is. So the icing on the cake here is that if the Hawks don’t resign Ladd, that money can be used on that big name free agent we’re all looking forward to.

The second move was Martin Lapointe being sent to my next favorite team, the Ottawa Senators. In return the Hawks received a sixth round pick for the upcoming draft. A trade like this was highly expected as Lapointe’s leadership has been absorbed by Toews and Lapointe just can’t bring it like the young guys can. Lapointe was a class act all the way in his time with the Chicago Blackhawks. I know I dragged him through the mud on more than one occasion but overall, he was the best pseudo-captain available. Good luck to him and may he help Ottawa in their quest for the Cup.

And that was it for the Chicago Blackhawks. It’s too bad we couldn’t get something for Zyuzin or Perreault since they’ll be free agents next year and they’ll go away for free. Havlat and Khabibulin sticking around may not be so bad for us though as some might think. Though both of them have obviously under-performed while wearing the Indianhead (Commit to the Indian!), they’ll both be in contract years next season so maybe they’ll play up to their potential to get that next big contract. I’d count on it more from Havlat than Khabibulin at this point though since Nik has already made the most of his cash and is definitely closer to retirement.

Tallon did what I was hoping he’d do. He didn’t have a yard sale and he didn’t get all Steinbrenner on us. He knows that the largest pieces are in place and there’s no reason to give up assets when the premier players can be had with just Rocky Wirtz’ checkbook in the offseason.

Recently, the Hawks have been making some big plays in the first few minutes of every game. Tonight they actually avoided fighting until the second period but it was Patrick Kane who provided the early fireworks as he was able to get the quick momentum going in Chicago’s favor with a goal at the 3:49 mark. Minnesota hung in there during the first period but for the most part, the Hawks were in control and that didn’t stop going into the second.

Being that the Hawks were taking the body to Marian Gaborik, the Wild aimed to reassert themselves to start the second period. They laid a hit on little Patrick Kane and Brent Seabrook took exception. This all began only 21 seconds after the faceoff. It was Minnesota captain Nick Schultz who stepped up to Seabrook’s challenge and he paid the price. Seabrook dominated the fight and that was as close as the Wild would get to the Chicago superstars. Minnesota outshot the Hawks quite heavily in the second period but right when they needed it the most, the Hawks sucked the wind right out of their sails. Despite the pressure applied by the Wild’s offense, they could not solve Nikolai Khabibulin. In fact, it was David Bolland who lit the lamp with only 20 seconds left in the period and it was the Hawks who snuck off the ice with a goal of their own.

In the third, again, the Wild came out hoping to get back in the game. The Hawks had the most dangerous lead in hockey and a lone goal would cut it in half. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Bolland struck again at 5:24. After this point, Minnesota was forced to play in a way they are not used to. Instead of sitting on the lead and going into a shell, they were forced to try and open it up to try and keep pace with the Blackhawks. Khabibulin would have none of it though. The outcome of the game was decided when the Hawks were able to kill off a two-man disadvantage late in the game and Khabibulin was rewarded with a shutout as he stopped all 38 Minnesota shots in the contest.

In other good news, Jason Williams came off the IR and played for the first time since November. He only logged 13 minutes of ice time but after a groin injury/hernia surgery, you definitely don’t want to rush him back. The Hawks only received one power play in the game so where we missed Jason the most, he was not often needed or missed in this one. Marty Lapointe was scratched to make room for Williams’ return.

The Hawks now head west to take on those pesky Los Angeles Kings in a matinee on Saturday followed on Sunday by a game in Anaheim against the Ducks.

The Hawks would have to lay a pretty large goose eggs if they don’t come out of Los Angeles with two points. Especially with team that’s nearly 100% healthy and when they’re this desperate for points and trying to make a run at the playoffs. he game in Anaheim will be significantly tougher as the Hawks struggled with them even before Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne started suiting up again. The Ducks are looking a lot more like the Stanley Cup champions of last season lately.

After a couple days off here, they better be ready to play.

I’ll be heading off on vacation for the weekend so I’ll recap this weekend’s happenings when I get back. GO HAWKS!

To start, Craig Adams dropped the mitts with Dan Hinote off the opening faceoff. Though he lost the fight, these early battles have been lighting the fire early for Denis Savard’s team. And again, it paid off.  Just one minute in, Tuomo Ruutu blocked a St. Louis shot and the deflected puck bounced to the neutral zone where a striding Martin Havlat picked it up and split the defense. His first shot was stopped by Manny Legace but he was able to corral his own rebound and knock it into the gaping net to give the Hawks a very early 1-0 lead. After that, the pace really picked up for both teams. Everybody on the ice was finishing checks and they were deadlocked until the Hawks started taking penalties. Though they only gave the Blues one power play in the period, they were able to make the Hawks pay and tie the game at one. It would stay that way going into the second.

St. Louis really took control of the game in the second period. The Blues continued with the high energy but the Hawks couldn’t keep up. The lone goal in the stanza would come off the stick of Brad Boyes who was able to tap one in when Patrick Lalime lost sight of a rocket of a pass from Paul Kariya from the left circle. It was the result of a breakdown in the Hawks defense but it was only a microcosm of the game.

I really don’t even want to talk about the third period but I will say that the game was put out of reach when Tuomo Ruutu earned himself a double-minor at 7:36. After an unbelievable glove save on a Paul Kariya one-timer and with less than one minute remaining on the power play, the Hawks’ chance for a critical momentum swing was thwarted when Lee Stempniak was able to add the first of three insurance goals. On that play, Adam Burish was given a penalty which Keith Tkachuk capitalized on to extend the lead to three and an empty netter by Jay McClement cemented the win with a final score of 5-1.
The Blues took it to the Hawks on the forecheck just like the Hawks had been doing to the opposition over their now defunct three-game winning streak. The Hawks’ power play moved the puck pretty well but St. Louis was blocking most of the shots that the Hawks didn’t just shoot into traffic. They also turned the puck over a lot and that also hadn’t been happening very often lately. Undisciplined play in this hit-fest led to a lot of penalties for the Blackhawks and the penalty killers just couldn’t keep up. Blues just kept peppering the Chicago goal all night long and until that third St. Louis goal, Lalime is the only reason the Hawks ever had a chance at winning this game.

St. Louis simply outworked the Blackhawks tonight. Even if the Hawks were able to continue playing the way they did in the first period, I’m not positive that even then they could’ve kept up with the Blues tonight. It was tough to want it more than the Blues did.

Maybe the guys were able to save some energy for their game at the United Center against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night. Khabibulin is set to return and Jason Williams may crack the lineup too.

With the impending return of Khabibulin as early as Wednesday, Mike Brodeur was reassigned to Pensacola of the ECHL. After this move, there’s no doubt in my mind that Nik is ready to go as there’s no way the Hawks would risk running Patrick Lalime out on Tuesday with no backup at the ready. Brodeur going down creates an open roster spot for Jason Williams who is very close to returning from his sports hernia surgery.

In other happy news, Brent Seabrook was rewarded for his progress with a three-year contract extension today. I believe that he and Keith have a very healthy competition going to see who can be the best blue liner on the team. Though Keith has pulled ahead this year, it wasn’t long ago that Brent was the best by far. Either way, we all benefit from this tandem as they are the next edition of Chris Chelios and Steve Smith in Chicago.

Ben Eager will be returning soon as well and eventually Kevyn Adams will be back and assuming nobody else goes down before then, the team will have a clean IR for the first time since very early in the season. It should be interesting to see what Tallon decides to do with the trade deadline looming. He’s going to be in the enviable position of bargaining with an advantage with all that depth to draw from. Also, with only 24 games left on the schedule, he may be able to package some of these healthy bodies and grab an on-the-outs star from another roster.

Don’t mistake what I’m saying. I don’t want another washed up veteran. The Blackhawks need a guy who just might need a change of scenery. A top six forward who may be a bit overpaid but that the Hawks can afford in the short term would be great.

By the way, Peter Forsberg is not the answer. I think we’ve had to endure more than our fair share of burned out players who were well past their primes. Doug Gilmour, Alex Zhamnov, and Peter Bondra come to mind. I’m not going to go as far as to say that Forsberg is where these players were in their careers when they came to Chicago but if Forsberg isn’t even sure how he’s going to hold up over the course of a season, how can Tallon be sure? It’d be one thing if we were on the cusp of making the playoffs. He might be able to get us over that hump but then what? He isn’t going to suddenly make us a cup contender and he knows that. Because of that, I don’t think he’ll sign here but Tallon did just offer him a deal that would last through the 2009-2010 season and I think that could turn out to be a crippling mistake if Forsberg agrees to it and signs.

The only lineup change for the game was Mike Brodeur replacing Corey Crawford on the bench backing up Patrick Lalime while Khabibulin recovers from a sprained knee.

Savard definitely got his boys ready to compete today. They came out smoking from the opening faceoff and they never let up. They were winning the battles in the corners and along the side boards all game long. At times it seemed like Jose Theodore wouldn’t stand a chance but to his credit, he alone kept the Avs from falling out of contention in this one. The first goal of the game came courtesy of the seemingly rejuvenated Blackhawks power play. Patrick Kane sent the puck from the boards up to the point where a waiting James Wisniewski sent a one-timer towards the Colorado net. En route, Dustin Byfuglien deflected the puck past Theodore and gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead after just less than five minutes of play. This would be the only scoring of the period but the Avs still had plenty of chances. To end the period, Patrick Sharp took two consecutive penalties which gave Colorado plenty of power play time. To compound his mistakes David Bolland took a penalty of his own with 37 seconds left in the period. The Hawks escaped harm in the first but still had some work to do to start the second.

Colorado would continue to enjoy their two-man advantage for the first 32 seconds of the second period but the Blackhawks made short work of it. They didn’t get too many chances and it was a big chance for the Avs to steal that early momentum. Instead, the Hawks just increased the momentum they already had going. Feeding off of that, Martin Havlat was able to whack a rebound top shelf to extend Chicago’s lead. The Hawks were up 2-0 and this would turn out to be the game winner. From then on though, Jose Theodore came up huge for the Avalanche and turned away the rest of the Hawks’ chances as the Hawks recorded ten shots compared to Colorado’s three in the middle twenty minutes.

The Avs’ best chance to get back in the game came too little too late. They finally started to control the puck more but Lalime was able to make some real tough saves to keep his shutout intact. The perfection was spoiled with 2:25 to go in the game when Jaroslav Hlinka was able to slide one past a sprawling Lalime to cut the lead in half. A few seconds later, Byfuglien was called for a bad tripping penalty. This made things real interesting since Colorado then pulled the goalie and enjoyed a virtual two-man power play. Adam Burish and Brent Sopel cemented the victory with some critical blocked shots and clears at just the right time. The final horn sounded and the only thing left for the players to do was to salute the thousands of Chicago Blackhawks faithful and that’s just what they did.

This win makes it three very strong showings in a row for what seemed like a beaten team just a few weeks ago. Even though this wasn’t of the blowout variety, the team effort was still very evident and that’s what’s most important. Everybody is still contributing in some manner. With the newfound health, the team is quickly becoming one entity instead of a collection of individuals.

It’s a little sad that some of these players will ultimately find their way out of Chicago when the season ends. The guys that remain will make up the real core and I have no doubt that the guys that get shipped out will fetch us more core elements. Things are getting better with every game.

Would I be foolish to start thinking about the Blackhawks in the playoffs again?

Injuries weren’t the only issue to contend with. Savard is still only in his first full season behind the bench. On top of that, he’s had to figure out how to use a lot of new players he was unfamiliar with and he didn’t know exactly what he had until a few weeks ago. A lot of players are just finally coming into their own. Burish, Byfuglien, Bolland, and Sharp have all come around and become solid players in their own ways. Even the rapid emergence of Toews and Kane happened a more quickly than anybody could have predicted. However, you also have to take the good with the bad. Johansson was a bust. Samsonov was a bust. Perreault and Zyuzin still leave a lot to be desired. It’s not until a player fails that you have the chance to give somebody else the opportunity to step up. Overall, the small handful of failures this season have led to what will hopefully translate into long-term success.

Tallon and Savard now know a great deal more about their assets than they did in September. The Hawks know exactly what they have and from that, they know exactly what they need. This knowledge should (will!) translate into thrifty moves this summer and the Hawks will be a much better team.

Thursday’s game proves what the Hawks can do when they’re healthy. They can go out and dominate a disinterested team who won’t take them seriously. They came out early just like they did against Columbus and never let Nashville in the game. Each battle seemed to go in favor of the Hawks and so did the breaks. If you read my recap of the game against the Blue Jackets, all my comments about the team play apply to this game as well.

It’s just nice to see everybody in the lineup contributing in some way. There’s no dead weight and even the guys who don’t accumulate points make their presence known. It’s refreshing to see. 

There were some roster moves to note before Thursday’s game in Nashville. Apparently Nikolai Khabibulin suffered a sprained knee during the game against Columbus on Wednesday. Being that no team can afford to dress only one goalie, Khabibulin’s successor, Corey Crawford, was called up from Rockford to back up Patrick Lalime on an emergency basis. To make room for him, Jack Skille was assigned back to the Icehogs.

Today, Crawford was sent back down as Khabibulin’s injury was not as serious as first believed. With Jason Williams expected to come off the IR soon, Skille will remain in Rockford and barring any injuries on the big club, will stay with the Icehogs for the rest of the season. With the way he played, I think he’ll make a great addition to our third line next year. Either that or he’ll be excellent trade bait soon.

I almost can’t wait to see what our roster will look like in October.

The game didn’t start off with much fluidity for either team but once the Hawks got their opening goal by Kane on the power play at 4:55, they never let the Blue Jackets back into the game. Instead, they pounced on their fallen opponent and applied pressure to the windpipe.  A short time later, during some four on four play, Brent Seabrook took the puck on a breakaway from inside the Columbus blue line and made it look easy as he extended the lead to two. Then, following some hard work in the neutral zone on one play and then hanging in front of the net hacking away, Dustin Byfuglien doubled that two goal lead to close out the period and the Hawks headed to the locker room with a 4-0 lead. It was all-out dominance by the Hawks.

In the second, Columbus managed to gasp for air as they got on the board early on the power play. At the time, I was afraid it could have broken the Hawks’ collective confidence and end up leading to a catastrophic breakdown but the Jackets weren’t able to pile on. Havlat took a pass in the right circle from Robert Lang behind the net and scored between the wickets of Fredrik Norrena who was playing for the NHL’s shutout leader, Pascal Leclaire, who was out with the flu. Columbus struck back once more as the Fredrik Modin received credit for a goal that bounced off of Khabibulin, Sopel, and Keith before ending up in the back of the net but Wisniewski was able to make amends before the frame ended when he finished an odd-man break set up by a very patient play by Patrick Sharp who let a Columbus defenseman over-skate the passing lane across the slot. Wisniewski had plenty of room and plenty of time to beat Norrena and that’s just what he did. Chicago maintained their four goal lead going into the final period.

Denis Savard enjoyed the luxury of playing all of his lines for the final twenty minutes of the game. He undoubtedly made sure nobody was over or under-worked since the Hawks play again in Nashville on Thursday night. Lang got credit for another power play goal in the closing minute of the game when Fredrik Modin knocked a pass from Lang into his own net. Fortunately for him, he can hang his hat on the fact that he spoiled Byfuglien’s hat trick bid. Buff was in position waiting for Lang’s pass that I’m sure he would’ve buried to get his third goal. Either way, that would end the game with a final score of 7-2.

Some strange (but good) things happened tonight.  Havlat scored. Burish didn’t find his way to the penalty box even once. Nobody got hurt. The Hawks outshot the opposition and actually won. It’s too bad that these things are more often than not the exceptions rather than normal occurrences but I’ll take it.

I’m getting  what I wanted to finish this season. Sweet, satisfying progress.

St. Pierre hasn’t been awful but Bolland was obviously better in his time with the Blackhawks. St. Pierre just didn’t find success like he did for the Icehogs. Unfortunately for him, the Hawks needed him to find the back of the net and if he’s not going to do that, he might as well go back to Rockford and help them win a championship there because we desperately need scorers. Perhaps he’s one of those career AHL guys.

Bolland coming back means he’s going to be playing on the third line replacing Yanic Perreault. No big loss really.