A Few Thoughts on Last Night's 'Hawks-Wild Game

1) Hey, Dan Fritsche is now playing for the Wild!  Heard his name come up a few times during the first period.

2) What is up with Cristobal Huet's goaltending?  He sure does love to leave the crease and play the puck.

3) Denis Savard is doing analysis for Comcast SportsNet Chicago now?

4) CSN-Chicago's take on the One Goal Blackhawks commercials kinda sucks.  Half of the hosts and commentators can't even skate.  Except for this one lady who can skate and dribble a basketball at the same time.  Now that's talent.

Pair of funny Blackhawks All-Star Voting Commercials

Ouch.

Let's fire him and give him an honorary title so we don't have to pay him and can placate our fans....

Blackhawks name former coach Denis Savard as team ambassador

The Chicago Blackhawks have named Hall of Famer Denis Savard as a team ambassador, joining legends Tony Esposito, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita in representing the organization at events at the United Center and throughout the Chicago area.

A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and one of seven players in franchise history to have their jersey number retired, Savard recorded 1,096 points (377 goals, 719 assists) in 881 career regular-season games and 145 points (61 goals, 84 assists) in 131 Stanley Cup Playoff games in parts of 13 seasons with the Blackhawks (1980-90; 1995-97). 

Savard also served as the Blackhawks coach for parts of three seasons (2006-08), notching a 65-66-16 record.

“It is important to our fans and organization that Denis remains a part of our family,” president John McDonough said in a statement. “He is a very classy individual that embodies the spirit of the Chicago Blackhawks.”

Some Interesting Things

The lack of posting is a result of my man arriving back from being on the other side of the pond for over a month and just not having the peaceful opportunity to get online to do much of anything, except at work.  So, this is probably going to be indicative for most of the time now.  My apologies.

• The Fort Wayne Komets has the highest attendance of all minor league teams (that includes the AHL).
• Every remaining Saturday home game, win a chance of having the St. Louis Blues pay your rent or mortgage for 4 months.
• The Indiana Ice has the best record in the USHL: 10-1-1, and the sole lost is the game I went to.  Note to self: just stay home and listen/watch them online.
• For Fort Wayne, they are tied for first in the IHL (6-2-0); the other team being Muskegon.
• For those who have CSN-Chicago, they will be airing the retirement ceremony for Blackhawks #3 (Keith Magnuson & Pierre Pilote) tomorrow before the game.  Because, hey, the Blackhawks are all about marketing....
• Steve Mason, Steve Mason, Steve Mason :) Go Jackets!

Adam Burish & some funny commercials

I love this.  During the home games, Comcast SportsNet Chicago mic's up a player and plays some of the things they say on the air.  I had laughed when I heard what Adam Burish called Greg de Vries of the Preds (towards the end of the video).



If you didn't catch it, de Vries asked Burish if he was mic'ed up.  Burish told de Vries "Is the dinosaur talking? Let the kids play, dinosaur."  Wow.  Looked up de Vries' age (35): in 5 years I will be a dinosaur too!

The Blackhawks have some "One Goal" commercial spots playing.  There is one I can't seem to find on the 'Hawks website that was a little cute.  Kane and a little boy skates up to the mic, I think his one goal is to inspire others, and the little kid says "We're almost the same age."  Priceless.  The second one of this batch of two featuring Kane & Toews is pretty good:

So, since I'm at work at the beginning of the 'Hawks vs. Blues game, I went out, bought a VHS tape (yes, they still make those things) and re-learn how to program the VCR.  Yes, let me repeat that, VCR.  Not DVR.  I'm still in the technological dark ages, but not really by choice. :)

Intros

Big nod to Bethany for posting up the new Blue Jackets Intro:

I really love this new intro.  It is very nicely done, very tasteful and yet very exciting.  Compared to the Blackhawks intro, much better.  

There are two of the Blackhawks I saw, mostly on TV.  The first one below they play I think before games that feature an appearance of the past greats like Stan Mikita & Tony Esposito.  

The next one is an older variation of the one I saw at the preseason game.  I think now it's redone to feature some of the new 'Hawks and erasing the older ones like Marty Lapointe & Robert Lang.  I'm just not a big fan of having them skating through the streets of Chicago shooting the puck.

Kris Versteeg photos

A little late (this is from the first preseason game in Chicago against the Jackets), but there was a request for Kris Versteeg photos. Unfortunately, it was in the pre-game warm up. He's #32.




And it's always nice to see young fans (especially girls) get excited & creative about hockey (the sign says "Patrick Kane Drives Goalies Insane!")

Denis Savard Fired

Via Yahoo Sports

CHICAGO (AP)—The Chicago Blackhawks fired coach Denis Savard on Thursday after a 1-2-1 start and replaced him with Joel Quenneville.

The dismissal came hours after the team won its first game by beating Phoenix 4-1. The Blackhawks are now run by owner Rocky Wirtz, and the combination of a slow start and a big public relations push may have led to Savard’s abrupt ouster.

“This was an extremely hard day for this organization and for me personally,” general manager Dale Tallon said in a statement. “Denis is forever a part of our organization. We made a tough decision that we strongly feel is the right one as we continue to evaluate our team and create a championship caliber organization that can sustain success.”

The team canceled its Thursday practice and scheduled an afternoon news conference.

Quenneville has coached the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche. His first game as coach of the Blackhawks is Saturday at St. Louis. He has a 438-283-118 record in parts of 11 seasons. He was signed by the Blackhawks as a pro scout in September.

“Joel brings us a wealth of experience and a winning track record that will have an immediate and lasting impact,” Tallon said.

Savard, a Hall of Fame player, became coach in November 2006 and finished that season with a record of 24-30-7 in 61 games. Last season, Savard led Chicago to its first 40-win season since 2001-02. The Blackhawks went 40-34-8 but still missed the playoffs.

The 45-year-old Savard retired after a 17-year career in 1997. He played with the Blackhawks, Montreal and Tampa Bay, scoring 473 goals with 865 assists. He was Chicago’s first-round pick in the 1980 NHL entry draft.

He started the 1997-98 season as the Blackhawks’ developmental coach before joining the Blackhawks coaching staff as an assistant coach under Craig Hartsburg on Dec. 3, 1997.

Wirtz took over the team following the death of his father, Bill Wirtz, a little more than a year ago. Since then he has hired former Chicago Cubs president and marketing guru John McDonough as president. The team has mended fences with former stars like Bobby Hull, made sure that home games are televised—something Bill Wirtz was opposed to—and allowed Tallon to spend in the free-agent market.

The Blackhawks also have two young stars in last year’s rookie of the year Patrick Kane and Jonathan Towes.

Weekend Hockey Roundup (Late, Late Edition)

First stop, the Fort Wayne Komets of the IHL. Last week were the preseason games, and they went 3-0-0, defeating the Bloomington (Illinois) PrairieThunder (awesome name!) and the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Wings. Regular seasons play begins Friday in Port Huron (Michigan) against the IceHawks and coming back home on Saturday to play against the Flint (Michigan) Generals.

There has to been some complaints about the overzealous advertising at the home ice of the Komets. Blake Sebring writes about the advertising on the new scoreboard while icethetics posted a picture of the Nascar erm...I mean rink of the Komets.

The Indiana Ice of the USHL swept the two-game homestand against the new expansion team the Fargo Force.

The Columbus Blue Jackets won a great game (except for the lost of Michael Peca, with a potential 10+ game suspension for allegedly hitting a ref with his stick) against Dallas but lost against Phoenix. Tonight they play in San Jose.

The Chicago Blackhawks lost all three games they played this weekend, against the Rangers, the Caps, and the at-home shoot-out lost against the Predators. Is it really bad that I am starting to root against the Blackhawks because I am so sick of the media hype on their end? Has anyone seen the Patrick Sharp commercials for some electronics place in the Chicago area? He's one of the better looking 'Hawks, but he is definitely not a great actor. I can't stand those commercials now.

Right now I am listening to the Wild @ Thrashers game online. This is my excuse to post this funny commmercial for the Wild:

Quick Initial Thoughts about the Game Last Night

• I will try to post up my photos later on today. They are not exactly perfect (the camera is a loaner so I wasn't entirely familiar with it, I was at a kinda bad angle for some of the action, and I after a while I wanted to focus on watching the action rather than trying to find photo opportunities). (I saw the request for Versteeg this morning; I may have one or two of him, since he seemed to be on the ice quite a bit).
  
• For someone who never been to an NHL game before (been to the old IHL & the current USHL games), you get a new appreciation for the game that you don't get watching it on TV. Like, the ice looks bigger on TV; it's not. They check REALLY REALLY hard into the boards. And it was REALLY cold near the ice (and I was dressed warm too).
• Over 18,000 for a preseason game. Impressive. It was nearly packed, especially in the 200 & 300 levels. There were more open spaces in the 100 levels but people moved down towards the 3rd period to fill those spots.
  
• There was a guy sitting about 5-10 rows behind me wearing a CBJ jersey who looked very familiar. It took a few takes and then I realized where I saw him (considering I've never been to Columbus before). He was in the background of the Leclaire computer background download photo released by Blue Jackets. That was just weird. I think I saw maybe 2 others CBJ jerseys in the crowd (I went incognito for safety. If something were to happen to me no one would know until Thursday when I go back to work. We are talking about Chicago here...I had on a old Nordiques tee but mostly wearing my black Indiana Ice hoodie jacket inside)
• It is really rough rooting for your team in enemy territory.
  
• I focused entirely on paying attention to the Blue Jackets, so my comments will be about them. I cannot comment about the 'Hawks, except that Campbell was really quick out there.
• Lots of fighting last night. There's bad blood between these two teams.
  
• Players I was impressed with: Brassard, Voracek, Chimera & Novotny; Tollefsen & Backman; Sestito & Dorsett plowing the 'Hawks into the boards; Norrena coming back to finish strong in the 2nd after being plowed into the boards.
• More later on in the day. I rolled into home at 2am on autopilot (I don't remember much of the last 15-20 minutes of the drive), and I am still exhausted.
  

Game tonight

• Ticket? - Check.
• Camera? - Check.
• Roster Info? - Check.

I will be taking a lot of pictures tonight. And writing down my thoughts. I will try to post them as soon as I can, but I can imagine I will be sleeping in quite a bit on Wednesday. This should be an interesting game: Brassard & Voracek is playing on the CBJ side, while Patrick Sharp & Patrick Kane, as well as goalie Corey Crawford, on the CHI side. Interesting people to watch.

Quick updates

• For those with Sirius Satellite Radio, Hockey Night in Canada Radio with Jeff Marek should be back on (Sept. 15 according to the Sirius.ca website). I haven't confirmed this yet because I take public transport to work rather than drive. But it should be on M-F, 4-8pm (2 hours, repeated twice), on Sirius channel 122.
• (see above): Looking at the cbc.ca website, Hockey Night in Canada Radio will start airing September 29, M-F, 4-7 pm (I think I heard they are doing 3 hours straight now) on Sirius channels 122 & 97. I will try to see if it's on tonight and confirm which may be true here.
• With the merger of Sirius & XM satellite radio, there should be more choices coming in the "early fall". This may or may not mean that with Sirius XM, those who were previously with Sirius may have access to the NHL games when it comes to a la carte programming. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but if this is indeed the case (o please please please!!), I will let y'all know.
• Six days to the first preseason game of the Blue Jackets in Chicago (I got my ticket! Three rows from the ice on the Columbus shoot-twice side! I will bring a camera and take beaucoup pictures).
• A bit of old news, but Robert Lang (C-Chicago) was dealt to Montreal for a draft pick in 2010. My first reaction was "That's a bummer," but then I realized he wasn't that great of a player last season. It was commented Langer was one of the players that caused the normally cool & calm Denis Savard to give his "Commit to the Indian" speech last season (Right after the lost to the Blue Jackets *big smile* in January).

Nice Pitch Sharpie!

Watch Patrick Sharp throw the first pitch of the White Sox game yesterday.




There was an interview with John McDonough during the third inning that was more interesting then the baseball game (but I guess that says a lot about how much I really like baseball).

Trinity to Columbus, the Filatov has landed

Filatov in town, set to go to work (Columbus Dispatch)

Oh yeh! He's here. Finally.

Thirteen days to the first Jackets pre-season game in Chicago & I will be there. Three rows from the ice, at the Columbus shoot-twice area (I just hope the people in front of me are short as well). I got a good price on that ticket too. The ticket should arrive today. Next step, get a good camera to take pictures with. I will be totally excited, I would love to see Filatov, Voracek, & Brassard play, as well as Nash, Commodore, Tyutin, & Pazzie. And I would be interested in seeing whoever Chicago puts on net (either Khabibulin or Huet I'm sure). I love watching goalies.

Early look at Calder contenders

Hockey's Future takes an early look at the Calder trophy contenders for the upcoming season.

For the Blue Jackets Fan:

Columbus: Jakub Voracek, Derick Brassard.

And what they say about Filatov:

Nikita Filatov is a popular name due to him being embroiled in controversy, but he didn’t have enough Super League experience last year to make him a likely candidate even if he does end up with the Blue Jackets.

A little harsh on Filatov? I would like to think so. We will see.

Now it would be so awesome to see a Voracek-Filatov run at the Calder Trophy like the Toews-Kane run with the Blackhawks. If this were to happen, watch out, because that would make some excellent hockey to watch.

Press Conferences & Retirement

The Chicago Blackhawks are going to have a press conference on Monday (noon ET, 11am CT) to introduce Cristobal Huet. Is it just me or are they having just way too many press conferences. I think there was one to introduce Scotty Bowman. Another to formally announce the winter classic. I'm sure there were several to advertise the 'Hawks convention. One for Patrick Kane, and one to introduce the expanded tv airings of games this upcoming season. I'm sure there's more. But I don't remember hearing about Columbus having a press conference to introduce Commodore or anyone else. But man, I think the 'Hawks are marketing themselves to death. Or at least it is starting to really annoy me.

• Yzerman thinks NHL players should put off retirement if they have any doubts

Just a reminder from Steve Yzerman to those thinking of pulling a brettfavre :)

Poll: Which Blue Jackets, Blackhawks, and Indiana Ice games should I go see?

EDITED: Post your answers in the polls to the right for each team.

I narrowed it down to games which are feasible for me to go see from late September to mid-October (while my other half is away visiting family). Considerations I made in narrowing it down are the following:

• Is it a Monday-Thursday game or Friday-Sunday game?


• What time is the game?


• Do I have time to drive there (if working that night) and get home at a decent hour?


• Can I afford it?


• How much vacation time will I have?


• Chicago is a 2 hour drive; Indianapolis is 1 hour, and Columbus is 4 hours


• I am on Eastern Time, Chicago is on Central Time


• I work 9-5pm, M-F


• I can afford more Indiana Ice (USHL, junior hockey) games than NHL games (or at least can afford better seats at Indy)


• At least one game in Chicago, one game in Columbus, maybe one game where Chicago & Columbus are playing against each other, and maybe 2-3 games in Indianapolis

So, the game choices are:

• Pre-Season Games
  
  
  
  • Columbus @ Chicago, Tuesday, September 23, 8:30 pm ET (I will probably be in Chicago that day anyways)
  
  
  • Minnesota @ Chicago, Friday, September 26, 8:30 pm ET
  
  
  • Nashville @ Columbus, Friday, September 26, 7pm ET
  
  
  • Dallas @ Chicago, Sunday, September 28, 7pm ET
  
  
  • Buffalo @ Columbus, Thursday, October 2, 7pm ET
  
  
  • Colorado @ Chicago, Sunday, October 5, 7pm
  
  
  • Toronto @ Columbus, Sunday, October 5, 5pm
  
  
  
  


• Regular Season Games
  
  
  
  • Nashville @ Chicago, Monday, October 13, 8:30 pm
  
  
  • Nashville @ Columbus, Friday, October 17, 7pm
  
  
  • Vancouver @ Chicago, Sunday, October 19, 7pm
  
  
  
  


• Indiana Ice Games (all games at 7:30 pm)
  
  
  
  • Cedar Rapids @ Indy, Saturday, October 4
  
  
  • Fargo @ Indy, Friday, October 10
  
  
  • Fargo @ Indy, Saturday, October 11
  
  
  • Waterloo @ Indy, Friday, October 17
  
  
  • Des Moines @ Indy, Saturday, October 18
  
  
  
  

Good Luck in Buffalo...

Patrick Lalime. It was such a delight watching you play for Chicago. I will certainly miss that, and too bad I didn't get to see you play in person.

Oh Captain My Captain (Chicago Style)

Jonathan Toews named captain of the Blackhawks squad, becoming the third youngest in league history.

So though Kane has the Calder Trophy, Toews got the big C on his uniform.

“I want to make speech longer but my English short.”

-Pavel Datsyuk (with nods to Bethany's Hockey Rants for posting the quote)

Updates since last posting (I apologize but things have gotten crazy here):

• Detroit won the Stanley Cup: BOOOOOOOO!!! HISSS!!! (obviously I am not a Detroit fan)


• Dominik Hasek (G-DET) is retiring (now I have to find another good goalie for my fantasy team)


• Patrick Kane won the Calder Trophy!!! YES!!! He was so awesome to watch last season. I'm so happy for him (Other NHL trophy winners listed here and of course Ovechkin is carrying around a lot of metal)