Yes, this is being written during the Super Bowl and no I'm not watching it. I absolutely have no ability to stomach watching the Packers and the Steelers on the same field. The moment the Bears lost, I became all about the Blackhawks and Bulls. I will be doing Blackhawks blogging and my partner Medvenko will be focusing on the Bulls. We will address the Bears once we know that there will be football next season and we will get into baseball in mid March when we have a better idea of how the Cubs and Sox are shaping up.
One week has passed since the NHL All Star break and the Blackhawks have played two games of their 6 game road trip. Last Tuesday (Feb 1st), they opened up the road trip in Columbus and they won 7-4. In a move that surprised many, Coach Q went with Turco in net. While 4 goals allowed is not a good number, Turco did actually play a pretty solid game and came up with many big saves. What has been a complete 180 from last year is our defense. Up 2-1 after the 1st, the Hawks gave up 2 goals in 42 seconds. When this happens, it's very rarely the goalie's fault. This is a defensive breakdown. Both times Nick Boynton was at fault. The first goal (in the 42 second stretch), Boynton was out of place and in front of Turco, the shot hit him and went into the net. Instead of responding with a better shift after the goal, he then got beaten bad by a rookie and the score was 3-2 in a matter of a blink of an eye. Coach Q called timeout and then the guys responded with 4 unanswered goals. It may of not been a beautiful win, but winning on the road is hard and it is even harder to do it against a division rival. What was really nice about the 7 goals was that 7 different guys helped out in the cause.
The Blackhawks then made the trek to the Western Conference leading Vancouver Canucks. Coach Q shocked even more people when he went with Turco again. It's a move that would of been questioned more if the Hawks didn't play one of their best games of the year. Even though they lost 4-3, they played like the Hawk we all have grown accustomed to. Fast and faster. They were aggressive. They were hitting. They weren't looking for the "sexy" goal. In fact, they were getting Brouwer in front of the net. I'm not going to use this blog to whine about the refs. Yes, there were some "phantom" calls against us and the Brouwer goaltender interference on the Bolland goal was crap, but they were in it the whole game. They really need to strengthen the penalty kill. Yes, the Canucks have absolute fire power on their Power Plays, but every playoff team has the ability to score Power Play goals. We have to fix this if we want to have any chance of contending. After reading ESPN's Jesse Rogers posts after the game, it sounds like the guys weren't really dejected. The light might have come on with these guys. If they play their game for 60 minutes, they will win more than they will lose and even though the West is log jammed horribly at the moment, if the Blackhawks do their job, they will move themselves into the top 8 with ease and I don't think anyone would want to deal with them in the playoffs.
The trade deadline is a few weeks away and of course everyone wants the Hawks to make a move for a defender. I agree they should be looking for a defender, but I think they need to send out two defenders. You obviously can guess one of them (Boynton), but I think they should send out Seabrook. Don't take this as me as a Seabrook hater because I am not, but looking at him unbiasedly, he has been a turnover machine, he often gets out of position and he is in a contract year. Ask yourself this question: "Do I want Patrick Sharp or Brent Seabrook?" We are only going to be able to afford one of them. I want the guy who can score goals and is one of the leaders of the team. We have Leddy coming up and LaLonde in the system. I also believe that Keith has suffered as of late because of Seabrook. What made them unstoppable last year was that Keith would often force the fore checkers to lose the puck, he'd swing it around to Seabs and then Seabs would either fire it to one of the wings or back to a streaking Keith which then would create our forecheck. Remember how our speed changed when Campbell came back from his broken collar bone last year? Hammer would get the puck to Campbell and Campbell is one of the best skaters around and he keeps backcheckers honest. As great of a defender Keith is, he is most dangerous going forward and the Hawk hasn't been able to utilize that strength of Keith's due to turnovers and other mistakes in our zone.
So since last Sunday (Jan 31st) the Blackhawks are 1-1 and slid from 7th to 11th. Tomorrow night, they will visit Calgary in a MUST WIN game. Calgary is one point ahead of us in tenth place. The Hawk will then play Edmonton, Dallas and finish up the trip next Saturday in Phoenix. I will be attending the game in Phoenix with my good buddy Ben Herrera!
Western Conference standings as of 2-6-11
1. Vancouver 77 (6 pt week)
2. Detroit 68 (2 pt week)
3. Dallas 65 (0 pt week)
4. Nashville 63 (3 pt week)
5. San Jose 62 (6 pt week)
6. Anaheim 62 (2 pt week)
7. Phoenix 61 (2 pt week)
8. Los Angeles 60 (5 pt week)
9. Minnesota 59 (4 pt week)
10. Calgary 59 (5 pt week)
11. BLACKHAWKS 58 (2 pt week)
12. Colorado 56 (0 pt week)
13. Columbus 55 (4 pt week)
14. St. Louis 54 (3 pt week)
15. Edmonton 38 (0 pt week)
Trending teams this past week:
Hot: Vancouver 6 points. San Jose 6 points. Calgary 5 points. Los Angeles 5 points
Not: Edmonton 0 points. Colorado 0 points Dallas 0 points
Blackhawks remaining road trip schedule: 2-7 Calgary. 2-9 Edmonton. 2-11 Dallas. 2-12 Phoenix
Commit to the Indian!!!
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