Alright stop, collaborate & listen..

First off, I hope that everyone had a safe and fun Halloween weekend.

I haven't had much time to watch the highlights of either game the Hawks played this weekend.
So I'm just going to judge based on the scores, which is always accurate don't ya know?

Hawks lost the the Oilers 7-4.
Say what... 7-4? Not the score or result I was expecting at all.
Turco ends up getting pulled for Crawford. Hall, Cogliano, Eberle & Gagner all scored for Edmonton.
Clearly, I'm not as sad now about missing this game. My soft spot for the Oilers clearly came back to bite me.

Well the 2nd of the back to back games the Hawks come back with a 3-1 win over the Wild.
Turco starts the 2nd of two games and bounces back with a win after being benched in the Oilers game.
I honestly have no idea how this game went since I didn't watch any of it. I'm just glad the Hawks won.

Moving on to tonight's game which I actually be able to watch, the Blackhawks take on the Rangers, the only time the two teams will meet all year.
Two Marian's are out with Hossa for the Hawks & Gaborik for the Rangers.

Reunited & it feels so good: Brian Campbell has been activated for tonight's game and should be reunited with Niklas Hjalmarsson to make up the 2nd D-pair. (YESSSSSSS)
I'm hoping that this means we start playing less in our zone & freaking out less about the defense outside of Keith-Seabrook. (who have even made me a bit nervous at times)

The hits they just keep on coming: Though Brian Campbell is returning from injury, Dave Bolland has been place on IR with an "upper-body" injury, this is retroactive to Friday, meaning that the Bolland can't return to Saturday at the earliest.
I have no idea what's wrong with Bolly. But I really hope this trend of injuries stops, like now.

How you doin' junior:
-The Tips lost their Pink the Rink night game 3-2 in a shootout to the Tri-City Americans.
-Pink the Rink raised $38,897.77!
-The highest bid for a jersey was $1,500.00 for Ryan Murray's jersey.
- Full story here

- The Chiefs lost the first game of their 6 game Eastern Conference road trip to Moose Jaw 3-2 but bounced back the next night with an 11-1 win over the Regina Pats.
- In the 11-1 win over Regina, Cole Hamblin, Collin Valcourt and Marek Kalus all scored their first WHL goals. Congrats to them!

Can't catch a break: Jordan Staal, two days before he was set to return from a foot injury which had prevented him from playing this season, suffered a broken hand in practice & is said to be out about 6 weeks, though it has been said he'll be out indefinitely. (source)
Update: According to the Penguins, Staal will be undergoing surgery on his hand & will be out up to 6 weeks.
All the best to him & hope he can get back on the ice soon!

Saying hello but bidding adieu.

Well I probably should have been smarter about the timing of the start of this blog considering I'm missing both Blackhawks game this weekend by going out of town. But of course I still have something to say.

This weekend on the Blackhawks Halloween schedule are the Oilers & Wild.

With the Oilers former Hawks Nikolai Khabibulin & Colin Fraser return.
Congrats to Colin Fraser & his wife Carli on the recent birth of their son, Calder.

The Oilers are still continuing to struggle as they have a youth movement of their own going on with 3 rookies you may have heard something about, Jordan Eberle (Canada's WJC captain clutch), Magnus Paajarvi & Taylor Hall.
While the Oilers are sitting just above the bottom of the NHL with the Panthers & Devils, the team is pretty darn entertaining to watch, so it should be interesting to see how the game turns out.

I'm actually quite disappointed to miss the game since I do enjoy seeing the Oilers play. They kind of remind me of the Blackhawks a couple years ago (though that sounds so cliche with every rebuilding team with young players).

Then the Hawks travel to Minnesota Saturday to take on the Wild & former Blackhawks Cam Barker, Martin Havlat & John Madden. The Wild currently sit 9th in the Western Conference and a game above .5oo.

It's been no secret the drama that has surrounded the Wild early this NHL season. There's already been a well publicized bag skate, a fan-player incident & most recently Allan Walsh, agent of Martin Havlat, writing the Minnesota Star Tribune that his client is being underused. (Link to the story here)

Things seem a little messy in Minny.

Of course the Hawks have issues of their own, Brian Campbell is on the fringe of coming back while Marian Hossa is out for two weeks with an upper-body injury resulting in the call up of Ben Smith from the Rockford IceHogs.

What to expect this weekend from these 2 games? I don't know.
I feel like through the first 11 games of the season, I have no idea what kind of team the Hawks are.

The Hawks have essentially played without a solid 2nd d-pair behind Keith-Seabrook and offense has come from either Hossa or Sharp. Now with Hossa out, someone is going to have to step it up offensively.
I hope that Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews rise to the challenge like I know they can and Patrick Sharp keeps doing what he's doing, scoring goals & while blinding the opposition with his beauty.
But I'm not opposed to anyone period stepping up to the plate with some offense.
Hopefully Kane's +/- doesn't make me want to Gibbs slap him anymore after this weekend. (If you don't know what a Gibbs slap is Google it).

Last but not least the Silvertips are having their Pink the Rink night tonight in support of those with cancer & auctioning off the jerseys they'll be wearing and donating the proceeds to the Providence General Foundation who give free mammograms. Proceeds from special ticket packages, chuck-a-puck, programs, "I Pinked the Rink" T-Shirts & signed pink sticks will also go to the Providence General Foundation. To learn more, click here.

Here is the jersey the Tips will be auctioning off modeled by Tyler Maxwell. (via Silvertips twitter)



Hope the Tips raise a lot of money & get the win over the Ams.

Good luck to the Chiefs as well who are on their Eastern swing taking on Moose Jaw & Regina this weekend.

On that note, have a safe & fun Halloween weekend!
And y'know I'd take a 4-point Blackhawks weekend over candy any day.
Hopefully we all get that treat.

Feel free to drop a comment for me on how the games go!