When the past comes back.. to bite you

And the moment you've all been waiting for... The Blackhawks take on the Atlanta Thrashers.

It's the inevitable faceoff between the Hawks & the team that was more than willing to take all the cap casualties the Blackhawks were willing to give them.

I'll be the first to admit it, I miss all of the Blackhawks that we lost. Some more for hockey reasons and some more for their personalities that we were so lucky to see because of Blackhawks TV. Either way, I'll miss all the former Hawks since the the 2009-2010 Blackhawks team will always be my favorite. (Can you blame me? First sports team I ever loved to win me a Championship!)

How valuable these depth players were though is starting to become more and more apparent as the Hawks struggle to find a flow in the young NHL season.

Essentially the Blackhawks had the same team for the most part of the previous two seasons until the salary cap made keeping the team together no longer an option.

Guess that's what happens when you have a solid core of young players who are all looking for what they're due.

I'm not bemoaning the salary cap and all the players we lost. It's over and done with and there's nothing that's going to change it. (I'm really not upset about losing Niemi now like I was during the summer.)

But tonight when the Blackhawks take on the Thrashers, I'll be watching Ben Eager, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Brent Sopel thinking they look better in red and black.

And hopefully seeing their old teammates will motivate the Blackhawks to show the boys they're doing just fine without them.

Gimme Mor(in): While the Blackhawks did lose a lot of their depth in offseason trades, one key pieces that they got in return was Jeremy Morin.

While Kyle Beach was the prospect most Hawks fans had their eyes on, Jeremy Morin stole the spotlight with some impressive moves in training camp & preseason games. (Which inspired the creation of the Jeremy Morin Fan Club, of which I'm a member.)

When Morin was sent down to Rockford, I was a bit surprised but made sense for his development to get minutes and I'm sure salary cap wise. (this seems to be a reoccurring theme.)

Well with the Hawks needs something, anything at this point to spark an offense that is looking lost on remembering how to score. Morin has been called up and hopefully provides that spark since he's expected to get decent minutes on the 2nd or 3rd line.

And of course, it doesn't hurt that he's about to make his NHL debut against the team that traded him away. Show 'em what you got kid. (He's older than I am, but oh well.)


Let's hope the battle drills, a long practice & getting kicked off the ice by Q during morning skate woke up the Hawks & shows some positive results tonight.

Personally, I'm waiting for J.Toews to get seriously pissed off & dominate like we know he can.

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!