End of a road trip

So one of my past posts talks about the Hawks and their most recent road trips through Canada as well as the western US. I am briefly updating you on the performance of the Hawks last three games of the road trip. The Hawks took on the Colorado Avalanche in a Western Conference matchup this past week, only to defeat them 3 to 2. The next game they played against the good old Anaheim Ducks beating the first place team 4 to 1. Their third and final game they took on the defending Stanley Cup champions in LA only to defeat the Kings 4 to 1. With the Hawks only having one loss on this six game road trip, the Hawks are looking like they are at the top of their game.

Dan "The Man" Carcillo

Some may say that the resigning of Daniel Carcillo was a waste of money, but those doubters have obviously not seen what Carcillo can do. For those of you who don't know who Carcillo is and his role on the team, he is a 4th line winger who is a hardcore grinder. He is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his team. The reason he is a grinder and not an enforcer is because enforcers are strictly on the ice to fight, while grinders, they can play hockey really well as well as fight for their team. The Blackhawks took on the Kings yesterday and near the end of the game, Carcillo got into a scrap with one of the Kings players. After successfully knocking him to the ground with one punch, he proceeded to skate to the bench waving like a queen would in a parade. This just shows that Carcillo really knows how to bring humor to the game of hockey.

Road Trip to Victory

The Blackhawks started one of their big road trips on the 20th as they faced-off with the Calgary Flames winning their first game of their six game road trip 4 to 3. They then moved on to their next game against Edmonton where they completely destroyed the Oilers 7 to 1. Then they moved to the Providence of Vancouver where they took on the Canucks but they didn't quite perform to their full potential, they ended up falling to the Canucks 4 to 1. They have three games left in this road trip where they will finish out the month playing against the Colorado Avalanche tomorrow night. They will then make their trip to Anaheim where they will face the top seeded team from the western conference known as the Ducks on the 28th. Their final game of the month will be on the 29th where they will face the defending Stanley Cup Champions as well as long time rivals, the Los Angeles Kings. There is heated history between these two teams because the Kings lost to the Hawks in game 5 of the Western Conference (Which I was at that game) in 2013. The next season they had a heated rematch where the Western Conference final went all the way to game 7 against the Kings (Which I was also at this game) in 2014. The Kings ended up winning 5 to 4 in overtime.

With these final three games left in the month it leaves fans to think, will the Hawks be able to win these games against such a tough schedule? Hopefully the Hawks can rebound from their 4 to 1 loss against Vancouver with these final three games. If they do win all three they will definitely raise in the rankings. Currently the Blackhawks sit at the 13th spot overall in the NHL.

Are the Bears Like The Pre-2010 Hawks?

As Chicago can see the Bears are not playing like a great team. With the Bears questionable to make the playoffs, its time for the blame game. Everyone likes to point out certain individuals, with Lovie Smith he was usually the one being called out, but now its many individuals.

Let me get to the point, as I was watching the Bears game last night, I began to wonder are the Bears in as bad of a situation as the Hawks were many years ago. Obviously not since you can watch football games, unlike before when the only way to watch a game on television was if the Hawks made the playoffs (Thanks a lot Bill Wirtz!). However, if you look at the organizational culture of the Bears, it may seem that way.

Bill Wirtz is easily one of the worst owners of all time, sad to say because I don't want to talk ill of the deceased but as a fan I have to say he is easily the worst owner ever. He was as cheap as they come and was easily disliked by former players and fans alike. He would hire coaches who were just not great leaders or had bad judgment when making decisions and he showed no care for how the fans felt. The Hawks just did not have a organizational culture that supported a winning environment.

With that being said, I believe the Bears are suffering from a poor organizational culture. Bears management has been making bad decisions lately and it doesn't stop with the executives. When the Bears hired Marc Trestman, he was hailed as a QB guru, but he hasn't reached Jay Cutler. If you look at the Hawks, you notice that Coach Q basically demands and earns the respect of his players. Everyone on that roster looks up to the coach and with that they have confidence in his decision making and their performance speaks for itself. With the Bears, no one on offense or defense is currently playing as expected. Does Marc need to go? How about the GM, Phil Emery, should he go as well? Heck even the defensive coordinator is on the hot seat. His defense is easily the worst in the league and possibly the worst in Bears history, a team with a proud history of great defenses. The Hawks were basically in the same organizational problems as the Bears, actually worse considering the financial situation they had once Bill's son took over. Difference is they were able to make the organizational changes needed to become a winning franchise, can the Bears do the same? Only time will tell.

Hawks vs Sharks Game Recap

The Hawks came out strong last night with a 5 to 2 win over the Sharks. Yet again we out shot the opponent, the Blackhawks had 37 shots on goal and the Sharks had 34 shots on goal. The young rookie D-man Trevor van Riemsdyk got his first career NHL goal with an assist from Johnathon Toews. Two minutes after that Brent Seabrook got the 2nd goal of the game assisted by Brad Richards and Peter Regin. Two minutes after that Niklas Hjalmarsson got the 3rd goal of the game assisted by Marion Hossa and Marcus Kruger. Joe Pavelski got the 4th and 5th goal of the game to bring the Sharks back into the game with a score of 3 to 2. After that it was all downhill from there for the Sharks. Bryan Bickell got the 4th goal of the game assisted by Johnny Oduya and Brandon Saad. Then Johnathon Toews got the empty netter at the end of the game to put down the Sharks 5 to 2. This game was very exciting because there was two fights in 20 seconds in the last 2 minutes of the game from Kris Versteeg and Jeremy Morin. Antti Niemi got the start for the Sharks and had 32 saves out of 36 shots and posted a .889 save percentage. Corey Crawford got the start for the Hawks making 32 saves on 34 shots and posting a .941 save percentage. With the Hawks looking this strong, it is looking like they are getting back to their old high powered team that they were last year.

Blackhawks vs Capitals Recap

What's going on with the Blackhawks these days? The have been out shooting opponents, playing really well. But they have been coming up short lately. The past couple of games we have been out shooting the other team by a wide margin, be we just can't seem to win the games. The most recent game against the Capitals proves just that. The Blackhawks came up scoring first in the first period with Brandon Saad netting a goal with an assist from Andrew Shaw and Marian Hossa. The in the second period Duncan Keith netted a Power Play goal. After that is when the Capitals just went off and scored three unanswered goals. They came from Andre Burakovsky, Marcus Johansson, and Joel Ward. Brandon Holtby the Caps netminder had 38 saves with a save percentage of .950. Corey Crawford got the start and had 21 saves with a save percentage of .875. With the Blackhawks out playing opponents, it's hard to tell what else they can do to perform at the level they have been at the past couple seasons.

Impact of Sharp Injury

With the news out that Sharp will be out for 3-4 weeks, this move certainly affects the team offensively as Sharpe has the third most playing time amongst the Blackhawk forwards and his offensive presence will be missed with his 3 goals and 6 assist.

With Sharp out, the Blackhawks are forced to recall forward Peter Regin from the Rockford Icehogs in order to cover for the absence of Sharp. Luckily Dan Carcillo is expected to return in a few days, Carcillo has been injured since Oct. 25 when he sustained an upper-body injury during a game against the St. Louis Blues.